Talmidge Cotton's daddy is the kind of person who believes Christmas presents are for Christmas, not two days before. So on the day before Christmas Eve, Tal still isn't sure he'll get what he wants most: the chance to run his three beagles in the woods at night all by himself. That afternoon it begins to snow, an almost unheard-of occurrence in Louisiana. Tal is excited by the strange and wonderful weather and the prospect of his first white Christmas,...