Greetings from the Nichols Nest! November and December are my favorite months of the year! How I wish we could keep all the warm feelings, the celebrations, and the remembering we do during these beautiful days and moments year round. But I'll savor every one of them when they come. 

This fall has been exceptionally exciting for me with the release of RETURN OF THE SONG and SILENT DAYS, HOLY NIGHT. I’m enjoying reading the reviews and hearing from readers. We writers live for interaction with our readers, and I do hope to hear from you if you're reading SILENT DAYS, HOLY NIGHT during the season. I wrote this book to remind us of life-defining moments and what can happen in the moment one chooses kindness.

One reader posted this on Amazon. I just wanted to keep reading this. It's written from the perspective of an eleven year old girl with a very big vocabulary and a very big heart. Sometimes as adults we don't really see what is going on around us. We're too busy with the business of life. Sometimes a child, an elderly person, or, if we take time to truly observe and listen, even we ourselves can see real needs for kindness, love, attention, time.  Last year, I read Christmas at Grey Sage. It was a balm to my soul during a difficult time of my life. I didn't want it to end. The characters just drew me into the story in such a way that I wanted to know what happened next and next and next. Silent Days, Holy Night is just like that. The Russell family is a giving, loving family, that has taught service and caring by example. It's what I've tried to do with my children as well.This is a book that captures the spirit of Christmas—kindness, friendship, and the love of Christ. I highly recommend this book.

In less than two weeks, we will be celebrating the moment in time that changed history – that moment when God stepped down from heaven to transform us all. In my "busyness" these days, one of the things that helps me to focus on that event is standing in front of our Nativity scene (pictured below), recalling the Scripture and wondering what was in the mind of each of the characters and pondering how Jesus' coming changed my life.

My guess is you just might be ticking in the red on the busy-meter these days as well. Events, shopping, baking, cleaning, preparing for travel or for houseguests? Do you long for just time to catch your breath?

Would you close your eyes for just a moment, and ponder the word “peace.”  What mental pictures appear? A sleeping infant wrapped in a soft blanket? Glowing embers in the fireplace? A loon floating on a glassy pond at sunset? Moonlight reflecting on a white velvet cloak of unblemished snow?  An American flag flying high over our capitol? They’re all beautiful images that reflect peace, but they only reflect brief moments in time. The baby will wake and cry; the embers will grow cold and need to be removed; muddy tracks will mar the snow before it melts, and we remember the snuffed-out breaths of many lives that enable our flag to fly.

 If we define peace as the absence of war, or suffering, or hunger, or strife, we’ll only have brief moments of something that seems like peace in our lives. For Jesus Himself said that the poor and sick and hungry would always be with us, and He announced there would be wars and natural disasters. His words sound like our headlines these days, and they don’t sound much like peace.

Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us, the Prince of Peace present in the world, living and working in the lives of those who also call Him Lord. Real peace has nothing to do with “absence.” It has everything to do with Christ’s presence.

I so hope that you will be aware of His presence, our Peace, in the midst of the beautiful moments of this season and in the joys and struggles of our lives.

Merry Christmas,

Phyllis