Usborne Books has an amazing selection of Christmas books – from newborns to middle schoolers, there is something for everyone. Here are just a few of the ones for very young children. These would be terrific gifts for new parents celebrating their baby’s first Christmas.

Baby’s Christmas – Celebrate with baby as he opens presents on a happy Christmas morning. You can move him from page to page into a recessed jigsaw hole. (board book with a detachable piece)

Snuggletime Christmas Baby – What’s inside Baby’s present? The delightful pictures and familiar comforting touchy-feely blanket in this book will appeal to both babies and parents – an ideal book for sharing! (a touchy feely board book)

Santa Claus – A bigger, more elaborate touchy feely board book about our favorite jolly old elf.

Christmas Mice – What do the busy little Christmas mice do on Christmas Eve? Find out in this delightful board book which is full of different touchy feely textures and sparkling surprises.

Christmas Cloth Book – This delightful book is ideal for sharing with babies and toddlers. Along the trail you will find flaps, touchy feely patches and lots of other little surprises. The book contains a short, phonics-based text.

Nativity Touchy Feely Book – Inside this delightful retelling of the Christmas story, you’ll find donkeys with fluffy ears, woolly sheep and baby Jesus sleeping on his soft blanket. A perfect ‘first Christmas’ gift!

Christmas Lullabies – This delightful book is perfect for sharing with babies. The CD has over 35 minutes of soothing seasonal music, ideal for helping babies drift off to sleep.

More Usborne Books for older children soon….

Today’s Denver Post food section printed up some favorite holiday recipes from the Colorado Ballet – those same folks dancing the Nutcracker who I mentioned in yesterday’s post. Ah coincidences – how funny.

Instead of printing recipes inspired by the ballet, they chose to feature the dancer’s favorite holiday dishes. Since they’re from all over the world, the selection was very eclectic. There was a family favorite of ours there, too – chicken adobo.

My husband used to date a Filipino-American woman in college and learned the recipe from her. It’s a great dish to make last minute on those nights you have little time. Having a rice cooker helps, too.

Our family calls chicken adobo “pootie chicken” because it makes you, well, um…poot.

Chicken Adobo
This dish is a Filipino and Omandam family tradition.
Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1. 1 whole chicken, cut into pieces (make sure to leave the skin on, otherwise the chicken gets dried out. Also, you can used frozen chicken pieces – no need to thaw them out first.)
2. 1/3 cup water
3. 1/3 cup vinegar (traditionally Filipinos use palm vinegar, but any clear vinegar should work)
4. 1/3 cup soy sauce
5. 2 large gloves garlic, minced
6. 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
7. Salt to taste (you can leave the salt out as the soy sauce is pretty salty already)

Note: We also add one cut up yellow onion.

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot and bring to a medium simmer.
2. Stirring occasionally, cook until chicken is tender and most of the sauce is evaporated, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
3. Serve with white rice.

What’s a favorite holiday dish for your family?

Every Monday I read to Nathan’s class. As usual, we were running late and I didn’t have a book picked out. Lucie volunteered to get a book from her room. I thought, oh no, she’s going to pick a baby book or something completely boring for a bunch of first graders.

Instead, she came back with the Usborne Book version of The Nutcracker. (Usborne has three different versions: 1) the picture book for younger children, the Young Reading series for older chldren, and The Nutcracker CD Pack.)

Perfect! (Lucie’s such a genius.) Not only is there a local production of The Nutcracker (the Boulder Ballet and the Longmont Symphony) but there are two productions happening in Denver next month. As usual, the Colorado Ballet is doing one. But the Moscow Ballet will be here in Colorado, too.

Paul and I have been thinking about taking Nathan and Lucie to see a production of The Nutcracker. I remember my mom taking my sister and me to see it in New York City at the Met. If memory serves me correctly, I was probably 10 or so, and a bit bored. I think the problem was that I didn’t know the story, and had no idea what was going on. To refresh your memory:

Clara’s adventure begins on Christmas Eve with an amazing present – a magic doll. Soon Clara is in a flying sleigh on her way to the mouth-watering Land of Sweets, where she finds an incredible castle and the dazzling Sugarplum Fairy.

And even though my children know the story, at 3 and 6, the kids are a too young to sit through a long ballet production. Instead, I may rent a DVD of The Nutcracker instead.

If you are planning to go see The Nutcracker, please read the story to your children before you go. Then make it a special event. Dress up. Go out for dessert and hot chocolate afterwards (even if it’s just Starbucks). Make it a grownup magical time for your children, and a memory they’ll cherish for years.

Sugar plums, anyone?

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, I’ll be giving book, craft and recipe suggestions to go with all the holidays coming up like Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s.

But first A CONTEST!!!!

The folks at Sand Dune Publishing gave me four Between Me and You relationship keepsake journals to give away – two Between Me and You (MOM) and two Between Me and You (GRANDMA). The journals contain questions like, “Which have been the most interesting times during your life with my granddad?”

They’re a great way for families to bond while passing down memories.The journals will make wonderful holiday gifts, and once filled out with handwritten responses, will be cherished by your family forever.

Here’s how to enter:

1. If you have a blog, post about my contest on your site. You have from today until Monday, December 4 to do so.Then come back here and post the weblink (the link to the actual post) in the comments section below along with your email and blog addresses. Please specify which journal you want!
2. If you do not have a blog, no problem! Just leave your name and email address in the comments section below. Please specify which journal you want!
3. I will pick the four winners’ names out of a hat and will contact them via email for their names and mailing addresses.
4. The winners will be announced on this blog on Thursday, December 7.
5. I will mail out the books on Friday, December 8 via Media Mail, which should take about a week to get to you.
6. Please do not enter this contest if you are unwilling to email me your name and mailing address. Of course, I will not release your private info to the public.
7. This contest is open to readers in the continental U.S. only. (Since these are holiday gifts, I want to make sure you receive them in time. So no Canadian contestants allowed for this contest. Sorry, but it takes too long for shipments to get through customs.)
8. This contest is also open to ClubMom bloggers.

If you have any questions, email me.

This contest is featured at competizione!

Hoped you survived yesterday and had a wonderful time sharing food and laughter (and a couple of football games – Go Broncos!) with friends and family.

Here are some ideas for leftover turkey:

• Thank goodness for leftovers from Sunset magazine. These recipes are a little “high end” but the Turkey, Mashed Potato, and Jack Cheese Casserole that you can put together and bake in 10 to 15 minutes should appeal to the entire family.
• Turkey soup, casseroles, potpies, sandwiches and other terrific turkey leftover ideas from AllRecipes.com
• The Top 10 Turkey Leftover Recipes from About.com

Finally, one I’d be making if I actually had cooked a turkey this year, is the Turkey Enchiladas from American Profile magazine.

Turkey Enchiladas
No need to make a complicated enchilada sauce with dried chiles and a dozen spices. With a bottle of purchased salsa and a blender, you can make the sauce in seconds.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups bottled salsa
2. 1/2 cup water
3. 5 Tbsp. chili powder
4. 4 cups chopped turkey
5. 2 cups (8 oz.) grated Cheddar cheese, divided
6. 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
7. 6 (10 inch) flour tortillas

Directions:

1. Preheat overn to 350 degrees F. Combine salsa, water and chili powder in a blender or food processor; process until smooth. Pour 1/2 cup of the mixture into a 13×9 inch baking pan; set remainder aside.
2. Combine turkey, 1 cup of cheese and cilantro. Lay a tortilla on a work surface. Place 1 cup turkey mixture in ceter of tortilla, roll closed adn place seam side down in baking pan. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
3. Pour reserved sauce over enchiladas. Cover with foil and bake about 45 minutes or until bubbly. Uncover and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Continue baking about 4 minutes of until cheese melts. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Picture courtesty of Posie’s Place, who blogs a recipe for Turkey Chipotle Enchiladas. It’s much more involved recipe, but it looks great!

Technorati tags: turkey leftovers, recipes, enchiladas

Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for joining us for the Carnival of Children’s Literature between bites of turkey and pie. (I’m guessing you’ve escaped the crowd, noise, heat, and football game watching by sneaking away to look at blogs. Can’t blame you. We all need a little quiet time during the busy holidays.)

This month’s theme was “What are you thankful for in children’s literature?”

Here’s who stopped by and participated:

1. Jennifer presents The Carnival of Children’s Literature posted at So love is hard And love is tough.
2. DeputyHeadmistress presents Coloured Plate from How and Where We Live posted at The Common Room.
3. J presents Thinking About… » posted at Thinking About….
4. Michele presents Carnival of Children’s Literature 9 – Giving Thanks posted at Scholar’s Blog.
5. Cynthia Leitich Smith presents cynsations: Editor Interview: Yolanda LeRoy of Charlesbridge posted at cynsations.
6. Erin presents Revisiting Alice posted at Miss Erin.
7. Pam Coughlan presents Round-About Thankfulness posted at MotherReader.
8. Mitali Perkins presents Trick or What? Santa Who? posted at Mitali’s Fire Escape.
9. Jen Robinson presents What I’m Thankful for in Children’s Literature posted at Jen Robinson’s Book Page.
10. Gregory K. presents A little library business posted at GottaBook.
11. Jone presents What I am Thankful in Children?s Literature posted at Check It Out.
12. grace presents a wrung sponge: Year of the Dog posted at cloudscome.
13. Susan Thomsen presents Reading with a Second Grader 11.14.06 posted at Chicken Spaghetti.
14. Little Willow presents slayground: The Baby-Sitters Club: What the BSC Means to Me posted at Bildungsroman.
15. Liz B presents Jingle Dancer posted at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy.
16. Elena LaVictoire presents A review of Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder posted at My Domestic Church.
17. Lisa presents Thankful for Children’s Literature posted at Passionately Curious.
18. Nancy presents Thankful for the Language posted at Journey Woman.
19. Marika presents Roald Dahl – Wicked Bedtime Reading posted at Mellow Creme Pets.
20. Paul Acampora presents Friends in the library posted at Paul Acampora’s LiveJournal.
21. Wendy Betts presents Value Added Children’s Books, Part II posted at Blog from the Windowsill.

I’m so impressed with how many people participated. Thank you all so very much!!!

O.K., so you’re busy at work prepping for the Thanksgiving meal. You need to clean the house, too, which is quite a challenge because the kids have been home all week on Thanksgiving break. So what do you do? Get ‘em out of the house. After all, that’s what grandparents and aunts and uncles are for.

Here’s some ideas on what to get them to do:

• Go see Happy Feet – it’s fantastic! Since my husband is gone until Thanksgiving day (he’s hunting in Wisconsin) I took the kids to go see it. This is beginning to be a yearly tradition since he always leaves around the time a great children’s movie gets released (last year it was Narnia).
• If it’s good weather, go for a hike. If it’s not, go to the local Y or rec center and go swimming. If you have relatives staying at a nearby hotel – and they have access to a pool – send your family over there for a couple of hours.
• Order in, get take out, or eat out. Honestly, you’re doing enough cooking as it is!
• Visit your local library. Stock up on FREE videos and Thanksgiving books. Find some you can read aloud and share as a family.
• Send the family over to your local mass retailer and stock up on board games like Monopoly, UNO, Scrabble, and Life. Lots of great sales out there.
• If you don’t have family visiting, but still need kids out of the way or occupied, hire a preteen babysitter, like the son or daughter of a friend or a kid in the neighborhood. Their mom is trying to get them out of the way, too, and they’ll be needing Christmas cash. Since you’ll be home cooking or cleaning, you can keep an eye on things, too.

Assuming that you’re the one who does all the cooking, have your spouse take the kids and relatives out for dinner. You get to stay home! Light some candles, put on some relaxing music, take a hot bath, and have a glass of wine or herbal tea. Relax and gather your strength. Get to bed early, too. You have a busy day tomorrow – good luck!