App du jour

This year, LP is "in the spirit of Christmas" times 100. We wrote a letter to Santa last week (in which he sweetly asked for a present for his sister, because she's not big enough to talk yet), and over the weekend, my mother Santa sent him a personalized video in which the Père Noël confirmed that he received his letter. "That's strange though", LP remarked. "A toy airplane is not what I asked Santa in my letter at all, it's rather what I asked grandma..."

Apart from our lovely little Nutcracker tradition (LP can now even often be heard whistling the Sugar Plum Fairy dance) we are also very big on A Charlie Brown Christmas nowadays. M found us a wonderful interactive app for the ipad, and you know how much I identify with love Charlie Brown right?

This is by far my favorite way of using the device, for books, magazines and such little animations, because it adds such a level of richness in the layout, such a fun layer of interactivity, etc. Graphic designers usually go above an beyond for these apps, and it truly makes me fall in love with reading electronically again.

The app narrates the story over little scenes from the movie, while incorporating the music and adding lots of little fun extras. LP can decorate the Christmas tree that will be revealed at the end, can help Snoopy decorate his doghouse for the Lights and Display contest, and can do all kinds of little tricks like turning lights on and off, etc. His favorite part, though, is playing the famous Linus and Lucy song on a little pop-up piano, and then watching the kids dance.

LP doesn't really understand why Charlie is so sad, but he enjoys Lucy, Linus, Sally, Snoopy and the others tremendously. The other day at the store, he even became entranced when he spotted something on a shelf, his whole face lighting up. It was a replica of the sad little tree Charlie picks up at the lot, the one that "needs him". We all had a laugh and then we bought it for him. It made him happier that I had ever seen him. Charlie, Christmas is not religious for us, so we have to find its meaning elsewhere... But I think that really, *this* is what Christmas is all about.

If anyone is intested, you can find the app here. I highly recommend it!