UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered and left a comment! I enjoyed reading the memories from childhood many of you shared. The five winners of an autographed copy of Christmas in Apple Ridge are listed below. If you see your name or a “name” that represents your email address, please send your full name and mailing address to cindy@cindywoodsmall.com. Thank you!

• Elaine H.
• Geri Kelley
• Venita Cannon
• “cancillashawn”
• Vickie (“jvstorey1989”)

*When I was a child, my mom or dad put the food on my plate, and all of it had to be eaten before I could leave the table. I gagged my way through many a meal, was sent to my room during mealtime, and often ended up sitting at the table by myself while everyone else went to watch television. The upside is that I learned to eat foods I didn’t like. The downside is that I still hate most of those same foods.

As a result of my experiences, when my children said they hated something after trying it, I gave them a choice of other items with similar nutritional value. One son disliked most fresh fruits, but he loved certain ones and almost all fruit juices—100 percent pineapple, orange, apple. He hated cooked carrots, broccoli, and English peas but would eat raw carrots and broccoli. He still doesn’t eat English peas.

Was my method helpful, or did I teach my children to expect to like what’s placed in front of them? Was my parents’ method better in the long run?

I don’t know.

But I do know that no parents are as right as they hope to be at the time the decisions are made. Our one redeeming grace for all the verdicts we must give—and the fruit they bear—is that God is fully capable of redeeming our children from our brilliance. First Peter 1:3–4 says, “According to his abundant mercy [God] hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.”

For that, we can all be extremely grateful.

In The Dawn of Christmas, Sadie took her leading and instruction from her dad, trusting fully in his wisdom. When his loving direction leads her down the wrong path, will he get the chance to make it up to her? Years later, after much heartache, she’s discovered a chance at love, but can she trust her father’s guidance in the matter?

To read more about The Dawn of Christmas, please click here: https://www.cindywoodsmall.com/books/novellas/christmas-in-apple-ridge/.

*The recollection is a vignette from my life that’s found in Plain Wisdom: An Invitation into an Amish Home and the Heart of Two Women. It is coauthored with my closest Old Order Amish friend, Miriam Flaud. Excerpt Copyright © 2011 by Cindy Woodsmall. Used by permission of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

Giveaway

If you would like to enter for a chance to win one of FIVE autographed copies of Christmas in Apple Ridge, simply leave a comment at the bottom of this post on my website.

If you are reading this anywhere other than my website, such as on Facebook, in an email, or on Goodreads, please hop on over to my website (https://www.cindywoodsmall.com/2012/10/02/recollections/)and leave a comment at the bottom of my post to enter the giveaway. Only comments left on my website will be entered into the giveaway. (It’s just too hard to track down all the comments left in various places, and that means it’s too easy to miss some of the comments.)

The deadline for this contest is Monday, October 8 at noon Eastern Time. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be contacted privately, as well as announced on next week’s post.

A note about this three-in-one collection:

Those who already own books one and two in the three-in-one book have asked if they can buy the The Dawn of Christmas separately. Although the answer is no, I think I have good news for you in the final paragraph found below.

Here’s what happened. My publisher said they were going to combine the two past Christmas novellas into one book to create an omnibus. My first thought was for my readers, and I wanted to give them something new to go with the first two books. So I asked my publisher if I could I write a new story for you. They agreed, and even juggled my writing schedule so I could get it written. I can’t tell you how much I love this new story! It even sparked an outline for an entire novel using two characters from The Dawn of Christmas.

It wasn’t until later I realized that everyone who had bought the first two books wouldn’t be able to get that third story unless they bought the omnibus.

So I returned to my publisher to see what could be done, and this is what they have worked out: if you own an e-reader, you can purchase the three-in-one for $9.99. If you want the actual softcover book, you can find it for less than you paid for the hardback novellas. For example Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million have the three-in-one book (Christmas in Apple Ridge) for $10.98! And Christian Book Distributors has it for $10.99!