Have you noticed it is nearly Christmas?
In the part of Canada where I live, we have no snow yet. The current forecast is for light snow to start on December 22, so we may still have a white Christmas instead of a brown (mud) one. It certainly won’t be green! Some years we have plenty of snow by Christmas:
We’ll be going out in the mountains tomorrow with our son, daughter-in-law, and 2.5-year-old granddaughter to cut down two Christmas trees from the wild. It’s pretty typical for our family to get our tree up about ten days before Christmas.
We’re big on handmade ornaments around here. Big on family. Big on food. Big on Christmas carols, nativity scenes, and the story of Jesus’ birth.
We’re not so big on gifts, even with three preschool granddaughters. The children don’t need more toys or clothes or, hard as it is for an author grandmother to admit, even more books. Their parents (and grandparents!) don’t need more stuff either. Love isn’t about boxes and over-extended charge cards. It’s about spending time together and making memories.
Why not share a Christmas tradition important to your family in comments?
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The winner of a book by Carol Moncado is DK Stevens
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This past week:
On Monday, Carol Moncado turned her characters loose to in an interview between her characters. #giveaway
On Tuesday, Belle Calhoune interviewed Angel Moore. #giveaway
On Wednesday, Katherine Reay shared her favorite Christmas Romance
On Thursday, Jennifer Slattery turned the floor over to Sweet Christmas Love Story by Marcia Gunnet Woodard.
On Friday, Krista Phillips spilled about her first Christmas Eve Kiss.
On Saturday Hallee Bridgeman offered all of us a FREE Christmas novella.
Up next week:
Monday: Lindi Peterson
Tuesday: Lynette Sowell
Wednesday: Kimberly Rose Johnson
Thursday: Merrillee Whren
Friday: Annalisa Daughety
Saturday: Ginger Solomon
Special Deals!
Nowhere for Christmas by Heather Gray is on sale today only for 99¢!
Love Brings Us Home BOX SET by Hallee Bridgeman, Valerie Comer, JoAnn Durgin, Kimberly Rae Jordan, Staci Stallings, Lynette Sowell, and Debra Ullrick — for 99¢!
A Side of Faith by Krista Phillips is only $1.00 this month. #DollarDecember
Snowflake Tiara by Angela Breidenbach and Valerie Comer is only 99 cents this month. #DollarDecember
NEW RELEASES December 2014
Yuletide Baby by Deb Kastner
Heart of a Soldier by Belle Calhoune
The Best Man’s Holiday Romance by Gail Sattler
A Model Bride by Autumn Macarthur
Prelude (Prequel to The Lewis Legacy Series) by JoAnn Durgin (December 19)
Inspy Romance Christmas Reads!
Christmas Comes to Bethlehem, Maine by Lorraine Beatty, Elizabeth Ludwig, Sandra Robbins, and Virginia Vaughan (4 contemporary stories)
Snowflake Tiara by Angela Breidenbach and Valerie Comer (historical -> contemporary)
A Great Teton Sleigh Ride by Lynette Sowell and Elizabeth Goddard (4 generations, historical -> contemporary)
Sleigh Ride Together with You (Starlight Christmas 3) by JoAnn Durgin
A Holiday Proposal by Kimberly Rose Johnson
Yuletide Baby by Deb Kastner
The Best Man’s Holiday Romance by Gail Sattler
A Model Bride by Autumn Macarthur
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.
We do a fair amount of gift giving here with nine of us living in the same house. Each year the kids draw names and buy a gift for their person instead of all of them trying to get something for all the others (which would up being dollar store items because I was the one buying). I’d rather do seven not-too-expensive gifts than tons of cheap stuff that broke in less than a day.
My husband and I also instituted a code system for presents instead of the child’s name. Each year it’s different, and each year they LOVE trying to decipher the code before Christmas morning. Some years they actually get it.
One last tradition, and I’ll be quiet. On Christmas Eve, my husband and I devise a treasure hunt, where each child gets three clues in order to find one of their presents (of our choice). I love watching them try to figure out the clues, and the joy of getting one correct. It’s rarely about the gift at the end, but the journey to get there.
We enjoy getting out & looking at the lights & displays on Christmas Eve & then home for cocoa & snacks. We don’t do alot of gifts. Usually we by some fun items, play games & winner gets a gag gift or socks or lotion.. We also love making memories… I think Ginger in the comments has a wonderful idea & sometimes we draw names with a theme for the gift…
When I was a little girl, we lived in Washington, D.C. My Father would never buy our real & large Christmas tree until Christmas Eve when the prices had been reduced. He would try to buy the tree for about a $1.00. Yes, that is correct! LOL Then we would go home and decorate it. To me, it was the most beautiful tree there was, of course. It would be cold; but not always snow on the ground. Sometimes we did have snow, too! There would be no presents under it until Christmas morning ~ then there were plenty. (Whatever I had for them, I guess I gave out on Christmas morning, too. I no longer remember for some reason called, senior citizen.) There was always an emphasis on the real meaning of Christmas as well. And food, O, the goodies . . . my Mother was a superb cook. Memories are a precious thing to treasure.