Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Reading to the boys

A big part of the life of my family is reading. When we were newlyweds we read the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord of the Rings, and all the then published Harry Potter books aloud to each other. We don't read to each other very often anymore, but we do read aloud to the boys and have since they were too young to understand language. I'll never forget the time, when Anselm Samuel was still a tiny baby, when we read to him A.A. Milne's Pooh stories. Athanasia and I wept at the end of it. (It is an interesting fact that the best children books are really for adults.) Our shelves are stuffed with books. But there is a part of our collection that is only read between the November 15 and January 5 of each year. Tonight from that special shelf I read (sang, really) The Friendly Beasts: An old English Christmas Carol by Tomie de Paola, and two selections from Richard Scarry's The Animals' Merry Christmas, which is a collection of poems.

1 comment:

Athanasia said...

Being the lazy soul that I am, I am leaving a comment for two posts.

First, I love Tomie dePaolo's books as did my kids. We, too, read non-stop to our children and now as adults they remain voracious readers, especially our son. What a joyous and life-long gift you and Athanasia are giving the boys.

Secondly, I am grateful for the encouragement and joyous words of reminder you wrote in your post about Nahuum. They come at a time of need for me. One of these days when I get around my laziness, I will read the entirety of Isaiah.

Thank you for your prayers Matthew. You are a good man.