Christmas Gift Ideas – Gift Idea #2 of 4: This is for your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews…
Christmas Gift Ideas – Gift Idea #2 of 4: This is for your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews…
Friends! Please allow me to share another Christmas gift idea. This one is for your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or neighbors and especially if you hail from Kentucky…
I met a lovely author at the Kentucky Book Festival last month thanks to our daughter-in-love, Lauren, who discovered her. Her name is Evelyn B. Christensen. One of many books she’s written is called The Twelve Days of Christmas in Kentucky. (It was chosen to represent Kentucky at the 2017 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.)
Much to my delight, not only does this fun book offer loads of information about our state, children and adults will learn a LOT about the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Literally the wealth of information you’ll gain will astonish you.
Many of you know our family has exploded this year with three wee bairns arriving: Ford in March, Henry in April and Charlotte in August. One of many delightful discoveries in The Twelve Days of Christmas in Kentucky is the interaction between Marybeth and her cousin Martin.
Naturally, reading about the cousins with our now four grand angels, who are all cousins, got Lauren and me so excited. Evelyn’s book comes in two types of editions: a board book (which I scooped up for all the cousins, shhhh, don’t tell) and a regular slick paper edition for older ones.
We readers get to travel all over the state, learning as we go about the state bird, the cardinal, and the state tree, the tulip poplar, just for starters. We go to the Louisville Zoo, Mammoth Cave, the National Corvette Museum, Louisville Slugger Museum, a coal mining museum, the Kentucky Horse Park and many more fun stops.
Evelyn’s description on the back of her book gives us its plot: “Marybeth is so excited about cousin Martin coming for a Kentucky visit that she gives him one VERY unusual gift on each of the twelve days of Christmas. As the days pass and the gifts pile up, Martin writes lively letters home to tell his mom and dad all about this trip.”
Illustrations by Kent Culotta are most appealing to the eye and fun to look at on each page. His details will delight readers of all ages.
Our Lauren suggested we take all the cousins to many of these destinations together as a family. What a fun goal to have! Be thinking of your relatives and friends who would enjoy this book…
Finally, don’t miss other books by Evelyn. She’s a master at creating puzzles and she includes new ones each week to try out on her website which is a tremendous resource for us parents and grandparents: www.evelynchristensen.com
This book, Mensa for Kids: Fun Puzzle Challenges, was also available at the Kentucky Book Festival. Mensa actually asked Evelyn to create this book!
Finally, I love how Evelyn shares her faith with us on her website, telling us she learned over the years God had gifted her with a mind to create these puzzles to teach children fun ways to learn math skills. She teaches us learning can be fun and not a chore.
She credits a study her small group was doing by John Ortberg called If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat. She said that was the turning point for her with her writing, realizing God had given her these gifts to share.
Run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore and GRAB The Twelve Days of Christmas in Kentucky! Your family and friends will love it!
‘Til next time!
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are “affiliate links.”