Our Christmas tradition lives 2009

One of our family Christmas Traditions involves a book written each year by Serena. We meet and read the new book which chronicles our year as it might have occurred hundreds of years ago.
Made with love..
filled with words from the heart..
Everyone took turns reading. Marti started the mystical journey into the world of MyTam and Raven.

This is a an email I wrote to Oprah about our Christmas tradition.

Dear Oprah,

Every year for the past fifteen years, my friend Serena has written a book for me about our families. It’s written as if we were living hundreds of years ago as native-Americans on a mountain called Tarbone that sits in front of our home. You could think of the stories as parallel lives. The stories are about what has happened throughout each year. So you can only imagine over the past fifteen years the many things that have happened.

Our children were eight years old when she gave me my first book. I'll never forget it. We all gathered at her house to exchange gifts like many families do. We were all in the living room around the Christmas tree with the fireplace keeping us warm. When it came my turn to open my gift from Serena, it was a book, and not just any book. A book which was hand-made with love from pieces of leather glued and strapped together, it was filled with events that had happened thoughout the year.

In my book we all have native-American names. I am MyTam and my friend Serena is Raven. She took the book from my hands and began to read the stories about our families living together in a village hundreds of years ago on Tarbone Mountain.

It started fifteen books ago and Serena still writes me these incredible books each Christmas. She chronicled how our families have now gotten bigger. Our kids are grown, some are married, others getting married, they are working, and in med school.

I am blessed. I have this amazing friend who works full time and still manages to find the time to write and create a book every year. Each chapter is filled with events that have happened over the course of the year. There are stories of our children getting married as they might have long ago. Some of the stories are very funny and some sad.

I remember when I lost both my parents, she wrote beautiful stories about them both coming to visit our village in the fall. I laughed and I cried; yet I felt honored all at the same time. My books are written and dedicated to our children and will one day be passed down to our grandchildren to hopefully someday be read around their Christmas celebration. Then if we are lucky enough we'll hear the laughter of our grandchildren from Mother Earth below.

Christmas is an exciting time for our family because we know "Book Reading" night will be a time for gathering and a time for laughter and maybe a few tears as well. Over the years, our children have begun to realize that friendship can go beyond time and place. Friendships like the one shared by Serena and me are some of the most beautiful things of life.

I just didn't want another year to pass by without trying to find some way to let my friend Raven know how much I love her. “May you be blessed most by the gifts you give away” Serena Surbaugh

Thank you for allowing me to share my story.

Tammy Cook

Books of MyTam and Raven from years past

Last night we had our Christmas together and read book number 16. Everyone took a turn reading and once again Serena reached out and touched our hearts. If anyone out there knows how I might could get these books published please contact me.