Ruth Logan Herne is my Special Guest for Christmas Eve

Cheryl, thank you so much for the chance to be part of the 2015 tour!!!!

This is our family tree... It's tucked in the corner of our family room, a room recently added to help house our six kids, fourteen grandkids, and big Blodgett/Herne family gatherings.

We finished the room a couple of years ago, but as a daycare provider by day, and sweet romance author by night, I didn't dare put the family tree in this room for obvious reasons:

Four four-year-olds and a two year old! So this is our first Christmas having a tree in the new family room, and I love how the tree is reflected in the windows at night. So pretty!

I can't see the new room from the kitchen, and youse all know what that means. If Mama/Grammy can't see you, anything goes!

But this tree is more than a pretty tree with lights. This is a memory tree. This is the most precious of precious trees, filled with rare, hand-crafted ornaments of the highest order. Here's a look at them:

A Christmas card from my son Seth, now a teacher, a small business owner and the father of three...

And here's an ornament he made us that met with a few rough scrapes over the years:

And here's Matt back when we called him "Buddy" in pre-school, now a puzzle-solving CPA and father of three:

And Sarah, so sweet, earnest and industrious from an early age, now a college professor at Duke University and mother of three:

And Bethy, in pre-school, charming hearts then... and now a mother of four, a wrap-around care provider and a free-lance editor:

And Zach, back in the four-year-olds Sunday School classroom, now a New York City lawyer and writer:

And Luke's pre-school pics disappeared, so I'll be recreating them this week. I have no idea where they got tucked last year, but that's not unusual around here! At 6' 2" tall and 190 lbs., Luke is our throwback because Dave and I are not big people! In both families, we were the runts of the litters, so we love that Luke ended up on the tall end of the stick because every family needs a Bumble:

So this is Lukie's ornament and Luke gets the honor of putting angels on treetops when he comes home...

And that's what makes this tree so special, and worthy of guarding! :) These memories are decades-old and priceless. They remind me of Christmas past, present and yet to come because we've got new ornaments to hang on our most special of special trees!


A New Generation!!!

More precious ornaments to mark the years, made by more precious children. To me, Christmas is always about the child, the Christ child, and what was given to us in that cool, dark hillside cave. A baby, born in a manger, a child of the poor. So I celebrate children, the gift of all ages... The First Gift of Christmas.

And I'd love to share some old-time Christmas cheer with you guys, so I'm giving away a copy of "A Heart Full of Christmas" and "Home for Christmas", two wonderful collections for Kindles! In the contemporary "Heart Full of Christmas", you'll meet the third Karralis cousin "Jake", and he's the kind of wonderful hero you'll never forget... and then in "Home for Christmas" you'll get my newest historical set in Second Chance, South Dakota, a story of new beginnings, strong men and the even stronger women who helped settle the West! Two sweet collections from top-name authors, written with faith, hope and ... you guessed it! Love.