UPDATE: The winner is…Denise!
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Christmas Puzzle Contest

Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! What do you suppose they’re giving each other for Christmas? 

Open Contests!

Don’t forget to enter these contests, too!

1. Christmas Puzzle Contest! — Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Christmas Puzzle Contest (3 Winners!) — Win a FREE book!
3. Holiday Movie Recommendations (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Samantha Rowe!
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We’ve been doing a lot of movie nights here. The weather’s crap and getting colder. COVID keeps us close to home. We like getting out dinner trays or putting out finger foods or popcorn to settle in for a night at the movies in the living room.

So far, we’ve watched Elf (always a must!), The Christmas Chronicles 1 & 2 (everyone enjoyed them), Godmothered (ONLY the 7-year-old liked it), White Christmas (only I enjoyed it—but I insisted they watch the classic at least once in their lifetimes!), Home Alone, and Operation Christmas Drop (a one-timer). Last night, we watched Last Holiday (3rd time for me, 1st for kids)—everyone enjoyed it!

So, my question to you for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card is what should we watch next?

‘Tis the season to be lazy… Fa-la-la-la-la… 

Or at least it is for me. Our Christmas shopping began in late summer, and I purchased the last little things I needed at the beginning of this month. Yes, I have to wrap all the crap, er, wonderful gifts. I really do think everyone will be pleased. So, what’s left to do?

Work. However, that’s the last thing I want to do. See, there are all these delightfully awful Christmas movies to watch with the fam. We plan our lives around movie nights, now. Last night it was Godmothered. The 7-year-old loved it so much she asked, “Can we watch it again? Please!” Loved the concept. Hated the execution. Tonight, we’re hoping for a better experience with the Jamie Dornan movie, Wild Mountain Thyme. Please, someone who watched it when it released yesterday, if you hated it, don’t tell me!

We’re doing take-out a lot this week. All those homecooked meals for months are wearing on us. It’s so much work! Thank God for drive-thru and carry out. We’re having Greek gyros for lunch but home-cooked pork shops tonight. Nothing “healthy”. I’ll get back on the WW bandwagon on Monday; I’m just not in the mood for counting points.

I have edits to do for one of my favorite clients (I have to say that because we’re related 🙂 ), but I’m dragging my feet on them. I have another set right behind them, so I really do have to make some progress! And I have my own book to power through. I’m stuck in Chapter 5 and not sure where this story is going. I need “think time” but I’m not thinking much these days. I’m ready for Christmas!

How about you? Are you procrastinating or charged up? Are you ready for Christmas/holiday fun?

Open Contests!

Enter while you can! 

1. Christmas Puzzle Contest! — Win a FREE book!
2. Flashback: The Pleasure Bot (Contest–3 Winners!) — Win a FREE book!
3. Christmas Puzzle Contest! — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Christmas Puzzle Contest (3 Winners!) — Win a FREE book!

UPDATE: The winners are…Shirley Long, Peggy Fowler, and Carol Cox!
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It’s a silly picture, but I like it. Solve the puzzle then comment. Have fun with the challenge!

Christmas Puzzle Contest

Comment for a chance to win your choice of download from among my huge backlist of books! I’ll pick THREE WINNERS!

UPDATE: The winner is…Denise Fidler!
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It’s Saint Nicholas Day! The kids (and I, my daughter insisted) left our shoes out last night for Santa to fill. Everyone got coins and small gifts—the first year there’s been no coal (candy, that is)!! I guess I was a good girl because he left me fuzzy socks/slippers, koala Post-its-style bookmarks, a Wonder Woman pen, and candy!

I have only one gift left to buy. And I have a couple of small things left to make. My SIL is very proud of his Scottish heritage, so I thought I’d try to paint him some thistle. I tried this in gouache, but I think I’ll do it again in pastels before I decide which one to frame. Think he’ll like it? And no worries about him seeing it here. He NEVER checks out my website. 🙂

Christmas Puzzle Contest

For a chance to win your choice of download from among all my downloadable books, tell me what the little man is saying!

UPDATE: The winner is…Donna Bullard!
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Is it too soon for a picture like this? Well, was there ever a year that couldn’t end fast enough? Yeah, 2020 will be that year for lots of folks. Our family is so eager to get to the end, we put up the Christmas tree before Thanksgiving!

Not that we haven’t found joy along the way this year—in our house, anyway. Yes, we’re staying home as much as possible, taking as few risks as possible. My SIL is a cop who interacts with people every day, but he’s masked and does his level best to distance. The older kids have fast-food jobs and mask. We order our groceries for pick up. The kids are online students. We make no unnecessary trips, except for the rare trip to the flea market! We are doing our part. I hope and pray everyone else does, too, so we make it through the end of this horrendous year.

And you’d think that all this self-isolation would have meant greater productivity for this hermit author—but noooo! I spend more time with family, doing family things, helping kids with homework, my dd with housework and dishes. We binge-watch TV series together. At present, we’re watching Yellowstone and The Boys.

December will be the worst for distractions. Our “Elves on the Shelf” made their appearance this weekend, so they’ll be moving all around the house every night. We have advent calendars to load nightly with goodies, and “Kriskindelnacht” coming up this weekend. Kriskindelnacht is a celebration our family adopted after two tours in Germany. On the night of the 5th, the kids put their shoes out for Santa to fill with coal if they were naughty or something cool if they were good. My dd says Santa told her that the biggest kid in the house has to leave out a shoe this year, too! 🙂 (I’m beyond thrilled!!)

Of course, there’s editing and writing to do this month, but I think I’m not going to be very ambitious. I want to enjoy this holiday season like no other because we’ll likely never have this chance to be so together again. Silver linings, folks.

So, I shared our family’s Kriskindelnacht tradition. What traditions do you observe? Share for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winners are…ALL 13 commenters!
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Gingerbear Christmas

Contest