The happiest time of the year is also the creepiest. Winter has an even darker and richer lore than Halloween. For centuries, people have feared creatures from ancient legends born of this time of year. Tales such as giant hairy monsters who live in the mountains and will snatch you up and eat you were used to ensure children didn't wander off in the snow and become lost. These were indeed just stories ... or were they? This festive feast of fear contains original hand-drawn and inked illustrations from a variety of traditional beliefs and legends from around the world-- ready for you to bring to colorful life with fearsome festive cheer.

The new prosecutor faces an old controversy -- An unlikely setting for murder -- Did Sam murder Marilyn? -- Putting the pieces of the puzzle together -- Final trial preparation : the emergence of the prosecutor's strategy -- Opening statements : setting the stage -- The Sheppard team presents its case -- The prosecutors speak -- Closing arguments and a verdict : the end of a legal era.

Most of us have a messy relationship with conflict. When confronted with it, our fight-or-flight response kicks in and we either rush into battle or back away. By defaulting to one of these options, however, we risk damaging ties to people we care about, opening ourselves up to future retaliation, or allowing resentments to fester.Positively Conflicted invites us to reexamine our instinctive reactions to conflict. Full of stories from the author's own life and the mediations he's facilitated, the book shows us how conflict can be productive-even nourishing-when approached with curiosity, kindness, and openness.

Sam Adams is a retired professor with a bad heart. He lives alone with his aging cat in the home he shared for 46 years with his recently departed wife. Christmas is two weeks away and this one will be special. Sam s only son, Roger, and his two grandchildren, are coming home. After learning the joyous news, Sam scrambles to make a holiday home the way his wife once did. He soon realizes it is much hard work; as well as the humbling fact that more than one of his friends and neighbors will likely not have a Christmas as good as his unless someone helps them out. After many anxious days of careful preparations, Sam is devastated to learn just hours before the holiday that his son and his family will not be joining him. Roger s mother-in-law has had a stroke, and she needs them by her side. Sam feigns a steely resolve for his son s sake, and then predictably goes into the tank. Sam awakes from his stupor with an Epiphany--the real joy of Christmas comes from making others happy. He quickly gets to work, donning the faded old Santa Claus outfit from his teaching days. Using the presents he intended for his family, Sam sets out to affect the true reason of the season by sharing them with his needy friends and neighbors, who are overjoyed by his generosity and kindness. Through a series of timely flashbacks we learn of Sam s lifelong, magical, mysterious relationship with Santa Claus, and how he and Sam worked together for years to make Christmas special for so many. A story of the human capacity to love and be loved, Santa & Sam is a heartfelt contemplation of mankind s most enduring mystery, as well as a lasting celebration of a cherished international holiday tradition.