SKYPE MAKES OURS A FAMILY CHRISTMAS

Please welcome Judy Ann Davis, award winning author and member of the Smart Girls Read Romance blog as well as her own blog. Please remember to comment to be entered in the giveaway for a Kindle Fire 7 tomorrow. 

What is your favorite childhood Christmas memory?

When I was in grade school, our family used to scour our dairy farm for the perfect pine tree to decorate for Christmas. It was unheard of to purchase to one with pine forests on the land. My mother had the most beautiful, cardboard star reflectors with mirrors on each point that surrounded each lighted bulb on the tree. Even the scrawniest tree looked perfect.

Search for the perfect
tree was a tradition

What is your favorite adult Christmas memory?

When my son was deployed in the Mid-East, we postponed Christmas and celebrated later in the next year. As part of a four-generation military family, you realize it’s not the presents that count, but the people.

Is there a Christmas song that’s your favorite?

I have always liked “Silver Bells” since childhood, and I love “Mary Did You Know.”

Tell us about your family’s Christmas traditions.

On Christmas Eve, my husband and I attend church in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. With a son and daughter-in-law in Alaska and another son and daughter-in-law in Texas, we open presents via Skype close to midnight, allowing for a four-hour time difference. The six of us (and perhaps seven of us with a surprise baby) are on Skype for a loooong time each December.

Taken at New Smyrna Beach, Florida

What about Christmas do you most enjoy?

I have to admit that it’s the Christmas songs that keep me in the holiday mood. I have continuous Christmas music playing throughout the house after Thanksgiving. I also set out little lighted ceramic and artificial trees around the house.

Judy's lighted ceramic decorations

Is there something about this holiday that drives you crazy?

I dislike the commercial attitude of having to start displaying Christmas products before Halloween.

What do you hope for this Christmas?

I’m hoping for a very healthy, happy first grandson and first grandchild who’s due on December 21 up in snowy Alaska.  Fingers crossed, he’s not late.

Do you have a treasured Christmas food? If so, would you care to share the recipe?  

Below is a family favorite.

Sugar cookies are always a favorite

DELUXE SUGAR COOKIES

1 cup butter

1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla (clear)

½ teaspoon almond extract

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Granulated sugar for decorating

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix thoroughly butter, confectioners’ sugar, egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Blend in flour, soda and cream of tartar. Cover and chill 2 to 3 hours.

Divide dough in half. Roll each ball 3/16 inch thick on lightly floured board. Cut into desire shapes, sprinkle with colored granulated sugar. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until light brown on edge.

NOTE: Because these are a more delicate crisp cookie, sometimes the designs of intricate shapes do not bake with clear lines. Trees, wreaths, simple shapes work best.  Yield: About 5 dozen cookies.

Do you have a book you’d like to share?

Sorry, I do not have a Christmas book, but I had a new May release, a humorous romantic suspense with a touch of ghostly intervention entitled, FOUR WHITE ROSES.

Here’s a link to my Amazon Author’s Page of all my books:  https://www.amazon.com/Judy-Ann-Davis/e/B006GXN502/

Judy Ann Davis, Author

Judy Ann Davis has wanted to be a writer since she was a child. She was born and raised on a dairy form in northeastern Pennsylvania. Judy began her career in writing as a copy and continuity writer for radio and television in Scranton, PA. Throughout her career, she has written for both industry and education.

Many of her short stories have appeared in various literary and small magazines and anthologies and have received numerous awards. Nineteen of them are now collected in UP ON THE ROOF AND OTHER STORIES. Her novel UNDER STARRY SKIES features the Ashmore family and many of the same characters as in RED FOX WOMAN, her first novel, which was a finalist in the International Book Awards and USA Book News Best Book Awards. KEY TO LOVE, her second novel published by The Wild Rose Press, is a contemporary romantic suspense. SWEET KISS offers comedy with a hint of mystery. FOUR WHITE ROSES is her latest release.

When Judy Ann isn't behind a computer, you can find her looking for anything humorous to make her laugh or swinging a golf club, where the chuckles are few. She is  member of Pennwriters, Inc. and of Romance Writers of America and lives with her husband in Clearfield, PA.

Website: www.judyanndavis. com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/judyann.lashinskidavis

Twitter: @judyanndavis4

Merry Christmas!

CUPID SANTA!

Please welcome my longtime friend and a bestselling author, Sylvia McDaniel. Sylvia has a giveaway to someone who comments. Commenting also enters you for the Kindle Fire 7 giveaway on Christmas Eve!

What is your favorite childhood Christmas memory?

When Santa brought me my bicycle. We lived in a small house in San Angelo and had gone to my grandparents. I didn’t think I would get a bicycle that year, but I was surprised. I had to be 5/6 years old.

What is your favorite adult Christmas memory?

The first year my husband and I went to Christmas Mass - we weren’t even married, but that night, I knew he was the one.

Is there a Christmas song that’s your favorite?

A.   Secular — The one by the Carpenters – “Merry Christmas, Darling” — makes me cry every time I hear it.

B.   Religious — “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”

Tell us about your family’s Christmas traditions.

We’re an odd bunch and really don’t have many. My grandmother, my mother and myself use to give our presents to each other in the same box. One year I received it, the next year my mother, then my grandmother. We passed that box around until it fell apart.

What about Christmas do you most enjoy?

My family has shrunk tremendously, though I love being with them, my favorite parts are the decorations and the lights. I think it’s because when I was a kid we would spend Christmas Eve driving around looking at the lights.

Is there something about this holiday that drives you crazy?  

People at the mall.

What do you hope for this Christmas?  

My year is crazy this year and it’s going to be a quiet Christmas. I’m praying for less stress and for Spring to get here quick. As for a gift…I’d like a smaller lighter Apple laptop computer from Santa.

Do you have a treasured Christmas recipe you’d like to share?

         Cheeseball

          1 8 oz Cream Cheese

          1 Flat can Crushed Pineapple drained very well —this is the most important step

          1/2 Cup Bell Pepper chopped fine

          1/2 Tablespoon Seasoning Salt

          2 Tablespoons onions minced

          1 1/2 cup chopped pecans

         

          Let the cream cheese soften then squish all this together except for the pecans - then chill the cheese ball. Once it’s firm again, roll in the chopped pecans.

          If you like it spicy - add finely chopped Jalepeños.

Do you have a Christmas book you’d like to share?

I'll give away a copy of CUPID SANTA!

Blurb: CUPID SANTA

Determined to find her perfect match, Brie Simpson sets out for Cupid, Texas to test the superstition of dancing naked around the statue and discover true love. Only, to learn destiny betrayed her when she gets handcuffed and hauled to jail.

After complaints about the silliness of people dancing naked around the statue, Deputy Stephen Austin doesn’t believe in the magic of Cupid with good reason. When he finds himself in a jam, with no one to help plan the annual Christmas party, he’s forced to turn to his prisoner.

Can Cupid help a pessimist and a perfectionist come together for the sake of the children and save Christmas?

CUPID SANTA Excerpt:

Brie glanced around the town square at the boy in a diaper with his arrow drawn back. What was a practical, logical woman like herself doing standing naked in a park waiting for the clock to strike the dancing hour? Never one for crazy stunts, she feared if seized by the law, her friends and family would assume she finally went off the deep end. 

Her luck with men was like a bad hand of craps in Vegas. Lucky seven appeared at the wrong time. Sure, this was a superstition. One that could find her looking out between bars. 

But the numbers of couples who admitted to having met because of the Cupid Stupid run proved something about this dance brought people together. Enough people, that here she stood in her birthday suit, hoping the man she encountered would accept her plus size body. 

The clanging gong struck midnight, the ding dong resounding through the park. Ready to get this process started, she began to jog, shivering in the cold as she chanted the words the legend required you say. "Oh Cupid, find me my true love. Oh Cupid, find me my true love."

According to the superstition you had to make it around the boy in the diaper at least three times, more if you were desperate. At the ripe old age of thirty, even the sixty-year-old janitor in her building looked appealing. Eager to marry and have the family she dreamed of, she was willing to risk it all tonight.

On the third lap, she spotted a figure coming around the statue and sped up. 

"Stop," he called. "Halt."

Taking a glance behind her, she detected a man dressed in a Santa suit chasing her and busted out laughing. 

"Stop, I'm the law."

"Law? Where's your badge and gun?"

The jolly old man huffed and puffed. Seemed Santa skipped the gym lately. 

"Deputy Stephen Austin."

The father of Texas? Sure, and she was Pocahontas.

“And I’m Barnie Fikes. Leave me alone, I'm finding true..."

Stunned, she stopped, staring at the man running toward her. "Oh my, you're my true love. But you're old."

As he ran up to her, he slapped the handcuffs around her wrist.

"I'm your worst nightmare. You're under arrest for public indecency," he said. 

His hat fell to the ground and she saw that he wore fake whiskers and his hair was a dark brown.

"Wait, I'm your true love," she said. "No, you can't arrest me."

"Watch me," he said. "Santa is taking you to jail."

"I knew I should have gone to Bride, Texas," she said with a sigh.

Click here to continue reading Brie’s story CUPID SANTA

Sylvia McDaniel. Author

USA Today bestselling author Sylvia McDaniel has published more than thirty western historical romance, contemporary romance and even a few sci-fi novels.  Known for her sweet, funny, family-oriented romances,  Sylvia is the author of The Burnett Brides a historical western series, The Cuvier Widows, a Louisiana historical series, Lipstick and Lead, a western historical series and several short contemporary romances.

Married for over twenty years to her best friend, they have one dachshund that reigns Queen Supreme over the house, a new puppy who is challenging the queen and a good-looking, grown son who thinks there’s no place like home. She loves gardening, hiking, shopping, knitting and football (Cowboys and Bronco’s fan), but not necessarily in that order.
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CELIA YEARY'S NEW TRADITION

Chocolate Covered Cherries

Today in Walgreens, while waiting for a prescription, my husband and I strolled toward a row of chairs to wait. Dividing the row in half sat a table filled with bright red boxes of Chocolate Covered Cherries--A gift for a loved one. 

Chocolate Covered Cherries? Remember those? The chocolate was good, but not spectacular, and when you bit into one, the cherry juice ran out. Oh, the cherry is good, too, but all in all...it's a messy experience. 

Still, I remembered a boy in 8th grade who gave me a box of Chocolate Covered Cherries, and my husband said he recalled buying a box for his mother one year he was in high school. Good, messy, or not...they do bring back sweet memories.

Chocolate Covered
Cherries, Yummm.

The Perfect Decoration

Do families still decorate their Christmas tree with silvery icicles? This decoration is the most fun, the most controversial, and the most baffling of all. Grab a bunch and throw them on the tree? Or take painstaking care in separating them one by one and placing them exactly where you want? 

My younger sister like to throw bunches. I preferred placing single ones carefully in specific rows. We ended up with a half-and-half tree. Her side--covered in messy clumps--in my opinion--and my side? Covered in beautiful single strands perfectly placed.

 

Tinsel icicles on the tree

Trivial Pursuit

When children become teenagers, Christmas morning doesn't hold the thrill and excitement as when they were young. Our little family preferred Christmas in our own home, so the four of us had leisurely Christmas Days. When our daughter was a junior and our son was a freshman, Christmas morning was cold and wet. My husband built up the fire, and we sat on the floor in front of it to open presents.

I'd bought a Trivial Pursuit game for our son.

When he unwrapped it, he cleared a space on the rug and set up the game. "Want to play, Mom?"

He asked his sister, too, and his dad. But Dad doesn't play games. So the three of us sat in our pajamas and began to play. After an hour or so, I suggested breakfast--my special Christmas breakfast of sausage patties and pecan waffles.

"Uh-uh," they said, "let's just eat Pop-Tarts so we can keep playing." We did.

At noon, same thing. "Let's just snack on crackers and cheese or something." The game we had going was hot and tense. At twelve, I called time out so we could all dress and brush our teeth. Then, right back to the game. 

By four in the afternoon, I had a horrible thought. I'd forgotten to thaw my turkey and bake cornbread for the stuffing and make fruit salad! We couldn't have our traditional dinner.

But the kids said, "We don't really like all that stuff anyway. Why don't we just have nachos?"

For the remaining years we had children at home, this was our pattern. Even later when they came home for Christmas, nachos were always ready.

Trivial Pursuit Game

P.S. Our ninth grade son won every game.


NACHOS RECIPE

Line a baking sheet with foil and set oven to 425 degrees. While oven is heating, brown ground beef and minced onion in skillet.

Spread tortilla chips over the baking sheet. Add a bit of the ground beef mixture to each chip. Top with a dollop of refried beans. Add grated cheese and place in oven until cheese melts (five or ten minutes).

Serve with sour cream, guacamole, salsa, pickled jalepeños, and any other condiments your family enjoys.  

Nachos ready to devour

~*~

Nothing really matters at all on Christmas, except that we love each other and give whatever gift we have.

It is, after all, the birthday of the Christ Child, and He brought all we need.

Celia Yeary's latest release: 

Get your copy for 99 cents at

Amazon: http://a.co/chniWOl

Celia Yeary

I wish you all a happy Christmas season,

the Birthday of the King, and love and happiness among us all.

Celia Yeary

Romance...and a little bit of Texas

BIG, BIG NEWS!

So much has been happening in the past six weeks! In addition to a couple of rounds of the seasonal crud that resulted in bronchitis for Hero and me, we’ve had two rounds of lovely house guests, and one funeral. Putting that aside, let me share the items of big news!

First is my new release, CAPTURE HER HEART, Loving A Rancher book 6, in the Montana Skies Series Kindle World. This book will be released Thursday, November 30 and I'll update this blog with a link as soon as I have one. Here’s the blurb:

Vanessa Worthington didn’t know her late husband had lost their home until the notice came to vacate within six hours. Desperate for a place for her and her children, she travels from Atlanta to Montana Territory as a mail-order bride. She hopes to find a protective and kind man to help parent her children. One thing she’s certain—she will never again trust a man.

Travis Boyd has overcome horrific difficulties and carved out a ranch for himself. His two cowboy hands are like family, but he’s lonely. He longs for a loving wife and children to make his house a home. He’s eager for his bride to arrive and looking forward to home-cooked meals and a tidy house.

When Travis learns Vanessa has always had servants and doesn’t know how to cook, do laundry, or any other household chores, he is disappointed but decides to make the best of the situation. He meant his marriage vows. Vanessa can’t believe he won’t soon lose patience with her and change from kind to domineering like the other men in her life had been.

The other big news regarding Kindle Worlds is that ALL Kindle world titles are now in Kindle Unlimited. That should be great for all you KU subscribers. Of course, the titles are a bargain at $1.99 for those not in KU.

My final big news you can see in the blog header above. I am having an Advent Special on my blog, “Christmas Past and Christmas Presents” from—naturally—December 1 to 24. Twenty two other authors are joining me and there will be a post each day rather than my usual three times a week. I’ll lead on December 1 and conclude on December 24. Each post will include an interview, a latest release, may include a favorite recipe, and may include a daily giveaway. Check every day to find out.

On Christmas Eve I'll wrap up the event by randomly choosing one person from those who’ve commented during Advent to win a 16G Kindle Fire 7. This could be a nice Christmas gift for someone. This is one of my size Kindles and I love it more than my tablet because it slips into my purse so easily I can take it everywhere.

If you love Christmas stories, please keep in mind my three: ANGEL FOR CHRISTMAS, MISTLETOE MISTAKE, and STONE MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS. Each is available on Amazon for $2.99.