The Best Christmas Ever

by Holly the Assistant

Good morning Huns and Hoydens, pull up your chairs, grab your hot cocoa, and let me tell you a story, while Sarah writes over there in her chair.

Many, many years ago, before I ever met Sarah, long enough ago that the kids involved are grown and flown, I met a lady named Pam Uphoff on the internet. She wrote fun books, she let me proofread them, which meant I got free entertainment, she got proofed books, and we were young and broke and had kids, so money was often tight. She wrote a couple juvenile books under the pen name Zoey Ivers, and I bought them for my boys.

And they fell in love.

Those two agreed on nothing, except that having to share a room was the worst ever. They still agree on very little. But they did and do agree that this Zoey Ivers is the Best Writer Ever. She doesn’t put “Ick, romance” in her books. She doesn’t put “Stupid Adults” in her books. She puts Good Adventures in her books. “You know, Ma, the kid who got grounded totally deserved it.” I liked the books–they didn’t encourage stupid behaviors, they had good stories. The boys liked the books. Win-win.

My husband got laid off. Christmas rolled around. And I thought, ok, well, a new paperback isn’t that much, and they’d share it for a gift, I can scrape the money up, if the third book is out by then. I knew the first two stories were done–I was in contact with Pam by blog and by email, after all. So I emailed her. She emailed back. The book would not be done by Christmas.

You guys, Pam sent me the first two stories as attachments to the email, and said I could print them out for my boys for Christmas.

There was some candy in the stockings, not much, but some, and a couple hotwheels cars. There were socks under the tree. Our sons didn’t care. They had new stories. That was all they cared about.

To this day, they tell me the Best Christmas Ever was when they woke up to two thirds of Atlantis+ in their stockings. And, like I said, they’re grown adults now. Nothing, ever, has topped Pam’s act of kindness and generosity to those two boys at Christmas.

Thank you for listening. If you’ve got young’uns and need books, or if you like books for young’uns, here’s the affiliate links to the books: Barton Street Gym: https://amzn.to/4qoV5rT Chicago: https://amzn.to/4pbcRhz Atlantis+: https://amzn.to/4pliYQl