Yoshka's Journey to Christmas

Yoshka's Journey to Christmas is a heart-warming story about a little dog who begins her journey in a sealed crate and ends up in an unexpected place. Shortly after the townspeople put up and decorate a very large tree, a storm rolls through town, and suddenly Yoshka's life changes forever. Follow her on her journey through good times and bad, as she tries to make a place for herself in her new town.

I grew up in McKeesport, PA. I have two brothers and one sister. We just loved Christmas and all the excitement it brought to our home. We had many family traditions starting with going to town to see the Christmas decorations. It meant I could take out my favorite Christmas Book from my Grandma Lizzie's book shelf, Poochy the Christmas Pup, and read it and dream about the holiday. Watching my mom bake Christmas cookies and the smell that permeated the house is indescribable. We couldn't wait until Rudolph was on TV, and you made sure you watched it because there were no VCR's or TiVO's in those days. Arguments between my mom and dad were also part of our tradition. My father often ate all the cookies my mom just baked leading to her having to hide them before his arrival home from work. They also argued over whether the tree was straight and secured to the wall. Our Christmas Eve tradition consisted of our going to my dad's mom's home where we spent the evening with all our cousins, whom we saw only on this occasion. Dinner was a traditional Czechoslovakian Christmas dinner consisting of mushroom soup, fried fish, peas, and bobalky, which was not a meal the children liked. We were all blessed by my Grandma Bodnar with a cross on our forehead made with honey. It was to keep us sweet throughout the year. When the evening was over, we were anxious to arrive home because my mom's parents were at our house helping Santa put out the gifts, since we were his first stop on his Christmas journey. Upon our arrival home, it was so exciting to see gifts from one end of our living room to another.
When I married my husband, we moved to Victor, NY. We found ourselves combining traditions from both our families. Our traditions, are a little different from what we grew up with. Since we live six hours away from our extended families, we've had to create many new ones.
My own children are now grown but we still continue the traditions we created as a family. The excitement in our house hasn't changed and still erupts on Christmas morning with our boys counting their presents and making present forts. Our friends have graciously adopted us into their families and have let us become part of their family traditions. We celebrate by hosting a Christmas party each year with good friends, a lot of good food, games and much laughter. No matter how old our children get this has become the tradition that all the families look forward to each year.
Our Christmases will continue to change, as our children move away from home and begin their own traditions with their fa...