Changes

The newer sequence takes place in 2012 and features the continuing story of Lauren Mabrey<ref>Formerly known as Lauren Gabriel before her marriage to Travis Mabrey, her story is told in the previous two books, ''[[The Christmas Town (book)|The Christmas Town]]'' (where after a night of aimless driving to escape her unhappy and unfulfilling life -- due in large part to being abandoned by her parents, and raised in the foster care system -- discovers Grandon by "accident" -- literally, as she witnesses a hit-and-run accident -- and upon returning to identify the driver, she continued to return there to volunteer for an upcoming fundraiser and ultimately finds the "family" she never had growing up) and ''[[The Christmas Star (book)|The Christmas Star]]'' (which shows her having moved to Grandon and her marriage to Travis)</ref>.  Having lived in Grandon for around a year and a half and married to Travis for six months, she continues to volunteer at Glory's Place where she meets a new volunteer, Andrea King (a middle-aged woman with one child in college and the other a high-school senior, who now has more time to volunteer).  Lauren has been ill for several days, which she blames on "supermarket sushi"; Andrea suspects another cause which turns out to be correct: Lauren is pregnant (and later learns that her due date is around her anniversary).

The newer sequence takes place in 2012 and features the continuing story of Lauren Mabrey<ref>Formerly known as Lauren Gabriel before her marriage to Travis Mabrey, her story is told in the previous two books, ''[[The Christmas Town (book)|The Christmas Town]]'' (where after a night of aimless driving to escape her unhappy and unfulfilling life -- due in large part to being abandoned by her parents, and raised in the foster care system -- discovers Grandon by "accident" -- literally, as she witnesses a hit-and-run accident -- and upon returning to identify the driver, she continued to return there to volunteer for an upcoming fundraiser and ultimately finds the "family" she never had growing up) and ''[[The Christmas Star (book)|The Christmas Star]]'' (which shows her having moved to Grandon and her marriage to Travis)</ref>.  Having lived in Grandon for around a year and a half and married to Travis for six months, she continues to volunteer at Glory's Place where she meets a new volunteer, Andrea King (a middle-aged woman with one child in college and the other a high-school senior, who now has more time to volunteer).  Lauren has been ill for several days, which she blames on "supermarket sushi"; Andrea suspects another cause which turns out to be correct: Lauren is pregnant (and later learns that her due date is around her anniversary).

The news of Lauren's pregnancy spurs her friends at Glory's Place to redecorate and furnish her and Travis' house for the arriving baby.  Notably, Miriam is able to negotiate a good price on a round black walnut kitchen table (which Larry, the store owner, purchased at a garage sale and refinished).  Travis notices that the table has a drawer, when he opens it he finds a stack of handwritten recipe cards (Larry bought the table years prior so he does not know who the prior owner was).

The news of Lauren's pregnancy spurs her friends at Glory's Place to redecorate and furnish her and Travis' house for the arriving baby.  Miriam is able to negotiate a good price on a round black walnut kitchen table (which Larry, the store owner, purchased at a garage sale and refinished).  Travis notices that the table has a drawer, when he opens it he finds a stack of handwritten recipe cards (Larry bought the table years prior so he does not know who the prior owner was; thus they can't return them).  The discovery spurs something within Lauren: having never had any real family meals with her neglecting (and ultimately abandoning) parents, and very few while in foster care, she wants to begin cooking and having real family meals.  She uses Andrea as a sounding board for her ideas (Andrea tells her that she isn't stupid for thinking about it, and her family would always have breakfast and dinner together, even if the time had to be changed due to children's activities).

''continue here''

Lauren begins to make several of the meals on the cards.  She discovers that she is actually a very good cook (even secretly providing desserts for the volunteers at Glory's Place) and asks Gloria about teaching cooking classes there.  She notices that a few of the cards mention a dairy farmer named Bud; she decides to track him down, to see if he may know who owned the cards previously.  Ultimately she is able to track him down; he doesn't recognize the handwriting but notices a picture of who he remembers as Gigi.

 

At a dinner party, the two time sequences are linked: Andrea is, in fact, Gigi (that was her name in childhood, but she didn't like it), John and Joan are her parents (and have come to town to visit; Joan survived her bout with cancer.  Andrea recognizes the recipe cards and the table: the table was accidentally sold in a moving sale and thought to be lost.  But one final reunion awaits: Larry comes over with some boxes for the upcoming Glory's Place; John recognizes him as the same Larry who he met in the hospital 40 years earlier.  Joan tells Larry that their meeting led both of them on a search to discover God and Jesus.  Lauren returns the recipe cards and the table to Andrea.

 

 

==References==

==References==