Hey, guys! How have you been? What have you been up to? What have I been up to? WELL.

You know, just lounging around… trying to get out of catching up on schoolwork… getting grounded in the process… and then once I was un-grounded just being lazy and moody and bawling over white elephant gifts.

Anyway! Are you ready for this week’s Stacking the Shelves? Well, I’ll get into it, but first I gotta tell you… Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews  in which I talk about the books I’ve read in the past week and the books I’ve gotten. Pretty exciting stuff, right?!

Yep. That’s the “stack.” Pretty puny, but I don’t mind. I re-read these lovely pals of mine every year at Christmas and bawl my eyes out when it’s way past my bedtime and I really ought to have put the book down hours ago.

The first one way up there is The Christmas Shoes by Donna Vanliere.

Oh my holy night, ya’ll.

Like….

It’s a very, very short read. I finished it in one sitting last year, and one day this year. But even though it’s the shortest read I’ve read since the Magic Tree House books, it really gets a lot through. Plus it’s enough to make me bawl my eyeballs out every single year, even though I know what’s coming. The book was based on this song that I LOVE, and you just have to listen to the song, even if you don’t read the book.

The song even makes me cry.

So the next book, of course, is the sequel. It follows the little boy in the first book when he’s in college to become a doctor. (Obviously, he’s not a little boy in this one.) It’s called The Christmas Blessing, and… well… just read the blurb.

In The Christmas Shoes, young Nathan Andrews was a child who lost his mother to cancer. Now his deepest wish is to become a doctor. When a stranger named Robert gave him the money to buy his mother a pair of shoes for her last Christmas, both Robert and Nathan learned the deepest lessons of love and giving. Now a medical student in his third year, Nathan realizes there are still things to be learned about faith, blessings, and sacrifice. Lessons he will learn from Meghan Sullivan-a young woman born with a hole in her heart that has not kept her from becoming a champion runner. And lessons learned from a young boy named Charlie, who teaches how to live a life of true courage. Together, they will help guide Nathan through the darkest period in his life. The Christmas Blessing is an inspiring about hope existing in the darkest places, and love is always the greatest gift of all.

Yep. Another book that should come with a box of tissues. It’s a love/hate relationship, books and me. They’re so abusive, you know? Forcing me to stay up late and cry and cry and cry… yet I still love them, and KEEP READING THEM!

The last book is a book my grandma bought me a few years ago (or maybe more… I don’t even know!), and it always makes me a smile. (I know… after all the feels I got going on, it’s good to SMILE. You know?) Basically, everyday leading up to Christmas, you read a true story about Christmas acts of kindness, tradition, love, etc, etc. Like a family helping an elderly woman put up her Christmas lights outside her house. Or a little girl using all of her money to buy a gift for a needy child. Pretty grand stuff.

Soooo that’s it for this STS! What are you guys reading? Any holiday book recommendations for me? I must know! Tell me in the comments below! Go, go, go! ha… ha… ha… that rhymed.