For the Love of St. Nick by Garasamo Maccagone

For the love of St. Nick is a quiet little story that takes place in Michigan after a father called "the commander" and his two sons are relocated for a special military mission. The Commander's youngest son, Johnny, had a complicated birth in which his mother died and Johnny is afflicted with health problems throughout his life, oftening running high grade fever. The oldest son, often called Tiger is very close to his little brother and shares stories of the mother that Johnny never knew with him. Shortly following Thanksgiving, the commander announces to his children and Mrs. Pennington, the boys' caretaker, that he will be leaving on his secret mission but will return before Christmas. The sons are very upset and begin to pray for their father's safe return. The boys have taken to praying to the saints for their mother and father and for little Johnny's health. In particular, they are fond of St. Nicholas who is a sort of saint of protection to the boys. This was a beautiful and quite touching Christmas story that was entirely too short. I would've loved to see this expanded into a novel...44 pages just wasn't enough. Although I have to say that in those 44 pages, I grew quite attached to the characters which is saying a lot for this author. It's not every author that can create characters you love in that short of a time. The story captures the Christmas spirit well, but also looks at how we mourn, how we hope, and how we survive. Nice little book.