Tag: Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I can’t believe December is half way over and I hadn’t blogged here since November!

Life has been kicking my bootie! I put a lot of miles on my car the last month. Visits to my dad, book signings, and dentist trips. If you are an ice chewer or love hard crunchy foods, stop now before your teeth start falling apart!

With all the traveling and preparing for Christmas, my writing has been on the back burner. This week, I’d planned to get back in book 14 of the Shandra Higheagle series, but I find my narrator for book 2 in the Gabriel Hawke series has finished the reading, and I need to listen to those. So I may not get to Shandra and Ryan’s trip to Hawaii until next week, or even January.

Beach in Hawaii that may end up in a book…

It’s going to take a lot of discipline when I get back to writing. After seeing how hard it was to manage the goals I’d set for this year, I’ve backed off a bit, and have down to write two Gabriel Hawke books and 3 Shandra books this coming year. So 5 books total. I had tired for 7 this year and didn’t make it. Too many things came up and 2 trips of a lifetime.

The good thing is those trips are going to go into books. Which will help me remember the fun I had.

Gingerbread cookies! Yum!

I have been baking for friends an neighbors. That is one of my favorite things about this time of year. Sharing something I’m fairly good at. But I’ll have to say… watching the Cookie and Gingerbread challenges on TV has taught me a few things I didn’t know and I’ve been incorporating into my baking this year. We’ll see if the people who receive my goodies enjoy the changes. šŸ˜‰

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas filled with family and friends and you are healthy and prosperous in the new year, 2020!

Christmas Cheer by Paty Jager

The stockings were hung…

I love Christmas. If I didnā€™t have so much fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations I would decorate in November for Christmas so I could have the fun lights and decorations up longer. 

Are you an all-out Christmas decorator or do you just put up enough that you know itā€™s Christmas and no one can accuse you of being a Grinch?

Here are a few scenes of what I have going on.

MY mom crocheted this scene years ago.

I like to put lights in every room. Bathrooms, bedrooms, the office. There is nothing cheerier than twinkling lights. But then I love glitter!šŸ˜‰

We have a (it looks like a moose but I think itā€™s supposed to be a reindeer) sitting in a rocking chair and it plays the song, ā€œGrandma got run over by a Reindeerā€. Our four-year-old grandson and the 2 year-old play that over and over again and dance to the song. It gets annoying when you are trying to have a conversation and then the reindeer goes away. LOL

The tree is up. I decorate it in stages until it is as I wanted it. I still have to make the gingerbread people that depict each family member and hang those from the tree, but the rest is done.

The presents are all bought and wrapped and under the tree.The ones that had to be shipped are off. The Christmas cards are all in the mail.

I do have cookies and candy to make for the neighbors, but I do that in the evenings while watching TV.

Now I can sit back and wait for company to arrive the weekend before Christmas.

Let the writing commence!

Christmas Tree Hunting by Paty Jager

20181202_200946No guns were used during our Christmas tree hunt. šŸ˜‰ And despite the need to get a book finished, I spent all day Sunday dashing through the snow looking for a tree with one set of grandchildren. After we found the perfect tree, we brought it home, had dinner, and then decorated it.

I have a few more touches to do to it to make me happy, but it is up and mostly decorated. The grandkids had fun in the snow since this is their first winter not in Alaska, where they are used to snow for many more months than we have it in Oregon.Ā  They were rolling around in it and acting as if they had never seen the white stuff before. LOL

20181202_120744.jpg
Grandson shaking snow off the tree so I could get a better look at it.

This morning I sent out my friends and family Christmas cards and special cards and gifts to select readers from the Pioneer Hearts Facebook group I belong to. If you aren’t a Pioneer Hearts member and you are on Facebook, you can join the group and find out about wonderful historical western romance books and visit with the authors of the books.

Santa Claus hands holding digital tablet with Christmas ornament

Right now Windtree Press, the author co-operative I’m a member of, is having a Holiday Book promotion.Ā  https://windtreepress.com/holiday-books/

All I have left to do for Christmas is bake cookies and make candy to share with neighbors. Then host family starting the Saturday before Christmas. Until then, I’ll be polishing Homicide Hideaway, book 12 in the Shandra Higheagle series and finishing, Mouse Trail Ends, book 2 in the new Gabriel Hawke series.

Are you done with your Christmas shopping and decorating?Ā  If not, what do you still have to do? Are you feeling good about where you’re at or stressing? If you’re stressing, make a cup of hot chocolate and watch a movie you enjoy. Life is too short to stress!