Christmas Chronicles
The Christmas Chronicles is a blog hop between 5 historical romance authors. Our desire is to bring you joy through these letters, grounded in the true spirit of the season, and written from the fictional viewpoints of each book’s heroine. We’re so glad to have you join the event. Each day this week, a new Christmas Chronicles post will go live, complete with a letter and a new ornament giveaway for that blog post.
To find your way to the other four blog posts, read on! We have a list for you at the bottom of this post.
The home in Lafayette where Grace and Linnie Kessler live.
A Christmas letter from Grace Kessler
Where Treetops Glisten
Lafayette, Indiana
December 9, 1943
Dear Peggy,
I realize it’s been a while since I wrote my big sister, and I don’t want you to feel unloved. I think of you daily and pray for you and the children while Ralph is off to sea fighting the Japanese. Are you enjoying your visit with Dad and Mom? They must be doting on the new baby—and enjoying the San Diego weather. I’m so pleased they could visit, despite the wartime travel restrictions.
December in Lafayette, Indiana is chilly as ever, but we haven’t had snow yet. That will change soon, I’m certain. Linnie can’t wait for snowmen and snow angels and snowball fights.
This will sound strange to you, but I have to tell someone so I can sort it out. I miss our sisterly chats growing up and do wish we lived in the same town.
Columbia Street in Lafayette, Indiana with the Tippecanoe County Courthouse in the background.
You see, I have a Christmas tree this year. I didn’t plan to, not at all. For the past two years, the sights and sounds of Christmas have only dredged up memories of George’s death and all that followed. This year I was again determined to let the holiday pass with only a nod of acknowledgment.
But God intervened. Well, Linnie did, but I’m convinced God used her.
For the past week, Linnie has had a new babysitter. I hesitate to tell you who’s watching her, because I can already hear the gasps of shock. And this is why I will make sure this letter arrives after Mom & Dad have returned home. They need to hear in person.
Linnie’s babysitter for the month of December is Pete Turner. It’s hard to believe that a bully and delinquent could turn around his life so thoroughly, but Pete has. He gave his life to the Lord, he became a lawyer like his father, and he just completed a combat tour as a fighter pilot based in England. He’s home on furlough this month.
Poster for Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter planes, World War II
Last week he brought Linnie home from one of her wanderings, and she’s latched on to him. They understand each other, and he actually likes her. This will be hard for you to understand because your children are so quiet and well behaved—according to Mom, at least—and Linnie is…not. So when someone enjoys her, this means a lot to me.
Today when Pete brought her home from school, she sweet-talked him into buying a Christmas tree for us, knowing full well why I don’t decorate. When I broke down in tears, Pete tried to dispose of the tree. A true gentleman. But I stopped him.
Decorating the tree was difficult. Each ornament brought out memories of the happy years George and I shared—and the unhappy years since. But Pete told me, “Boxing up memories doesn’t make them go away.”
Linnie showed me right then what happens when we box up our memories. In school, she’d made a heart-shaped ornament, but she never gave it to me, knowing it would make me sad.
Oh, Peggy! How I cried. Not because the ornament made me relive the moment I received the telegram, but because my grief and anger had crowded out all joy, even the joy of celebrating our Savior’s birth. I had deprived my sweet child of the wonder-filled Christmas she wants and deserves.
Never again. For the past week, God has shown me that I’d worn grudges and grief like a cocoon, but I needed to forgive. I even needed to forgive Pete Turner, even if I’m the only member of our family who can do so.
With each crack, each instance of opening up, each moment of forgiveness, more light seeps in and I melt a bit more. I’m blinking in the light, coming out of two years of darkness, and it hurts – but in a good way. Soon the light will feel warm and right.
Didn’t the angels tell the shepherds, “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people”? Doesn’t “all people” include Linnie and Pete and me?
Jesus came as a small babe, as helpless as your newborn. But He also came as the Light in a dark and dreadful world. How can I continue to choose the dark and dreary when He offers so much more, promises so much more, is so much more?
It’s time for me to choose joy and light and love again. No matter the cost.
Love and kisses to you and yours,
Grace
Where Treetops Glisten
by Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman, and Sarah Sundin
The crunch of newly fallen snow, the weight of wartime. Siblings forging new paths and finding love in three stories, filled with the wonder of Christmas.
Turn back the clock to a different time, listen to Bing Crosby sing of sleigh bells in the snow, as the realities of America’s involvement in the Second World War change the lives of the Turner family in Lafayette, Indiana.
We invite you to join us each weekday this week as we hop through cyberspace and history, gleaning the love and joy of the Christmas season from each heroine’s journey.
Monday, December 1st: Regina Jennings (Heroine: Abigail Calhoun, A Most Inconvenient Marriage)
Tuesday, December 2nd: Joanne Bischof (Heroine: Sarah Miller, This Quiet Sky)
Wednesday, December 3rd: Amanda Dykes (Heroine: Aria St. John, Bespoke)
Thursday, December 4th: Karen Barnett (Heroine: Abby Fischer, Out of the Ruins)
Friday, December 5th: Sarah Sundin (Heroine: Grace Kessler, Where Treetops Glisten)
My favorite goodie would be chocolate crinkle cookies. My grandma made them every year and I have kept the tradition n going for over 50 years in my family.
Yum!
My favorite Christmas goodie is white chocolate pretzels. Why I think I can only have them at Christmas I don’t know. 😉
I also posted the #ChristmasChronicles on my Christian Romance Review Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ChristianRomanceReview
Isn’t that funny? I think the same thing about my Christmas favorites each year too – then only make them in December.
My favorite Christmas goodie is Peppermint Bark.
Always wonderful!
My favorite Christmas goodie is frosted sugar cookies that we make and leave out for Santa. I also miss my grandmother’s peanut butter squares – they were amazing!
Those decorated cookies are always special!
My favorite Christmas goodie is Pecan Tarts.
Shared on facebook https://www.facebook.com/caryl.kane/posts/10152400756891637
You and my mom! Those are her favorites!
My mom used to make homemade date roll and whipped her own cream. It’s delicious and one of my holiday favorites!
My husband likes the date recipes too. And I love whipping my own cream – it’s so cheap and takes no time at all (with an electric mixer, that is 🙂 )
chocolate chip cookies
Eternal favorite!
favorite would be the caramels and fudge we make
Mmmmmm….I’m coming to your house!!
“He also came as the Light in a dark and dreadful world. How can I continue to choose the dark and dreary when He offers so much more, promises so much more, is so much more?” Oh Sarah, how this touched me today! I had just finished reading in Nehemiah about how he’d never before been sad in the king’s presence, and so the king took note of his heart-sadness right away when he saw it. I kept thinking –what remarkable joy, to live a life like that, that would cause such a response. Then, reading your words here it struck me again– that light, that promise, the very Life He gives us… that is cause for such deep joy. Thank you for sharing Grace’s heart and letter! I can’t wait to read her story.
As for Christmas goodie– fresh sticky buns hot from the oven on Christmas morning are my favorite. 🙂
Amanda, I have spent oodles of time in Nehemiah this year, but never considered that perspective on Nehemiah’s sadness. But it makes sense. This is the same man who said, “The joy of the Lord is your strength”! He must have radiated the Lord’s joy.
Fantasy Fudge with nuts! Kathleen ~ Lane Hill House
posted on my Facebook news page!
#christmaschronicles day 5 ~ don’t miss out on these scrumptious five letters ~ time to read all of the days 12/1-/12/5!
commented on twitter with #christmaschronicles! https://twitter.com/LaneHillHouse/status/540918055837396992
Kathleen ~ Lane Hill House
I pick out the nuts. I’m weird 🙂 Thanks for the extra posts!
Sarah, Grace’s letter is amazing! I loved how the realization of God’s light, joy, mercy and love for all of us shine’s through. How often I’m still stuck in the dark because I choose not to let the light of God’s love just handle whatever I have going on. So looking forward to reading her story.
As for my favorite Christmas goody…..my precious Mama’s fudge! I would love to have that one thing right now! The child that still lives in my heart believes that the angels feast on this very fudge this Christmas season!
I’m glad you enjoyed Grace’s letter! It was fun revisiting her story for this tour.
And I adore that picture of the angels eating fudge. The Bible does promise a feast in heaven – I’m sure your Mama’s fudge is on the table!
I love making Chewy Noels (pecan pie in bar form – yum!) and a special coconuty fruit cake that I got the recipe from a lady at the church where I grew up. I make little round mini-bundts of it and give it away (and save oodles for myself).
Food gifts are wonderful! I love giving them – and receiving them 🙂
I tweeted!
And I shared on facebook!
I love making snickerdoodle cookies and sugar cookies!
We love snickerdoodles here! And we have a wonderful sugar cookie recipe. Simple and tasty!
Lovely letter! Now I want to read the book really bad! 🙂
My favorite Christmas cookies is Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls. They take so long to make, but they are so worth it…plus a Christmas family tradition!!!
Yes! My grandma called them buckeyes because she lived in Ohio. That’s the one treat my family will NOT do without each year. And thanks for the extra posts!
Shared on Facebook 🙂
My favorite Christmas goodie is the sugar cookies my grandmother used to make. None of the rest of us can make them like she did, though my aunt comes close.
There’s something special about Grandma-cooking, isn’t there?
I love Grace’s wonderful letter and am eager to read her story! Thank you so much for sharing this lovely giveaway! My favorite Christmas goodie is honeybun cake on Christmas morning.
texaggs2000 at gmail dot com
That sounds wonderful – and thanks for the shares!
I shared #ChristmasChronicles on Pinterest.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/470978073506122205/
I shared #ChristmasChronicles on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/britney.adams.5011/posts/1587256831493758?pnref=story
I shared #ChristmasChronicles on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/texaggs2000/status/540914467127578624
Sugar cookie cutouts ! <3
Classic 🙂 I loved when my kids used to decorate them – so cute!
I love fudge. Hands down, the best Christmas treat!
Oh yes. Sheer perfection.
Picking just one favorite Christmas goodie is hard as there are so many. I guess I would pick sugar cookies all decorated with frosting and sprinkles.
I know! I’m drooling reading all these comments!
My Mama’s homemade ginger cookies. Nothing smells or tastes like Christmas the way those do!!
Sounds wonderful! We love ginger cookies. And thanks for the shares!
I shared this on Facebook
I shared this on Twitter.
A favorite for me is cannoli’s. with anise extract. Sooooo yummy.
Oh my. That sounds heavenly.
One of my favorites is homemade chocolate chip cookies…of course warm from the oven! And Apple Butter Cake.
Sounds wonderful!
Oh, Sarah, I don’t know why I haven’t bought Where Treetops Glisten, but I know I need to read it now! This letter and glimpse into the story is wonderful! Thank you!
Thank you, Danielle! I hope you enjoy the story!
Oh, you wanted my favorite treat… white velvet cutouts decorated with frosting!
As a pastors wife, one year my 94 year old friend Old Mrs. Winters (young Mrs. Winters was 72), said that her favorite Christmas was a corn cob doll and a coconut cake. Every year she brought us that cake and I would remember those memories. Now that’s a goodie for you!
A goodie AND a story! Excellent!
I love divinity fudge. It seems during the holidays in when I see it most and I crave it. I have a sweet tooth!!
I do too!
My favorite Christmas treat is banket, a Dutch almond paste treat in a flaky pastry. To me, this is home and Christmas.
That sounds very tasty!
I tweeted!
I shared on facebook!
Most people I know think I’m crazy but I love gingerbread cookies.
An interesting fact I learned today: During World War II, the Bicycle playing card company secretly made special decks for the U.S. government. The decks were sent to American POWs in German camps as Christmas gifts. When the cards were moistened, they peeled apart revealing a map of escape routes.
Then count me crazy too – I love gingerbread cookies!
I hadn’t heard that about the playing cards – they also did that with game boards, like Monopoly, so it makes complete sense!
Favorite Christmas goodie…homemade gingersnaps. So fragrant as they bake and so delicious to enjoy with a cold glass of milk.
Oh, yum!
Such a beautiful letter, Sarah! Where Treetops Glisten was one of my favorite books this year, and I fell in love with Pete, Grace, and Linnie! *Sigh*
My favorite treat? Hmm. Probably pumpkin pie. We only had it on Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it was extra-special. And it has to be homemade. My mom never used nutmeg, so store-bought never tastes right to me! I made two for Thanksgiving this year, and I can’t wait to eat it again in a few weeks. Yum!
I’ve never had it without nutmeg either – that might be interesting. Nutmeg is an unusual flavor…
And I’m glad you liked the story!
I have 2 favorites: almond crescent cookies and our traditional Christmas dinner dessert, Chocolate Icebox Dessert. They are both delicious.
Sounds great!
My favorite is Uncle Guy Candy. It is an old family recipe. My great-great Uncle Guy was the first to make it. Over the years the original name for the candy has been lost & we just call it Uncle Guy Candy.
I love those old family traditions!
We make Christmas cookies usually on Christmas Eve. My daughter starts out helping and then gets tired so I usually finish making them. They are almond flavored and you use a cookie press to make them. I made these with my mom and sister growing up and I have just carried on the tradition.
Those sound good!
Can’t decide between my mom’s fudge or her sugar cookies. She’s in heaven now so my daughter has taken over the sugar cookies. I make an easier version of the fudge, but nothing replaces the memory of helping her stir the warm fudge (sitting on the piano stool so I could watch Ed Sullivan Show while I stirred).
What great memories! I’m glad the cookie recipe has been handed down.
My favorite Christmas goodie’s are Oreo Chocolate truffles. I make them every year and they are awesome. I think half of america thinks so too, lol
I would too 🙂
My Aunt Margaret’s caramels. They were the best of any I have ever tried.
Those sound delicious!
My favorite Christmas goodie….probably the sugar cookies, and those little butter ones you push out of a press, because it’s the only time of the year I ever make those.
It’s funny how we only make certain recipes at Christmas! And thanks for sharing on FB!
I shared the contest post on FB.
Butter Pecan Fudge
My husband would love that!
Ummm I LOVE so many goodies now, but fudge is the best
I love your writing, it makes one think.
Thank you, Kathie! I’m glad you enjoy the stories! And fudge IS the best 🙂
Wow, Sarah, what a letter! This gave me chills! It also has me all the more eager to read your story. I’m smiling already at thinking of Pete being the babysitter. This is so fun and endearing!
Thank you, Joanne! It was such a fun story to write!
My favorte Christmas goodie is Thumbprint Cookies and Peanut Butter Blossoms. Yes, I sure have a sweet tooth.
Me too! Love sugar 🙂 And thanks for the share!
Shared on facebook as well.
hmmm that is so hard! my favourite would definitely have to be Christmas cookies made by my momma 🙂
Nothing beats Momma-cooking 🙂 And thanks for sharing on FB!
also I shared #ChristmasChronicles on facebook
I have two favorite Christmas goodies, walnut butter cookies that my mom always made for me at Christmas before she passed away, and rice krispie log that my children always want me to make for Christmas. I really enjoy your novels Sarah. Thanks for the giveaway!
Thank you, Loraine! And those goodies sound wonderful! Thank you for the extra shares too!
I shared this on my pinterest account: Loraine Nunley
My favorite Christmas goodie is my dad’s fudge. He usually makes several kinds. It tastes wonderful but it’s even better just because he made it.
I love it when dads cook 🙂
My favorite goodie would have to be Nanny’s Peanut Butter Fudge. YUM!! Or her Christmas Cake.
Sounds delicious!
My favorite Christmas goodie is my Granny’s Mantacado cookies. She used to make them every year when I was growing up. Granny hasn’t been here for a long time, but I think of her and Christmas every year that I am able to make them.❤️. I will share this Christmas Chronicle post on Facebook.
I haven’t heard of those cookies before…I’m intrigued 🙂 And thanks for sharing!
Love your facebook page. I love historical christian fiction. My favorite treat to make for christmas is sugar cookies. I turn on some tradtional christmas music and star baking. Takes me back to my childhood when things were simple. We didnt have much but My mom always made it so special. Thanks for the chance to win all these special things!
Thank you, Shonda! And I love those simple traditions the best – those are the ones we remember! And thanks for sharing on Pinterest!
Added to my pinterest – Shonda Fischer
Love peppermint bark and plan on making it real soon. Not only tasty but it’s pretty!
It is!!
I don’t know that I have a favorite Christmas goodie. I miss my Mother’s peanut butter fudge, especially at Christmas. But most everything I like, or make/bake (which isn’t much anymore), is all-year-round things.
The letter made me tear up. I feel for those who have lost loved ones at a holiday time, especially when they then no longer can face that holiday. And when one doesn’t know Christ, well, how can one face and accept a death easily. But Jesus did come as a light into our darkness, and that includes our darkness of spirit at a holiday time.
Thank you, Donna! I’m so glad you enjoyed the letter. I know Christmas is very difficult for so many people. And thanks for the shares!
Added to pinterest. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/355291858077863933/
shared on G+1 as Donna D
My favorite Christmas goodie is divinity. My mother-in-law always sent us a package with her homemade divinity in it. The WORLD”S BEST! No one could make it like her. The secret ingredient was LOVE!
Best ingredient in any recipe!
German Chocolate cookies are one of my favorites. I first tasted them and got the recipe in a cookie swap about 20 years ago. They are so yummy!
That sounds like something my hubby would like!
I love English toffee, peanut butter fudge, peppermint divinity and all the cookies in my mom’s recipe box
Yum!! And thanks for the tweet!
I retweeted this contest @4jlessad
My favorite Christmas goodie is the Spanish “turrón”. It’s a confection, typically made of honey, sugar, and egg white with toasted almonds or other nuts. Mmmmh, so good.
Oh my! That sounds wonderful!
After my grandpa died, my grandma came to live with us (for four years, until my father died). She made a cutout cookie that we always just called Grandma Sumner cookies. At Christmas we always put red and green sugar sprinkles on them. We continued to make them every year, and after I got married I still made them. My kids always helped, and that moved on to my grandchildren helping. That is the one kind of cookie that HAS to be made every Christmas!
Those family recipes are the best!
I love my Mexican wedding cookies. Could eat them like forever.
Those are so good!! And thanks for all the shares!
I pinned link is here http://www.pinterest.com/mommystuck1/
I shared this on facebook
Growing up we always made lots of special cookies and pies at Christmas that I loved but today I am in the mood for some Christmas cookies that my mother-in-law makes called Santa’s Whiskers.
Thank you for the beautiful Christmas letter. I am looking forward to reading the book.
Those are kid-pleasing cookies!
I like chocolate covered peanuts and pecan finger cookies.
Nutty goodness 🙂
I love to bake German Christmas cookies 🙂 my favorite to eat..probably my Mommy’s almond sugar cookies!
I love a bit of almond in sugar cookies – so delicious!
My favorite Christmas goodie is most people’s least favorite. I love fruit cake, although I haven’t ate any in many years. My husband loved it also, and would crack walnuts every year, so I could make one. He passed away 10 years ago next week and I haven’t made fruitcake since then. The rest of the family doesn’t like it and it brings back too many memories to make it for myself.
My husband is a fruitcake fan too. I’m sorry your fruitcake-lover is no longer here 🙁
My favorite Christmas cookies as a kid were Cornflake Wreaths with cinnamon bites as sprinkles. As an adult, 7 layer bars sooo yummy! I liked your letter too and can’t wait to read the book as well. Loss of a loved one is so hard esp. at Christmas; different families in our church have lost their mom, a brother, 2 spouses in the past 3 months. So hard, esp at Christmas/Holidays. But time passes and God manages to heal our hurts and give us strength for each day.
Thank you, Chris! It’s so important that we remember those who are hurting during the holidays. Thank you for your tender heart – and for the tweet too 🙂
Oh, I tweeted this at ChrisBures1.
I loved Grace’s letter, Sarah!! Thank you so much – I can’t wait to read “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”!! Sounds like such a heart-warming story of forgiveness and renewal, I love stories set in WWII!!
My favorite goodies are my grandmothers’ home-made custard and jam cake. I haven’t had them for several years – she passed away a number of years ago and no one else in the family makes them quite like her, although – my aunt is a close second, but no longer physically able to cook/bake.
Thank you for the wonderful giveaway opportunity – love the apron!!
Thank you, Bonnie! I’m glad you liked the letter.
Custard and jam cake sounds scrumptious! And thanks for the FB post!
P.S. Shared about The Christmas Chronicles on my Facebook timeline, using the hash tag.
i liked and shared on Facebook. My favorite Christmas dessert is Martha Washington candy. It’s the best! I also make gingerbread cookies with real molasses that several in my family look forward to every year
I loved Grace’s letter! My husband was only 49 when he passed away 10 days before Christmas. I didn’t put up a tree either for a couple years. Even after 10 years there are times when it feels like only yesterday that
he was helping to decorate the tree, cracking nuts for fruit cake or so many other things.
Well, I left my favorite yummy already because it is one of my fav Christmas memories…it’s my dad’s fudge made from Hershey’s cocoa (no marshmallow crème). It is so delicious and knowing he made it with love made it even yummier!
Merry Christmas to you and yours and many blessings!
My heart was full reading the letter. It makes me anxious to delve deeper into this story.
I’ve discovered a new favorite holiday treat. It’s homemade gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. No gingerbread mix here, I made it totally from scratch – and it really makes a difference. I sent them to school with my husband (he’s a teacher), and he came home with an empty plate.
My favorite Christmas goodie is my mama’s Martha Washington chocolate balls. They are so good! And she only makes them at Christmas time.
What a delightful letter, Sarah! Makes me miss reading your wonderful books…I need to rectify that soon. 🙂
Hmm, favorite Christmas goodie…it’s hard to pick, but I did love the butter cookies we used to make with cookie cutters shaped to make a Nativity scene when I was younger. We’d eat them by candlelight with hot cups of holiday tea around the Advent Wreath on Christmas Eve.
Wow, it’s so hard to pick jus one favorite goodie but I would say I will share this recipe it is a WW2 cake.
111
Ingredients:
Servings:
15
.
Units: US | Metric
.1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1 cup raisins
2 tablespoons oil or 2 tablespoons margarine
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/2 teaspoon clove, ground
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
Directions:
1
Place the brown sugar, water, raisins.
2
oil, cinnamon, and cloves in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil.
3
Cook gently for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and let cool until the mixture is comfortably warm to your finger.
4
While the mixture is cooling, preheat t he oven to 350F.
5
Grease and flour an 8×4-inch baking pan.
6
Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
7
Add them to the cooled sugar mixture, beating until no drifts of flour are visible and the batter is smooth.
8
Stir in the walnuts.
9
Spread evenly in the baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a broomstraw inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
10
Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto a rack to cool completely.
11
Notes: For a good glaze, even if it is a 90’s addition, save back a bit of the hot spiced water.
12
Mix with confectioner’s sugar, a drop of vanilla, and a pinch salt. Glaze the cake while hot.
My favorite modren day recipe is Peanut Butter Blossom cookies.
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