Today is the first Sunday of Advent! We light the first candle, the candle of HOPE. Hope is amazing! What would we do without it? If Jesus hadn’t been born, we couldn’t be born again. Let that sink in…
Have you started baking for Christmas yet? I definitely have not, but I have a few plans of sugar-free treats to try from Trim Healthy Mama. Anyone here on THM? I’m pretty new to it. As many of you know, I had a heart attack on October 27. Recovery is going well, but I am making changes for the sake of my health, and THM is one of them. That includes removing sugar and honey from my diet. Ouch!
What’s your favorite Christmas treat? These Mocha Peppermint Pretzels are one of my mine. I don’t think I can do these sugar-free unless anyone knows of sugar-free candy canes!
If you’re a winner, you should have received an email from the author in charge of the giveaway. If not, please email us at
prizes at inspyromance dot com
Brenda Anderson’s winner is Lindsay!
Marion Ueckermann’s winner is Lori Smanski!
Don’t forget… every comment you make qualifies you to win one of the monthly Amazon card giveaways!
The two winners from November are Naomi Karez and Teri DiVincenzo!
Last Week on Inspy Romance
On Monday, Brenda S Anderson challenged us with Love in Action… and giveaway (closed).
On Tuesday, Lindi Peterson invited us: Let’s Talk Travel… and giveaway!
On Wednesday, Krista Phillips asked our opinions of Booksignings – Cool or Meh?
On Thursday, Staci Stallings led us in Counting Blessings.
On Friday, Elizabeth Maddrey shared Advent Thoughts.
On Saturday, Roxanne Rustand started Ringing in the Christmas season… and giveaway!
Next Week on Inspy Romance
Monday: Marion Ueckermann — Snowflakes & Snuggles and #giveaway
Tuesday: Heather Gray
Wednesday: Liwen Ho — When Hearts Change and a #Giveaway
Thursday: Cecelia Dowdy — Hair And A Book Recommendation
Friday: Valerie Comer — Christmas Romance Roundup… and giveaway
Saturday: Autumn Macarthur
New Releases
December 2017
Christmas Reflections by Ginger Solomon
Texas Christmas Twins by Deb Kastner
Tropical Kiss and Tell by Liwen Y. Ho
Snowflakes & Snuggles: Six Heartwarming Christmas Romances by Marion Ueckerman, Cecelia Dowdy, Autumn Macarthur, and 3 others
November 2017
Rooted in Love (Garden Grown Romance 2) (Arcadia Valley Romance 11) by Valerie Comer
A Time to Love (Hope Series 2) by Staci Stallings
Love’s Choice (First Street Church Romances) by Liwen Y. Ho
A complete list of Inspy Romance books by our authors is always available on our BOOKS tab. Find our audiobooks and our permanently free e-books, as well as new releases, on our NEWS tab.
Valerie Comer is a USA Today bestselling author and a two-time Word Award winner who writes where food meets faith and fiction. She injects experience laced with humor into her green clean romances. Her life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily-ever-afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.
I normally make cookies for Christmas to give away. I make gingerbread cookies (and I hate gingerbread). I love eating the dough more than the final product. My downfall is more salty things like chips/crisps. I do eat a little candy but not as much as I use to but we can’t have Christmas without licorice its a tradition in this household of one! but it comes from childhood when we use to put out candies to share and always had them and a few others but licorice and smarties (like you have in Canada) are my two favourites.
I am still recovering from shoulder surgery so will see how mixing the dough goes this year as it still has lots of pain.
I hope you are doing better and keep improving.
I have always baked cookies as gifts, but this year I don’t know if I will be able to ?.
I do believe that there is sugar free candy canes available Valerie!
Hi Valerie! Glad to hear you are recuperating well. Advent is my favorite part of Christmas. Started Christmas baking yesterday. Favorite treat is chocolate peanut butter oatmeal bars. Figure they are semi healthy with oatmeal and peanut butter. Happy Advent.
I use several of the recipes from THM. So thankful you are doing well! For Christmas treats, my favorite (other than sugar cookies) is Pecan Turtles.
My parents always bought the little stacked licorice candies around Christmas time. All Sorts I think they were called? Also hard candies. I prefer cookies to candy, myself. I’m doing better, thanks. :)
Thanks for the heads-up on sugar-free candy!
Those do sound at least semi-healthy! I love combos of PB and chocolate. Thankfully I have found quite a few sugar-free recipes with that combo. Now I have to TRY THEM ALL to decide my favorite, LOL.
When my sister’s and my kids were little, my mom always had them over for a sugar cookie baking and decorating day. Such happy memories!
I’m finding lots of great-looking THM recipes for sweets as well as for meals. It’s just a matter of turning my brain, but it is already worth it!
I made my first batch of fudge yesterday, and need to make some sugar cookies. A cousin and I used to make them together and spend a half hour decorating each one :-) Then her brothers would gobble them up in a couple of bites :-)
LOL, that’s always the problem with those works of art, right?!?
I haven’t done any baking yet… I always like to make pumpkin bread in the fall around the holidays, but haven’t even done that yet!
We don’t necessarily bake Christmas cookies. My daughters love baking all year round so we have cookies baking in the oven on any given day.
No, I haven’t started baking yet. I’m trying to finish decorating.
Mmm, we processed three smallish pumpkins a couple of weeks ago. I have lots of pumpkin plans!
Mmmm cookies. I’m baking some chocolate chip ones this afternoon. And some sugar free fudge!
I haven’t started decorating, either! Not unusual for me, though.
Happy SONday Valerie! We haven’t even begun to decorate yet for Christmas! Our tree goes up about two weeks before and comes down New Year’s Eve.
I bet you can find out where to buy sugar free candy canes if you do a web search. With so many people eating better for health reasons, there’s so many options nowadays :-) I hope you can find some to make your yummy sounding Mocha Peppermint Pretzels. I may have to try them myself!!
Looking forward to another great week on Inspy Romance! Congrats to the winners!
OOOPS, that should read the tree comes down the day AFTER New Year’s.
We started baking and decorating for Christmas today! Don’t think I could go through without any sugar.. we have some recipes from my grandma that are a tradition in our family, I would definitely miss it!
I can do it without sugar… but not without sweeteners! There are half a dozen different kinds that don’t spike an insulin reaction. Who knew! I just found out recently.
Thanks, Trixi! Yes, I’ve had some links sent my way for sugar-free candy canes! Around here, we get a live tree, and it generally goes up a couple of weeks before Christmas and comes down NY Eve. My husband always says, “out with the old and in with the new!”
Great post, as always! And congratulations to the winners!
:)