And the Winners Are

"Winning is only half of it. Having fun is the other half." (Bum Phillips)

Another book celebration comes to an end with winners picked and contacted. You all make my contests so much fun with your stories and comments. Thank you for taking the time to toss your names in my hat for the giveaway drawing. Some of you take part in every contest I post and I do appreciate that, because it wouldn't be much fun throwing a celebration party if nobody showed up. I always enjoyed reading the stories you share with me when I have a contest where I ask you to tell me a story for a change instead of the other way around. This time, most of you said you didn't have Valentine stories. That might prove that Valentine's Day is more important to the florists and the greeting card companies than to us average folks. But the stories I did hear from a few of you were fun and proved that it's not the size of the Valentines, but the love behind those Valentines that make the difference.

While you didn't have to share a story to win, it turns out that some of the winners did share Valentine stories. Deanna was the first place winner and wins the charm bracelet I know Jocie would have loved and a signed set of the Hollyhill books which include Scent of Lilacs, Orchard of Hope, and Summer of Joy. Deanna shares what made Valentine's Day fun for her and every day a good day. 

"I was blessed to receive roses from my husband, he is terrible about getting things over on me but he picked them out, brought them home and hid them from me to surprise me this a.m. while I was getting ready to go to work. Little things that we do for each other every day, not just certain days make things special. Asking if we would like to have something while the other one is up, getting the other's toothbrush ready, knowing I like a certain thing, making sure to get it or make a nice meal, all things that help in a relationship." 

Thanks, Deanna. Sounds like you and your husband have figured out how to have a great relationship. 

Now for the rest of the winners. Judy B won second place and gets the ring dish with the cute bike on it and that set of Hollyhill books. Cynthia B can't say she's never won anything from me before. She gets a box of candy and her pick of one of my books. She picked Small Town Girl. Those are the winners of the Summer of Joy Celebration Giveaway, but I also promised to pick two winners here on my blog. Winning a copy of their choice of one of my books is Gayle P and Noelle. I do so appreciate everyone of you who took time to leave comments on my posts here and join in with my giveaway fun. I love hearing from you and reading your comments and the stories you share. 

Noelle shared a story of love about her grandmother. 

"A love story did you say? Well, I thought about it for quite awhile and decided at least for me, there has never been such a love as my Granny's! 

Granny lost her true love not once, not twice but trice. The first involved leaving her country/continent for another and she could not choose between those she loved so she remained home. The second sadly died shortly before Mum was born and left Granny alone in her twenties to raise a child without any means. 

The third left her a widow at age 56 and she thought love was over for ever. Whilst on the coast, she met a scuba diver who asked her to watch his gear whilst diving. Thus begins my story...

I was still little and never knew how much developed from this relationship but I can tell you that's when my Dad asked Granny to take care of my sibling and myself. I do remember this scuba diver's visit though as he invited us kids to go to the sweet shoppe. We felt we had won the lottery of course and when the shoppe owner saw our rather extensive list of sweets, she said: "Now be sure to say thank you to Grandpa" to which we piped up "Oh, that's not Grandpa, just Granny's boyfriend!"

Another era with etiquette to be observed and such a thing frowned upon...But with love shining in her eyes,Granny bounced back and gave us a hug, shrugging her shoulders and just smiled.

Imagine our Mum's face when the story was told, I can tell you no one forgot this story soon!

One more thing: Granny chose not to accept the scuba diver's invitation to remain by his side for life, instead she raised us!

Love is a many splendored thing, is it not?

Love does come in many sizes and shapes, Noelle. Thanks for sharing your story with us. Your granny must have been quite a woman. 

Again, thanks to all of you for joining in with my giveaway fun. I hope you had fun too. Now to start thinking up some fun prizes for a June contest to celebrate Love Comes Home. And maybe I can think up a better subject to get you all talking. Any ideas?

The Spirit of Christmas Giving

“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly." ~Andy Rooney

Merry Christmas, everybody! I hope you had one of those glorious messes on your living room floor or if not on your floor then you witnessed the mess of Christmas gift opening on another floor of the house of someone dear to you. 

The Spirit of Christmas Giving

 

The spirit of Christmas giving is alive and well in most households with excited children running to check what they can find under the tree on Christmas morning. And sometimes we discover the truth of that saying that it is more blessed to give than receive. 

The Joy of Giving

 

Here's a story Gladys shared about a time she embraced that blessing. "When working in the junior department at our church, I became acquainted with a family that had five young children and it was obvious they would not get much for Christmas. The mother could barely dress the children for Sunday School, but they attended faithfully and were very well behaved. I  handmade presents for each of those children for Christmas. I did not give my gifts at church, for it could not be done unseen. I took them to their home. It was so delightful to see the eyes of those children light up. Their mother sent me a note thanking me for remembering her children. I will never forget that night or those children."   

And Kathleen tells of a time when selfless giving brought her joy. "The best gift I gave was the one the Lord had to remind me. Money to a single mother anonymously in a card that I wrote, "This is for you for perfume or anything you might want for yourself." After Christmas we were side-by-side in the parking lot after church. I rolled down my window and asked, "How was your Christmas?" The little girl bounced on the seat and with a big smile said it was wonderful. I never told and it gave me such joy!"

Christmas is Love

And last here's a story that really touched my heart and that I saved to post today on Christmas Day. Such wonderful love this man showed for his wife and isn't that what Christmas is all about - love? But I'll let Karen tell the story in her own words.

"This is not the worst gift but the best Christmas present I ever received was from my husband after he died. In September of 1991 my husband asked my son to take him Christmas shopping for my gift. He died a month later.  He knew he wouldn't be here at Christmas. We talked that I would finish my accounting degree after he died. At Christmas my son said that he didn't understand the gift that Pop picked out and that he arranged with the shop owner that I could get an exchange. The gift was a briefcase and a most wonderful note that said, 'I'll be with you everyday when you go back to school.' I did get my degree and I took him to school everyday." 

Merry Christmas

 

Thank you for sharing your Christmas gift stories. May you be blessed with the abounding love and joy that makes up what we call Christmas Spirit. 

"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" (Luke 2:11-14 NKJ)

 

 

 

Valentines and Hearts

“Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.” – Voltaire 

What would life be without love? Isn't it great that we have a day set aside to celebrate love? In of all months, February. That month of the year when those of us in the northern hemisphere are beginning to be weary of winter. The month when the skies are often gray, when sometimes snow buries us and keeps us housebound. The month when you can schedule happenings, but you always have to wonder if those things will really happen on the day you plan or if old man winter will interfere. 

February is the shortest month because the good Lord realized that by this time in winter, we were ready to race on to spring. In fact it could be Jim Gaffigan has February figured out in his quote. "Without Valentine's Day, February would be... well, January."  So we can be glad for Valentine's Day.

The flower shops, greeting card companies, and candy makers are surely glad for Valentine's Day. Rose growers too. Roses will grace many desks and tables tomorrow. Red roses are the romantic choice. Chocolates in heart shaped boxes will be the language of love although I've always thought a sweetheart who knows your favorite candy bar and gets two or three of those instead has saved some money and yet scored some romantic points for knowing what his girl loves best. Chocolate covered strawberries will be the gift of choice in some households. And the restaurants will be busy. In a nearby town, a Waffle House even gets into the romantic mood with tablecloths and candles on the table and the servers dressed up for the night. 

But Valentine's Day isn't just for romantic couples. School kids get to have parties and candy. That was always my favorite party to help with when I was a room mother for my kids. Since all the kids got cards from everyone in the room, they could all feel popular on that day. Older folks who may have lost their spouses or perhaps were never married can appreciate a call or a card too. My thoughtful husband bought his 94 year old aunt an orchid. I know she'll love the flower and even more the visit when he delivers it to her.

Love puts the fun in together, the sad in apart, and the joy in a heart.  ~Author Unknown

So I'm wishing you a day when you have joy in your heart. A day when the memory of loves past or present will keep you smiling. A day when if no one brings you a flower or chocolate, you buy one for yourself. A day when you tell those you love that yes, you do love them. What makes you feel loved?

Now I need to get back to the edits on my book, Small Town Girl, scheduled for release in July. It has a lot of love in it. Love makes the stories go around. Thanks for reading. And remember a comment gets you another entry into my giveaway. I've enjoyed all your comments so far this month. 

 

A Day for Romance

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination. (Voltaire)

Happy Valentine's Day! What makes Valentine's Day good for you? Candy? Roses? A card with loving words? Maybe sugar candy hearts with "Be Mine" on them. Seems I remember hearing that they had jazzed up and modernized the Valentine messages on candy hearts. So now the sayings on the hearts are probably all shortened tweet-like love messages.

I like Valentine's Day. It's such fun to reach out to people with a smile and a love message. Romance can certainly be a writer's best friend. Romance stories have been popular since day one. Can't you just see Adam searching the Garden of Eden for the perfect flower to give Eve? And he surely had a fine choice before the serpent came along and started the ball rolling to mess up things. You can find lots of romance stories in the Bible. Jacob working fourteen years for Rachel. David falling into sin because he desired Bathsheba. Esther convincing the king to save her people.

We're wired for romance. Scientist are working on proving what we've always known. Romantic love, when it's right, makes us feel good. Releases all those good chemicals in our brain so that when people say we're on Cloud 9, they're not far wrong. We are sort of floating on air.

We like to read about people falling in love too and watch movies with great love stories. Romance sells books. Romance sells nearly everything. Gone with the Wind tells a dramatic Civil War story, but what do we remember? Rhett and Scarlett. We love a good love story. Some can be tragic. Think Titanic. Some happy ever after. Think Cinderella. And everything in between.

We yearn for romance in our own lives. We live it vicariously in the books we read and the movies we watch. So, most of us are eager to celebrate a day of romance on Valentine's Day. A lot of writers seem to be eager to celebrate romance every day of the year in the stories they write.

The last couple of weeks, I've been talking a lot about romance because my new book, Words Spoken True, is the most romantic story I've written for a while. But my story is hardly like D.H. Lawrence is describing romances here. "And what's romance? Usually, a nice little tale where you have everything as you like it, where rain never wets your jacket and gnats never bite your nose, and it's always daisy-time."  

Always daisy-time. Not quite in most of my books. My characters have all kinds of obstacles to true love. They do get wet. They wave off the bugs and sometimes can't find a daisy anywhere. But their story gets told and now Adriane's and Blake's story is getting read.

Thank you so much for reading. And I wish you a Valentine's Day where all is smooth as a soft serve ice cream cone. Maybe we can keep it from melting too fast and dripping down our arm. A day to celebrate love shouldn't melt, but go on and on.

Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

This is one of my favorite holidays. For one thing, it's a great excuse to eat chocolate and I've had a sweet tooth ever since I can remember. But what I really like about the day is that it celebrates love. Romantic love for sure, but that's not all. We recognize love in all its forms. We get Valentines for our kids and moms and dads and grandkids and friends. When I used to be a Room Mother for my kids when they were in grade school, I liked the Valentine party best because all the kids got Valentines. You didn't have to be quicker than everybody else to get Easter eggs. You didn't have to worry about who drew your name at Christmas. You didn't have to dress up like a monster at Halloween. You just got to collect a Valentine from every kid in the class and have fun feeling loved and popular. Then you got to eat cupcakes and candy hearts with "Be Mine" stamped on them.

Love is a good thing to celebrate. One of the first verses a child learns in Sunday School is "God is love." One of the favorite chapters in the Bible is 1 Corinthians 13 -- all about love. We sing about love. "Yes, Jesus loves me." He loves you too. Let us be a reflection of that love on this Valentine's Day and throughout the year.

So here's wishing that you are surrounded and uplifted and overpowered with much love today and every day.

Blessings.