Jolabokaflod is a wonderful Icelandic tradition has recently made a grand entrance in our American literary world. The tradition is to give others books on Christmas Eve and to spend the evening reading, sipping hot cocoa and munching on cookies. Our Christmas Eve is too crazy for that, therefore we have started doing this on…
Every fall, they start popping up in craft and home decor stores, they are collected by many and embraced by all. What are they? Nutcrackers, of course! Everyone knows and can hum the tune of the famous ballet. Many of our little girls have had at least one experience of being on stage as a…
Happy new Liturgical Year to all my fellow Catholics! We are less than a week away from Advent and the beginning of a great liturgical season. It always seems easy for me to follow the Liturgical Year during Advent and Christmas, but the rest of the year does not seem so easy… So this liturgical…
Advent and Christmas Picture Books and Traditions I always feel a little disgruntled that Thanksgiving and the first Sunday of Advent are the same weekend! It’s just so much goodness in such a short time! I always want to enjoy the last little bit of fall a little longer, but Thanksgiving is the death knell…
November is almost gone Thanksgiving is around the corner, exactly 10 days away! Check out the Thanksgiving booklist and start a gratitude journal. We have had a wonderful All Saints Day, celebrating with friends. We also had our first snow storm this month and it was a good one: 8 inches over 4 days! And…
Thanksgiving is my favorite American holiday. As an emigrant from a country who does not take the time to stop and give thanks where thanks are due, I have a particular appreciation for this day. I love that it is in the middle of the week, I love to be able to start with Mass,…
Geography is something that I have always enjoyed and appreciated. Map-making and map-reading have something so mysterious and magical about them. They can, literally, take you anywhere. At A Daily Picture Book, we practice both map-reading and cartography regularly. Right now my girls and I are working on a map of the USA over a…
Imagination… It is such a treasure for our children. How do we awaken it and nourish it? How do we help them discover this inner wonder that they carry with them? There are so many ways to awaken our little ones imagination, but there are also so many ways for it to be stolen away…
October recap October has been a lovely month here in Colorado, we have been blessed with a beautiful Indian Summer! We were able to go up to the mountains to explore the aspen leaves changing color. The October booklists were chock full of discoveries from Pablo Picasso to how the first bandaids came to be…
With All Souls Day (or Dia de Los Muertos) approaching on November 2nd, it brings to mind picture books that impart family history. For many of us November is a time to remember family members that have died. And as we talk about them, we tell their stories so that they may be remembered by…
