The Saturday Six

One.

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I ran across this post this week, and thought I'd share it with you in case you're looking ahead to bringing organization into your home in 2016. This blogger has a plan to do one organization task each week, and she offers this sneak peek to what it will encompass. I realize it's a bit early to be making new year's resolutions, but if you know cleaning will be among yours...here you go!

Two.

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I knew about this because I read it on Facebook, but I didn't know it made it into the media! My talented and creative friend Jenna made dresses and bow-ties for her parents' 40th anniversary celebration. She wanted to surprise them with something, so she made the dresses and bow-ties for all nine grandchildren, and they had a photo shoot.  Oh - and did I mention all the fabric came from the bridesmaid dresses from her parents' wedding? HOW CUTE IS THIS!

Three.

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A lovely post about lowering expectations on Christmas Day. I have to admit, in my newly adopted "less is more" mentality, I have a fresh appreciation for making holidays more about the memories than the stuff. {I also find her thoughts interesting in light of the book review below!}

Four.

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To my praying-for-love friends...a wonderful post written by my friend Jamie Bennett, about the gift of grieving losses in love.  

Five.

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I know one thing I am looking forward to about this winter is NO COMMUTE!!! But winter is really hard for a lot of people. The germs, the cold, the snow and ice, the feeling cooped up - that can all be really hard. I found this article fascinating - about a study done on Norwegian communities where people actually look forward to the deep winter, even though it means days on end with no sun. There's actually something marinating in my mind here that will show up in a future blog post, but for now, check out this article. Whether or not you agree with their thoughts, I still think it makes interesting reading.

Six.

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Sad sigh. It's time for me to tell you about a book I desperately wanted to love, but {gulp} I didn't.  Keeping Christmas is a new novel by Dan Walsh, out just in time for the holidays. According to his website and other reviews I read after I finished the book, it seems he puts out a new Christmas novel regularly, and I believe this is the fourth one.

It was also the first time I read any of his writing at all. I was surprised to see on his website that his writing is often compared to Nicholas Sparks and that he enjoys writing suspense. I was surprised by the Nicholas Sparks comparison, because I actually just sobbed my eyes out over The Notebook {AGAIN} and didn't have any of that strong emotional connection to this book. Also, I actually mentally prepared for suspense several times in this book and then realized it wasn't coming. I thought he was setting it up...and I was wrong. So maybe those things are found in his other books, but not in this one.

His story centers on a couple named Stan and Judith Winters, who are experiencing their first holiday season without any of their children at home. No one comes home for Thanksgiving and no one can afford to come home for Christmas, either. This turn of events sends Judith into such a downhill spiral that she just stops caring about Christmas. She doesn't want to decorate, she doesn't want to play the music, she just wants to sit and be sad. Stan is at a loss of how to help his wife recover her normally over-the-top festive spirit. Alongside their best friends, Barney and Betty, they work to help Judith find her festive.

I thought Dan did a good job of writing female characters...he didn't hesitate to portray scenes with crafts and shopping and other such things that I think might be kind of challenging for a  male author in terms of crawling inside the female mind. But even so, I really didn't like Judith at all. I found her to be whiny and selfish and I kind of wanted to send her to her room until she could straighten up her attitude. I've lived with parents who have struggled with diagnosed depression, and what I saw in the book described as depression didn't match up with the experiences I have witnessed. It just seemed to me like she wanted her way or else.

The storyline also  fell a little flat for me. I wanted more twists and turns and curves and suspense, and it was pretty straightforward. Having said that, I did tear up at the end. I won't give it away for you, but I will tell you that it did evoke a little emotion in me. To be fair, I had figured out how the story would resolve {unusual for me - I never figure stuff out ahead of time} but reading it unfold was lovely. But I will also tell you, even in the resolution, I didn't like Judith any better. My feelings toward her remained.

Maybe if I were an empty-nester, I would understand this a bit better and relate more? But I just couldn't get there in the reading. I think I would give another shot to reading something by this author, because some reviews I read said that this was not his best work, so maybe what I hoped for is found in another book?

{And I will say, I think it's a cool concept to have a new Christmas fiction piece every year. Kinda makes me want to take up fiction writing.}

* Thanks, Revell, for sending a copy of the book to me in exchange for an honest review. *