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One of the greatest parts of going to Mom & Dad's for Christmas is re-reading all of our holiday books from when we were little. We had so many great Christmas Golden Books and they're still in pretty good shape for the most part, the majority of the damage occurring years ago when we'd get a hold of a marker and make our own additions. These are just a few of my favorites:

copyright 1958

Copyright 1982, this particular version of the nativity story, specifically the illustrations, are a little funny to me now.. because... what are the odds that Mary was a red head..? I remember the angels in the pictures were so pretty, so bright yellow, I'll have to scan them.

And then to the "big one"...

This is the exact same cover on the version we have and my parents still pull this book out every year. First published in 1976 with art by Holly Hobbie, ours is a very special edition, complete with "illustrations", i.e. crayon scribbled and scotch tape patched pages torn by toddler me. There's a mouse hidden on each page and Dad would make a game out of letting us find it. Michelle, Pete and I would ask (demand, maybe?) Dad to read it to us every Christmas eve.. and pretty much throughout the entire month of December, and by read, I mean act out every single word. We wanted the full, one-man production of the Clement C. Moore poem.

There's a stanza that reads:

"When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash."

Dad would actually go to the window, pull up the blinds, and do a faux investigation of the yard.

We ate it up.

So what if I'm almost 30, and Michelle is married, and Peter is about to graduate from college...

I really hope he reads it to us this year.