Making It Through Christmas E-Book

Sommer A. Kelly

• Herausgeber: Spines
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2026

Beschreibung

In this uplifting Christmas tale set in Lakemond, the Lamberts extend their hearts, nurturing a web of connections. Emmett and Toshelle, amid life's tribulations, discover hope and renewal through community and faith. The narrative celebrates the resilience of the human spirit as the couple faces challenges and welcomes a miraculous new life during the holiday season. It's a story of grace and the healing power of generosity that rekindles the true meaning of Christmas, even in the coldest of winters.

Leseprobe

Making It Through Christmas

PART 1

SOMMER A. KELLY

Sommer A. Kelly

Making ItThroughChristmas

Part 1

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2025 by SommerA. Kelly

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Published by SpinesPublishingPlatform

ISBN: 979-8-89383-112-2

Contents

Introduction

1. Early Beginnings

2. Unexpected Connections And Unexpected Miracles

3. More Blessings And Thanksgiving Holiday

4. Conversion To Christianity And Christmas Play Development

5. Continued Christian Growth And Operation Compassion Outreach

6. Toshelle’s Baby, Transitions, And Other Unexpected Challenges

7. Adult Christmas Play And Transitions

8. Christmas Time And Finale

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Uncharted Territory

Introduction

Thank you for taking time to read my fourth book overall and my second holiday book! I’m proud to say this is my second book this year 2025 and this was released after my previous book ‘’Debrah/Songtress, Minister, AndAuthor’’ released in June this year 2025. For those of you who got it and bought it for yourself or someone praise the Lord. If you haven’t gotten it, I’d encourage you to get it since Debrah was my first ‘’Christian musical novel’’. Well guys this second holiday book and my fourth book ‘’MakingItThroughChristmasPart 1’’ is a ‘’ChristianChristmas musical novel’’ as well and like Debrah it addresses some difficult themes. You may think, address something sad during the Christmas holidays? While we know that Christmas is a family for family and friends, Christmas shopping, snow, (depending where you live) Christmas decorations, Christmas gifts, Christmas carols, and most of all celebrating the birth of Christ, Christmas can also be a very difficult time for many. For some, maybe their first or second Christmas without their loved one. For others they may be struggling financially during the Christmas season dealing with challenging job situations and possible homelessness. ThisChristmas story addresses those very themes but it also shares how by the grace of God the characters find the Lord,overcome those issues, and are still able to have a good Christmas despite what they’ve had to face. I feel there needs to be more Christmas stories that encourage Christians and nonChristians to help people in need is why this novel was written. Another side note is that this Christmas story is also a musical story as well too. Many (public domain) Christmas carols as well as original songs will be featured throughout the story for you guys to sing along and there’s a soundtrack (featured at the end of the book) for you guys to listen to it. Sit back, relax, and join this journey with me and my characters as we celebrate the birth of Christ and celebrate the wonders of the holiday season!

CHAPTER1

Early Beginnings

Once upon a time there lived a Christian family named the Lambert family. The husband was a black youth pastor named MauriceSr a youth pastor and his wife a Christian white lady and business owner named Renae (nee Hopkins) Lambert were 37 years old was born in 1996. They were raised in Lakemond, Wisconsin who sensed a call from the Lord during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season to be a blessing to others in need. It also is about Renae, a new Christian business owner who needed a miracle for her business and how God increased her revenue, gave her customers, and gave her employees just in time for the holidays. The city Lakemond is between the cities of Milwaukee,Madison, and Waterview, Wisconsin, a city full of schools, churches, businesses, and wonderful town folks. Lakemond also has many lakes such as LakeMichigan, LakeSuperior, and LakeLakemond. Lakemond also has many rivers such as MeadowRiver, ShermondRiver, and LakemondRiver. This is a story about a wonderful church called ‘’LakemondAssemblyOfGod’’ especially Renae’s dad PastorJohnHopkins his senior pastor and his wife PastorShelly pastoral care/women’s ministry director helped in that. They specifically would help a needy interracial married couple named EmmettFrazier (a black man) and his wife Toshelle a hispanic/billingual woman (nee Perez) who endured tons of hardship who would get saved, get stable employment, started a family, and managed to have had the best holiday season ever. This is the story of how Renae, her family, and church helped Emmett and his wife Toshelle’s world that would make all the difference. PastorJohnSr and PastorShellyRenae’s parents were born in 1963 and had been married for about forty years since 1983 when they were twenty years old, right after graduating from ‘’ChristForTheNations’’ in Texas.

After graduating from college and getting married, they relocated back to Lakemond, Wisconsin and became part of ‘’LakemondAssemblyOfGodChurch’’pastored by Shelly’s late earthly father PastorJimEdwards. For many many years PastorJohnHopkinsSr was the youth pastor and for the first several years of their marriage, Shelly was a devoted ‘’housewife'' and she later worked at ‘’LakemondDevelopmentDaycare’’ from 1990 until 2004 for fourteen years when her kids were very young until they were middle and high school age. (She later attended ‘’GlobalUniversity'’ an online Bible college in 2002 and graduated in 2004 and shortly thereafter became women’s ministry director at the church after quitting working at the daycare.) She and PastorJohnSr had three kids whose names are RenaeDawn who was born in 1986, KaceyClaire was born in 1988, and JohnJr who was born in 1990. Renae and her siblings grew up pastors' kids as did their parents as well. (PastorJohn’s late father PastorMichael was senior pastor at a church in Texas for many years and MarcusJrJohn’s brother would eventually take it over.) Most of all Renae and her siblings gave their lives to Christ at five years old, water baptized at ten years old, and received the baptism in the HolyGhost evidence of speaking in tongues. AlsoRenae and her sister Kacey grew up attending Missionettes club and were HonorRainbows, Daisies, Prims, and Stars club. (Renae became an HonorStar in 1999 and her sister Kacey in 2001 when Stars club was a four year program. They both were thirteen years old at that time and it wouldn’t be until later the Missionettes changed the program and would add Friends and GirlsOnlyClub.) Their brother was a RoyalRanger and got a savor during his senior year in high school in the year 2007 AlsoPastorMauriceLambertRenae’s husband also grew up a pastor’s kid, his late dad PastorCorneliousSr senior pastor of ‘’ChurchOfGodInChrist’’. In 2004, Renae graduated from ‘’LakemondHigh school’’ and attended ‘’AndersonUniversity’’ (a Christian college) in Anderson, Indiana and met her husband Maurice there and they became friends. In 2006 they dated and in 2008 they graduated from college and got married shortly thereafter. (They attended ‘’AndersonAssemblyOfGodChurch’’ while living in Anderson, Indiana during that time. It was Maurice’s very first time ever being in an AssemblyOfGod church.) It would be after Maurice and Renae got married that his dad CorneliusSr passed away from pancreas cancer and his wife Dorcas took over the church for a few years until she died of leukemia in 2009 when one of the associate pastors PastorRonaldMcguee their nephew took over the church.

Eventually, Maurice and his new wife Renae relocated back to Lakemond, Wisconsin and Maurice became associate pastor at ‘’LakemondAssemblyOfGodChurch’’ MauriceSr and his wife Renae would have four children. Their names were JasmineCaroline (born 2010), DesserayJordan (born 2013) TannerJustin (born 2015) and MauriceJr (born 2018). Renae’s sister Kacey graduated from ‘’LakemondHigh school’’ in 2006 and attended Christian college ‘’EvangelUniversity’’ (in Springfield, Missouri) and met Christian man named Mitchel (also a deacon’s kid) where they became friends and later dated in 2008. In 2010 they finished college, got married and relocated back to Lakemond, Wisconsin. They had their first child named AmelieJane,(born 2012) ChloeDane, (born 2014) Rocklyn, (born 2016) and MitchelJr (born 2018) Mitchel worked as the children’s pastor while Kacey owned her preschool club/after club that’s called ‘’LakemondChristianAcademy’’. JohnJr graduated from high school in 2008 and attended ‘’TrinityBibleCollege’’ in Ellendale, NorthDakota and met his Christian wife/deacon’s kid CarolineFisher became friends and dated in 2010. In 2012 they finished college, got married, and relocated back to Lakemond, Wisconsin where they eventually had four children ScarlettMichelle, (born 2014) PaisleyJanelle, (born 2016) and had twin boys John 3 and twin brother James born 2018. JohnJr worked as a young adult pastor there while Caroline worked as a church administrator. Renae along with her sister and others were part of the church’s worship team and helped out with the women’s ministry. Renae worked as a church administrator for a time and worked in daycare for many years until the Lord placed on her heart to start a Christian bookstore called the ‘’LambertChristianBookstore’’ The name Lambert being is after Renae and her husband’s last name. The reason why was because for many years she loved a former Christian bookstore called ‘’FamilyChristianBookstore’’ and was saddened they closed their doors in 2017 and wanted to do something like that. She and her husband prayed about it, with God’s help, and generous donors, she opened it up in the fall of 2023. She was nervous but trusted the LordHe would lead and guide her steps. She sold in the store Christian books they had at home, cds, dvds, notebooks, and even toys they haven’t used to sell as well as ordered extra things from Amazon as well too. Many people from her church came to support her and bought many products. She also prayed to have some workers help her work there as well too. Little would she know that God would answer her prayers in the most mysterious ways. God would put in Renae’s life EmmettFrazier and his wife Toshelle (nee Perez) to be a blessing to as well. What was their background?

Emmett JamesFrazier was born to BryceJosephFrazierSrand his wife GlennisMichelle (nee Hampton) in 1994 in Louisville, Kentucky. (His parents were high school sweet hearts who lived in Jackson, Mississippi were married in 1993, raised SouthernBaptist, and moved to Louisville, Kentucky shortly thereafter.) Emmett had a baby brother named BryceJr who was born in 1997 and they grew up in a lower middle-class household with their dad working at a factory and their mom working as a daycare worker at ‘’LouisvilleDaycareCenter’’for many years. Their grandmothers are Nala (mother of BryceSr) and Patrice (Glennis’s mother) and had great grandmothers whose names were Lucille (Nala’s late mother) and Penelope ‘’Penny’’ (Patrice’s late mother.) (Glennis and BryceSr’s mothers are widowed because their earthly fathers passed from a stroke years ago. Before their dads got sick some neighbors led them to Christ before death.) When they were living in Louisville, Kentucky, they attended a SouthernBaptist church on a regular basis on Sundays with their family members but even though they attended church, they weren’t really serious about their Christian walk though. In the year 2008 when Emmett was fourteen years old and his brother BryceJr was eleven years old,(after their parents lost their jobs) they moved to Lakemond, Wisconsin with their parents and while their dad continued to work at a factory, Glennis worked at a store clerk for awhile. (Their grandmothers Nala, Patrice, and their mothers Lucille and Penelope moved to Lakemond, Wisconsin too.) When they moved to Lakemond, Wisconsin, they didn’t attend church as much only for Easter, Christmas, Mother’sDay, Father’sDay or for weddings and funerals. Emmett and his brother BryceJr would attend ‘’LakemondSchool’’ in their middle and high school years and after Emmett graduated from ‘’LakemondHigh school’’ in 2012, he was a Marine in the US military from 2012 until 2016 when he was eighteen until he was twenty-two years old. (It was when Emmett was in the US military that his great-grandmother Lucille and Penelope died of strokes. His great-grandmothers were placed in a nursing home ‘’PeacefulHavenNursingHome’’ and some nursing home workers shared the gospel with them and they were able to get saved before they died.) While he was in the US military, he was able to get a scholarship to attend ‘’LakemondUniversity’’ a four year college. (It was also paid in full for him too!) Emmett’s younger brother BryceJr graduated from high school in 2015 and got a scholarship to attend ‘’LakemondUniversity’’ and graduated in 2019 and has continued to work in engineering. WhenGlennis’s sons got older, after years of working at different grocery stores (such as ‘’DollarTree’’, ‘’Payless’’, ‘’Goodwill’’ etc.) Glennis started to work at a nursing home especially ‘’PeacefulHavenNursingHome’’ for several years while her husband BryceSr continued working at various factories.

It would be during Covid (2020) that their sons lived with them (Emmett had to temporarily since he was forced to leave his college dorm room and temporarily lived with them from March 2020 until May 2020) until he graduated from ‘’LakemondUniversity’’ and married Toshelle shortly afterwards. (BryceJr’s roommate and him moved back with their parents for a year until 2021.) It would be during the time that after thirteen years of living in Lakemond, Wisconsin in 2021 Glennis and BryceSr along with their widowed moms Nala and Patrice dedicated to move to Atlanta, Georgia for the next couple of years after not traveling since 2020 because of Covid. BryceSr decided to get a job at a factory in Atlanta while Glennis got a job working at ‘’NetherlandsNursingHome’’ for two years and they along with their widowed moms Nala and Patrice attended a SouthernBaptist church in person during those two years. (BryceJr and his wife Juliet decided in 2022 to move to SanteFe, NewMexico when their jobs decided to transition.) Also in 2023, Glennis and BryceSr celebrated their 50th birthday and celebrated thirty years of marriage and had their ‘’third honeymoon’’ by going on their very first cruise! (Their 25th marriage anniversary happened in 2018 and they celebrated their ‘’second honeymoon’’ in Honolulu, Hawaii.) 

While Glennis, Sr, and their widowed moms Patrice and Nala lived in AtlantaGeorgia, they different many fun adventures. Some of the fun adventures that they did while living there were events such as the ‘’FoxTheater’’, ''GeorgiaAquarium,'' ''Atlanta'sBlackHistoryAndCivilRightsTour'', and the ''DrKingJrMuseum'' just to name a few. ( In fact during the summer of 2023, Emmett and Toshelle decided to take a vacation to see Glennis and BryceSr and their widowed moms Patrice and Nala and together they got to spend time together take pictures and enjoy the history of DrKingJrMuseum!) Glennis and BryceSr raised their sons to be hard working young men, dedicated to their families, to be caring for others, and dong what’s best for others no matter what. It was also a blessing that Emmett and his brother BryceJr as young black men had their biological father in the home considering that not all peers their age (especially black peers) didn’t always have a father in the home much less a positive male figure or see someone with a good long lasting marriage. It would be because of their parents' example that Emmett and his younger brother BryceJr knew what it meant being good husbands, fathers, and hard workers because those lessons would come in handy for Emmett especially since he and his family would encounter some hard times. What was his wife Toshelle’s background like?