Are you in the Holiday Spirit yet?

When we visited the kids out west, we had an early Christmas as some aren't coming home at Christmas. There was snow on the ground, and the Christmas themes are already up in the stores. 

And my baby grandson noticed the Christmas tree. He can just reach up and touch the lowest ornament, and we moved the presents from under the tree. 

I remember years ago moving all the ornaments to the upper half of the tree, and not putting tinsel on it. You see, we had two cats at the time and read that they like the taste of tinsel. 

In fact, I pulled a long tinsel strip out of my cat's mouth. 

And one of the cats left me a 'gift' under the tree one year. I must say, my hat goes off to the manufacturer of the tree that can convince my cat she's outside. 

So my memories of my family when they were younger consists of a half bare tree with no tinsel. 

These memories help me get into the Christmas Spirit. Here's another good thing to help. Wonderful cozy stories.

Great deals here!

(I love this photo. We have a gazebo and even the big bandstands in the center of town are fun to sit in.)

A holiday promo

Just a nice friendly reminder to you that one of the Christmas promotions I'm involved in is ending today. You can get some quality Christmas reading here for a fraction of the price. Only 99 cents!

Great Christmas Savings here!

If that link above isn't working, just click here:

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Thank you for supporting authors, and if you have the time, share us around!

Christmas Fun Will Now Commence!

My husband smacked my knee at the end of news we were watching, and said, "Okay, let's get those Christmas decorations out!"

I'd just settled in to watch TV. Oh, well. We went to work. And I was surprised by my husband's efficiency here. He put up the tree, and left me to decorate it, while he added a touch of whimsy to our front entrance.

He's not usually that sort, but, hey, he was putting up the decorations! I got the tree done. I am of the opinion that the tree should have special-to-us ornaments, and not look like it fell out of a Christmas catalogue.

You can't see them, but there are ornaments from my youth, from the children's births, from craft shows, even three special Beanie Babies. That tree is about our family, not some decorator.
We even put up lights on the back window. Interesting. Never did that before.

So, finally, we could settle down and watch one of my favourite shows, Castle. The Christmas special, of course. Love Castle's quips!

Enjoy the decorating, everyone!

Christmas shopping all done!

I went to the United States this past weekend. With the Canadian dollar doing so well, I had to go. There were bargains to be had, and I needed to get away. So, with two friends, and one new one I met, we jumped into a large SUV and drove to Maine. We immediately stopped to shop in Calais, and then on to Bangor. We then stopped to shop and then finally went to our hotel. (We had our priorities right) and then went out to eat. It was wonderful to eat at different restaurants, and shop at different stores.
So we shopped, ate, slept (a bit) , and in the morning did it all over again. Then the next day did it all over again. By the time we left the US, we had filled the SUV to capacity, packed in some extra stuff, and paid our GST on the stuff we had over our limit.
It was midnight when I got home, and though I would prefer to leave earlier, I had a terrific time. I needed time with the girls, needed to do a bit of research for an upcoming book, and needed new clothes, and Christmas presents.
Now I need some sleep.