Christmas is a big thing in our house. A month-long big thing.
We start on the 1st with the Elves on the Shelf arriving with their pets. I think we’re up to six in the entourage, and of course, they move every night to a location for the youngest kid to find them.
We also start the advent calendar countdown, leaving little gifts like pencils, candies, rolled-up dollar bills, or tiny toys in the calendar’s pockets.
Then on St. Nick’s Night (I think it’s spelled Kriskindlnacht), the kids all leave out a shoe beside the front door. Santa visits and leaves gold coins or coal along with more small gifts to let the kids know how he’s judged their behavior. This tradition was one I began when my family lived in Germany and my two kids were small. They both attended German schools, so they had to have the same traditions as their classmates, right? Anyway, the 8-year-old is thrilled about tonight and just as thrilled that Nina (me!) gets to leave out a shoe as well. Yes, my dd is continuing the tradition and has decided that, since I’m the biggest kid in the house, I have to participate. Notice that I don’t tell her not to bother… 🙂
So, my question to you is whether you have any Christmas month traditions you follow leading up to the big day. Answer for a chance to win your choice of one of my downloadable books. Your choice!
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This is where I’ll be today! My daughter and I will have a table. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, but we have some “things” to sell!
So, I’ll leave you with this puzzle because—it’s Saturday! Solve the Puzzle, then tell me what you’re doing to get “holiday ready” for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
So, have you heard about KISS? I have three of my Entangled books in the app now:Â Five Ways ‘Til Sunday, Burning Up Memphis, and the latest release, Hotter with a Pole.
Don’t know what KISS is? Here’s the pitch!
KISS is a new and exciting way to experience Romance stories of all genres. Enjoy serialized quality content from NYT and USA Today bestselling authors, available right from your phone.
KISS has hundreds of titles and authors to choose from, including new and exclusive content from some of your favorite voices!
Best of all, you can choose just how much to read with our pay-as-you-go format!
So basically, it’s a phone/tablet app you can use to download stories. It’s easy and so addictive to use! And to help you on your way to your new addiction, I’m offering 20 coins to four readers! Let me know below whether KISS is something you’ve already tried or are going to try right now for a chance to win those coins! There will be 4 winners!
Open Contests
Be sure to enter these contests while you’re here!
I want to start by thanking Delilah for letting me come play in her space again today! It’s been a while, and I always enjoy visiting all of you here.
We just wrapped up my favorite holiday of the year here in the U.S. Thanksgiving is just the start of a long stretch of holidays, though. When I still worked in retail, that meant one of our busiest times of year, which made the holiday season a whole lot less fun with all of the extra hours we put in and some people who didn’t care if they were on a naughty list. I bet some of you have dealt with the same things in one way or another.
Holidays as adults are a lot different than when we were kids, aren’t they? All the work, not as much of the fun. Shopping, cooking, baking, wrapping, decorating, other obligations. Kids get to enjoy only the good stuff, the fun things. They rip into gifts with no thought about the huge pile of crumpled wrapping paper shoved into a corner. They get to eat the foods without any of the prep work, though when I was a kid, we did ‘help’ my mom with the baking, as kids do—getting in her way, spilling flour and sprinkles all over the kitchen, then getting out of the way when fresh cookies came out of the oven and leaving her to deal with the clean-up. Wouldn’t you sometimes like to do things that way now? Take part in all the fun bits, but none of the messy stuff?
I’m afraid I can’t really help with that, but thinking about holidays as a kid also makes me think of favorite things from those long ago holiday seasons. Like my grandma’s nut rolls—she always made extras to put in the freezer so she had something quick to pull out when company came throughout the year, and I loved getting a nice slice with butter on. I begged her for the recipe for a few years before she gave it to me, and it still makes me smile when I look at the index card with her neat handwriting and imprecise measurements and directions. My nut rolls are still not quite there yet, but I work on them every year. (I also cheat and make the dough in my bread machine now.) Or my other grandma’s sand tarts. She rolled that dough so thin, you could see light through it when the cookies were baked. I gave up on making those a long time ago—much too hard to get that dough that thin, then all the time spent with the cookie cutters and decorations, and such a mess to clean up afterward. My mom did that every year, too, and I can’t imagine doing it with a kitchen full of kids underfoot. But I really miss those cookies…just the right amount of sweet and perfectly crisp.
For our Thanksgiving dinners, I used to experiment with different kinds of stuffing each year, until I discovered how amazing stuffing is when made with sage and onion bread. That is a constant on our Thanksgiving dinner table now, along with a corn pudding and some variety of homemade cranberry sauce, plus the turkey of course. One thing that has been on our holiday table for years, though, is my grandma’s china. My Pop-pop gave it to me as a gift one year, and using it for holiday dinners makes me remember Thanksgiving dinners at their house when I was little, with immediate and extended family and friends around the table.
I think most of us have some favorite holiday recipe or family tradition that we try to continue even as adults, right? Something for our kids or even just ourselves. I’d love to hear about yours, and if you share by the end of Friday, December 3, 2021, I have an ebook copy of my most recent release, Protecting Medusa, up for grabs via a drawing on RandomResult.com.Â
Protecting Medusa Blurb
Being the Medusa will put a real crimp in a woman’s social life. Lucky for Philomena Gregory, she gave up on men long before Athena’s curse landed on her head—she learned as a child men don’t stay, a lesson reinforced when she was a lovesick teenager. Not even the hot naked man in her bathroom will change her mind.
Ryder Ware has waited six years to meet Mena in person. She’s managed to avoid him every time he’s visited his son, her nephew. Flirting on the phone and via email is no substitute when a man is so intrigued. But now that Athena’s Harvesters have found her, Mena has no choice but to let him keep her safe—and close, very close.
Philomena may have to accept his protection, but, even if the chemistry between them is hotter than Hades, she won’t change her mind about a relationship, even after a little hot sex. Or even a lot of sex. Good thing Ryder’s a patient man. After years of waiting, what’s a few more weeks to convince the woman of his dreams he wants forever?
About the Author
Elizabeth Andrews has been a book lover since she was old enough to read. She read her copies of Little Women and the Little House series so many times, the books fell apart. As an adult, her book habit continues. Almost as long as she’s been reading great stories, she’s been attempting to write her own. Thanks to a fifth grade teacher who started the class on creative writing, she went from writing creative sentences to short stories and eventually full-length novels. Then, as a teenager, she found her mother’s stash of romance novels, and her future direction in writing was pretty well set in stone.
Along with her enormous book stash, Elizabeth lives with her husband of more than twenty-five years, and their two young adult sons live near enough to see frequently, though no one else in the family reads as much as she does. When she’s not at work or buried in books or writing, there is a garden outside full of herbs, flowers and vegetables that requires occasional attention, plus some neighborhood stray cats who like more frequent attention.
So, funny story. My daughter and I decided to buy a VERY small turkey for the feast because we really hate the endless leftover turkey that has to be dealt with. We bought a 9-pound turkey. Yes, they do exist! But what’s funny is that when we thawed it and removed the plastic wrapping, we discovered how they made it weigh so little. NO LEGS OR WINGS. Or innards in the little plastic pouch. Yeah. But hey, the turkey was delicious, and we only have two days of meat to finish off. Actually, it was the least dry turkey I’ve ever eaten.
Puzzle Contest!
Solve the puzzle to see a yummy solution for all those leftovers hogging up your fridge. Then post the name of your favorite dish using Thanksgiving leftovers for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card.
Between two evils, I like to pick the one I haven’t tried before. ~Mae West
I’m a film buff. I’ll admit it. And I love old classic movies. My absolute favorite black and white movies are Harvey with Jimmy Stewart and Arsenic and Old Lace with Cary Grant. I don’t watch as many these days because the family surrounding me doesn’t get black and white. If there aren’t explosions and superheroes, and dazzling color, what’s the point?
I included the quote above because Mae West was always a treat on the screen. How she got away with some of the things she said back in the day of strict censorship I’ll never know. She was witty, sexy, and her one-liners still slay.
Anyway, Mae West isn’t why I’m here. I got sidetracked.
The other day, I asked you to vote on your favorite themes for a future Boys Behaving Badly Anthology. I’ll admit, I had my favorite. I thought for sure it would be number one. Also, the times I’ve mentioned my theme to authors, they were very excited to write something for it. However, your choices have me rethinking. Not only do I need to appeal to readers but I also have to attract writers to the project.
So, vote one more time to help me decide. I’m not saying I’ll choose your idea in the end. I have to love the idea, too. However, your choices do influence. And here’s a challenge for you! I put two themes together in a couple of those choices because they looked interesting to me…
(1) Vote for your favorite theme, then (2) offer an idea for a title for the book for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! The previous titles have been Rogues, Blue Collar, Pirates, Stranded, First Response, and Cowboys. So shorter titles are preferred!
Narrowing it down... Which themes appeal to you the most for the next Boys Behaving Badly Anthology? Choose only one!
Silver Foxes/Military Heroes (40%, 8 Votes)
Silver Foxes (30%, 6 Votes)
Military Heroes (20%, 4 Votes)
Military Heroes/Winter Holiday Stories (10%, 2 Votes)
U.S. Thanksgiving is just days away! One last grocery shop tomorrow, and then we’ll be spending the week with the kids, hunkered down for the cold and getting ready for the big feast on Thursday. This year, it’ll just be us. We’re still observing COVID protocols to keep the seven inside this house safe. We’ll miss visiting with family, but it is what it is. And truthfully, we’re looking forward to the downtime—playing board games in the evenings and watching movies together. I cleared my calendar of work so I can enjoy the time, although I might work on some jewelry and art projects, maybe make some potholders, too, to get ready for the crafts show my daughter and I are participating in early December. We’re not nearly ready. However, this kind of rush is the kind I enjoy when I get to create something with my hands, beads, and paint.
But onto the contest! I’m wondering two things. Solve the puzzle, because it’s fun! Then tell me, are you enjoying an expanded family gathering this year? Are you traveling to get there? Answer for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
I’m a film buff. I’ll admit it. And I love old classic movies. My absolute favorite black and white movies are 
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