A Love Stronger Than Witches' Brew

Grandparents.com

It isn’t perfect. But Adam thinks it is.

My 6-year-old grandson likes the Halloween book we made together so much that he's asked me to come to his school and read it to his first-grade class. "It's awesome, Mimi!" he insists.

The book is called I Love You More Than, and I wrote the words and he chose the pictures and we put them together on kodakgallery.com (because photo books were 25 percent off that day). But other photo sites offer this service, too. You create, you click, and within a week, your book arrives in the mail.

This is our story:

I love you more than witches' brew,
I love you more than monster stew.
I love you more than ghosts that howl,
I love you more than ghouls that scowl!

I love you more than toothless grins,
I love you more than hair on chins.
I love you more than warts on noses,
I love you more than scary poses.

I love you more than mooing cows,
I love you more than furrowed brows.
I love you more than flying brooms,
I love you more than crypts and tombs.

I love you more than creaks and groans,
I love you more than screams and moans.
I love you more than bats and bees,
I love you more than bewitched trees.

I love you more than crystal balls,
I love you more than castle walls.
I love you more than trick or treat,
I love you more than you can eat.

I love you more than webs and spells,
I love you more than graveyard bells.
I love you more than make-believe,
I love you more than Hallows Eve!

Adam and I were in the middle of downloading scary pictures to go with the scary words when my daughter, Adam's mother, yelled, "You are not allowed to use pictures from horror movies, Mom!" and insisted that we use family photographs instead.

So Adam and I looked through all the photos on my computer and through all my old photo albums. Though we couldn’t find a thing to go with "I love you more than graveyard bells," we cobbled together some very meaningful matches.

"I love you more than toothless grins" is my favorite. In this photo, Adam is about 2 and sitting next to a big stuffed Elmo, their lips identically pursed in such a way that there's not a tooth in sight.

We used a picture of my cousin's dog for "I love you more than scary poses." The dog's eyes are not Photoshopped — the flash was on and they photographed red!

In "I love you more than flying brooms," the broom is implied. How else would the Wicked Witch of the West have gotten around? (That would be me as the witch, by the way, pictured with the family after our town's annual Halloween parade last year.) And the crypts and tombs were photos take n in Egypt.

Charlotte, Adam's little sister, was dressed up as a bee one Halloween, which covered "I love you more than bats and bees," and one night last fall, I took a picture of moonlit trees in my own backyard, for "I love you more than bewitched trees."

Adam found pictures of the crystal balls and the castle walls. And for "graveyard bells," we changed the word to "yells" and used a picture of his mother dressed up as a witch.

"I love you more than make-believe" was the easiest; we had lots of images to choose from. (Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!) "I love you more than Hallows Eve" was easy, too.

The book was fun and simple to do. But if an online project isn't your thing, you can make a book the old-fashioned way — at the kitchen table with crayons and tape. You can use my words, or you and your grandkids can make up your own.

Adam is now intent on writing a series: I Love You More Than editions for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day. "I want you to read them all to my class," he says. 

But for now we're reading, over and over again, "I love you more than witches' brew, I love you more than monster stew," and itching for Halloween.