Please welcome one
of my favorite people, Jacquie Rogers. Remember to comment for Jacquie’s
giveaway. Your comment also enters you for the Kindle Fire 7 on December 24.
What is your
favorite childhood Christmas memory?
I grew up on a dairy farm.
Cows don’t take holidays off, so our celebration had to wait until Dad
finished his morning chores. On
Christmas morning, my brother and I couldn’t go into the living room where the
tree was (and Santa’s presents were!) until Dad got done with the milking. Of course, we’d get up earlier than usual, so
that made the torture that much worse.
Mom would sit in her wheelchair and guard our door, but she
also brought us hot cocoa with marshmallows.
Then, of course, we’d have to use the restroom, and you know that on the
way in, we’d sneak peeks at the tree. Sometimes
we’d get a tantalizing glance at something really cool, but Santa was quite
good at positioning gifts so we couldn’t see them from the hall.
Then I remember hearing Dad come into the house, and to
prolong the agonizing wait, he had to clean up in the mud room before Mom would
let us come out of the bedroom. He’d
take his own sweet time washing up.
LOL. More torture! Once he was finally done and dried off, he’d
holler at us, and the stampede was on!
Fun times.
What is your
favorite adult Christmas memory?
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| Christmas tree farm |
That would have to be Mr R’s and my first Christmas
together. We’d bought a Queen Anne house
that had a big parlor and two huge bay windows, so I wanted a tree that would
fill it. The scrawny things at the
supermarket parking lot just wouldn’t do.
My sister told me about a nifty tree farm out by Parma [Idaho], so after much
persuasive discussion—not all of it talking—I convinced him that we needed to
go there.
We bundled up in heavy coats, boots, gloves, and stocking
caps to search for just the right tree. We
tromped through the six inches of snow over every square inch of the five acres,
evaluating every single tree. I finally
found The Perfect One—it was 12 feet tall and the trunk was at least 6” at the
base. Symmetrical. Beautiful.
I had to have it.
Mr R had quite a tussle cutting down that tree. He got down on his back in the snow and sawed
and sawed and sawed. Just as the tree
was tipping, his stocking cap came off, exposing his follicley-challenged head,
and steam billowed out! I laughed so
hard. We loaded the tree into the pickup
and headed for home
The next challenge was getting the tree through the front
door. Well, that’s a whole other story
that involves a considerable amount of bad language. Finally, once he managed to get the tree
upright in the parlor, we proceeded to decorate. He put over 1,500 lights on it, plus other
decorations and garland. It was the most
beautiful tree ever!
Then the cat climbed it and tipped it over.
Is there a
Christmas song that’s your favorite?
A.
Secular
– Carol of the Bells
B.
Religious
– O Holy Night
Tell us about your
family’s Christmas traditions.
My daughter and grandkids cook all sorts of delicious
goodies. We start a week ahead of time
and bake cookies. Usually there’s an
assortment of monster cookies, chocolate chippers, sugar cookies, peanut butter
cookies, gingerbread people (because as my grandson pointed out, the cookie
cutter doesn’t designate a particular sex), pumpkin cookies, persimmon bread,
pumpkin bread, and fudge.
On Christmas Eve, we bake pies—generally apple, lemon
meringue, pumpkin, and custard. Of
course, that day is also spent dashing about looking for scissors and tape to
wrap the last presents. Or, in my case,
all the presents. Then we wait for Santa
to come.
Christmas Day, Mr R and I usually have strawberry waffles
while we wait for our kids and their families to show up. Good grief, it’s no wonder we gain weight
over the holidays! Then we prepare the
turkey and whatever other fixin’s we can do ahead. By then, the horde has arrived. We unwrap gifts, laugh a lot, maybe sip a bit
of wine then have our big Christmas Dinner.
By the end of the day, we’ll all very ready to hit the hay.
What about
Christmas do you most enjoy?
The Christmas Spirit—peace and good will to all—and hanging
out with family. I just wish my other
daughter, who lives in Boise, and her family could be here as well. I also love Christmas carols and reading
Christmas romances.
Is there something
about this holiday that drives you crazy?
The commercialism really gets to me. I long for the olden days when we actually
made our gifts and didn’t hammer our credit cards until they squawked. And I really get annoyed when stores put out
their Christmas displays before Halloween.
What do you hope
for this Christmas?
A nice visit with my family, good health, a new house, and
an RV so we can visit our special friends in Texas more often. Oh, and I’d like my Muse to whisper in my
ear. She’s been rather quiet lately.
Do you have a
treasured Christmas food?
Would you share the recipe?
I like it all, unfortunately. And I didn’t learn to cook using recipes, so
that makes it hard to share, especially since I’m a dumper, not a
measurer. But for those of you who don’t
eat grains or sugar, here’s a recipe for custard that’s a tasty treat.
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| Custard |
Sugar-Free,
Grain-Free Lactose-Free Custard
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4 Eggs, whisked
Add:
1 tsp Vanilla
½ tsp Cinnamon
Sweetener
equivalent to ½ cup of sugar (or to taste)
Dash of salt
Whisk and add:
2½ cups Almond
milk (unsweetened)
Whisk as you drizzle the almond milk into the egg
mixture. Pour into 8” baking dish, put
it in a water bath, and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out
clean.
Note: this is even better in an Instant Pot. Pour into oven-proof pan and cover with a
double layer of paper towel and foil, then add 1½ cups water and the trivet to
the inner liner, place pan on the trivet (use a foil sling), then pressure cook
for 17 minutes, 15 minutes NPR. If it’s
not done, just cook it a few minutes more.
Do you have a book
you’d like to share?
I have four Christmas novellas, and the first three are on
Kindle Unlimited so if you’re a subscriber, you can get them for free. Click on the link and you can read an excerpt
of each.
I Heard the Brides on Christmas Day
How The Texan Stole Christmas
A Gift for Rhoda
Faery Merry Christmas
GIVEAWAY!
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Jacquie wearing her four WILL ROGERS
GOLD MEDALLIONS and holding the
books for which she won the awards
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First of all, I can't wait to tell you that the first two books of the Honey Beaulieu -- Man Hunter series won four Will Rogers Gold Medallions for Western Humor. FOUR! I'm still hyperventilating. And the first book in the series won Chanticleer's Laramie Grand Prize. It's such an exhilarating and at the same time humbling experience to win such prestigious awards and to know that someone else loved these characters as much as I do.
Now that's out of the way, here's a little about me. I'm a former software designer, campaign manager, deli clerk, and cow milker but always a bookworm. Reading is my passion--westerns, fantasies, mythologies, and historicals of any era, all with a dash of romance. If an author can make me laugh, I'll buy every book he/she ever wrote.
While I'm a country girl by birth, I currently live in suburbia with my very patient husband who is also my IT Guy. I don't think you can ever take the country out of a girl's heart. That's probably why many of my stories often take place in Idaho where I grew up. (Hearts of Owyhee series, the second Honey Beaulieu too, and some of my novellas and short stories, too.)
For the latest news, subscribe to the Pickle Barrel Gazette, my newsletter at my website
Why the Pickle Barrel? Because in the Old West, the pickle barrel was prominent in the general store and that's where people would hang out and gossip--sort of the Facebook of the late 1800s. Yep. That's how it was. We do have fun at our version of the pickle barrel, so join us.
You can find all my books and events on my website and I'd love for you to come visit. Drop me a line and let my know you've read my book. I really enjoy hearing from readers.
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| Jacquie and Mark Rogers |
