Memories of a Christmas Past by Lena Grey The Christmas season is a magical time of year, when we allow ourselves to suspend our disbelief and let the spirit of our childhoods reign. It presents us with an excellent opportunity to put aside our differences and come together in peace and harmony.
A PAGAN CHRISTMAS Well, actually it’s called Yule and should really be celebrated on the 21st December, the Winter Solstice. However, I didn’t think it was fair on children to ask them to celebrate their festivities four days early. Children, being the ‘live in the now’ creatures they are, could easily have all their presents on the 21st and still get upset because they don’t have Christmas Presents on the 25th. So, we moved Yule on by a few days. We still celebrate with a ritual on 21st, but so many of the rituals and symbolism have been ‘stolen’ by Christmas it’s really all blurred into one.
Deck the halls with boots of lollies! On this wonderful 6th of December, children (and adults) awake to find the shoe they left out their door overnight full of goodies from Nikolaus. Similar to perhaps how a stocking overhanging a fireplace might be filled, in Germany—where my family and I celebrate Christmas—this happens earlier in the month.
Today’s guest is H. Lewis Foster who’s here to talk about her new book – A Valet’s Duty. I’m looking forward to reading this as I have a thing for historical fiction. So take a peek and if you like what you’ve read, leave her a comment at the end. -AQG Thanks very much for having me on your blog today, Andrew—it’s great to be here. I’m very excited about the release of my Edwardian story A Valet’s Duty, but instead of telling you all about it, I thought I’d leave it to the valet himself.
Traditions… then and now One of my favorite traditions has been trimming the tree. *laugh* Okay, yes, it’s a pain getting the tree down from the attic, setting it, and so on. When the kids were young, I’d haul it down a day or so after Thanksgiving. They were off for Thanksgiving break and that Saturday we’d get started on the tree. That was *always* the first thing done. And man, I had boxes of ornaments. Ornaments from the very old, the very expensive… to things made by the kids in school. Our tradition was the kids helped me dress the tree—it was naked when it came from the attic, so it was up to us to dress it. That’s …
I’d like to thank Andrew not simply for inviting me to be part of his holiday blogging extravaganza, but mostly for reminding me of one of my most significant holidays ever. It was Thanksgiving, 2002. I spent it with my husband, three-year-old daughter and mother-in-law in Hong Kong, where we went for a week before traveling on to mainland China to adopt our younger daughter. 2002 was actually my second holiday season in Hong Kong, and my husband and his mother had been there before, when his brother was living and working there. He and his girlfriend actually lived on an island about an hour outside of Hong Kong by ferry, called Cheung Chau (you can see it from Lantau …
They say Christmas is for kids – of course that ignores the religious implication, but few would deny that Christmas is made for kids. The qualifier should be – kids 3 and older. Clearly the first Christmas with ‘lil q she had no idea what was going on around her. I, on the other hand, totally understood the significance. I was fortunate enough to be able to take 16 weeks of paid leave under the family medical act to help raise my new daughter. It was in itself the best holiday gift to be able to spend the time with her. When it was time to do holiday shopping, ‘lil q was just starting to face forward in the baby …
As ‘lil q gets older, she’s understanding more of what goes on around her. Right now Christmas isn’t anything to her, but as witnessed by her getting her classmates to sing happy birthday to her six weeks after her birthday, she obviously has the ability to comprehend holidays and special occasions. I wanted to do something to celebrate the holiday on my site, but rather than put up 25 holiday posts from me, I’ve asked a group of people to contribute something instead. The only common theme for all of these posts will be they all come from parents. Not gay parents or parents of gay children, just parents. They’re will be gay parents, straight parents, parents with gay kids and …
New mother to be – and very busy and ambitious author – Cate Ashwood stops by today. Cate wrote one of my favorite books of the year – Keeping Sweets and followed that up by not just one book, but a three book series, the first of which – Brokenhearted came out a couple weeks ago. Cate’s here to talk about her new book, writing and even a bit about herself. Guest Author – Cate Ashwood: Welcome Cate. This has been quite a year for you. Your first novel Keeping Sweets–which I loved–was released this year, you went to GRL in October and now you’ve got another book that just came out Friday. How much of a learning experience was …
I’m not usually the overly sentiment type, but as I sat at breakfast with ‘lil q I realized what a great year it had been. Aside from watching ‘lil q grow up and amaze me almost every day, I have a lot to be thankful for. Not necessarily in chronological order: