Christmas Is Finally Here

The beloved VeggieTales characters celebrate Christmas in a very special way by revealing their favorite parts of the season. Larry enjoys the blinking lights, Laura likes the presents, and Junior appreciates the hot chocolate. But they all know the real reason for the holiday is to celebrate the day Jesus Christ was born! This lively musical board book features a colorful cast of favorite characters singing the refrain from "We Wish You a Merry Christmas!"

A rabbit in a picture book is very glad when a reader turns up.

The eight Maggio kids grew up sharing everything from their fear of wild dogs to the neighbors' watermelon patch. Pieces of Eight takes readers into a world where sibling rivalry is a joke and watching each other's backs is the norm. The anthology's sixty-plus stories from their childhood (told with hardly any exaggeration) and e-mail exchanges from today (written with hardly any humor) recount poignant situations, instructive mischief, and rewarding moments. If you've always wondered what other families are really like or why some brothers and sisters stay close while others do not, Pieces of Eight: Still Best Friends After All These Years provides some clues along with an entertaining read and some guaranteed smiles.

In the poems that appear here imagination plays a significant role. We do not know exactly what people expect or anticipate at Advent, but we know it can be radically different, depending on one's situation in life: the poor, the homeless, those enveloped in war, the wealthy, the desperately ill or injured. What one awaits does not change the nature of Christ's coming, but it greatly influences how Christ is received. One thing is quite clear: it is the love of God that descends to earth in this child, a child of peace and goodwill. If one is not awaiting these things, one's celebration may be well-meaning but very wrong-headed. These poems imagine what Advent and Christmas are not and what they might be. How might they be seen through the eyes of the poor and marginalized? How might they be viewed by a business concern? How are they misunderstood? What does Christmas mean, when a bell rings on Christmas Day, and a church building has been destroyed and all that remains is the bell tower?

This book started out to be just a culmination of the original 30 Christmas Letters and the stories surrounding them, but in the end turned into much more encompassing story of our family and unfortunately my somewhat questionable life decisions and ongoing issues. Nothing to worry about here, as I am and always have been a law abiding, people loving, hardworking, person, but sometimes my way of doing things has left many wondering just what the heck I was thinking. As for the book, I think it is something that you will enjoy reading, as it probably more attune to your own life's stories than you'll probably want to admit. (Even when I die my picture will be somewhere in the back pages but with my luck it will probably be the one taken that night at the Lewiston Boy's Club and the headline won't be "Loving Father and Husband Passes", It will read, "Keith Embarrasses Mother" So, the next day I show up to grade school with one front tooth missing and my wrist all taped up and the teacher probably wondering what kind of torture I was being put through. But in actuality, she probably had taught all three of my older brothers and just figured I was just learning to be one of them. You just gotta love my family! Another thing I have learned is that Sharon and I don't shop the same. I shop like this. Look, like, buy, use! Sharon shops like this. Look... look... like....look... look....look.... like... look... like... look... look... look... really like... buy................... return! Well, I finally went home and the first night back Sharon fell off her crutches, dislocated one finger and broke another. (Boy you'd think that with those crutches she'd been able to hop right over that deer lying on the floor.) ((Maybe there is something to "me making things worse".))

Christmas can be a hectic and even heavy time for some- especially if you've experienced crisis or tragedy. Immanuel is always with us. His presence is predetermined, not conditional. He's with us when it's good and He's with us when it's not. Granted there are times when it's more difficult to see or feel His nearness, but nonetheless He is here and He is near. "The Word became flesh and walked among us." He still does. "I will never leave you or forsake you." He is Immanuel God with us. This devotional contains a short reading for each day, counting down the days until Christmas.