The Romance of a Christmas Card

Well... it starts badly enough... full of praise to womenly women, self-sacrificing, codependent, always “happy”, relentlessly working for everyone else. Brrr...We have a 60-years old parson marrying a 45 years old woman who looked like a 25 years oldOr perhaps he was 60 at the time of the story... I don't remember, and can't be bothered to go back and check. He has a not yet 30 years old son, who has a best friend 4 or 5 years junior, and he's in love with the friend's sister, who is 3 years older than her brother. The brother married a girl when he was 21, and had twins, the girl died at child birth, and the brother left the village, and left his 24 years old sister alone to care for the twins. The son proposed to the sister, who said “no”, for some weird reason, because she didn't know yet that she was to be the fostermother to her brother's twins, and she loved the parson's son... but - I suppose it's for the story. Anyway, the boys - or young men - leave the village and return at the time of the book's events, four years after the birth of the twins. Or three years, Kate Douglas Wiggin is a bit undecided about that. And the brother has found a good woman who sacrificed herself to make a man out of him, and he's now changed into a good man, because of a woman's love, and the parson's son is somewhat economically successful businessman now, so assumable the brother takes his kids to live with his new wife, and the sister is free to marry her love, who is now assumable worthy of her love and hand...A lot of sentimental drivel with questionable Victorian values, but... it does get me. I cried. And it's rather inspiring. I would like to write about these people, but without Kate Douglas Wiggin's... hmmm... what to call it... attitude? It bothered me with [b:Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm 17529 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Kate Douglas Wiggin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348026765l/17529.SY75.jpg 1063767] as well.