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At their charming bed-and-breakfast, Louise, Alice, and Jane look forward to a quiet holiday, but when a group of travelers seek shelter from a blizzard on Christmas Eve, their difficult guests put a damper on their plans.
Home For the Holidays is book 7 in the Tales From Grace Chapel Inn series about three sisters who run a bed-and-breakfast from their maternal ancestors' Victorian house in the village of Acorn Hill, Pennsylvania. Their late father, Daniel Howard, had been the pastor of nearby Grace Chapel, hence the name.
Widowed Mrs. Louise Howard Smith teaches piano as well as keeping the inn's books. Alice Howard is a part-time nurse. Divorced Jane Howard was a professional chef in San Francisco. She does the cooking and gardening. They share in housekeeping tasks.
These books have a formula: there will be a main problem and one or more problems for subplots. Guests and/or townspeople will be involved. Faith will play a part in resolving the problems.
The inn is closed for Christmas, but some tourists have been stranded because their tour guide/driver had an accident on the ice. With some discussion, the sisters offer to help them out.
This is the first time this particular tour has included any homes from Acorn Hill. There are four: Samuel and Rose Bellwoods', Joseph and Rachel Holzmann's, Viola Reed's, and Mayor Lloyd Tynan's. The tour is a good excuse to give us a glimpse of some of the residences in and residents of Acorn Hill, with some history painlessly included.
Laura Lattimer, an interior designer, is the kind of jerk who imagines that if she offers enough money, people will sell. Rich Max Ziglar is a chronic complainer. Pleasant Allan Hansford, the retired architect, can supplement the literature sent by the grateful tour company (who had no replacement driver/guide to send). Inner city schoolteacher Edwina Welles is as gracious as Laura is catty and crass. Young married Ted Venson hopes the photos he's taking during the tour will help him realize his dream of being a freelance photographer instead of taking family portraits in a department store.
NOTES:
See chapters 3 through part of 5 for the tour of Viola Reed's Queen Anne Victorian, as well as some facts about English Christmas customs (such as what's really in plum pudding).
See chapters 6 - part of 8 for the tour of Joseph and Rachel Holzmann's German Inglenook bungalow. (Nice to learn what an inglenook is as well as about one of the Arts & Crafts Movement leaders, Gustav Stickley; blown glass ornaments, and tramp art.)
Chapter 8 also includes the lyrics to the third (and my personal favorite) verse of 'O Holy Night'.
See chapters 9 - part of 10 for a description of the model of Acorn Hill that hardware store owner Fred Humbert made as well as the tour of Mayor Lloyd Tynan's brick home that was originally a Quaker meeting house. Lloyd, whose grandparents were Quakers, talks about their customs. Lloyd also talks about his political memorabilia collection. (Loved the way Aunt Ethel spiked Laura's attempt to buy a couple of Lloyd's antiques.)
See chapters 12 - 13 for the tour of Samuel and Rose Bellman's farm and their folk Victorian farmhouse. They use Pennsylvania 'Dutch' decorations. We get to learn a little about sheep farming. The Bellmans put on a living Nativity, which is described. (Turns out that Rose and Alice's friend, Vera Humbert, is a quilt historian. Rose is a quilter and a collector, so we get to learn about quilts.)
The tours go well, but the tour van breaks down and no replacement can be found. The group is stranded. Their hotel wants them out by 11 a.m. because their rooms are already reserved for other customers. (I was flabbergasted by the hotel clerk's suggestion for where the group could stay.) Will the sisters allow their vacation to be further disrupted? Well, duh.
Chapter 15 teaches a chef trick for getting the stem out from a head of lettuce.
Chapter 19 has Rev. Thompson's lovely Christmas sermon.
Things turn worse for the group when a blizzard strikes, but the Howard sisters manage to help make it a merrier Christmas than the tourists expected.
The closing chapter allows us to know how the members of the tour fared after they left. I really enjoyed this entry in a gentle, feel-good series.
The recipe this time is Jane's Easy Beef Stroganoff.
Cat lovers, Wendell the big tabby does appear. So do some of Viola Reed's fourteen cats. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
'It's starting to snow, and there are some wicked-looking dark clouds heading toward us from the west,' Jane Howard said to her sisters as she came into the parlor of Grace Chapel Inn.
Citas
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
For a moment the interior decorator reminded Jane of Florence Simpson, one of the more difficult women at church. Florence was the type who would not only look a gift horse in the mouth, but would hold off accepting it until she had weighed, measured and X-rayed it. And only then if it came with an appraisal. (chapter two)
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
At their charming bed-and-breakfast, Louise, Alice, and Jane look forward to a quiet holiday, but when a group of travelers seek shelter from a blizzard on Christmas Eve, their difficult guests put a damper on their plans.
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(3.94)
1
Widowed Mrs. Louise Howard Smith teaches piano as well as keeping the inn's books. Alice Howard is a part-time nurse. Divorced Jane Howard was a professional chef in San Francisco. She does the cooking and gardening. They share in housekeeping tasks.
These books have a formula: there will be a main problem and one or more problems for subplots. Guests and/or townspeople will be involved. Faith will play a part in resolving the problems.
The inn is closed for Christmas, but some tourists have been stranded because their tour guide/driver had an accident on the ice. With some discussion, the sisters offer to help them out.
This is the first time this particular tour has included any homes from Acorn Hill. There are four: Samuel and Rose Bellwoods', Joseph and Rachel Holzmann's, Viola Reed's, and Mayor Lloyd Tynan's. The tour is a good excuse to give us a glimpse of some of the residences in and residents of Acorn Hill, with some history painlessly included.
Laura Lattimer, an interior designer, is the kind of jerk who imagines that if she offers enough money, people will sell. Rich Max Ziglar is a chronic complainer. Pleasant Allan Hansford, the retired architect, can supplement the literature sent by the grateful tour company (who had no replacement driver/guide to send). Inner city schoolteacher Edwina Welles is as gracious as Laura is catty and crass. Young married Ted Venson hopes the photos he's taking during the tour will help him realize his dream of being a freelance photographer instead of taking family portraits in a department store.
NOTES:
See chapters 3 through part of 5 for the tour of Viola Reed's Queen Anne Victorian, as well as some facts about English Christmas customs (such as what's really in plum pudding).
See chapters 6 - part of 8 for the tour of Joseph and Rachel Holzmann's German Inglenook bungalow. (Nice to learn what an inglenook is as well as about one of the Arts & Crafts Movement leaders, Gustav Stickley; blown glass ornaments, and tramp art.)
Chapter 8 also includes the lyrics to the third (and my personal favorite) verse of 'O Holy Night'.
See chapters 9 - part of 10 for a description of the model of Acorn Hill that hardware store owner Fred Humbert made as well as the tour of Mayor Lloyd Tynan's brick home that was originally a Quaker meeting house. Lloyd, whose grandparents were Quakers, talks about their customs. Lloyd also talks about his political memorabilia collection. (Loved the way Aunt Ethel spiked Laura's attempt to buy a couple of Lloyd's antiques.)
See chapters 12 - 13 for the tour of Samuel and Rose Bellman's farm and their folk Victorian farmhouse. They use Pennsylvania 'Dutch' decorations. We get to learn a little about sheep farming. The Bellmans put on a living Nativity, which is described. (Turns out that Rose and Alice's friend, Vera Humbert, is a quilt historian. Rose is a quilter and a collector, so we get to learn about quilts.)
The tours go well, but the tour van breaks down and no replacement can be found. The group is stranded. Their hotel wants them out by 11 a.m. because their rooms are already reserved for other customers. (I was flabbergasted by the hotel clerk's suggestion for where the group could stay.) Will the sisters allow their vacation to be further disrupted? Well, duh.
Chapter 15 teaches a chef trick for getting the stem out from a head of lettuce.
Chapter 19 has Rev. Thompson's lovely Christmas sermon.
Things turn worse for the group when a blizzard strikes, but the Howard sisters manage to help make it a merrier Christmas than the tourists expected.
The closing chapter allows us to know how the members of the tour fared after they left. I really enjoyed this entry in a gentle, feel-good series.
The recipe this time is Jane's Easy Beef Stroganoff.
Cat lovers, Wendell the big tabby does appear. So do some of Viola Reed's fourteen cats. (