This is a holiday book, a counting book, and a goodnight book in one that I envision to be a board book for young children learning their basic concepts such as counting and letters. The imagery is intentionally bright and vivid with a strong emphasis on shape. This is to allow the focus to be on teaching our reader how to count, so that they may clearly see the new objects being introduced on each page and how many there are. I think toddlers and young children deserve just as much artistry in their board books as older children do, and so I’ve tried my best to bring them a beautifully rendered book in deep layered watercolor. I believe that kids can understand facial expressions more than what we give them credit for, so I’ve also intentionally excluded mouths to allow for our children to imagine the feelings of the characters only through their eyes. This idea came to me after visiting my baby niece. I realized that I was communicating with her primarily with my eyes and realizing just how important communication through eye contact is for a baby or a toddler inspired the decision to try to make these characters communicate only in this way.