Day 6 - The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies & Giveaway

It's Day 6 of The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies, and we're just about at the half way point. I hope you are enjoying this week and all of the recipes as much as Kathy and I are. Today is Kathy's day to post a recipe (and it's for rugalah!), but I still wanted to be part of the celebration. So instead of doing something cookie-related, I'm going to giveaway a book -- and it's a good one!

Thanks to Kyle at Harper Collins, I have a copy of Wally Lamb's Christmas book WISHIN' AND HOPIN'. I just finished this book a few days ago, and I really liked it. It is the perfect read for this time of year, and it's guaranteed to make you laugh -- a lot!

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment telling me about the best gift you've ever received. To increase your chances, you can blog and/or tweet about this giveaway with a link back to this post. This contest will be open until Friday, November 27th at 11:59 p.m. ET, and I will notify the winner the following day. This contest is open to those of you with U.S. or Canada mailing addresses only -- no p.o. boxes please. Good luck!

Summary: It's 1964 and ten-year-old Felix is sure of a few things: the birds and the bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he'll never forget.

LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyone's turntable, and Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth grade—easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy.

Back in his beloved fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, with a new cast of endearing characters, Wally Lamb takes his readers straight into the halls of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parochial School—where Mother Filomina's word is law and goody-two-shoes Rosalie Twerski is sure to be minding everyone's business. But grammar and arithmetic move to the back burner this holiday season with the sudden arrivals of substitute teacher Madame Frechette, straight from Québec, and feisty Russian student Zhenya Kabakova. While Felix learns the meaning of French kissing, cultural misunderstanding, and tableaux vivants, Wishin' and Hopin' barrels toward one outrageous Christmas.

From the Funicello family's bus-station lunch counter to the elementary school playground (with an uproarious stop at the Pillsbury Bake-Off), Wishin' and Hopin' is a vivid slice of 1960s life, a wise and witty holiday tale that celebrates where we've been—and how far we've come. -- Harper