Tag Archives: Christmas reading

December Reflections

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December Reflections

I know I often comment on how quickly time seems to go by, but, wow, December flew by in a blur! It’s hard to believe it’s almost over.

Most of the first part of the month was preparation for Christmas, as I am sure it was for many of you–ordering and wrapping presents, writing our Christmas letter, addressing and mailing cards, making cards for the family.

When we decorated for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I did something to my back. I wasn’t aware of wrenching or pulling anything at the time, But about 11 that night, I started experiencing spasms that left me in tears. Those subsided after a few days, but I’ve had lower back pain the rest of this month until this week. My dear husband stepped in to help in a multitude of ways. Icy Hot, Tylenol, and and heating pads have been my friends.

We celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary this month at a new-to-us steakhouse, bringing home Krispy Kreme for dessert.

Our oldest son came in from RI the weekend before Christmas. We had a great Christmas with all the family as well as lots of time together to chat and play games.

But we have been trading colds around, so some have missed different activities. We’re hoping to have at least one more dinner all together before Jeremy has to leave.

Watching

A few things we watched this month:

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey. A boy’s life is turned upside down when his father dies (I think in the Civil War). The boy and his mother have to move to be with her sister. On the trip, he loses a treasured Nativity set. They ask a woodworking recluse in their new town to carve a new one for them, and gradually, a friendship forms, healing both hearts.

Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas. This was a documentary with much of it acted out. I wasn’t expecting a lot from it, honestly, knowing how these things usually go on TV. But I was pleasantly surprised. They got a couple of things wrong, but overall, it was very good. My favorite part was the scene with Simeon realizing he was seeing the promised Christ.

Christmas on the Square was a cheesy, badly lip-synched musical, but it was still kind of cute in a way. Dolly Parton wrote it and stars as both a homeless woman and an angel. A Scroogish woman who owns all the buildings in the town square plans to sell the place and evict everyone right before Christmas, until she’s shown the error of her ways.

Joy for Christmas was a pretty typical modern Christmas movie. It caught our eye because we had seen the actress in something else. A publicist whose family holds an annual charity event for children fights to keep it going. When she meets a famous athlete, she tries to recruit him to appear at their benefit. But he’s not into Christmas, so she tries to kindle some Christmas spirit in him. A clean, sweet film.

We also watched the original black and white Miracle on 34th Street for the very first time. It was cute, but I’m not fond of stories that involve trying to convince people that Santa is real. I’m not militantly anti-Santa–we treated him as any other fairy tale or storybook character when our kids were small. But I don’t want to give him the credit for gifts we lovingly chose for our children, not convince them to believe something they’re going to find out later is false.

Creating

This was a busy month for cards. When I am making a lot at one time, I rely more on stickers and simple designs.

This first one was for my friend, Melanie, whose birthday is near the end of November. She likes purple, so I try to feature that color prominently. This looks grey in some lights, but it’s really purple.

Birthday card

This was for Jim for our anniversary. The wording in the center was a sticker. It’s not very readable here: it says, “As I give you my hand to hold, I give you my heart to keep.”

Homemade anniversary card

This was Jim’s Christmas card. I loved this frame that came with a packet of Christmas scrapbooking materials. I’m wishing I had done something a little different with the middle part of it. But he liked it. 🙂 The trees, snowflake, and words were stickers. The lamppost was in the same packet as the frame.

This was Jeremy’s. He likes foxes. The fox, trees, words, holly, and Santa hat were all stickers.

This was Jason’s, adapted from an idea seen at Pinterest. The “Noel” and a couple of the snowflakes were stickers. The song books and noses were cut out freehand. I used stencils for the snowmen bodies and heads and a hole punch for the mouths.

This was Mittu’s. I’ve seen a lot of Christmas decorations this year with this “sweets” theme and pastel colors. I’d love to decorate for Christmas with these if they didn’t clash with the stuff I already have. The wording as well as the candies under the words were stickers.

This was Timothy’s, also adapted from a Pinterest find. It’s supposed to look like a s’more with a snowman marshmallow. The snowman was cut freehand from stick-on felt. The arms, nose, chocolate, and graham crackers were cut freehand. The words and snowflakes were stickers. The eyes and smile were made from little stick-on beads, but they didn’t stick very well to the felt. I had to use dabs of Elmer’s glue.

This was Jesse’s. For years I have gone with a tech or gamer theme for him. But he also likes medieval things. The knight was done with the Cricut, the wording with the computer.

Reading

Since last time I have finished:

  • Exodus for You: Thrilling You with the Liberating Love of God by Tim Chester
  • Amy Snow by Tracy Rees. A little girl from a well-to-do family finds and brings home an abandoned baby on the family’s grounds. The girls grow up good friends though the first girl’s parents strongly disapprove, When she knows she is dying, and that Amy will likely get kicked out when she’s gone, she plans an elaborate adventure with clues to lead Amy to people who will be her friends and supporters. This was a secular story, so I disagree with a couple of things. And it moved slowly in places. But overall I enjoyed it.
  • My Beloved by Jan Karon, the unexpected newest in the Mitford series. Father Tim writes a love letter to his wife for Christmas, which accidentally makes it through the town before getting to her. Some of the results were comic, some touching. It’s always good to visit the folks in Mitford.
  • A Royal Christmas by Melody Carlson. A young American woman studying to be a lawyer finds out she’s related to the king of Montovia and next in line for the throne.
  • The Christmas Book Flood by Roseanna M. White. Neat story about the Icelandic tradition of reading books received as gifts Christmas evening.
  • Tidings of Comfort and Joy by Davis Bunn. A young girl misses out on a longed-for family vacation at Christmas due to illness. Her grandmother tries to distract and comfort her with her own story of heartache from one Christmas after WWII when her fiance abandoned her and she was stuck in England for weeks. She helps out at an orphanage during a hepatitis outbreak and finds new meaning and purpose. Good.
  • Finding Christmas by Karen Schaler is an almost totally secular take on Christmas. An avid Christmas lover sets up a scavenger hunt for her boyfriend, but the wrong man finds and follows the clues. Or is he the right man after all? A very Hallmark-type Christmas story.
  • Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin. A young boy from an orphanage insists he is not an orphan: his dad is working in a ship and will be back at Christmas. He runs away from the orphanage insisting that his sister was hiding when he was taken in. He ends up in the bushes of a young couple who try to help him, not sure whether to believe him or not. Sweet story, tying with The Christmas Flood as my favorite Christmas novella this year.
  • Blizzard at Blue Ridge Inn by Pat Nichols. Three women arrange to meet their husbands at an inn for Christmas, but are snowed in before the husbands can get there. They learn they are not there by accident, and their worlds are about to be turned upside down. An interesting premise, but it fell a little flat to me.
  • The Wish Book Christmas by Lynn Austin. Two boys obsessed with the Sears Wish Book catalog in 1951 get lessons from their mothers about giving and the true meaning of Christmas.

Most of the Christmas books were novellas, which is the only reason I got so many in this month.

I’m currently reading:

  • Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur. I’m not liking this as much as I thought I would, but I have found a few good nuggets in it.
  • The Characters of Christmas: 10 Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus by Daniel Darling
  • Mercy Mild: A 25-Day Christmas Devotional Tracing Christ’s Love from Eden to Eternity by Josh Taylor
  • The Book of Hours by Davis Bunn.

I set aside James for You by Sam Allberry and The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield this month for some Advent reading. I should probably not try to read three Advent books at once, but I couldn’t decide between them.

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

  • Is God Disappointed In Me? It can feel like it when I fail Him so often. But Scripture offers comfort, instruction, hope, and examples of God’s dealings with His own who have failed.
  • A Plea to Older Women. Condescending memes about how our generation supposedly did things so much better are not helpful. Let’s encourage and edify younger women instead.
  • What Would Mary Say? People have conflicting views about the mother of Jesus, but her words in Scripture give us a clear idea of who she was.
  • The Wonder of God With Us. After 400 years of silence from God, after millennia of access to Him only through the OT sacrificial system, finally the promised Messiah is born. It was prophesied centuries earlier that He would be called Immanuel, God with us. What a wonder! What a privilege!
  • When God’s Story Crashes Into Ours. Many people’s lives were upended by Christ’s coming. And He interrupts ours as well sometimes. Will we respond with faith, acceptance, and submission?

Writing

Nothing on this front, other than the blog, as you can imagine! I hope to get back at it next month.

Looking ahead

I usually share the books I’ve read for the year and my favorites among them during this week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, but that will have to wait til next week.

I’m scheduled for ablations for atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation next week. I’d appreciate your prayers that all would go smoothly with no complications and that the procedures would accomplish what they are supposed to. I don’t remember how recovery went after my last ablation seven years ago except that I couldn’t lift anything heavy for a while and my heart was more erratic than usual for several weeks due to all their poking around in it. But I imagine I’ll be taking it easy for a bit.

I hope and pray for a blessed 2026 for you!

Three Short Christmas Reads

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I finished a few very short Christmas stories or novellas, so I thought I’d mention them in one post.

Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale by Amanda Dykes

Bespoke: A Tiny Christmas Tale is a novella by Amanda Dykes which takes place on the Isle of Espoir, halfway between France and England. A famed composer lived there, Giovanni St. John. Superstition in his day said “a composer must never write beyond his ninth symphony. To do so was to face certain death.”

He disappeared after conducting his eight symphony, then suddenly reappeared nine years later with his tenth. He said the ninth was there, but they would never see or hear it.

Many years later, an aged St. John returns to the Isle of Espoir, to the old house villagers had taken to calling the Silent House because of his long absence. His grown daughter, Aria, is with him, gloved hands concealing injuries which had silenced her promising music career.

Aria has one last thing to do before her father dies. But she’ll need the help of her long-ago childhood friend, James. Yet Her father has forbidden James to see her, blaming James for the accident that injured Aria–as James does, himself.

This was a sweet and poignant story, packing a lot in for a novella.

Amanda shares at the end that this book was part of a campaign to get a bicycle to Gospel for Asia missionaries. When all was said and done, enough was raised for fifteen bicycles!

Tin Can Serenade by Amanda Dykes

Tin Can Serenade is a short story by Amanda Dykes, made up entirely of notes sent back and forth in a tin can on a pulley rope between two houses separated by a river. Two children are the writers and exchange notes first about a lost toy boat, then include biscuits, peppermint sticks, and such. She writes with flowery words, having read a lot. He’s very plainspoken. She lives with her widowed mother; he lives with his widower father.

As their correspondence reveals details about their families, they have no idea what they are about to stir up.

This was one of the sweetest things I have read in a long while, and wonderfully, beautifully written. It was originally written as a free story for Amanda’s readers and is free for now as a Kindle book.

Christmas at the Circus by Joanne Bischof is listed as a “short story from the Greatest Season on Earth.” The characters are the same as those in The Lady and the Lionheart by the author (linked to my review) about a want-to-be nurse who helps a circus performer in need and (spoiler alert) ends up marrying him. I think Christmas at the Circus may have been a bonus or Christmas story around the time Lionheart was published.

At any rate, Charlie and Ella are married, raising his niece. The circus is at their off-season location, with all the performers preparing for at big Christmas celebration under the big top. But Ella has no idea a special surprise awaits her.

There wasn’t much else to this story, but it would have been a fun addendum for fans of the original book.

(Sharing with Bookish Bliss Quarterly Link-Up)

Heaven and Nature Sing

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Heaven and Nature Sing: 25 Advent Reflections to Bring Joy to the World by Hannah Anderson was just released last fall. I’m so glad I heard of it in time to use for Advent.

“Heaven and nature sing” is a phrase from “Joy to the World,” written by Isaac Watts. Watts’ hymn looks forward to Jesus’ second coming more than His first, but it’s regularly used as a Christmas carol. Hannah took inspiration from this phrase and wrote 25 Advent devotions based on various aspects of nature connected with the birth of Christ. The Bible tells us creation groans from the effects of sin, waiting for redemption. We also groan or yearn for things to be set right. Hannah writes, “I want to offer you hope—not by ignoring the brokenness but by looking it squarely in the face, knowing your Redeemer has and will come” (p. 1).

One thing that struck me about these meditations was how much sheer thought must have been behind them, to weave so many threads together.

For instance, in the chapter “Family Tree,” Hannah writes of her husband’s discovering some old family genealogies which were written not in flow charts like we’re used to, but in concentric circles. Then she tells of a family visit to see the redwood trees in CA. One cross-section of a stump showed rings developed over the millennia the tree had been alive, and Hannah contemplates all the history the tree lived through. Then she brings up the records of Jesus’ human genealogy. His people were often faithless and disobedient, resulting in judgment by enemy armies taking over Israel and exiling its people. Isaiah compares this to God lopping boughs off a tree (Isaiah 10:33). But He promises “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. . . In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:1-2, 10).

“The story of Christmas is this: the tree is not dead” (p. 20). And eventually, others were grafted into the family (Romans 11:17-24), “strangers and foreigners and all those who thought they’d never know family again, those who never dared to hope that life would run through them” (p. 20).

You and I are links in the chain of generations, called to steward the fragile hope we’ve received. The seventy or eighty years given to us on this earth pale in light of those who have come before us and those who follow after. . .

So whether his work happens over the course of a thousand years or one day, whether it is given to us to play a prominent role in it or simply to stand as a faithful witness to the promise, we will wait on him. And we will wait in hope.

The tree is not dead. The quiet, steady work that came before us will continue on after us. The quiet, steady work we do today—even if it’s as simple as celebrating the Promised Son during this season—will echo through the years (pp. 20-21).

And thus Hannah writes about winter, stars, serpents, holly, evergreens, swaddling bands, shepherds, stars, and more.

One of my favorite quotes is in the chapter “Among the Beasts.”

Yes, the manger signals something about this baby, but it is not simply his poverty. By being placed in the manger, he is revealed as both the rightful son of Adam charged with caring for his creation and also the eternal Son of God who created them and who provides for them. So instead of filling the manger with hay or corn, he fills it with himself (p. 80).

I spent many mornings after my reading in this book in tears or joy, touched and awed by the contemplation of the “old, familiar” Christmas story.

Each devotion is about five pages long and written in an easily readable style. The illustrations on the cover and between chapters were drawn by Hannah’s husband, Nathan.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. I’m sure I’ll use it again in future Advent seasons. But since these truths are timeless, you could read it any time of year.

I have some of Hannah’s other books in my Kindle app, and I am eager to read them. The only trouble is deciding which one to start with!

Laudable Linkage

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Here’s my latest collection of good online reads:

No Matter How Painful the Situation, Ending a Disabled Child’s Life Through Abortion Is Never Right, HT to Challies. From one who has been in a difficult pregnancy situation.

Devaluing the Disabled Body. This post from a few years ago was referenced in the post above. “The ablebodied, who control much of society, need to break themselves of the beliefs that life with a disability is tragic, not worth living, and inherently lesser than that of our own lives . . . It is not for us to decide when life is and is not worth living, nor should we pat ourselves on the back when someone society has thrown away decides to die rather than enduring a restricted and grim existence.”

A New Calling, HT to Challies. A former abortion doctor has a change of heart.

A Call to Be the Brave One. “I faced a choice to feel unloved or make someone else feel loved. I could live with the regret of a missed chance or extend an invitation to someone else. Oh, how I wish I never missed those opportunities to give someone else what I’m hoping to receive. But too often I focus on what I’m lacking instead of on what I have the opportunity to give.”

Your Unfulfilled Desires are a Treasury, Not a Tragedy, HT to Challies. “Perhaps God wants to do something similar through your unfulfilled desires. Maybe that’s why He’s not answering your prayers the way you’d like. Could it be that He wants to use the tension you feel to prepare you for His purpose in a specific way?”

The Fondue Pot Principle, HT to the Story Warren. Although the main application the author makes concerns writing, it’s true in other avenues as well: “You can only give what you have—but that’s just fine.”

A Literary Christmas 2019. If you like to read Christmas books in November and December, and you’d like to do so in company, Tarissa hosts a Literary Christmas where we can share with each other what we’re reading, Christmas book reviews, etc. I’ve enjoyed participating the last few years. I make myself wait til after Thanksgiving to read Christmas books, so I’ll link up then. But I wanted to let any potential early birds know.

And finally, I loved this! Such pure fun! HT to Steve Laube.

Happy Saturday!

Book Review: Baby, It’s Cold Outside

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Cold Outside

Dottie Morgan just wants to be left alone. Even at Christmas. Especially at Christmas. A part of her died when her son, Nelson, died in WWII. She’s not been well-favored in the town of Frost, Minnesota, since she ran off and married a “Dapper Dan” stranger, only to return pregnant and alone when her husband went to jail and later died. She and the town had held each at arm’s distance ever since. She felt that even God was keeping His distance from her because of her mistakes.

And then a blizzard trapped four other people in her house.

First Violet Hart came to tentatively ask Dottie about using the star she and Nelson had once made for the Christmas dance. But Violet got into an accident right in front of Dottie’s house and had to be tended to. Violet had been in the WAACs during WWII, a crack mechanic, but people didn’t respect her service. Now, even when she changed a light bulb or fuse, people wondered why she did a man’s job. But Violet had always felt more comfortable with mechanical issues than typical women’s pursuits. She had met one young man, Alex, overseas and corresponded for years. She had hoped he’d come to visit, but when her last letter came back stamped “Return to Sender,” she could only conclude he wasn’t interested, and she’d end up an old spinster like Dottie.

Jake Ramsey was the inadvertent cause of Violet’s accident when he tried to catch her. He had been Alex’s best friend all his life. When Alex died, all his belongings came to Jake, including Violet’s letters. Jake sort of took over Alex’s place, writing in his stead. In the process he began to get to know Dottie and then to love her. But how would she react when she learned that Alex had died and Jake had pretended to be him?

Gordy Lindholm had been Dottie’s neighbor across the street for as long as they could remember. He had loved her once. Still did, in fact. But she had married someone else. He had loved Nelson like his own, but Dottie resented that Gordy had taught Nelson to shoot and then inspired him to be a soldier. Dottie and Gordy had maintained a distant truce over the years, but he watched out for her, filled her wood bin and such. Now he heard the accident and went over to see what was wrong when the blizzard suddenly blew in. He could probably make it home, but it looked like he could be of help at Dottie’s house – if she’d let him.

Arnie Shiller had to stay after school as punishment for daydreaming. Darkness and cold descended on him as he made his way home, and then a sudden snow storm. He tried to make it home, but when that seemed impossible, he strove to make it to his designated Storm House, Mrs. Morgan’s.

Susan May Warren deftly weaves all these lives together in  Baby, It’s Cold Outside. I had started this before Christmas, but then set it aside to finish a library book that I could not renew due to holds on it. After Christmas I planned to put this book away for next Christmas. But I picked it up and read a few pages where I had left off – and got hooked into the story.

Susan has managed to write a tale of five wounded souls with all their flaws, unrecognized virtues, and issues without it becoming sappy or trite Christmas fare.

I loved this book. I loved each person’s story, their interactions, misunderstandings, and journey to make peace with God and each other.

And there were some brilliant moments throughout. As one example (in a slight spoiler), Arnie has been out in the cold too long when he is finally discovered. As they try to warm him, Jake explains that as feeling comes back into Arnie’s limbs, they’re going to be painful at first before they get better. In an aha moment, I realized that the exact same thing was happening to Dottie inwardly. All the emotions she had numbed since her son died were being rubbed back to life by all the circumstances and conversations, and at first they caused nothing but pain. I love that Susan made that parallel without being blatant about it, setting it up to dawn on the reader. She explains in her afterward another parallel or symbolism in the storm house itself.

A few quotes:

God doesn’t expect us to be strong without Him…we’re supposed to need Him, and there’s no disgrace in that. In fact, weakness just might be the mark of a man of God. Don’t call yourself weak because of the things you can’t do. Call yourself weak when you don’t let God take over, do His work in your life…That’s the point of Christmas, isn’t it? Our weakness, His strength? Him coming to our rescue? (pp. 225-226).

Hope, however fragile, is the one thing that keeps us from getting lost…We can’t stop the pain. We can only apply the comfort of God to it (p. 281).

Excellent book, even after Christmas.

(Sharing with Literary Musing Monday, Carole’s Books You Loved)

Literary Christmas Wrap-Up

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Here’s what I finished reading for Tarissa’s Literary Christmas Challenge this year (each title links back to my review):

I enjoyed them all, but my hands-down favorite was The Christmas Hirelings.

I didn’t end up reading everything on my original list. However, I did add a couple not on my original list that I received for free this month (can’t beat that!) I tended to read more from my Kindle app and listened to a couple on audiobook. My paper book reading was taken up by trying to finish a non-Christmas library book. I did start Baby, It’s Cold Outside by Susan May Warren and will finish, but probably after the end of the year. Everything else I’ll save for next December.

Thanks, Tarissa, for hosting the challenge! I like to read a few Christmas books in December anyway, but it’s nice to link up with others doing the same thing and see what they’re reading.

 

Book Review: Gospel Meditations for Christmas

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GM4Xmas-product-cover-front-NEWGospel Meditations for Christmas by Chris Anderson, Joe Tyrpak, and Michael Barrett is the latest in their “Gospel Meditations” series (some of you might know Chris Anderson as the author of hymns such as His Robes for Mine and My Jesus Fair). The booklet is divided into 31 pages, one a day through the month of December (or any time, really, since these truths are eternal). Each page lists a Bible passage to read and then delves into some facet of the passage for a handful of paragraphs. The primary focus of the book is the Incarnation, and different aspects of it that the book covers are Christ’s humility, holiness, human ancestry; His being our peace, our mediator, our shepherd,; prophecies and promises about him; various names applied to Him; His Deity and humanity; and more. Quite a lot for 31 pages!

The best way to give you a flavor of the book is to share a few quotes from it:

Only as man could He die as a substitute for other men. And only as God could He suffer infinitely, paying for the sins of all the redeemed. (Day 4)

Escaping judgment begins with acknowledging that you deserve it. (Day 5)

Matthew begins his account of the good news with a record of Jesus’ ancestry. This isn’t some boring list of personal details that Matthew came across in research and decided to include as space-filler. No, this genealogy is Matthew’s attention- grabbing introduction, and it’s jam-packed with significance. (Day 7)

Consider whether your mental picture of Jesus fits the picture that Micah paints. The King that was born in Bethlehem is no longer a cherubic Baby. He’s a strong Shepherd, a majestic King, and the greatest military Commander of history. Jesus is the returning King and Judge before Whom every human will give account. Jesus is no longer a small Baby evoking your tender sympathy; He’s the world Sovereign demanding your total submission before it’s too late (Acts 17:31) (Day 9)

Having a biblical view of Jesus shouldn’t only lead you to lifelong submission; it should also lead you to patient perseverance. Like Micah’s original audience, we may respond in faith, yet die, having never seen the promises fulfilled. We must let it sink in that Micah’s generation never saw God make good on these words. Like them, we may spend our entire lives in unfulfilled longing. But if this Christmas prophecy that Micah uttered makes any difference to us today, it should fuel our persevering hope in God’s promises. Christian, even though we’re almost three millennia removed from Micah’s prophetic messages, keep longing for the return of the Shepherd-King from Bethlehem. Don’t lose heart. (Day 9)

What is a word? Don’t overthink it. It’s basically a means of communication. It’s a message, spoken or written, from one person to another—a form of revelation…Jesus Christ is God’s best and final communication to mankind. The Bible is God’s inspired Word. But Jesus is God’s incarnate Word—God revealed in human flesh. One of Christ’s great purposes in coming to earth was to reveal the unseen God. The apostle John returns to this motif throughout his writings. (Day 13)

This experience was so deeply satisfying for Simeon that he could say: “Now I’m ready to die.” God doesn’t promise us (like He had promised Simeon) that we’ll get to physically see Jesus before we die. But God does promise everyone who follows King Jesus that we will see His face and live in His presence after we die, and forever! To know and love and see the Lord is what we were made for. So the only way we can die in peace is if we have embraced the gospel by faith and if we are confident that very soon we are going to see the King with our very eyes. (Day 27)

Christmas sentimentality doesn’t help in tough circumstances. As I look back over the past decade and remember what Decembers have looked like for me, I recall many happy memories, but a lot of hardships, too. At Christmastime I’ve visited halfway houses, nursing homes, and funeral homes. I’ve received news of birth defects and of strokes, of terrorism and of persecution. And I’ve spent much time with loved ones who still don’t see their need for Jesus. When such burdens weigh heavily in December, Christmas lights don’t help. But Christmas truth does! (Day 31)

This is an excellent resource to focus your hearts and minds on Jesus and what was involved in His coming as well as many ways His incarnation should affect us personally.

(Sharing with Woman to Woman Word-filled Wednesdays, Coffee for Your Heart, the Literary Christmas Reading Challenge, Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books, Literary Musing Monday, Carol’s Books You Loved)

Literary Christmas Reading Challenge Wrap-up

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A Literary Christmas: 2017 Reading Challenge // inthebookcase.blogspot.com

Tarissa at In the Bookcase has been hosting a Literary Christmas Reading Challenge the past few weeks which I have enjoyed participating in.

Here are my Christmasy reads this year:

Evergreen: A Christiansen Winter Novella by Susan May Warren
Gospel Meditations for Christmas by Chris Anderson, Joe Tyrpak, and Michael Barrett (will finish this today or tomorrow)
The Great Christmas Bowl by Susan May Warren
Keeping Christmas by Dan Walsh
One Enchanted Christmas by Melissa Tagg
Sarah’s Song by Karen Kingsbury
The Shoe Box by Francine Rivers
Silver Bells by Deborah Raney

I think that’s more than ever before, but due mostly to most of them being shorter novellas.

Thank you, Tarissa! It was fun!

Two Short Christmas Reviews

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In The Great Christmas Bowl by Susan May Warren, Marianne Wallace is an avid football fan, but none of her sons have been interested in playing – until her youngest son’s senior year. She becomes the Big Lake Trouts’ biggest fan. But is she a big enough fan to don the trout costume when the mascot is out for the season? Especially when her husband, thinking she needs some spice in her life, volunteers her to head the hospitality committee with its upcoming Christmas Tea (note to husbands: don’t do this!) and she’s trying to create the perfect Christmas for her family.

The Christmas Tea is a challenge as the older pillar-of-the-church ladies want to keep the tea the same as it has been for eons, but the younger women want to change it up. And as her grown children one by one cancel their plans to come for Christmas, this holiday season is shaping up to be one of the most disappointing and stressful ever.

The story is written in a humorous vein but it still manages to tackles key issues, for instance: is showing another person your love best done the way you think conveys it, or are the unusual and perhaps unorthodox opportunities that arise, that seem like hindrances, actually new opportunities to show love? Another: what’s the nature and focus of traditions and hospitality?

Loved this novella!

The second one also happens to be by Susan May Warren: Evergreen: A Christiansen Winter Novella. The Christiansens are facing their first Christmas with an empty nest. John is excited, planning a surprise trip to Paris to renew their vows at the top of the Eiffel tower. But Ingrid agrees for them to head up the church’s live Nativity, their dog has a major illness, wiping out the savings for the trip and needing their time and attention, and Ingrid’s sister, who is going into rehab after being arrested, asks them to take in her son, a nephew they haven’t seen in years. Their disagreements over these things dredge up past unresolved hurts, driving a wedge between them.

Some quotes from this one:

Even Mary had to let her child go…You have to wonder, as Mary watched Jesus on the cross, did she look back and ask herself if she had made a mistake? God had told her she would be the mother of the Savior. You can’t get more devastated than Mary, watching her Son—the Savior—die…But Jesus’ path wasn’t for Mary to determine. Her greatest ability as a mother was to be His mother. To love Him, nurture Him, care for Him. She embraced her destiny, then let Him go to embrace His. You have to let your children embrace theirs.

She didn’t want to hear it. To see his love in a thousand small ways. Because then she’d have to loose her hold on the ember of bitterness, let God heal her heart.

I should have leaned into God for courage, instead of reacting in fear.

Along with the nature of love and the best ways to show it, this one also discusses protection and fear. Protecting each other is something we’re supposed to do, yet sometimes it can stifle the other.

This was a different tone from the first one, but poignant and quite good. Evidently Susan has a whole series involving the Christiansens.

(Sharing with Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books and Carole’s Books You Loved)

Book Review: One Enchanted Christmas: A Novella

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Enchanted ChristmasIn One Enchanted Christmas by Melissa Tagg, Maren Grant had one of the best nights of her life one December evening. Her book was about ready to be published, and as she developed a serious crush on Colin Renwycke, the model posing for the cover of her book, he actually asked her out. They had a wonderful, “enchanted” evening going to dinner and then a carriage ride around the city, ending with his issuing an open invitation to come visit his family’s farm, even to stay there and write for a while.

A year later, even though Maren only heard from Colin once, via a postcard reminding her about his open invitation, and at the urging of her best friend, she decided to take Colin up on his offer. She had begun to think of him as her story’s hero, and was stuck in her next novel. She decided seeing Colin’s home and town might provide her with inspiration. She couldn’t reach him, so she decided to just show up. He had told her where to find the key if the family was away, and as she tried to retrieve it, who should arrive but – not Colin, but his brother, Drew, mystified as to why this woman was trying to break into his house.

After much explanation and the fortunate recognition of her by Drew’s niece, Winnie, who had read Maren’s first book, Drew invites her into the home he shares with his sister and niece. He had inherited the family farm and was trying to make a go of it as a haven for his siblings and himself, helping out with their problems the best way he knew how. He and Colin had argued over the inheritance, and Drew had not see his brother since. He begins to entertain the hope that this author might draw Colin back to the farm.

But as Drew shows Maren around town and as she unavoidably gets pulled into some of the family issues, they find they mesh well, her playfulness a complement to his seriousness. He may not want Colin to rediscover Maren after all.

My thoughts:

I had never read Melissa Tagg before, and romances aren’t my favorite genre, but this was a delight. I loved how Maren and Drew interacted, and a quirky narrator popped up occasionally to summarize, give background information, etc. Though the story has something of a romantic comedy feel, there’s drama as well from the family issues and misunderstandings. It’s a little light on the faith element, but otherwise it’s quite an enjoyable Christmas read.

(Sharing with Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books and Carole’s Books You Loved)