Two of my favorite authors have come together in the spirit of Christmas. AN AMISH FAMILY CHRISTMAS is a wonderful way to spend the day, just you, your couch, a blanket, and this wonderful and heartwarming book. The stories are sweet and filled with love and simpler times. Two novellas' by two different authors but blended together by taking place in an Amish community at Christmas time.

Heart Of Christmas by Marta Perry is the story of Susannah Miller and her one room Amish school house in Pine Creek. She has been the teacher for twelve years and is planning the Christmas program when a surprise walks through her door. Tobias Unger and his children have just come in and she wishes she could just disappear. Tobias left Pine Creek years ago, only a month before he was supposed to marry Susannah. Why oh why did he return? Can Susannah handle being a teacher to his children? Can Susannah and Toby work on the school's Christmas program together for the benefit of his children's emotional healing? Will this couples' past heal or will their time together cause more problems for both of them?

A PLAIN HOLIDAY by Patricia David's is where we find Sally Yoder, who becomes a nanny for Kimi and Ryder Higgins, a rebellious teen and an impressionable eight-year-old, in Cincinnati, Ohio, during her rumspringa. Feeling too bold for Amish life, she's not sure she'll ever be baptized in the faith she was raised. Even though she misses her family, Amish life may never suit her outspoken ways. Ben Lapp assumes he is rid of that pesky girl who followed him everywhere in Hope Springs, Ohio, when he moves away to work on an Englisch farm. When the two Higgins children, along with their nanny, are sent on a Christmas vacation on the farm where Ben works, he's not sure he'll survive being around Sally Yoder again. Now he's even more surprised by her reaction to him and by how much she has changed. A sleigh ride to get a Christmas tree and to visit their Amish great-grandmother endangers all their lives in a blizzard and their hearts in the aftermath. Will opposites attract when the stars and holiday cheer light their way?

AN AMISH FAMILY CHRISTMAS is just perfect for those who only have a little bit of time to read or if they don't want to get involved in a book in that limited time frame. I found that these novella's were the perfect length to read when it was too late to read any other book before bed, and yet I didn't feel as if I was missing something. There was just enough detail to make the stories feel as if they were full of detail without feeling as if anything was being left out. Both stories tell of the real meaning of Christmas and the Amish beliefs in their quiet and happy lives. I highly recommend this book to everyone loving a good heartwarming story, written by two lovely Christian ladies. I always feel so happy after reading a book written by Marta Perry or Patricia Davids.

Book Summary

Amish teacher Susannah Miller suddenly has two new students: the children of her former love. Widowed father Toby Unger broke Susannah's heart ten years ago, but now the handsome Amish man desperately needs help with his troubled little ones. Can the joy of the season reunite two lonely hearts in time for Christmas?

Outspoken nanny Sally Yoder left her Amish community for her rumspringa. Though her heart is back home, the Amish man she loves, Ben Lapp, will never love a bold woman like her. But when a snowstorm strands her, her young charges and Ben on a remote farm at Christmastime, they both might discover that love is the true holiday spirit.

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