Christmas has a Magic of it's own!

After my last post, I got to thinking about other things that make Christmas special. And so I decided it would be good to share some of my favourite books from when I was young - I still read them every year.

This one is very cool, as it's a pop-up book, very intricate. If you get a chance to see one, it's super super cool. Just don't let kids touch it unattended, or suffer the consequences...

Love it, very cute perspective on the Christmas Story, from the viewpoint of the animals. Sweet.

Classic, gotta love it. Anyone else out there mortally afraid of the grandfather who randomly is sitting on top of a clock? Yowzers.

Don't make me sing the song. Because I will. You know I will.

"Bloomin' boots...." and "Lovely Pud" are two things that I still say all the time. Though don't get me started on how Pudding doesn't actually mean pudding, and actually means dessert.

This is the best book, no doubts about it. This is THE christmas story book of my childhood. It's set in Calabria, which is rare, and the story is beautiful. I read it to my students last year and cried. "NO MAGIC AT CHRISTMASTIME, Christmas has a magic of it's own!"

I just discovered this book this weekend, and I'm a sucker for anything Mary Engelbreit. Her drawings are just the best.

Happy Reading!

xox

A.

Christmas at the Yaton

I have a favourite month, you know. That month just happens to be December. I don't even like winter, not a fan of the slush and the shoveling and the hats and boots and the snowpants the kids have to put on before recess. Ick. But December, now there's a magical month. I keep busy decorating the house day by day using my advent calendar. It's not even so much Christmas Day I look forward to, in fact I find that day a little sad, because then all the preparations are done. A wise man once told me that it's all in the journey, and I'm inclined to agree.

The Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto is one of my favourite places. And in this post I'm not really going to talk about the shopping aspect of the place, but more the way it kind of changes a little around the end of November. I know I know, it's all in order to sell more, but the Yaton (as I call it, for some reason) holds so many memories for me, that it isn't really about shopping then, it's just about remembering the times I used to go downtown with my parents to see the windows, or the lights, or even just the random smell of Orange Julius pervading the air. Or maybe I'll think back to those days in High School where we'd go down to the Eaton Centre on a Friday right before Philosophy class and buy ridiculous stuff at Stitches, or Urban Planet because we could afford those stores then, and then race all the way back up Yonge to burst in the door right as our teacher was getting started on some philosopher I couldn't understand...

Anyway, here's the Yaton at Christmas...


The ubiquitous Canada Geese.

This thing has gotten more and more elaborate every year, I tells ya.

I like how this pic looks crazy colourful.

This tree actually turns. Marc told me that he went into the Yaton one night and it was actually fake snowing in there. I was jealous.

Swarovski, I believe.

Yep, sparkles as it turns.

I used to call that tree the rocket-ship christmas tree. Wait, I still do.


Happy Christmas Everyone, I hope you can look past all the insane shopping and see the beauty of the season.

xox

Ave