Dear Reader:

With my loyal doll, Polly, looking on, my assistant elf, (*I got Polly for Christmas when I was five) Grandmother Boo, the Head Elf, is starting to finish up all the last tasks still left to complete… during the “Twelve Days of Christmas” …starting with the stockings.

I will hang them Christmas Eve afternoon before the grandchildren come to Boo Boo’s (before the Christmas Eve church service) to open up their Boo Boo stockings and play with the toys inside…culminating with their annual “snow ball” fight!

Last night I went over to Mandy’s and John’s to keep the children while they attended an annual Christmas party. I took a new Christmas book with me to read…a sweet story called Dasher by Matt Tavares…a best seller on the New York Times Best-seller list!

The illustrations in it are glorious and I found myself forgetting to read the lines…distracted by the exquisite paintings.

Dasher is the story of how a brave little doe met Santa and changed Christmas forever. I am not going to tell the story here in completion…no “spoiler alert” but I will share with you the foreword explaining the concept behind the story. (I fell in love with it! Can hardly wait to read it tonight to the children.)

It all starts with ‘Mother Reindeer’s story of the celestial compass called the North Star… and how once upon a time their family had lived in the cold, snowy land in which they were born before being taken. Of all the reindeer Dasher takes mother’s story to heart and decides to follow the north star if she ever gets the opportunity to escape.

This touching story…metaphorically connects this story to the slaves who also followed the North Star…and the magical power of this celestial compass that leads people and animals back home to freedom… fulfilling their lives as destined.

So until tomorrow…Take time to read Christmas stories together…because ‘elusive time’ stands still for no man or woman or child.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh