Christmas Tree

Well Christmas may be over for some, but for me it keeps going right until New Year - in fact I don't take my decorations down until Twelfth Night. One of the things I enjoy most about Christmas, is decorating the tree. For the past couple of years we've had our tree from the Christmas Tree farm, Chesham (see earlier post). I promised I'd post some pictures, so here they are. I've collected lots of decorations over the years, magical unicorns, golden bells, rocking horses, crystal horses, Native American angels, traditional angels, teddies, and a couple of little glass angels, etc. They're all precious and I love arranging them on the tree. I also have lots of tiny teddy bears collected over time and kept in the glass fronted cabinet in the picture. Once a year some of them come out and dance to the Scottish Highland bears who play their pipes and drums for them in the 'snow'!
















































"Now, the tree is decorated with bright merriment, and song, and dance, and cheerfulness. And they are welcome. Innocent and welcome be they ever held, beneath the branches of the Christms Tree, which cast no gloomy shadow! But, as it sinks into the ground, I hear a whisper going through the leaves. "This, in commemoration of the law of love and kindness, mercy and compassion. This, in remembrance of Me!"

(Quote taken from the Christmas Tree Farm website.)

I hope all of you who celebrate Christmas or other festivals at this time of year had a wonderful time. To those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you had chance to enjoy some rest and to reflect and relax with your family and friends.

Thanks to all my on-line friends for being there, and for your support and friendship. Thanks also to anyone who pops in and reads this blog, and special thanks if you are kind enough to take time to leave a comment.

A special Thank You to everyone who's bought my books this year, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

As we look forward to a New Year, I look forward to making new on-line friends and to continuing the friendship of those I have already.

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY AND
PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS

I wish you and your families a wonderful time however you celebrate this time of year.

We spent a few days before Christmas in Wales with my family. It was great to be ‘home’ and we had a sprinkling of snow which made it feel really Christmassy. When we got back we were stranded a couple of miles from home by the snowy and icy conditions, but a good Samaritan let us put our vehicle in his yard and ran us home in his 4 x 4, in true Christmas spirit.

I’ll post some pictures as a slideshow in a day or two.

Thank you all so much for your encouragement, support and friendship

CHRISTMAS TREE FARM

Today we visited the Christmas tree farm at Chesham to purchase our Christmas tree.Visitors are greeted at the entrance by a full size Santa standing on several bales of straw.

The sound of Christmas music emanating from a small wooden building turned out to be the elves'workshop.

We walked along several rows of Christmas trees before making our choice, a beautiful bushy little tree, about my height 5 ft which will fit nicely in our tiny bungalow. I'll post pictures of it decorated later on. We'll leave it out of doors until we come back from our visit to Wales at the end of the week.
The shop where we pay for the trees and decorations is like an Aladdin's cave of Christmas goodies.

We are served by a lovely lady at the till, and chat for a while before leaving with our purchases.

There are lots more wonders in the shop, and I'll be posting more pictures and talking a bit more about Christmas tree farm on my Friend Sharon Donovan's Christmas Special Blog at http://sharondonovan.blogspot.com/ Join me there on 23rd December - Sharon is a very special lady and of you visit her blog regularly you will know she has a Christmas post every day until Christmas Day, and they range from Author interviews to personal Christmas recipes and customs. I had the honour to be invited to be one of her guest bloggers and am looking forward to sharing some details of Christmas tree farm on the 23rd. If you haven't checked out her blog yet be sure and do so, I promise you'll enjoy your visit.

http://www.christmastreefarm.co.uk/index.htm

Celebrate Catherine Bybee's great new release at the Author Roast and Toast

Come and find out more about Catherine Bybee's great new time travel romance release, 'Binding Vows' . This is one to put on your wish list for Santa!

Join hostesses Sharon, Mary and myself as we attempt to keep Sharon's butler, Oliver, under control, and stop Cuddles and Junior, the enchanted unicorn and telepathic dog, from creating havoc. It's all happening at:

http://authorroastandtoast.blogspot.com/

Friendship

One of the nicest things I discovered when I had my first novel, Starquest, published by The Wild Rose Press, is how supportive and friendly other authors are. Even though in a way we're competing with each other, it's not 'competitive' competing, if you see what I mean. We're all trying to sell our books, certainly, and the royalities we receive often don't even cover the amount we spend on promoting them, not to mention the time, but we write because we love writing, and we all share the kinship of this common passion, and rejoice in each other's new releases and successes.

I've made some wonderful on-line friends and discovered that if you need help finding the answer to a question or someone to read that tricky paragraph and give some advice, there is always someone out there willing to help. The loops and groups are a wonderful way to connect with other writers as well as readers, and of course, we love to visit each others blogs and interview other writers, or give interviews.

One of my much loved on-line friends is the lovely Sky Purington, who is one of my 'muse sisters'. I had such fun writing 'Dancing With Fate' my contribution to the Wild Rose Press anthology 'Song of The Muses, it was such a privilege to be included in this collection of stories with eight fantastic authors. Sky has a fantastic contest going on at her blog and has highlighted one of my stories, as well as those of five other fantasy authors. This is typical of Sky's generosity and support of her fellow writers. Why not pop over and leave a comment? You could win a prize of a $50 Wild Rose Press Gift Certificate. The contest is open until noon on 25th December (Not September as I originally posted!)
http://skypuringtonwrites.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-contest-2009.html

Jess won!

I'm thrilled to say Jess won as 'the character you would most like to be' in the The Love Romance's Bookclub contest.
Thank you to all those who voted for her. If you'd like to know more about her story, you can visit her My Space at www.myspace.com/jestine_darnell. She'd love you to 'friend here' there, in space one can never have too many friends!

FRIDAY UPDATES

The Romance s Bookclub "What Character Would You Like to Be" contest ends tomorrow, Saturday November 5th. So today is the last day to enter your vote if you haven't already. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LoveRomancesBookClub/polls

I entered my character from 'Starquest', Jestine Darnell, she'd be so grateful if you vote for her!

There is a gift for one lucky participant. All you have to do to be entered in the drawing for the winner is to vote! All voters will automatically be entered to win a glass angel Christmas tree ornament. It is so pretty!

I also have an entry in the 'kiss off' contest at the Classic Romance Revival site. This is a little different in that the entries are untitled - so if you are kind enough to want to vote for mine, you'll have to guess which one it is! LOL the details are here: http://classicromancerevival.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=111&Itemid=218
Again there is a prize draw for voters.

And don't forget The Author Roast and Toast is in full swing today - come along and say hello to our special guest, Mona Risk, on her release day. You could win a copy of her book by leaving a comment. You gotta see Sharon's hunky butler, Oliver, in his speedo!