Three Children's Christmas Books

     Basil's Cub Scout Den visited the fire house on Saturday.  The fire fighters were a great bunch of guys.  This was the second time we visited this fire house.  The first time, two months ago they had to respond to a fire just as the wee Cub Scouts arrived for their tour.  This time there were no emergencies so the boys got the whole tour.  Their favorite part?  The brass pole the fire fighters use to get from upstairs to downstairs.  Really.  They liked the fire engine.  They liked the helmets.  But the LOVED the idea of grown men sliding down the pole.

     After the tour Basil and I walked to the library just 100 yards up the road.  While there we listened to two harpists.  We heard Morning Has Broken, And Can It Be, and Greenesleeves (We learned Greenesleeves was written by Henry VIII.) before Basil got squirmy and we went and looked at books.  

     I made a mistake of picking two books by their covers.  Santa's Snow Cat and Santa's Snow Kitten are worth avoiding.  Maybe, if you really like cats you'll like these books, but Basil couldn't get into them, and I also thought they were boring.  It seems the chief virtue of the books is that on every page there is a picture of a wide-eyed yet emotionless cat.  I have trouble thinking of predators sympathetically, but if you like pictures of cats and can look past the destruction cats visit on the wildlife of North America you might like these books.

     A far better book is The Gingerbread Baby. This book has a story that is familiar but has an unexpected ending. It isn't deep and meaningful, but it is fun.  And the illustrations are beautiful and rich.  Basil and Anselm both liked this book.

     I have a stuffed pumpkin in the oven.  Have been enjoying Strauss Family Creamery's egg nog.  The Nativity Fast starts soon and the egg nog will be sold out by the time Orthodox can drink milk again, so these first few days of november are the only time we can drink it.  But that's okay.  I can make my own egg nog, which I'll do during Christmas.