Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Keep It Sincerely Simple: Guest Davalynn Spencer

I'm excited to be hosting special guests for the next several Wednesdays! Please join me in welcoming Davalynn Spencer!

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Do you ever wish you could banish the blitz of Christmas? The gotta-have-it, get-it-here marketing onslaught is enough to make a Scrooge of nearly anyone. What happened to the Christmas KISS?

Keep It Sincerely Simple 


Families today have come so far from more humble times when Christmas giving might have meant an orange and peppermint candy in a youngster’s stocking, a special dinner with roasted game, or songs led by a brave soul with a fiddle and the Christmas story read by candle light.

Sometimes I think I’d like to pool all our money earmarked for presents and spend it on a mountain hide-away in the luxury of simplicity. Another option could be giving it all to a local charity—as I was privileged to witness one year at our church. A family with four grown children brought in bulging envelopes stuffed with money they’d saved and gave it to the church’s water-well project. Their faces reflected a wealth of return from their giving.

Over the last several years, our eight-member family (not counting kiddos) has put a price limit on gifts and exchanged names. Rather than buying gifts for everyone, we each buy one. It has become quite a tradition, and as the official name exchanger, I receive phone calls and texts from family members starting in November asking whose name they have! Guess you know what I’m busy doing while stuffing turkey and baking pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving dinner.

When I recall my best Christmas memories, they never involve the gifts I received, though I garnered just as many as most children. The treasures I hold in my heart include the year my mother nailed our tree to the floor because she couldn’t get it to stand up straight. Or the year our Jack Russell terrier “anointed” the tree before we brought it inside. The smell of clove-studded oranges and the way cloud-like divinity candy melted on my tongue. My husband reading the second chapter of Luke to our children, and the year I gave a secret gift to a needy family.

As an author who loves Christmas stories, I took literary license and dispensed with all but the essentials of the season in my upcoming Christmas novella.

My heroine faces the holiday with no money to buy presents for the very important people in her life. No malls, internet, or last minute shopping in 1885 on a snowbound ranch in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. But oh, how I loved the feel of a home-made Christmas that wrapped around me while I wrote the story.

Options for Christmas giving are endless, and more meaningful, I believe, if we can avoid modern commercialism. After all, God nestled His gift in a feed trough, not a palace garden or courtyard.

This year as you give, open your heart to hear from the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Maybe He has a surprise in store, a lovely Christmas kiss He’d like you to help Him deliver.

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What a beautiful post, Davalynn! I grew up reading the Little House books and The Bobbsey Twins. Both series featured homespun Christmases, and they had a big effect on my attitude. Simpler Christmases are special! Thank you so much for sharing the joy of Christmas with us today!

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About Davalyn ~

Davalynn Spencer writes cowboy romance, a skill she’s honed since marrying a professional rodeo bullfighter and raising another. Her most recent title is “The Snowbound Bride,” one of twelve historical novellas in Barbour’s collection, The 12 Brides of Christmas. She is represented by Linda S. Glaz of Hartline Literary Agency and makes her home on Colorado’s Front Range with her handsome cowboy and their Queensland heeler named Blue. Connect with Davalynn on her website, Facebook page, Goodreads, and Twitter.

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The Snowbound Bride ~

On the run from a heartless uncle, Arabella Taube hides in Nate Horne’s buckboard just as a blizzard sweeps into Colorado. Can she find her way out of the storm—physically and emotionally—or will the handsome mountain horseman steal her heart?

Purchase The Snowbound Bride from Amazon, Christianbooks, or Barnes & Noble!

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Do you keep Christmas simple? What is your favorite tradition?

Have a wonderful day!!




13 comments:

  1. I loved your message today, Davalynn! Thank you so much!!

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  2. Great thoughts, Davalynn! It makes me wish my hand wasn't out if commission so I could do our Christmas the way I usually do this year! I'm looking forward to reading your book!

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    1. I'm so sorry about your hand, Norma. Hope it heals quickly for you. Bless you!

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    2. Norma - what a struggle for the holidays! But perhaps you can start a new, simpler tradition this Christmas. Maybe one that involves you directing while others implement!

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  3. This was such a lovely post, Davalyn. Thanks for sharing. We draw names, too! And we play Christmas Bingo. Everyone laughs and has a great time. :)

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    1. Christmas Bingo! That sounds like fun! I might have to borrow that idea, Jessica!

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    2. Christmas Bingo - I like it, Jessica. Hot chocolate included, right?

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  4. Beautiful post, Davalyn. We act like we're going to keep it simple, and then something happens and we go back to our traditional way of celebrating. But it's all good as long as we remember to celebrate Jesus.

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    1. So true, Jackie. It's easy to get 'caught up.' Thanks for stopping by.

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  5. You sound like me, Jackie. I said, "I'm paring down the cards this year," and then I added five people! But it warmed my heart, so sometimes a little overboard is a good thing. :)

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    1. Thanks for having me today, Jill. What a blessing it's been!

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