Former musician, Melody Staff, spends Christmas at a bed and breakfast in the village of Mistletoe Meadows. While everyone sings familiar carols of Christ drawing near, Melody stumbles over misplaced notes. Her recent diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis has scared off her fiancé and thrust her life into a grand pause. She's not sure her heart will ever sing again. Quentin Oxford has endured a devastating year. His preteen daughter suffered a stroke, and they've grieved his wife's sudden death, but the Lord coaxes a surprising refrain from Quentin's heart as God rewrites his and Melody's score into a holiday love song that will last for Christmases to come.
'Tis the season of forgiveness…but can she ever forget? Brad Monroe was truly unbelievable. Blowing back into Brookhollow for three days to film a Christmas special—three years after the accident that killed his best friend…her husband—and expecting Melody to be civil? Please. He'd been the only one who'd survived the tragedy, hightailing it to Nashville and hijacking her dream…Patrick's dream. She'd spent that time grieving, working three jobs, struggling to raise her boys and keep a roof over their heads. Now she was losing ground on all fronts, and not about to forgive and forget. Or give him the one thing that could save them all…
Includes all three Mistletoe Meadows novellas: Mistletoe Melody, Mistletoe Mission, and Mistletoe Movie Star. Mistletoe Melody: Former musician, Melody Staff, spends Christmas at a bed and breakfast in the village of Mistletoe Meadows. While everyone sings familiar carols of Christ drawing near, Melody stumbles over misplaced notes. Her recent diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis has scared off her fiancé and thrust her life into a grand pause. She's not sure her heart will ever sing again. Quentin Oxford has endured a devastating year. His preteen daughter suffered a stroke, and they've grieved his wife's sudden death, but the Lord coaxes a surprising refrain from Quentin's heart as God rewrites his and Melody's score into a holiday love song that will last for Christmases to come. Mistletoe Mission: While her own relationships always end up doomed, Emily Colt is still determined to create happily-ever-afters through her wedding and event planning business. In hopes of expanding, she enters her latest project--staging the Christmas wedding of the year--into a town-wide contest. But between crossing paths with the first man to break her heart and dodging a saboteur, she doubts success is within her grasp. Jilted pastor, Luca Wilson, fled to the mission field to escape a broken heart. All the hurt rushes back when he returns home to officiate his cousin's wedding, and he finds Emily--the girl to whom he once promised forever--organizing the celebration. Despite Luca's lost faith in love, their unforeseen reunion rekindles a spark, and Luca vows to help Emily save her struggling business. But to succeed, they will have to learn what it means to trust each other and believe in the God of Christmas miracles. Mistletoe Movie Star: Mistletoe Meadows is built around the magic of Christmas. As jingling sleighs cart rosy-cheeked lovers around the Mistletoe Mile, Charlene's holiday dream is more complicated than photo-edited perfection. She proposes a compassion ministry initiative called the Gingerbread House but struggles to convince the town that their need for a homeless shelter is real. Famous for his made for T.V holiday movies, Jonas longs for a happily-ever-after that isn't as neat and tidy as his scripted films. Partnering with Char to champion her ministry invigorates him with a new purpose and provides an excuse to spend time with the girl he never forgot. But when they embrace three young sisters fighting to stay together while living on the streets, their project becomes deeply personal. Together, they must prove to a town reluctant to see anything other than holiday perfection that the greatest gift of the season isn't found under a tree.
Santa's mistletoe mistake: Little Libby asked Santa to bring her mommy a prince for Christmas: cowboys need not apply. That means cattleman Jake Hanson is definitely out. But the Man in Red works in mysterious ways?
From the manger of Jesus Christ to the 21st century, this encyclopedia explores more than 2,000 years of Christmas past and present through 966 entries packed with a wide variety of historical and pop-culture subjects. Entries detail customs and traditions from around the world as well as classic Christmas movies, TV series/specials and animated cartoons. Arranged alphabetically by entry name, the book includes the historical background of popular sacred and secular songs as well as accounts of beloved literary works with Christmas themes from such noted authors as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Andersen, Pearl Buck, Henry Van Dyke and others. All things Christmas are available here in one comprehensive volume.
The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping, and family togetherness. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions-- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.
It was love at first sight. For their dogs. Cody Jones didn't expect to ever return to Applebottom, planning a long life of military service and world travel. But a devastating injury in Iraq narrows his options, so he begrudgingly helps his mother expand her doggy bakery until he figures out what’s next. And in walks Melody Hopkins. Melody is dead broke and takes a summer job painting the new pet store to pay the bills. She's new to Applebottom and has never encountered the moody, brutally handsome Cody Jones. She isn’t sure she can work around him, but then her tiny Pomeranian Mistletoe refuses to leave Cody’s service dog, a gorgeous Golden Retriever named Tyrus. The town notices their reluctant friendship and puts them in charge of a grand opening celebration sure to draw visitors to the new store -- a Christmas in July pet parade. Cody doesn't want to show off his injury to the whole town, but Melody's infectious optimism convinces him to try. Besides, his service dog Tyrus can't seem to live without Melody’s little fluff ball. What's a veteran and a dog dad to do? ____ Don't miss the other standalone small town books by Abby Tyler: -- The Sweetest Match: Sweet Small Town Second Chance -- The Perfect Disaster: Small Town Dog Lover Sports Romance -- The Irresistible Spark: Sweet Small Town Firefighter Romance -- Mistletoe Summer: Sweet Small Town Grumpy Sunshine Military Romance -- The Unexpected Shelter: Sweet Stranger in a Small Town Romance -- The Special Delivery: Sweet Small Town Single Dad and Nanny Romance -- Belated Kiss: Sweet Late in Life Mature Romance (over sixty) -- Runaway Cove: Small Town Family Saga on the New England Coast
Concert pianist Evan finally receives his big break. He's on tour playing his passion and getting paid well to do it, he's in love with a beautiful woman who just finished her own degree in nursing, and he's about to propose in extravagant style. Even though their relationship has been long distance, he plans to go home and start his new life with her. But then, the virus lockdown skews all his plans. Risé is working and living at a hospital with acutely ill patients. The precautions in place preclude any interaction with her family, with her friends, and with the man she is hoping will be her husband. How can he be, when no one knows how long this pandemic will last? Health protocols, full personal protection regalia, social distancing, and video-chatting aren't enough. How can their relationship hold when the world is falling apart? With wise words from those who love them, Evan and Risé find that being apart is hard, but with God, all things are possible.
Welcome to North Star Village U.S.A., a picturesque city that has grown out of the Valley, formed by the surrounding Mountains. North Star Village is a 4-Season multicultural place, an example of many cities across America. It is a melting pot of good and bad things, good and bad people living their best lives. As the city motto goes, follow the North Star. Meet N.O. Chance Jr, a lifelong resident of North Star Village, a successful Accountant and Award-winning business Owner of N. O. Chance Financial Agency. N. O. Chance is also known as a mean-spirited man that hates all things Christmas. He is a melting pot of the best and worst qualities of Man and Mankind. When he’s good he’s really good, but his bad side has gotten the better of him. There’s a battle going on in his Soul. The storm is over for now, replaced by the breakup to make up relationship he has with Christmas. N.O. Chance Jr will have to face his problems. But the truth can present itself as a confounding coincidence found in a wispy cloud or a Celestial event, such as a shooting Star. Mr. N.O. Chance Jr will have to see past the first interpretation of the superficial kiss that hang all the mistletoe implies to see the well wishes of friends and family come to fruition. What is the profit for a man to gain the world and lose his own Soul? Find yourself in the people of North Star Village and the Spirit of this Christmas story and the Black Ebenezer that finds he is akin to others through time. A Black man that has lost his way in the world, only to find himself when he, Hangs All The Mistletoe.
Mistletoe Meadows is built around the magic of Christmas. As jingling sleighs cart rosy-cheeked lovers around the Mistletoe Mile, Charlene's holiday dream is more complicated than photo-edited perfection. She proposes a compassion ministry initiative called the Gingerbread House but struggles to convince the town that their need for a homeless shelter is real. Famous for his made for T.V holiday movies, Jonas longs for a happily-ever-after that isn't as neat and tidy as his scripted films. Partnering with Char to champion her ministry invigorates him with a new purpose and provides an excuse to spend time with the girl he never forgot. But when they embrace three young sisters fighting to stay together while living on the streets, their project becomes deeply personal. Together, they must prove to a town reluctant to see anything other than holiday perfection that the greatest gift of the season isn't found under a tree.
