'LIVING HERE IS A DREAM‘: Mike Huckabee promotes a new book and talks up his new home of South Walton

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee will be in the area Dec. 9 to promote his latest book, “Can’t Wait Till Christmas.”

For those looking for political reading fodder, this won’t be it.

Huckabee’s latest book is his second children’s book, and so simple even a member of Congress can understand it, he says.

It’s the true story of how the former governor and his sister would take their presents from under the tree, open them, then wrap them back up before their parents got home.

“My sister got very adept at it – surgically adept,” he remembers. “That was great fun until I got caught one year when I unwrapped my football on Christmas morning and it had mud on it.”

However, the former governor said the book carries the subtle lesson that patience is important.

The former Republican presidential candidate said he had such a great response to his children’s book of last year that he felt the need for another.

“It caused people to want to think about their own Christmases growing up and evoked deep memories for them,” he said.

As for himself, Huckabee said writing the book was cathartic.

“I reached deep inside and pulled out memories not touched before,” he said.

Huckabee grew up in Hope, Ark., the same small hometown claimed by Bill Clinton, although he didn’t know the former president as Clinton was older and had moved away. However, Huckabee’s father knew Clinton’s mother.

He still maintains a home in Arkansas as he has adult children living there, but Huckabee now claims Walton County, Florida, as his primary residence. He and his wife are renting a home at Sandestin while their home at Blue Mountain Beach is being built.

Huckabee said the change of states was not politically motivated.

“Political aspirations were not a factor in the move,” he said. “People try to read more into it than there is. Growing up as I did in Hope, Ark., it was a dream to do something like this. Living here is a dream. Our first place as young marrieds was a $40-a-month duplex, which was probably overpriced. And since I am in Manhattan weekly, it is slightly easier to get there from here with the new airport. Now if we could just get non-stop flights to New York, it would make my wife very happy.”

As for the choice of South Walton as opposed to other parts of Florida, Huckabee explains, “We have friends who wanted to have a place here for some time. They found two lots and they bought one and we bought one.”

Huckabee said in researching the best place to buy in all of Florida, the Panhandle made more sense.

“It’s less likely to be crowded and there is a great attitude among people here. In South Florida, all of New York and Connecticut relocates there. But South Walton is all Southeastern Conference. I can order grits and people know what I’m talking about. Not to mention, the most beautiful beaches in all of America,” he said. “It’s an incredible, magnificent area with the best restaurants that are on par with those in Manhattan, but you don’t have to hijack a Brinks truck to pay for the meal.”

Huckabee said he was in South Walton on Monday and didn’t want to leave the blue skies and perfect weather.

But will he give up the white beaches for the White House? 

“I don’t know,” he says cautiously. “I’m exploring my options. I will talk about it with my family during the holidays and make a decision next year.”

Huckabee will hold book signings Dec. 9 at Borders at 15575 Starfish Drive in Panama City Beach from 4 - 5 p.m., and at Books-a-Million at 4250 Legendary Drive at Destin Commons from 7 - 8 p.m. the same day.