Aloha to Scott Roloff and THE INNKEEPER OF BETHLEHEM - THE STORY OF SANTA CLAUS

Christmas Eve ... 

... my husband is working the midnight shift so our celebration begins when hubby wakes up Christmas afternoon.  We will open gifts and enjoy a holiday feast with another military family (whose husband/father is deployed to Afghanistan).   I plan to read aloud Scott Roloff's THE INNKEEPER OF BETHLEHEM - THE STORY OF SANTA CLAUS, available from Amazon (link) and several reviews on Goodreads (link):

A Christmas book for children, families, and anyone who has ever wondered how Santa Claus came to be. This book will permit you and your family to enjoy Santa Claus and the other secular customs of Christmas within the Christian celebration of Jesus’s birth. For little children, Santa Claus becomes a real person delivering presents to them from Jesus. Each Christmas season, reading a chapter a night will become a holiday tradition for the entire family. 

The book is a story within a story, told by a visiting uncle to a little girl and her nephew. Each night before bedtime beginning on December 6th, St. Nicholas’s Day, and continuing through Christmas Eve, the uncle tells part of the story. Instead of numbers, the chapters are titled by day. The book can be read as a normal book or a chapter each day, and it can be read to oneself or out loud to children. When read out loud, the chapter lengths vary between 10 and 15 minutes.

December 6th–The Inn
December 7th–The Birth of Jesus
December 8th–The Flight to Egypt
December 9th–Obeying Your Parents
December 10th–Befriending the Shunned
December 11th–Choices
December 12th–Joseph Dies
December 13th–The Test
December 14th–Perseverance
December 15th–Jesus Preaches
December 16th–Jesus is God
December 17th–The Black Day
December 18th–Easter
December 19th–What It Means to be a Christian
December 20th–The Journey North
December 21st–The Palace at the North Pole
December 22nd–A Day at Santa’s Palace
December 23rd–The Chapel of Light
December 24th–Christmas Eve

Wherever you may live, and by whatever name that you may know him–Santa Claus, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, Pere Noel or Sinter Klaas–you will never forget the true story of Santa Claus, as you read it every Christmas with your children, who will someday read it every Christmas with their children too.

Mele Kalikimaka to you and your family!

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City