2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion
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December - Advent Calendar
Day 16 - A funny one from "24 Christmas Poems for Kids: Festive Advent Calendar" at imagineforest.com"Snowman Poop" by Unknown
You’ve been naughty all year,
So here’s the scoop.
All you get for a gift dear,
Is this snow poop!
Jen wrote: "I am done for now. I have read 73 pages of poetry. I don’t do well with one a day things. My pace is never steady."Jen, how many poems did you read? If you read 24 ... you can count them as 24 and you will have completed the challenge even if it's a little eary -- early is fine and dandy 😄
Updated through Msg #161.🕯️9 Days 'til Christmas🕯️
Will update again on Dec 17th.
🕯️Happy Advent Reading!🕯️
Day 17 - from "24 Christmas Poems for Kids: Festive Advent Calendar" at imagineforest.com"Christmas" by Matteo Minker-Wielstein (7 yrs old written on 12/10/20)
Santa Clause is coming
So you better behave
But the real meaning of Christmas
Is Jesus came to save
So it doesn’t matter if no presents
Are under the tree
Because Jesus loves he or she,
and the real gift is L O V E
Updated message 15. Progress: 17/24
Updated through Msg #171.🕯️8 Days 'til Christmas🕯️
Will update again on Dec 19th.
🕯️Happy Advent Reading!🕯️
Updated message 15. Progress: 18/24
Day 18 - An old-fashioned one from "Academy of American Poets" at poets.org"The Christmas Wreath" by Anna de Brémont
Oh! Christmas wreath upon the wall,
Within thine ivied space
I see the years beyond recall,
Amid thy leaves I trace
The shadows of a happy past,
When all the world was bright,
And love its magic splendour cast
O’er morn and noon and night.
Oh! Christmas wreath upon the wall,
’Neath memory’s tender spell
A wondrous charm doth o’er thee fall,
And round thy beauty dwell.
Thine ivy hath the satiny sheen
Of tresses I’ve caressed,
Thy holly’s crimson gleam I’ve seen
On lips I oft have pressed.
Oh! Christmas wreath upon the wall,
A mist steals o’er my sight.
Dear hallow’d wreath, these tears are all
The pledge I now can plight
To those loved ones whose spirit eyes
Shine down the flight of time;
Around God’s throne their voices rise
To swell the Christmas Chime!
Day 19 - from "24 Christmas Poems for Kids: Festive Advent Calendar" at imagineforest.com"Santa’s Watching" by Kidspot
Christmas time is coming,
It’s time we must be good,
For Santa’s watching everyday,
And we forgot we should.
Clean our room and wash the car,
Help mum with every chore,
For presents we are after,
And a good one we must score.
No time to chat, no time to play
There’s dishes to be done.
There will be time later,
For us to have some fun.
Update to Message #10: 19/24Today I started In a Holidaze, which just happened to open on my Dec. 26 birthday. What a surprise!
Updated through Msg #189.🕯️6 Days 'til Christmas🕯️
We are almost there! And I have several pages more than I had planned on to finish up Ben Hur. A fun read, but I've just had so many interruptions!
Hope all you of had a good weekend and will have a good week!
Will update again on Dec 22nd.
🕯️Happy Advent Reading!🕯️
Updated message 15. Progress: 21/24
Day 20 - from "24 Christmas Poems for Kids: Festive Advent Calendar" at imagineforest.com"Feast Ye Well" by @haikus_by_KN
Feast ye well and have good cheer
For it be Christmas, then New Year.
But take heed! The stars forebode;
“Eat not too much, lest ye explode.”
update to message 4721 days/24 days
tihylttw: 22 chapters/25 chapters
oas: 17 chapters/20 chapters
overall: 39 chapters/45 chapters
Chances are that I won't get to use my computer tomorrow, so...Day 21 - from "24 Christmas Poems for Kids: Festive Advent Calendar" at imagineforest.com
"Christmas Acrostic" by Johnnie DesRochers
C is for the child born that night to be our light.
H is for holy is His name
R is for rejoice with gladness and joy.
I is for Immanuel, God with us.
S is for the star that led the Wise men to Him.
T is for the truth and grace that was sent our way.
M is for Mother Mary laying him in swaddling clothes in the manger.
A is for angels singing songs of joy.
S is for salvation.
2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
I Am the Rage (other topics)She Felt Like Feeling Nothing (What She Felt) (other topics)
The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country (other topics)
Home Body (other topics)
American Melancholy: Poems (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Frank O'Hara (other topics)Anna Akhmatova (other topics)
Amiri Baraka (other topics)
Elizabeth Bishop (other topics)
Robert Pinsky (other topics)
More...
"Christmas at the Orphanage" by Bill Knott
But if they’d give us toys and twice the stuff
most parents splurge on the average kid,
orphans, I submit, need more than enough;
in fact, stacks wrapped with our names nearly hid
the tree where sparkling allotments yearly
guaranteed a lack of—what?—family?—
I knew exactly what it was I missed:
(did each boy there feel the same denials?)
to share my pals’ tearing open their piles
meant sealing the self, the child that wanted
to scream at all You stole those gifts from me;
whose birthday is worth such words? The wish-lists
they’d made us write out in May lay granted
against starred branches. I said I’m sorry.