This is a really cool book about all about Christmas trees. My favorite part about the book is that the children can learn all about the different kinds of trees. That is very cool, when authors take a fun, fictional story and teach kids good stuff with it!

Now check this out - you and I can look inside the book - before we buy it! It’s a website that I just stumbled across today, called Lookybook.com. Actually, my friend, Drew, who blogs over at Read To Me, Dad, alerted me to it. I am so excited about it! Just click on the book and you can look through it, too!

Sammie has been having special Christmas reading time with her daddy every night. And they are reading a very special book. They are reading,

Chicken Soup for the Soul Christmas Treasury for Kids: A Story a Day from December 1st through Christmas for Kids and Their Families
We just love this book - we got it at one of the school book fairs several years ago and I think it is so precious that Sammie is calling Mark into her room to read it with her every night. The book is made up of 25 very special Christmas stories, sent in by people just like you and me. They tell stories of children at Christmas time fully realizing the true meaning of Christmas.

So you start reading on December 1st, and you have a story to read every night. It is a lovely tradition to have with your family. And while I am a little sad that I’m not reading the book with her every night, I am thoroughly pleased that she and her father are so close and are enjoying that together.

And of course, you know I had to photograph it and blog it! Ha! Here they are, aren’t they precious?

I will give one warning, though - I can’t remember which story it is, but, one of them will give great hints to little Santa-believers. I will have to look it up and tell you what I’m talking about. I just remember the first year that we got it, as I’m reading aloud to the kids (who mostly still believed) stumbling across a line that stopped me in my tracks and left me scrambling for a way to recover! Haha! It was awful! So just be careful!

At Moosejaw.com, I have a chance to do just that! In fact, I could win two coats from them! There will be one winner every day next week. And the winner will receive two North Face Denali jackets. That would be so cool. I would probably send the other coat to my friend, Loretta. Or who knows - maybe I would sell it on eBay. I think brand new stuff does pretty well there - and then I could turn around a buy a lot of books on eBay. Not a ‘lot’ of books, but, a ‘lot’ of books. Do you know what I mean? I can’t stand that they use that word, because, it is so confusing. I do love, however, buying lots of books on eBay! It’s so exciting when your box comes in the mail! Opening it up and checking out all of your new books is so much fun!

I was online looking at dog supplies when I found the coolest Kong toy! I love Kong toys anyway - I think they are simply genius! The toy that I found would be so perfect for my mother’s dogs. She leaves the house and goes to work all day, leaving the dogs home to get into all kinds of mischief, and if there’s one thing those dogs are good at - it’s mischief!

Here’s the toy that just might help them out!

They call it KongTIME and it dispenses four different Kong toys at different times throughout the day. And you can, of course, fill the Kong toys with yummy goodness for your dogs!

I could have used this recently myself - my parents were here visiting and we were taking them out for the day sightseeing. As we left the house, I grabbed three dog biscuits and plopped them down in different places through the house. I couldn’t make them too hidden, or in rooms or areas I knew he wouldn’t go, but, I hoped it would take him at least a little while to discover each of them. Ha! You try ‘hiding’ biscuits from a nosy 120 pound dog! He found them all before we even left the driveway! So I know we could benefit from one of these,too.

My only reservation would be to wonder of what material the dispenser itself is made. The reason that Kong toys are so popular is because they are indestructible. And I think I know a dog or two, not mentioning any names here (*ahem* Jake *cough* Randy) who would love to rip the dispenser to shreds, if possible! And then they could have those darn Kong toys whenever they wanted!