I’m joining Jain with my Edible Book Review at Food for Thought, a delicious blog for readers with an appetite for the written word.
“It is the winter of 1962, and Kansas is hit with one of the worst blizzards in its history. It is during this cruel season that twelve-year-old George is called upon to endure more than even most grown men could withstand—the death of his father and the upkeep of the family that his legacy. When his mother and sisters leave for Minnesota, George has only his grandparents and the companionship of Tucker, an Irish setter, to help him persevere through these most difficult challenges. Can he find the strength to walk the road that leads to healing, find his true self, and ultimately become a man? A coming-of-age story for readers of all ages, Christmas with Tucker is a classic Christmas tale about a young man’s love for his dog, his family, and his farm.”
I know we are tuckered out at my house from the busy holiday season. . .
. . .but I couldn’t let the Christmas Season pass without a review of this book. My eyes were bigger than my tummy AND the 31 days on the calendar this month for sharing all the Christmas books I wanted to share. I’ll finish the year with one final book that will bring a close to the holiday season ending 2010 with this happy tail :-)
Young George has a lot on his plate with his responsibilities helping out on his grandparents’ farm. Snow days may mean a break from school, but there is no rest for the weary on a dairy farm. . .
Dairy cows require lots of water, with each cow consuming 25- 50 gallons of water a day depending on the weather. When the electricity goes out and their stock tanks freeze, their next available source of water is a pond that needs to be ice-free so they aren’t trapped by the ice in their search for water & drown.
I hung my glittery snowflakes on the tree for a snowy effect for this review. . . not dreaming we would be gifted with a White Christmas, the first one here since 1947.
Our snow was not paralyzing like it was for the Northeast. It started Christmas Day and continued through the following day, but quickly melted, but not before providing me with an opportunity to photograph some snowy barn scenes. . .
“There was this vague but growing conclusion settling in my young mind that life does not always bestow upon us everything we want or think we should have. We are forced to move away from hoping others will give up what we want, to a new place where we must discover how to find happiness on our own. Santa was the last vestige of youth where all our wants are magically delivered by some other.”
“It was like being in the middle of a really great Zane Grey novel, and when I got to page 100, just as I victoriously led my mare over the top of the windswept hill after outwitting the bad guys, someone switched in fifty pages of the bleakest scenes by Charles Dickens and messed up my perfectly good life.”
“Farm boys operate machinery, big machinery, by the time they were thirteen, and I was no exception. I’d learned to drive a tractor as soon as I was tall enough to reach the pedals.”
“He kept the harness and the old horse-drawn blade stored in the implement shed along with other McCray prized possessions: an International Harvester and a Massy Ferguson tractor, plows, cultivators, seed drills, rotary and sickle-bar mowers, hay rakes and balers.”
“My guess was he kept the horses and old blades around for a reason. If the maintainer ever broke, he was prepared to clear the roads with the horses, though by 1962 they were far too old to do the job. If the horses couldn’t pull the blades, he owed countless shovels and we would get at it one scoop at a time.”
George’s grandmother bakes chocolate chip cookies to fortify him for his wintry weather chores~
“He backed a few feet away from me and started barking, demanding that I play with him. I started to run away, hoping he would chase after me, but he was so excited that he set out circling the house at full speed, his big, floppy, red ears going up and down as he bounded by me. I wondered if doggie Christmas had arrived early for this pooch.”
“His warm body helped me feel safe and secure. I pulled him close to me, buried my face in his coat, and realized that all I could do was hunker down and get through the winter. I would have to accept that things did not always turn out the way they should. Maybe that was the new rule.”
The author, Greg Kincaid is a pet-adoption advocate who lives on a farm in eastern Kansas with his wife, two cats, and two dogs, including Rudy adopted from a local shelter. My searches for adoptable dogs on Petfinder not only pulled at my heartstrings, but led me to search for dogs named Tucker that ultimately landed me on Dogster.
Dogster lets you create a profile for your dog, upload a photo and show off your pooch. The most popular pet-based social network with nearly half a million visitors each month, you can find advice on dogs, connect with other dog owners, find a breeding partner and even adopt a new dog. Shhhh, don’t tell Chloe & Gracie there’s a place in cyberspace to receive virtual bones & make friends :-)
My search led me to 1,164 dogs named Tucker on Dogster. . .let me introduce you to a few of them~
Blazes of Glory Tuckers~
The Toy Group~
Tuckered out Tuckers. . .
The Sporting Group . . .
I’m dreaming of a white Tucker. . .
To find adoptable pets near you, visit Petfinder.com.
Visit Food for Thought for a recipe of Happy Reading~
I’m also joining Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday~
Posted in Books, Christmas, Dogs, Food
Tagged Christmas with Tucker, cooking my books, Dogs named Tucker, Dogster, edible book review, food for thought edible review, Greg Kincaid, Petfinder.com
I’m joining Jain with my Edible Book Review at Food for Thought, a delicious blog for readers with an appetite for the written word.
My love of books is no secret~ factor in birds in a Christmas setting and this is a recipe for happy holiday reading. For me, a bird book in the hand, is worth a few bird dishes~ so that was the perfect excuse to fly over to Pottery Barn recently for this set of four assorted salad plates. . .
. . . so I’m also joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday as part of this Edible Review.
Receiving a diagnosis from his doctor Oswald T. Campbell leaves behind the cold climate of Chicago to spend what he believes to be his last Christmas in the warm and welcoming town of Lost River, Alabama. Lost River is just that. . .a sleepy little community that time seems to have forgotten. A place full of unforgettable characters, among whom are a postman who delivers mail by boat; the store owner who nurses a broken heart; the ladies of the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society who do clandestine good works; and Patsy Casey~ an abandoned young girl.
Last but not least, a little Redbird named Jack, who is at the center of this tale of a magical Christmas.
Food is abundant in Lost River. . .on Oswald’s first day after a huge breakfast, he eats a lunch of baked chicken, a bowl of fat lima beans, mashed potatoes, three pieces of cornbread with honey & butter, and two pieces of red velvet cake. I made Red Velvet Whoopie Pies for Food for Thought. . .
I couldn’t resist adding a little Red Bird Peppermint Candy to the Red Velvet Whoopie Pies~
I think you’ll find this book warm & comforting~ like a cup of Hot Chocolate sprinkled with Red Bird peppermints~
“Isn’t it amazing how one little bird changed so many lives?”
“Flagg is a gifted storyteller who knows how to tug at readers’ heartstrings, winding up her satisfying holiday tale with the requisite Christmas miracle.”
May your Christmas be one of Magic & Miracles ~
Thank you for your visit & thanks to my hostesses:
Posted in Bird, Books, Christmas, Decor, Food, Tablescape
Tagged A Redbird Christmas, edible book review, Fannie Flagg, food for thought edible review, literally cooking my book, pottery barn decoupaged bird plates, Red Bird Brand Peppermint Puffs, Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, Sur La Table Red Velvet Whoopie Pie miix, Tablescape Thursday
I’m joining Jain with my Edible Book Review at Food for Thought, a delicious blog for readers with an appetite for the written word.
“Mark your calendar. It’s the Christmas Cookie Club! Every year on the first Monday of the December, Marnie & twelve of her closest girlfriends gather in the evening with batches of beautifully wrapped homemade cookies. Everyone has to bring a dish, a bottle of wine, and their stories.”
I spied this at the bookstore right before Thanksgiving. I thought, “What fun~ light holiday reading to set the mood for baking cookies” while I was preparing for an upcoming cookie exchange. The concept for this book was promising, with each chapter beginning with a recipe and short history of the main ingredient used in the cookie.
Instead of sweet & light, it turned out to be a baker’s dozen of drama~ the completely wrong recipe for me for happy holiday reading. A death of a son (with details that were almost more than I could stomach), financial woes, infidelity, miscarriages, drug use & spousal abuse were not the ingredients I was looking for~
Reading this over Thanksgiving weekend after a cozy family holiday was not the way I wanted to kick off the Christmas season, so my rating is slightly lower than the average on Amazon. Some of us like nuts in our cookies & some of us don’t. . . As my mother-in-law says, “It’s a good thing we all don’t like the same thing, there wouldn’t be enough to go around.”
Despite a disappointing read for me, the seven of us had an evening of food & fun at our cookie exhange~ with two attending making more than one kind of cookie, so I want to thank everyone for helping me ‘cook my book’ for this edible review. (Is that considered cheating on your homework? :-)
I made one of my husband’s favorites~ Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies with White Chocolate, recipe courtesy Southern Living, here.
Marnie has rules for her cookie club~ one of which is the containers have to make an attractive gift and can be reused. I found these adorable vintage-inspired buckets at World Market.
“I love this part of the evening, when my friends arrive bustling with excitement and armed with goodies. They bring warmth in spite of the cold and convey the season’s thrill. Once again we feel a child’s for Christmas. I’ve set the stage, but they fill it with action, the emotion, the event that is by its very nature best because of serendipity. Well, and the love we all have for one another. And our shared history. Every year, I can hardly wait for them to arrive, thrilled to see each one.”
We met at my gracious friend, Annie’s lovely home~ with the Halls all decked out in Christmas finery~
We filled her beautiful cookie jars with greenery for centerpieces~
Party favors of a Christmas Cookie Deck, silicone whisk, decorative spatula, candy canes & a miniature gingerbread house, wrapped in a cello bag. . .
Thank you to Annie, Ann, Carolyn, Lynne, Pam & Nasrin for making such pretty & tasty cookies and helping me with my homework :-)
Here’s hoping your cookies are just the way you like them this Christmas season~ with or without nuts :-)
Visit Food for Thought & see what everyone is reading & eating!
by George White, Bruce Foster, and Jason O’Malley
I’m joining Jain at Food for Thought, a delicious blog for readers with an appetite for the written word~
During the month of December you are invited to share a holiday book, in whatever manner you chose. . .using your decorations, collectibles or food from the kitchen.
Based on “The Night before Christmas”, this Pop-Up Winter Wonderland depicts eight different animals species preparing for Christmas at the zoo, complete with animal-themed decorations. While compact in size, it is elephantine in its appeal~ sure to engage young readers with its vivid, bold colors and impressive cut-outs.
Preparing for a visit from Santa, the animals are busy decorating, making cookies, and hanging stockings. The fanciful animal habitats combined with festive pop-ups, make for a delightful Christmas visit to the zoo.
We visited a drive through animal park and zoo of sorts, Lazy 5 Ranch this fall. I thought I would include some of the photos I took of some of the 750 animals, both domestic & exotic, that can be found there, on the gently sloping pasturelands and in the exhibits.
Since this week’s letter assignment is L in Mrs. Matlock’s class, I’m sharing this for Alphabe-Thursday and for Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer.
You can drive your car at the Lazy 5 Ranch, winding along the 3 1/2 mile trail, or even better, you make a reservation for a ride on one of their horse-drawn open-air wagons.
I found zoo shaped dried pasta at World Market for Food for Thought. . .
Pasta Salad with sundried tomatoes, feta cheese, olives & artichoke hearts~
The animals at Lazy 5 Ranch are having a Christmas celebration this weekend that you & your family are invited to attend~ with a Live Nativity Scene, Santa, Horse Drawn Wagon Rides, Caroling, Hot Chocolate & Cookies.
Thanks for your visit & thanks to my hostesses:
Posted in Animals, Books, Christmas, Food
Tagged Alphabe-Thursday, Christmas animal pop-up book, Christmas at the Zoo, edible book review, food for thought edible review, Lazy 5 Ranch, literally cooking my book, Outdoor Wednesday
I pulled out some vintage Christmas items and set a table to display them. . .
Cardboard Christmas village houses & churches, known as Putz houses, most old mixed with some new. . .
I’ve used this quilt on my table before~ it’s currently nestled underneath my tree at the lake serving as a tree skirt.
Christmas Greetings are sprinkled on the table, most of these are postmarked from Pennsylvania, the one below from 1910~
I love the messages on these postcards:
“May Christmas with its magic spell, Make all things happy, all thing well.”
The practice of sending Christmas cards grew out of the Victorian use of decorated calling cards and of printed note paper and envelopes for New Year’s greetings. The card business was really made possible by the advent of the postage stamp and ‘Penny Post’ in England in 1840. Prior to this innovation, postage was based on mileage and paid by the receiver when mail was delivered. Now the sender could bear the postage with a single rate.
The first commercially printed Christmas card is attributed to Sir Henry Cole, the first Director of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
By the 1850s improved printing techniques allowed the expansion of the card business and cards could be trimmed with a wide variety of cut and embossed papers.
My chalkware figures are not vintage, but have a vintage charm. . .
Christmas Collectibles is a fact-filled guide to Christmas collectibles and offers information and full-color photographs of Yuletide items from the Victorian era to the present. Fun to peruse, it is both a catalog of delightful objects and a fascinating investigation of every aspect of Christmas~ from the origins of traditions and festivities, to the technological innovations that affected the manufacture of favorite ornaments.
“One of the first Christmas window decorations was a lighted candle in a window. The candles were placed there to guide ‘special’ travelers, who vary in different countries and cultures, from The Holy Couple, Mary and Joseph, to The Christmas Stranger, or The Christmas Visitor. In time, the reason was forgotten, but the candles had become part of the holiday. Eventually the candles were electrified, allowing greens to be used safely in the windows. Although various arrangements appeared in windows, the most enduring was the wreath made of evergreens and trimmed with pine cones, berries and ribbon. The first artificial wreaths were made of chenille or cellophane and for some reason were mostly red instead of green.”
I love the nostalgia these vintage items evoke~ memories of Christmases of yesteryear. . . a few pieces from my collection of vintage Christmas items~ lights, children’s records, Shiny Brite ornaments, Sparkle Snow. . .
These children’s records were personalized Santa-Grams, with Santa’s 10 Rules for Good Little Boys & Girls. . .
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Listen to your Mommy & Daddy
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Mind your teacher
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Be neat & clean
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Go to bed early
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Be kind to animals (my favorite one :-)
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Brush teeth twice a day
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Be careful crossing streets
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Don’t be selfish
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Be courteous
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Go to church
My vintage Santa punch bowl & mugs are accompanying a plate of Linzer cookies I made for Food for Thought.
A vintage choice for a cookie :-) based on the same recipe as Linzer torte, created in Linz, Austria in the 17th century. Linzer torte is the oldest known torte recipe and a holiday classic in Austrian, Hungarian, Swiss, German traditions, often eaten at Christmas.
Christmas Collectibles will evoke memories of your own childhood and give you a glimpse of how other generations and other people have celebrated Christmas over the years.
Thank you for your visit, I’m joining:
Posted in Books, Christmas, Decor, Food, Tablescape
Tagged Christmas Cardboard Houses, Christmas Collectibles, edible book review, food for thought edible review, Lissa and Dick Smith, literally cooking my book, Tablescape Thursday, Vintage Christmas Postcards, Vintage Thingie Thursday
I’m joining Jain at Food for Thought, a delicious blog for readers with an appetite for the written word~
This story takes place in a little mountain town in North Carolina.
We visited Spruce Pine this past weekend for a taste of small town mountain life, and were greeted with a flurry of large fluffy snowflakes for well over an hour. . . just enough to whet your appetite and evoke a holiday atmosphere~ ideal for the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree :-)
Set in 1918, Armistice has been declared, but Ruthie is still waiting for her father’s return to their little Appalachian town. According to the traditions of Pine Grove, it falls to Ruthie and her mother to bring home the perfect Christmas tree to donate to the town church, which the previous spring Ruthie and her father selected and marked with a red ribbon. By the light of the moon, Ruthie and her mother make the trek to cut it down & haul it home, which becomes the basis of a new town legend. Ruthie, chosen for the role of the heavenly angel in the Christmas nativity play, longs for a new dress with sleeves that look like angel wings as well as a doll with a dress trimmed in ribbon & lace. Her mother miraculously makes Ruthie’s dreams come true, despite the lack of money and cloth to make such a dress.
Author Gloria Houston was born and raised in the Ingalls community, just outside of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Her parents were the owners of a country store for over 50 years, and she often cites her experiences at the store as inspiration for her writing.
During the Christmas season of 2003, Gloria Houston gave a gift to the small town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina~ the rights to her award-winning children’s book, The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree. This gift was a small miracle for this town. . .over the preceding months, Spruce Pine and Mitchell County had suffered serious economic challenges, losing thousands of textile, furniture and other manufacturing jobs to outsourcing.
From that original idea, the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree project was born. With entrepreneurial development as a primary focus, the project has created nearly 100 individual small businesses that have produced quality, handmade products as part of the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree collection. The project also serves as a scholarship tool, with a portion of royalties received from product sales used to fund a scholarship program is to combat the alarmingly low student retention rate at Mitchell High School, the only high school in the county.
Ruthie waits for her father to return by train:
“The days passed. Ruthie listened for the squeaky whistle of the little train the mountain folk called Tweetsie, as it chugged through the valley and up the mountain side.”
“Finally they saw it. Growing on the edge of a high cliff on Grandfather Mountain.”
Cinnamon Streusel Cake~ with drifts of snowy powdered sugar~
“Its green color was dark and rich. It was the perfect shape and size, its tip-tip-top pointing up to the heaven.”
“Gloria Houston’s The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Barbara Cooney, was published in 1988, and has become a seasonal classic – a touching and joyful story about courage and the power of family.”
Thank you for your visit, I’m joining:
Posted in Books, Christmas, Food
Tagged an edible book review, Barbara Cooney, edible book review, food for thought edible review, Gloria Houston, Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree, literally cooking my book, Mosaic Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Spruce Pine NC, The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree
