Santa Claus Is On His Way To My House

Oh, no! It's Christmas Eve and Santa can't find a very special present for a very special child. And he's almost arrived! Will Santa and his elf, Alfie, find the present in time? Featuring Santa and Alfie the Elf, this is the perfect holiday story for your little one.

It's Christmas Eve. Have you been good? Santa's packed up all the presents and is headed your way! With the help of a certain red-nosed reindeer, Santa flies over many landmarks in your town! "Ho, ho, ho!" laughs Santa. "Merry Christmas!"

Santa Claus is missing, and a host of arctic animals searches for him in the snow.

It's Christmas Eve. Santa's packed up all the presents and set the Santa-nav to my house. So what could possibly go wrong?

After centuries of closely guarding ancient secrets, Santa Claus has decided that the time has come to share the magical mysteries behind Christmas. All of the miraculous happenings that contribute towards making Christmas the most remarkable time of the year are finally to be revealed to the world.

What is it like to be a young person in the Arab world today? This lively collection of eight short stories about Arab teenagers living in Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and a Palestinian refugee camp engagingly depicts young people's experiences growing up in the Middle East. The characters, drawn from urban and rural settings and from different classes as well as a mix of countries, confront situations involving friends, family, teachers, and society at large. Along with some specifically Middle Eastern issues, such as strife in Iraq, the hardships of life in a Palestinian refugee camp, and honor crimes, the young people deal with more familiar concerns such as loyalty to friends, overcoming personal insecurities, dreams of a future career, and coping with divorcing parents. Coming of age in a complicated world, they meet life with courage, determination, and, not least of all, humor. With accompanying notes that provide contextual information, Santa Claus in Baghdad brings a fresh perspective to youth literature about the Arab world.

I wasn't planning to write a book. I would just write a short story for my sister, Hazel. We were at the annual Bowman Christmas Dinner where I often told Christmas stories. Hazel asked me to write my favorite Christmas story for her. I wrote for her my favorite, "Radio Flyer." "Radio Flyer" was a big hit with family and friends and I was encouraged to write more stories about growing up on a rural farm in Virginia in the forties. The memories of this way of life would be lost if they were not recorded. I continued to write stories that I remembered as "The Way It Was in the Forties." I now have enough stories to produce a book, thanks to my family and friends. My goal was to capture the mind of the reader and take him back to those days. I wanted the reader to feel the summer heat, the winter cold and the cool visits to the spring. The reader would feel the aching muscles, the tired body after a long hard day on the farm. When we visited the "Molasses Makers" the clanky noise of the metal gears on the press echoed in my ears as I watched the dark sorghum juice flow from the press to the cooking pan. I saw large bowls of food on the side porch, so I stayed on the porch and ate with the blacks. My Father said grace for the table inside and one of the black men prayed at my table. He talked to God as if He were present with us. He gave thanks for His Son, Jesus; for blessings and food. The other men began to chant "Amen, brother', now yore talking" and an echo of "Amen's." The air permeated with the stench of their sweaty bodies mixed with the great smell of all that food. It was impossible to describe how hard my Mother and Father worked to survive and rear eleven children. That way of life has disappeared from the American scene. You would have enjoyed growing up with the nine Bowman boys and two girls. Clyde just couldn't stay out of trouble. By the time he was out of one mess, he was off to more mischief. Raising tobacco was extremely hard work and my family raised lots of it. Every product raised was labor intensive and carrying water from the spring was no small matter, either.

Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas to you all! This festive season, we are playing the Santa, and offering you our own Christmas basket of holiday goodies: the greatest Christmas novels and magical Christmas Tales: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (L. Frank Baum) The Little City of Hope (F. Marion Crawford) Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) The Wonderful Wizard of OZ (L. Frank Baum) Little Lord Fauntleroy (Frances Hodgson Burnett) Christmas with Grandma Elsie (Martha Finley) Anne of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery) The Christmas Angel (Abbie Farwell Brown) At the Back of the North Wind (George MacDonald) Black Beauty (Anna Sewell) The Christmas Child (Hesba Stretton) The Wonderful Life - Story of the life and death of our Lord (Hesba Stretton) The Tailor of Gloucester (Beatrix Potter) The Ice Queen (Ernest Ingersoll) A Merry Christmas (Louisa May Alcott) The Gift of the Magi (O. Henry) The Fir Tree (Hans Christian Andersen) The Little Match Girl (Hans Christian Andersen) The Holy Night (Selma Lagerlöf) Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe (Elizabeth Harrison) A Letter from Santa Claus (Mark Twain) The Elves and the Shoemaker (Brothers Grimm) Mother Holle (Brothers Grimm) A Kidnapped Santa Claus (L. Frank Baum) The Shepherds and the Angels (Bible) The Heavenly Christmas Tree (Fyodor Dostoevsky) A Russian Christmas Party (Leo Tolstoy) Vanka (Anton Chekhov) The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (E. T. A. Hoffmann) A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) The Chimes (Charles Dickens) The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (Robinson Perrault) The Blue Bird (Madame d'Aulnoy) Christmas Every Day (William Dean Howells) The Pony Engine and the Pacific Express (William Dean Howells) The Pumpkin Glory (William Dean Howells) Christmas Eve & Christmas Day (Edward Everett Hale) A Visit From Saint Nicholas (Clement Moore) Christmas - A Story (Zona Gale) The Story of the Other Wise Man (Henry van Dyke) Where Love Is, God Is (Leo Tolstoy) Christmas Roses (Anne Douglas Sedgwick)....