For the Love of Holidays

We are talking about the holidays on the Romance Writers Weekly blog hop today. More

specifically, we are talking about what we look most forward to as we come into the festive season. It is a hard question to answer to be honest. There are a number of things that I love, but I will narrow it down to only a couple. One thing that many people don’t know about me, is that I

am nostalgic. I love reminiscing and thinking back to happy times. I am not a person that hates change and am usually the first person to jump on the bandwagon of the next big thing, but when it comes to my holidays, I like them slow and steady. Another thing I love about the holidays is all the food. I am a trained chef, one of my earlier careers, so I feed people. It’s what I do, and the holidays are my super bowl.

My father loved the holidays. He was a big kid at heart and he had just as much fun playing with my toys and helping me open my presents as I did so some of my most vivid memories of my dad are during the holidays. I lost him when I was 21 to a massive heart attack and the memories have become precious mementos for me.

I have also found that as my daughters have grown up the traditions have held us together even through those teen years, that let’s face it can be difficult. In the last few years, we have welcomed new spouses and plus ones to our table and said goodbye to others. When my daughter was away for Airforce training, we celebrated Christmas a week later to wait for her to

be home, but the traditions were the same, because they mean something to our family.

When I decorate the Christmas tree I love to hold and think about the different ornaments that we have added over the years, either bought, or those homemade ones from the girls. They all have meaning and allow me to slow down and think about those things that are the most important to me but get lost in the day to day.

The holidays are a time for me to start reflecting on the past year, and years past to consider where I am headed and how that might look. In all the craziness that is our world today, the hustle and bustle of the holidays feels more normal than years past and welcome in many ways.

The other thing I look forward to during the holidays is the food. I love to eat and feed people. It is no secret that my own mother wasn’t a lover of cooking, so as soon as she was able, she passed

the ladle on to me and I have been the holiday cook ever since.

My youngest daughter’s favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. She starts looking forward to it in July, so it is important that I make it special for her. Everyone who comes to Thanksgiving with advanced notice gets to choose a pie they would like, so often I bake upwards of 5 different pies. We have all the traditional foods, but my daughter won’t call it Thanksgiving until she has my sausage stuffing.

I get up early on Thanksgiving morning and start getting everything going, and then I make popovers, which was a tradition in my house when I was a girl. When the popovers are ready, we sit down and watch the Macy’s parade. My dad loved parades, so we never missed it and I have tailored my Thanksgiving day routine to make sure I am on the couch with my popovers and mimosas for that hour or two so I don’t miss it.

We are not football fans in my house. I know, don’t judge. After dinner, we are often all crash and watch whatever holiday movies we can find on tv until we all go back into the kitchen later that evening and have a second round.

At Christmas it has been my custom to make holiday cookie and goody trays for everyone on our street and some other close family and friends. The girls and I used to begin sometime in November making cookie dough and freezing it, then on the days leading up to Christmas eve we would decorate and package the treats, then on Christmas eve, before we went to our church service we would go around and leave the trays on people’s porches so they would have them for Christmas morning.

I have less help now, so the trays have gotten smaller, but I still enjoy sharing something with my neighbors that I know they will enjoy.

I think the secret is to make the holidays mean something to you, what ever that is and take it to the next level. Own it. It doesn’t matter what, just make sure it is something that will give you joy and leave the craziness of the rest of the holiday to those people that enjoy that.

Next up we have a new addition to our ranks! Welcome to Elizabeth Schechter

She also has a pre-order and cover reveal to share with us! Hidden Things (Swords of Charlemagne, book 1) Coming January 26th,