Generations of Love

"It's true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul." (Caroline Kennedy)

Family - generations of love. Grandmother to mother to grandchild. As you might imagine, I'm missing Mom as the Christmas season approaches and remembering those family traditions and memories she helped create in my life. I'm sure many of you have experienced like feelings after you've lost loved ones. I am grateful for all the good memories I have and for the pictures that awake many of those memories. 

Somehow we never took a generation picture with my mother. Don't know how I missed out on that opportunity with the hundreds, even thousands of pictures I've taken over the years since my first grandchild was born. We weren't able to do the five generation pictures that are sometimes printed in our hometown paper here because my grandparents were gone before I had grandchildren, but we could have done a four generation one. Now that picture will have to be only in my heart. 

As those of you who read Sunday's post or get my newsletter know, I'm having a Christmas giveaway contest with the above figurine as the first prize along with one of my books. You have to win a book, you know. LOL. I like writing about families in my stories. I like exploring the relationships in my fictional families and I like sometimes letting those families reach out and pull people into their family circle that aren't actually related by anything but the love in their hearts. That is especially true in my Heart of Hollyhill series with the great bond between Jocie and Wes. (Scent of Lilacs is still a free download if any of you haven't grabbed it yet.) It's true in my Rosey Corner books too with how Lorena finds a forever place in the Merritt family. In the first Rosey Corner book, Angel Sister, generations play an important part in the storyline. 

All that to explain that's why I picked this particular prize - to celebrate families. You can read all the details of the contest on my website here. Entering is easy. An e-mail or a comment here as long as you be sure to leave a way to contact you. For fun, you can tell me something you especially like about Christmas. I've been reading your messages already. Not got them all read yet since I had some of those grandkids visiting this weekend and have been playing catch-up ever since. But here's one of the messages from Jan that seems to sum it all up. 

"My favorite thing about Christmas is the family catching up and being together during this wonderful season. The memories that are made and the tales that are told. The window dressing of Christmas trees and lights and the beautiful music just makes it more fun but it's all about the miracle of God sending his son to earth for our sins."

Family. Memories. Stories. Beautiful lights and music to celebrate the greatest gift - the birth of Jesus.  Yes, Jan, that is Christmas. 

Thanks for reading. 

Christmas Magic and a Christmas Giveaway for You

A Small Act of Grandparent Bravery

I got extraordinarily brave Saturday. I was keeping three of my grandkids including my twin grandsons who at the age of six must drink high energy water every morning when they pop out of bed. That energy doesn't run out until about fifty "go to sleep" orders have been issued well after dark. That wasn't the brave part. The brave part was that I took them to our local town's Christmas parade. It helped that my other son and his family was there to help me keep an eye on the kids.

A Small Town Parade
 
I was a bit concerned disappointment awaited in the wings when, before we left home, one of the boys started talking about how we might be on television. Not until he mentioned seeing the big balloons did I realize he was thinking we were going to be on the sidelines of a parade like the Macy's parade he'd watched on Thanksgiving. Their cousin, my older grandson, and I tried to ratchet down their expectations without totally stealing their excitement. 

We found our viewing spot in front of one of the churches, and then had to wait for the parade. And wait. And wait. Waiting is not what these two kids do best! Plus, it was cold. Before we spotted the police cars' flashing lights or heard the marching band's drums, the boys were ready to give up on the parade ever coming and call it a night. But I persevered. I'm good at that. Maybe eventually they will be too. 
 
Do we see Santa?

Finally, the police cars came, sirens sounding to lead the parade. The kids spotted Grinch on one of the floats and the Nativity scene on another. Santa finally showed up too, riding on a firetruck. My daughter-in-law took this picture as the boys were peering ahead to catch sight of Santa. Kids are such fun at Christmas time. And even better, when we took them to church Sunday morning and our pastor asked the kids why we celebrated Christmas, one of the boys was eagerly ready with the answer, "to celebrate Jesus being born."  

A New Christmas Contest


Christmas is a great time for thinking about giving and so time for me to have a Christmas Giveaway Contest. If you get my newsletter, you may have already read all about it and entered. I sent out the newsletter Friday to share that my book, Christmas at Harmony Hill, was a free download for twenty-four hours. The free is gone, but the e-book price is reduced for a while longer if you would like to check it out at your e-book provider. Christianbook.com also has the hardback copies at an even cheaper price.
Amazon Kindle
Nook Books 
Christianbook.com

If you'd like to get my newsletter (more book freebies and contests are on the horizon) and aren't signed up, just let me know or sign up here. 

The newsletter also let readers know about my Christmas giveaway. Since many of my books deal with family relationships, I picked the lovely three generation figurine above for first prize. Plus the winner will get his or her choice of one of my autographed books. Second prize is the Peanuts perpetual calendar with smiles waiting on every day and also the choice of one of my books. To enter, you can leave a comment here with a way to contact you via e-mail or Facebook (without this important information I can't find you should you be a winner) or send me an e-mail (annhgabhart at yahoo dot com) and I'll throw your name in my giveaway hat. Any e-mail will do, but for fun, you can tell me your favorite thing about the Christmas season. Deadline for entries is midnight EST December 31. You must be 18 to enter and have a USA or Canadian mailing address. Next time, I'll come up with something not so hard to mail to include you international friends.

Last Week's Winner of the Christmas Stories

Carolann won last week's giveaway - the Christmas stories. Rose McCauley's Christmas Grace, and my Christmas at Harmony Hill. Thanks to all of you for your comments. It's always fun hearing what you have to say.  

Gifts that Missed the Mark

Millions of gifts will be exchanged this Christmas and while most of them will be greeted with real delight, others will cause little more than stunned silence. Not because the gift is good, but because it's so bad, words won't come. It's the thought that counts as the saying goes, but it is good to know that somebody was thinking!

My daughter-in-law is playing Santa Claus here and I'm sure none of the packages under the tree are worst presents ever. Maybe just worst for a week or two. :) I want to buy good gifts for my kids and grandkids, but often the price tag is a problem. Other times, I just can't find those perfect presents or have no idea what the perfect gift might be.

Here are a couple of stories about gifts that missed the perfect mark. Carla was trying really hard to give the best present ever, but it didn't work out that way. Here's her story.

"I can say that I am good at reading people, listening to the little things they say, picking it up, and surprising them with gifts made especially or picked especially for them. All year I will look find something, store it away, or work on something and hide it away knowing the joy it will bring. How is it that after (at the point of this tale) five years - each Christmas with my husband, his surprise, the well thought out gift, was more of a questionable look on his face wondering who I was shopping for - maybe I should just stick to socks and underwear, pants and shirts - but each year I search for the big surprise.
That year he was reminiscing about high school, being in a band, playing a guitar... ummm. I took this nugget and began my search. He played acoustic, so I began a search with the music stores and dropped at the prices, next the pawn shops - no luck there. Unfortunately, I was rushed in for surgery and found myself bedridden for two weeks but with remote in hand caught myself staring at the magic of Esteban and his guitar with monthly affordable payments.
    The box arrived three days before Christmas, I was so excited and made my way downstairs (against doctor's orders to not take stairs) to put a bow on it. Christmas morning, my dear husband, who had been eyeballing this rather large box both in anticipation and horror, finally found it his to open. The look on his face, I wish I had thought to take a picture - oh, he was surprised, and he tried to like it - but the truth was written right there. Thank goodness for the return policy.

Love that, Carla. Reminds me of when I sneaked around and bought my husband a horse. He was always talking about the horses he'd ridden as a boy. That horse turned out to be problem after problem and one my husband didn't want to deal with. He didn't really want a horse. He just wanted to talk about wanting a horse! A perfect horse. Our little horse was far from perfect.

But Carla's story can't match Jackie's.

"Worst Christmas Gift:  In the early years of our marriage my husband gave me a new shower head for the bathroom and running boards for our vehicle.  Yes, we needed the new shower head, and I wanted the running boards since I am so short, but as my Christmas gifts?  I did not appreciate very much the “community” gifts, shared by my husband and two stepdaughters.  It has been many years now since then, and we usually just shop together after Christmas for something that each of us would like to have."

Jackie knows when to cut her losses and just figure out how to get something she wants. And I like that they wait until after Christmas to get more bang for their bucks. I think that shower head gift tops my husband's worst gift of a floor polisher a couple of Christmases after we married. I had absolutely no interest in polishing the floors in the old farmhouse where we lived at the time with that big floor cleaner machine he gave me. But I did. What a person will do to prove her love! Of course, he really thought he was helping me as I'm sure Jackie's husband did too. Practical guys, but sometimes practical gifts are not what you want under the tree.

Here's something I put in our church bulletin this week for a smile.

Wife to husband: This year let's give each other more practical gifts like socks and fur coats.

Hope all your gifts are the best yet and if you get one that's the worst, maybe a refund or exchange will be possible. 

My Christmas Fun contest is still going strong with more entries coming in. Remember, you can enter by contacting me from my website, www.annhgabhart.com. There's info about it on my News and Events page.  Deadline for entering is midnight EST on 

December 30. And keep the stories coming.

 

The Best Gifts are from the Heart

"The greatest gift is a portion of yourself." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I sent out my newsletter last Sunday letting my reading friends know about my Christmas giveaway contest and then I posted it here on Sunday night and the entries are rolling in. For fun, I asked you to share stories of the best or worst gift you have given anyone or perhaps received. The photo here shows the best gift a grandmother can get - a precious grandbaby. This was my first grandchild. After her, eight more came along and each got their picture under our tree as the best gift of the year. I'm not the only grandmother to feel this way and some of you have said that your best gift ever was a new baby born in December. 

As I always do when you share stories with me, I'm sharing some of them forward. 

Marcy knows that a grandbaby is the best gift ever and so this is the story she shared. "When I found out I was pregnant with my first son, it was early December (many years ago). Since my parents were both gone, I wanted to make the announcement special for my in-laws. I wrapped up little pink and blue baby socks for them for Christmas to tell them our happy news. Needless to say, they were thrilled."

What a fun way to announce a baby on the way!

Then Jane shares a best gift that she received from her mother. "I can't think of a gift I gave anyone that was the best or worst, but the best Christmas gift I ever got was a box full of baby clothes my mother bought for my first baby. He was due in April and she gave me the box for Christmas. I loved getting all the baby little things. It made that Christmas very special and you know, I still think of that gift every single year and my son is now 38 years old."

I wrote back to Jane that I remembered how much fun it was folding and refolding those little baby clothes I gathered and had in the cradle as I awaited the birth of my first baby. The little tiny t-shirts and those gowns with the drawstring bottoms. The soft yellow receiving blankets because then you didn't know if the baby would be a boy or girl until he or she made her way out into the world. Even the diapers were fun to fold then. Jane wrote back and added to her story.

"I spent some time thinking about gifts and realized that it's not always the expensive big ones but the most thoughtful ones that really are appreciated. I think that my Mom giving me that box of baby things just reinforced how much she cared and was looking forward to the baby too. I also remember looking at the little clothes and folding them over and over. Such a special time in our lives and wonderful memories."

 

Here are a couple of other sweet ideas for moms and grandmoms. Babs made a picture of her and her four boys and put it in a frame on a white mat. Then she and the boys each wrote something they loved about her mother on the mat. You can imagine how Babs' mother treasured that gift.

Ola did something sort of the same. She gave her sister-in-law, who loved jigsaw puzzles, a puzzle made from a picture of the sister-in-law's four kids. Don't you know that Mom enjoyed working that puzzle?

That's all this week, but more stories are on the way, including some worst gifts that are sure to bring smiles. If you haven't entered the contest yet, you still have plenty of time. Deadline for entries is midnight EST on December 30. You don't have to share a story to enter, but they are fun. Just let me know if you'd rather I didn't share the story forward. You can check out Sunday's post to see what the prizes are or look on my News and Events Website Page.Thanks for taking part in my Christmas fun. You are all a gift to me. 

Every gift from a friend is a wish for your happiness. ~Richard Bach

Christmas - a Time for Giving

Christmas is not so much about opening our presents as opening our hearts. ~Janice Maeditere

It's December. Already. How does it get here so quickly? It didn't used to be that way. Do you remember when you were a kid and Christmas Eve seemed like it was three days long? We always had a Christmas dinner and presents at my aunt's house on Christmas Eve. My sisters and I would go over to her house and spend the day. Our aunt, who was like a grandmother to us, pretended we helped her get the meal ready. I did make the punch when I got old enough. Loved that job. Still make the same punch out of orange juice and pineapple juice every Christmas now. But anyway, we'd get everything ready. The presents would be piled under the tree with their enticing promise. Then we'd have to wait for our parents to show up. I don't know what they did on Christmas Eve but whatever it was always took them a loonng time, but it was wonderful when we finally saw them coming across the yard. We could finally eat dinner and get to those presents we were so eager to open.

Gifts of Love

Those wise men started something we all love with those gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We enjoy getting gifts, but we also love giving gifts. And with nine grandkids, I have plenty of chances to enjoy giving some Christmas gifts. I've already been out there shopping and while I was shopping for them, I also went shopping for prizes for a Christmas giveaway for my reading friends.  

Prizes for my Christmas Giveaway

The first prize is a lovely dogwood bloom pillow for the Shaker shop and the winner's choice of one of my books. Second place winner gets three Christmas novellas (pictured above), Melody Carlson's A Simple Christmas Wish, an autographed copy of Sarah's Christmas Miracle by Mary Ellis, and an autographed copy of my Christmas at Harmony Hill. Then for those of you who tell me you "never win" I'll have that extra drawing with the prize a snowman pin and the winner's choice of one of my books. 

How to Enter

You can enter by sending a message from my website, www.annhgabhart.com, or by leaving a comment on my blog here with a way to contact you.  For fun, you can tell me about a gift you gave someone else that was either the best or the worst gift ever. You don't have to share a story to enter, but you can if you want. Remember, you have to say you've never won to enter the extra drawing. The contest is open to USA and Canadian addresses only (sorry, international readers) and you must be eighteen to enter. One entry per person please. Deadline for entries is midnight EST December 30.  

Newsletter and E-Book Sale Prices

I sent out a newsletter today and so I'm already getting entries. I can't wait to start reading all your stories. I'll be sharing a few of them, with permission, here in the next few weeks. By the way if you'd like to get my newsletter and be one of the first to hear about giveaways or discount prices on e-books, just let me know you want to be on my e-mail list. Today I shared the news that the e-book of The Believer was at a reduced price of $2.99 or even lower at Christianbook.com. That may have been only for Sunday. Angels at the Crossroads, the only non-fiction book I've written, is also at a reduced price for the e-book on Amazon. You can read more about both stories on my website.

The Best Gifts

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis

Hope you have a wonderful first week of December. And I know the kids don't want this to happen, but I need to slow December down a little to get some of those presents wrapped. :)