September brings the first hints of autumn to Acorn Hill, and with the cooler air comes a new set of challenges for the Howard sisters. Jane runs into her old teammate Carrie, the one girl on the high school cross-country team whom Jane could never beat. And when Carrie asks Jane to enter a charity 5K race, Jane trains to win not just against the clock, but also against her old rival. Meanwhile, Vera Humbert's aunt is facing the prospect of moving out of her home. Alice does her best to make the fiercely independent woman's last days comfortable and satisfying, but when she refuses to move, Alice comes up with a solution that no one expected. It is Louise's work in the garden, however, that has everyone delighted. Her giant pumpkin is growing bigger than anyone—especially humble Louise—every imagined. Will her giant gourd be big enough to break the record and bring fame to Acorn Hill? Through all this excitement, the women of Grace Chapel Inn try to remember to keep...

A collection of three novellas celebrating the beauty of Christmas at Grace Chapel Inn. It's Christmas morning, and as the Howard sisters celebrate some of their family's treasured traditions, they reminisce about Christmases past. Jane reads from the Bible, as their father always did, and remembers when she took part in a living Nativity. Cast as an angel, she decided to make her part more exciting, resulting in a dangerous fall from a hayloft. She should have been seriously injured, but a Christmas miracle changed the course of her life. Louise studies the badly constructed stocking she made for her newborn daughter Cynthia and recalls her first Christmas as a mother. And Alice examines the special ornament she received the year she organized a program to give all the animals from a nearby shelter a home for Christmas. The novellas capture a sense of nostalgia and the ideal of a good old-fashioned Christmas.