Christmas Books

How our Christmas Book Tradition Started

It was Christmas 1997. My oldest son, Brady, was engaged to his, now wife, Kim. I had a few Christmas books from when the kids were little and always put them on my coffee table during Christmas. Most of them are paper back "Little Golden Books". These books still look good on the outside......but if you look on the inside....you will see all kinds of coloring, writing/scribbling with pens, etc.

When Brady was little we could not keep anything in the house that you would use to write or color. The child had to learn to color in Kindergarten! He could find a pen, pencil or crayon wherever you hid it and after he decorated the first available wall he would start on the books. I cannot tell you how many times that I was in a friend's hallway or bedroom scrubbing their walls while the rest of the adults visited. Our friends soon learned to hide the crayons when we were coming! But hey.....he really was a good kid!

So.....all of my Christmas books are covered in "Brady Graffiti"

When I realized that 1997 was our last Christmas before Brady and Kim would be having Christmas in their own home.....I wanted to do something to remember it by. I happened to glance down at the coffee table and it hit me. I gave Brady this book. It is the newer version of the same one that was on my table.

We all cried....me, John, Brady, Kim, Courtney and Josh. This started our Christmas Book tradition. Each year I give each family a Christmas Book. I try to make the book be about something going on in their life. I will post the 2011 books after they get them. I remember one year, when Courtney was working in New York and Emma had been born, I gave Brady's family "Auntie Claus in New York". When Josh was still in high school and his class did the Shoebox Christmas Boxes, that were sent to kids overseas, I found a "Shoebox Christmas" book about the ministry. I love hunting books that have something to do with their life.

Of course, now they have, Emma, Abby and John Brady. I haven't noticed any scribbling in their books but I do believe that I have heard Kim talk about scrubbing a wall before!

This is the big Golden Book that is always on my coffee table during Christmas
an example of Brady's work that is throughout the book

Who would guess that sweet face could do so much damage to a book! 1979

Brady and Kim......1997?