The holidays have arrived and all of the family has grouped together at Grandma Elsie's house for the fun. This story tells the tails of Grandma Elsie hosting the family's holiday festivities. Sleigh rides, ice skating, and snowball fights among the family, but during the visit, the importance of missionary work is often discussed and makes deep impressions on the minds of both young and old. The story centres on Lulu Raymond & Elsie's granddaughter. Also Elsie Dinsmore, her immediate family, her extended family, and her neighbours. Soon Harold and Herbert pursue a call to full-time ministry. There's even quite a bit of suspense with other events in the story. Many learn important lessons about courage and humility.
"At Ion too, there was a beautiful Christmas tree, bearing fruit not very dissimilar to that of the one at Woodburn. It had been the occasion of much mirth and rejoicing on the part of the children, and pleasure to the older people: the gifts had been apportioned, those of the servants bestowed and carried away, but most of those belonging to the family, and all the ornaments, were left upon it that the guests of to-morrow might be treated to the spectacle of its beauty."
Martha Finley was a teacher and author, the most well known books being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife Maria Theresa Brown Finley, Martha was born on April 26, 1828, in Chillicothe, Ohio. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.
