Chapter One - Christmas Eve

The Christmas House

Not your typical Christmas novel. Amazon reviews-
5.0 out of 5 stars

A Delightful Christmas Story

The Christmas House was the embodiment of the Christmas Spirit. Magical, wondrous, full of the warmth generated by the company of family and friends during good times and hard. This book hits you with a healthy dose of reality, but it also takes you on a fantastical journey filled with hope and joy, grace and forgiveness. If you don't examine it too closely, but just let the words transport you on a trip that will engage your emotions and give you cause to ponder what can be real, what may be true - if "close your eyes" and open your heart, this book will bring it all to life and make you believe. I found this book engaging from the first chapter, it kept drawing me in, pulling me into the world of the house and those who live there, as well as those individuals who visit once every year at Christmas. This story is not without tragedy, but it is also infused with the glorious strength and bright light that the human spirit is capable of producing, with a little divine help and the steadfast support of the people who love you. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, wanting to see what happened next, anxious to find out what happened to the characters in the book I had grown to care about. The story surrounds your senses and brings the sights and smells, the many textures of Christmas to your heart, as it lifts your spirit up and makes you wonder...
5.0 out of 5 stars

Highly Recommend!

This was an amazing read from an author I’d never heard of before. It contains a healthy dose of love, romance, tragedy, sacrifice—with a generous dose of wonderment and magical realism that seems to bring families together and to heal many broken hearts at once. If you could imagine a wholesome, warm and cozy Twilight Zone episode, this is it. This is a Christmas themed book that I started during this past holiday. But don’t let that stop you from reading it at any time of the year. It will be a long time until I forget this one. Would love to read a sequal. I got this from Daily Free Kindle eBooks in December. The cover was different than the one shown. Highly recommend!
Episode One sample-
Chapter One- Christmas Eve

Chicago, IL

December 24th

5:45 p.m.

As the late December winds whistled through the city, a chill in the air embraced the pedestrians cluttering the streets as the temperature hovered slightly below freezing. Light snow began to fall as the skyline of the city cast towering shadows over the pavement.

The holiday ritual of last-minute shoppers as they scurried from store to store searching for the one final perfect gift they surely should have purchased weeks before was ever-present. Sounds of the season were in the air, and the magic of Christmas would arrive once again in a few short hours.

Many miles away from the city's bright lights and hectic activity, the Christmas spirit found its way to the aristocratic destination of Lake Forest, IL.

Listen to the story now.