It's Christmas Eve, Have you been good? Santa's packed up all the presents and is headed your way! With the help of a certain red-nosed reindeer, Santa flies over: •Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica •Canada War Museum •Centre Block Parliament Hill •Ottawa Convention Center •National Gallery of Canada •Library of Parliament •Fairmont Chateau, Laurier •Supreme Court of Canada •National War Memorial •Fort Henry •Rideau Canal "Ho, ho ho!" laughs Santa. "Merry Christmas, Ottawa!"

It's Christmas Eve, Have you been good? Santa's packed up all the presents and is headed your way! With the help of a certain red-nosed reindeer, Santa flies over: •Sambro Island Lighthouse, Nova Scotia •Cabot Tower, Newfoundland •Esplanade Riel Bridge •St. Joseph's, Oratory, Montreal •The Rockies •The Big Nickel, Sudbury •Fairmont Chateau, Lake Louise, Alberta •Legislative Building, Regina •Stanley Park Totem Pole, Vancouver •Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick "Ho, ho ho!" laughs Santa. "Merry Christmas, Canada!"

It was a time when small towns could still challenge for the Stanley Cup, the holy grail of Canadian hockey. The O'Briens of Renfrew, Ontario, father M.J. and son Ambrose, formed their own league, the National Hockey Association, owned four of the five teams and founded the Montreal Canadiens. Money appeared to be no object. Top players Lester and Frank Patrick, Fred "Cyclone" Taylor and "Newsy" Lalonde were paid large salaries with the objective of winning the Cup. The effort fell just short but the NHA continued and morphed into the NHL in 1917 but in 1910 Renfrew was the centre of the hockey universe. The team's name was the "Creamery Kings" but a newspaper christened them the Millionaires after the players were paid off in cash before leaving for their trip to New York in what was billed as a world championship tournament. The Millionaires won that and were declared "world champions"

“Exceptional…the perfect holiday entertainment.”— Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW This Christmas season, travel to the North Pole you’ve never seen before—where Santa’s new wife, April Claus, is not only set on creating the perfect holiday—she’s also set on solving the perfect crime… Love is full of surprises—though few compare to realizing that you’re marrying the real-life Santa. April Claus dearly loves her new husband, Nick, but adjusting to life in the North Pole is not all sugarplums and candy canes. Especially when a cantankerous elf named Giblet Hollyberry is killed—felled by a black widow spider in his stocking—shortly after publicly arguing with Nick. Christmastown is hardly a hotbed of crime, aside from mishaps caused by too much eggnog, but April disagrees with Constable Crinkle’s verdict of accidental death. As April sets out to find the culprit, it’ll mean putting the future of Christmas on the line—and hoping her own name isn’t on a lethal naughty list . . .

"A crazy idea from Glenn Beck made funny and coherent by writers"--Cover.

"Christmas seems to have been always with us. It is that time of year when we expect good cheer and goodwill, a moment's respite from the year's vicissitudes, solace during difficult times," writes James Ballowe in his introduction to Christmas in Illinois. This book is about the holiday as remembered by Illinoisans. Some are widely familiar--John W. Allen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sandra Cisneros, Mike Royko, Carl Sandburg, Joseph Smith--but most are known only in their close-knit communities that together represent the very best of the Prairie State. We learn here about the customs of Christmas from Chicago to Cairo, Belleville to Danville, before statehood to the present day, through hard times and good. Tales, poems, news reports, memoirs, recipes, and images are arranged in sections on Christmas in Illinois history, living traditions, songs and symbols, Christmas outdoors, eating merrily, and memories. We see how bright an occasion Christmas has been, and sometimes amusing, raucous, or even dark. The collection's highlights include Chicago's Christmas tree ship, Peoria's Santa Parade, Rockford's Julotta service, a Victorian holiday in Bloomington, and Audubon's 1810 Christmas on the Cache River. Nature writers detail holiday bird-watching expeditions along the North Shore and in deepest southern Illinois. A letter from a member of the 130th Illinois Infantry captures Christmas Day 1863, and Jack McReynolds recalls West Frankfort's 1951 Orient Number Two mine disaster that thereafter haunted the holiday for him and many others. The holiday table is not neglected, with traditional recipes for wild game, pickled herring, and all manner of Christmas cookies. A wide array of illustrations includes images of Chicago's grand State Street parade, the Santa Lucia celebration at Bishop Hill, Belleville's Santa Claus House, Millikin University's Vespers tradition, the University of Illinois madrigal singers, Studs Terkel singing songs of good cheer, and the holiday art of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Heat up some cider, put a log on the fire, and curl up with Christmas in Illinois to share the holiday with friends both old and new.

It is March of 1997, and Roland Axam lost, out of his element, and in a new world. As his plane begins its final approach to Kimpo International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, Roland realizes his life is about to change foreveragain. Roland has already survived a devastating, life-altering tragedy back home in Ottawa, Canada; he knows that what he needs most now is a clean slate. As he arrives in Chonju, South Korea, where he plans to teach English and leave his past behind, Roland abandons all that is familiar for the unknown. He immerses himself in a vastly different culture, where communication is difficult and his need to belong brings challenges. But despite the distractions of a bustling city thousands of miles from everything he knows, Roland is still haunted by anger, guilt, and demons that he attempts to drown in alcohol. In this compelling tale, one man travels across an ocean to begin an unforgettable journey of self-discovery that eventually leads him to realize love, forgiveness, healing, and another new beginning.

Nothing is simple for Rickey Parkitt-Mann, an innocent and impressionable boy who relocates with his family to No. 1 Fighter Wing Air Force Base in Marville, France. The year is 1956, and at the tender age of six, Rickey is thrown into early adolescence, which is filled with surprise, excitement, and insecurity. He lives with his mother, father, and little sister in C-block of the Private Married Quarters (PMQs), eleven miles from the Base. The PMQs are their own little microcosm, with no phones, television, or police to regulate what goes on. Rickey meets a variety of friends and foes (some who seem to be both), including the Air Force Brats—one of the PMQs’ infamous boy gangs. Teased, taunted, and taken for granted, Rickey quickly matures beyond his years. When he’s not navigating the slippery rungs of schoolyard hierarchies, he also travels around Europe with his family, camping, meeting odd characters, and learning more about the world. His life of adventure and learning is occasionally punctuated by moments of shock and tragedy, including the suicide—perhaps murder—of a burgeoning friend. In this exciting work of autobiographical fiction, Richard Andrew Parke-Taylor brings us a stunningly detailed and realistic portrait of boyhood and distant life in the wake of the Second World War. Oscillating between moments of humor and horror, Memories Best Forgotten will rivet the reader until the dramatic final pages.

Reading a ghost story on Christmas Eve was once as much a part of traditional Christmas celebrations as turkey, eggnog, and Santa Claus. When he finds an abandoned duck punt on Christmas Eve, a hunter rows out into the marsh and comes across a shipwreck. He climbs aboard to explore—and finds himself trapped when a surge snaps the mooring line and his punt floats away. Sleep eludes him, and soon he discovers that he's not the only one trapped on the derelict ship.