We spend all year trying to keep our children nice and calm, relaxed and peaceful and then whip them up into a frenzy for Christmas Day. Fortunately it wasn't quite that crazy, we've all had a round of colds or related symptoms, so it was a nice pleasant family day with some added snoozing.
As expected, there were books and we've already read a few throughout the day. Bedtime was relatively normal, the excitement of the morning had been overtaken by tiredness and some new books to look at.
First up was Peanuts: Merry Christmas Snoopy!
, this doesn't feature "cartoon Linus" too much. It
is a positive Christmas message, Charlie Brown has no money for presents, so he then makes them and they are largely useless, but is present giving what Christmas is all about? It's a lovely theme, a nice story, plenty of fun pictures and it's Peanuts. Here's a bonus Christmas video of Snoopy and we're only a third of the way through.
Tiddler
, The Story Telling Fish is a new Christmas addition. We're quite familiar with it, having had it from the library several times. It's one of a few Julia Donaldson/Axel Scheffler books we didn't have. I admit to not really liking this the first time we read it. It is a relatively unique rhythm to the rhyme, so I don't know if I hadn't got that the first time or Linus didn't take to it. On further reading I really enjoyed it and it is one of my favourites to read now. It's interesting writing this blog and thinking about some of the books, there is a surprising depth to a lot of Julia Donaldson's books. At first they're cute toddler stories but as time progresses they have extra meaning to younger kids. Tiddler's story telling antics end up being his downfall and his saviour. It is a lot of fun and has several messages that I'm sure Linus will discover over the next few years.
I picked up What a Wonderful World in a bookshop shortly after it was released. I adored the illustrations by Tim Hopgood, he really has done a magnificent job bringing this joyous song to life as a picture book. It is the Bob Thiele/George David Weiss song made famous by Louis Armstrong. I refrained from reading it in the style of Satchmo. It is a little tricky trying to read a song that I'm so familiar with but I managed it. Linus seemed to enjoy it, although he was a little tired by that point. The copy we have has a CD attached, with the Louis Armstrong song and a reading by Sophie Aldred.
The illustrations are awesome, the book would make an ideal new baby gift. I could even see the pictures making up a series of wall art.
As an extra Christmas bonus, there's a video from Satch below, oh yeeeeeah!
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