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!

***

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.

***

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!

***

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.

***

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!

***

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

Have a wonderful day!!

Tweet

Share

Tomorrow Is Thanksgiving: Guest Elizabeth Maddrey

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

***

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment, because if you’re like me, that totally snuck up on you. Every year, I have these great plans about how I’m going to plan my menu at the start of the month and I’m going to shop early so I’m not stuck deciding between a thirty-four pound turkey or two six-pound turkeys to feed the twelve people that generally make up our family Thanksgiving dinner. Every year…I fail. Miserably.

And so, it’s good that Jill asked me to write this ahead of time, because chances are, right now? I’m standing in the grocery store along with nineteen million men (it’s always men. I guess most of the women had their act together and just had to send their hubby out for one or two items.) trying to pick through the emaciated sweet potatoes that no one wanted, hoping to find one or two that are actually worth eating. You’ll know it’s me because I have the two screaming children in the cart, both incredibly unhappy about being at the grocery store when they should be at home eating dinner. And I’d have happily left them there, except my own husband is stuck in the insane traffic that plagues the DC area on any kind of day ending in ‘y’, but especially on holiday weekends.

This has become my Thanksgiving tradition. I’m not sure it’s a good one to have, but I’ll admit that, to me at least, it still kind of beats the one my mom tried so hard to instill when we were kids (everyone got kernels of corn at their dinner seat, then we had to say one thankful thing for each kernel. Nice idea. Crazy cheesy to the two sarcastic teens that she birthed.)

But even with the craziness that has come to define my shopping (and it usually trickles into the cooking and serving portion of the meal, if we’re honest), I have to say I love Thanksgiving. I love that there’s a whole day set aside to encourage us to be thankful – and the older I get, I begin to understand Mom and her corn kernels a bit better. Because in addition to reminding myself to be thankful (something that’s so easy to forget to do when you’re wrapped up in the day-to-day of life), I love hearing other people talk about the things they’re thankful for. Inevitably, that reminds me of even more that I appreciate. And so on, and so forth.

And then, let’s be honest, there’s pie. I’m very thankful that someone invented pie.

So tomorrow, I’ll be sitting down with my husband and our kids, my parents, my sister and her husband, my husband’s parents, and his two sisters. And we’ll have lots of (hopefully) delicious food that I’ve made and, more likely than not, we’ll spend a few minutes talking about the last year and the specific things we’re thankful for. For me, that will include gratitude for my second year as a published author with two more full-length novels and a novella already released and my third novel for the year coming out next week. I still have to stop and pinch myself when I think about the fact that I have seven—almost eight—books out there in the world for other people to read. (And I’m even more grateful that people do read them and, beyond that, enjoy them!)

I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow, full of turkey and pie and family and, above all, thankfulness. And if, like me, you’re facing down a trip to the store today…I hope you find everything you need so you don’t have to try and substitute parsnips for potatoes.

***

About Elizabeth Maddrey ~

Elizabeth Maddrey began writing stories as soon as she could form the letters properly and has never looked back. Though her practical nature and love of math and organization steered her into computer science for college and graduate school, she has always had one or more stories in progress to occupy her free time. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books and has mastered the art of reading while undertaking just about any other activity. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace.

Elizabeth lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. with her husband and their two incredibly active little boys. She invites you to interact with her at her website www.ElizabethMaddrey.com, or on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. 

Releasing December 2, 2014 – Love Defined, Book 3 in the Remnants Series

Dreams Change. Plans Fail.

July and Gareth have reached the end of their infertility treatment options.  With conflicting feelings on adoption, they struggle to discover common ground in their marriage.

Meanwhile, July's twin sister, June, and her husband, Toby, are navigating the uncertainties of adoption and the challenges of new parenthood.

How much stretching can their relationships endure before they snap?

***

Elizabeth, I can completely relate to the last minute store runs. I'm lucky to stay on top of the kids' homework. Forget the turkeys and potatoes! And I'm giggling at the corn kernel concept. It's such a "mom" thing to do. I hope you enjoy today and avoid those stores!! Thank you so much for sharing with us.

***

Okay, what's your most embarrassing moment when it comes to cooking?

When I was a newlywed, I knew nothing about cooking. I once made a stew with Kielbasa sausage and A1 sauce. Yeah, we ordered pizza that night!

Have a wonderful and very blessed Thanksgiving!! 

Tweet

Share

Extending Grace and Offering Hope: Guest Jessica R. Patch

Today, I'm so happy to welcome one of my best friends--and gifted writer--Jessica R. Patch! She's not only taking over my blog, but she's also generously giving away her Christmas novella to anyone who signs up for her newsletter. Take it from me, this is a heartwarming story, so I hope you sign up!

***

Thanks so much for having me today, Jill!

We all struggle. We all fall short and miss the mark for sure. In my Christmas novella, Hope Under Mistletoe, my hero Knox Everhart thinks the heroine is perfect. She’s a widowed pastor’s wife, a single mom, and she’s still trying to meet the needs of the church congregants. To top that off, her father drinks too much and she’s constantly dragging him out of Knox’s bar. Here’s a small excerpt:

***

 “My dad left when I was just a kid, Eden. Some days I can’t even remember his face. No brothers and sisters. Just Nathan—and he…he had you,” he murmured. “The people in that bar, they became my family. And I liked the feeling.”

Eden’s heart exploded into a million jagged fragments.

Family. No judgment, just unconditional love. That’s what Knox craved. Didn’t everyone? She clutched his black-and-gray scarf. “That’s what the people in the church are for me.”

His sight trailed over her head, then he met her gaze. “Even the gossips? It’s no secret Betsy Davis knows everything and tells everything in the name of truth.”

“But do you know that Betsy Davis gives thousands of her hard-earned dollars to help missionaries and orphans? Did you know her husband Leonard gives free legal aid to single moms who can’t get the child support they deserve?”

“Your point?”

“Knox, none of us are without sin. We’re not perfect. We’re progress. Betsy struggles with her tongue. But she loves the Lord. So we get irked,” she snickered, “and we pray and confront her in love, and we extend mercy and grace. That’s family.”

“I think you’re perfect.”

She’d have laughed in his face if he wasn’t so serious. “I am far from perfect. My struggles aren’t on public display. They’re here.” She touched her heart. “And here.” She pointed to her head.

***

Like Eden, many of us struggle more on the inside than the outside. We wear big smiles, we fix our hair, match our scarf with our shoes and purse. We can easily look put together, can’t we? And on the inside, we’re miserable. Hurting. Suffering.

I think sometimes Christians are labeled hypocrites when really we’re just imperfect people working our way through this thing called a saved life. We slip up. We say things we shouldn’t. We sin in our anger. But then we repent, and move forward again. Oh, there are a few hypocrites—who know they’re acting opposite of how they should, they don’t repent, don’t care but never have trouble pointing the finger at someone else. Those few have a way of spoiling the good things about being about Christian for others.

At the end of the day, what Eden says rings true: “We pray, we confront in love, and we extend mercy and grace.”

“Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.” James 2:13 MSG

Whatever you’re going through, these words of Christ still hold weight: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 MSG

I’d love for you to subscribe to my Patched In Newsletter.  And to say thank you, you’ll receive this exclusive Christmas novella!

A rowdy bar owner. A widowed pastor’s wife. And Christmas Hope that brings them together.

After widower Eden Snow’s church almost burns to the ground, she’s compelled to find a temporary place to hold services and Christmas cantata practices.

Has-been hockey player, Knox Everhart, has a reputation for being fast on the ice and with women. Except Eden. She’s always been a fascinating mystery to him, which is why he agrees to let her use the back room of his bar—with one rule: No converting his customers.

But when Eden brings the church to the bar, it offers something the bottle can’t. Hope. And he finds himself falling in love with a woman and a Savior he feels unworthy to pursue.

***

Jessica and I at ACFW a few years ago. This is one of my favorite pictures!

Jessica R. Patch writes inspirational contemporary romance and romantic suspense. A passion to draw women into intimacy with God keeps her motivated, along with ice-cold Perrier and adventurous trips in the name of research. When she’s not hunched over her laptop or teaching the new & growing believer's class at her church, you can find her sneaking off to movies with her husband, embarrassing her daughter in unique ways, dominating her son at board games, and collecting recipes to wonderful dishes she'll probably never cook. She is represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary Management.

Connect with Jessica on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and her website! 

***

Thank you SO much for being my guest today, Jessica!!

When do you put up your Christmas decorations?

Have a lovely day!

Tweet

Share

Top 10 Things to Do After Thanksgiving Besides Shopping: Guest Krista Phillips

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

TOP TEN things to do the day after Thanksgiving BESIDES shopping...

Want some ideas for things to do on Black Friday... that DON'T involve braving the crowds and shopping? Because you KNOW that's not what you want to be doing....

10.) Eat. More. Turkey. Sandwiches.

9.) Read a good book.. or two... or three. (One about, uh, sandwiches, would be a GREAT option!)

8.) Go golfing. Mini-golf is fine. Even golfing on the WII. Or I'm sure they make some golf app for your phone.

7.) Sleep. Turkey does have that effect on people.

6.) Go to the gym. WORK off those calories you just ate! It'll probably take you ALL DAY LONG, but you can do it.

5.) Put up Christmas decorations. Spend hours on a ladder only to find that one bad bulb made your whole string of lights not work. Spend a few more hours trying to find which bulb is bad. This is fun. I promise.

4.) Board games. Lots and lots and lots of board games.

3.) Go to work. I know you'll be the only one there, but think of how much stuff you can get caught up on with no one there bother you.

2.) Go visit Grandma. I know you just visited her yesterday, but hey. She loves seeing her grandkids. Why not two days in a row?

And the number one thing to do the day after Thanksgiving besides shopping is......

Go take coffee (or Hot chocolate…) to your friends who are standing in line to get that deal that really isn't all that great.

Just whatever you do... DON'T GO SHOPPING.

(and, I, uh, definitely don't say this to help make the lines shorter and encourage more people not to shop so I can shop with better ease... nope... not at ALL...*ahem*)

So... what is YOUR after Thanksgiving tradition? Do you have one?

Me? Well, I think you already know. You'll find me shopping! (I'm not a fan of the whole Thanksgiving day thing though... but 4am on Black Friday? I'm THERE! It's a tradition!!)

*** 

About Krista ~

Krista Phillips is the author of Sandwich, with a Side of Romance and A Side of Faith. She enjoys life with her husband and their four beautiful daughters in Tennessee. She is an advocate for congenital heart defect and organ donation awareness and blogs at www.kristaphillips.com.

Connect with Krista on Facebook and Twitter.

***

A Side of Faith

He is everything she never wanted...

Rachel Carter is on top of the world. A new job in a new town, friends, and a house to call her own. Men? Eh, someday. And when the time comes, she’ll go for a nice safe geek or something. She will NOT be repeating the mistakes of her youth. 

But then Cameron Foster comes knocking on her door, reminding her of the man she vows never to think of again.

God wouldn’t send her a man who reminds her of everything she is trying to put behind her...would He?

Interested in purchasing A Side of Faith? The following sites are linked! 

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

***

Thank you so much for being my guest today, Krista! I'm definitely planning on reading and getting hot chocolate!

It's giveaway time!! Leave your email address in the comments of this post for your chance to win a copy of BOTH Krista's books, Sandwich with a Side of Romance and her novella, A Side of Faith.

 Contest is open to U.S. residents 18 and older. Winner will be randomly selected from the comments on Saturday, November 15 and  notified via email the following week.

Back to Krista's question:

So... what is YOUR after Thanksgiving tradition? Do you have one?

Have a terrific day!!

Tweet

Share