Christmas Tree Tour: Patty Underhill

Patty has an unusual tree, and is once again kind enough to share it with us. Her tree is decorated with Rudolph and other characters! And she even has a Rudolph Village. It is the cutest ever.

Thanks for sending us pics!

Here is our Christmas Tree of 2010. 

 

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

I have some new Rudolph ornaments this year (my fave Christmas movie of all time!) and of course, all our older favourites (Star Wars, Disney, etc...) are still prominently featured.

 

Also, I’ve added a pic of the cute little tree my husband, Brent, has in our home bar. 

I hope your Holidays are wonderful this year! 

Happy Holidays!

Patty Underhill

Christmas Tree Tour: LeighAnn's Tree

This is my daughter LeighAnn's tree. It's a pretty little thing, and with two big dogs in the family, it's very conveniently located off the floor. Those stockings cleverly used as a tree skirt are the original stockings that each of her four kids have had since their first Christmases.





LeighAnn and I are total opposites in our homes and our decorating. She is a minimalist and likes things with clean lines and no embellishments. One of anything will do, and if something isn't used, it's not needed. Their home is lovely and well-organized, even with a houseful of teenagers.

She has a Rumba that comes out of its dock every day at mid-morning and vacuums the entire main level while LeighAnn is working downstairs. She specifically bought furniture that the Rumba could get underneath.



And I'm especially impressed with this lovely tree, because in 2008 when the dogs were still pups, this was their tree.

Christmas Tree Tour: Phyliss Miranda

My sister Filly, Phyliss Miranda sent me photos of her two favorite Christmas trees! Here's what she has to say:

I’m happy, yet sad.  My five grandkids moved back to the Texas Panhandle from San Antonio, Texas, this spring.  I’m thrilled to have them so close, but also kinda sad that I wasn’t down on the plaza for the lighting of the Christmas tree at the Alamo this year.   

The tree if sponsored by the H-E-B grocery chain and it’s a white fir, hailing from the Shasta Mountains of Northern California, and is 55 feet tall!  Big, just like Texas!  The ornaments consist of strings of over ten thousand environmentally-sensitive LED lights and children’s book.  What a sight to behold!  Over to the north of the Alamo you can see the old Crockett Hotel sign. 

My second favorite tree is in New York City at Rockefeller Center.   I had to pleasure of being in NYC during the Christmas season with fellow author, Jodi Thomas, and our then Kensington editor, Hilary Sares a couple of years ago.  This tree is absolutely breathtaking.

Hope you enjoy two of my favorite Christmas trees. 

 

A native Texan, Phyliss Miranda still believes in the Code of the Old West. She enjoys sharing her love for antiques, the lost art of quilting, and the magnificent sunsets of the Texas Panhandle with her readers.

Born to protect and serve, these rugged lawmen are the stuff of Texas legend. 

Phyliss Miranda, teams up with Jodi Thomas, Linda Broday, and DeWanna Pace to bring you four red-blooded Rangers and the women who tame their hearts ...

             

Give Me a Texas Ranger 

            Kensington 2010

Patty's Back Yard

Patty Underhill send me this photo of her back yard, which proves winter can be pretty. 

I don't know if the residents of Buffalo would agree right now.

Christmas Tree Tour: Michelle Styles

Michelle Styles's tree is one of my very favorites every year. It has an old fashioned appeal we don't see around here. The shape of this tree is just lovely and reminiscent of Christmases past, don't you think? Thank you, Michelle!

Michelle says:

My husband decided to be wonderfully efficient and brought the tree home on Wednesday. Only my daughter and I were going out to a Christmas concert at the Sage (English folk singer Kate  Rusby) so we had did the decorating in shifts. My youngest son finished the tree while we were out.

This is a link to one of my favourite carols by Kate Rusby Sweet Bells  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWz2X_h72nU

 His unexpected bride…
Wealthy landowner Simon Clare shuns Northumbrian society. With his son gravely ill, the last thing Simon needs is an interfering woman assuming command of his household and nursing young Robert – no matter how sensuous her figure, or how tempting her luscious lips. Phoebe Benedict knows what it is to struggle, and finds herself drawn to the badly scarred recluse. Despite his tough exterior, she knows that Simon is a father who yearns for his son to recover – and a man who misses the tender embrace of a woman…

HH Advent: My Drawing Winner

The winner of my drawing is Peter Duthoy from Maryland!

Thanks to all of you who visited my website and entered via the guest book. I was overwhelmed. Each of you is also entered in the final drawing for the Kindle 3-G. I can't wait to see who wins it!

Congratulations, Peter!

19 Gifts Nobody Wants

19 Gifts Nobody Wants

MarieClaire.com
The Peekaroo is my favorite!

Great Christmas Tree Tour: Glynna Kaye

The creativity and ingenuity of my friends and fellow writers never ceases to amaze me.
Wait until you see this unique Christmas tree!

 

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

"I do a "theme tree" in my home office every year.  THIS year's tree features keychains that I've been collecting on my travels--for 20 years--everywhere from California's Disneyland to London to a Diamondbacks game in Phoenix!  (Friends are now sending me keychains from THEIR travels, too!)  Storing my "ornaments" takes very little space, and keychains make an inexpensive and packable vacation souvenir for a festive, memory-invoking Christmas tree!"  

 

 

 

 

Never  Trust a Cowboy.  That's what Kara Dixon's mother always warned her. Back home in Canyon Springs, Arizona, to care for her ailing mom, Kara comes face-to-face with rodeo cowboy Trey Kenton. Her former flame--and one-time bad boy--is finally ready to settle down and start a family, and he's got his heart set on Kara. But she's determined to head back to her big-city life in Chicago once her mother's on the mend. Can the charming cowboy convince her to trust him and give their love a second chance?

 VISIT GLYNNA'S WEBSITE

Harlequin Historical Advent Calendar Drawing December 13th

During the month of December, twenty-two Harlequin Historical Authors have teamed up to create an online Advent Calendar.  CLICK HERE for the calendar.  Each day, click on the corresponding author's cover to visit the host author's website and enter to win prizes, such as signed books, gift certificates and holiday goodies. 

You will be asked to complete a task, such as posting a blog comment, searching for a hidden ornament, or answering a question about an excerpt. Please check the author's web page for your instructions and to see what the daily prize is. You can enter once each day, at each of the twenty-two websites. 

On December 23^rd, a random drawing from among all 22 authors' entries will determine the grand prize winner of a Kindle 3-G.  Please see the official eligibility rules (www.michellewillingham.com/official-rules) for this giveaway. 

I'm giving away a prize package that includes:

* a lovely little book of recipes for scones, muffins and tea

* my own favorite scone recipes on handwritten cards

* a vintage cup and sauce from my collection

* a hard-to find copy of Joe's Wife

* autographed copies of Sweet Annie and two of my Christmas anthologies

Here's how to enter the drawing for this prize AND have your name go into the grand prize drawing for a Kindle 3-G:

Find the Christmas ornament on my website.

Send me a message via my guestbook, telling me what shape the ornament is and including your name and address.

The winner will be chosen by a random generator and announced on my blog tomorrow December 14th.

All the entrants names go into the December 23rd drawing for a Kindle.

An Unforgettable Lunch Hour

Purple Christmas Tree: General Crook House

Purple lovers unite! Treva, Alexis, *lizzie starr and Donna K will love this tree. I was thinking of them when I took these pics. This tree is in one of the main front rooms in the General Crook house, a room which was once used for entertaining.

As a matter of fact the historical home is often still used for entertaining. It can be rented for a day or evening. My writers group once rented it for a party, and it was a lovely occasion.

Linda Lael Miller: McKettrick's Choice

McKettrick's Choice

• Linda Lael Miller
• HQN

• Dec 2010
• Miniseries: McKettricks of Texas
• Category: Contemporary Romance
• Paperback
• ISBN: 9780373774920

When news arrived that there was trouble back in Texas, Holt McKettrick left a mail-order bride and his family on the spot. And he never looked back. He just prayed he'd be in time to save the man who had raised him as a son and keep his best friend from the gallows. He knew he'd encounter rustlers, scoundrels and thieves, but he'd never expected to find a woman like Lorelei Fellows.

Setting fire to her wedding dress in the town square probably wasn't the best way to stand her ground. But Lorelei had had enough. She was sick of men and their schemes. All she wanted was to stake her claim on her own little piece of Texas. And with Holt McKettrick as a neighbor, things were beginning to look up. The man was a straight shooter with a strong will, a steady aim and a hungry heart.

READ AN EXCERPT

Christmas Tree Tour: Barb Hunt

Oh, Christmas Tree Oh, Christmas Tree!

The black and white was taken in 1961.  That's me posing in my new dress for my school Christmas program. Yikes!  My dad traded in his angel hair (okay, how many of you remember the white angel hair?) for silver icicles.  Each strand meticulously hung. 

If you look real close you will see on the right side of the tree about sleeve level, a white striped round ornament.  This is one from the first set my mom and dad ordered from Sears for their first Christmas in 1946. 

 

Now if you look at the picture of this year's family tree you will see the same ornament on the left side of the tree about a 1/4 of the way down.  There are three other ornaments on the tree from that set and equally as precious to me. 

First and foremost in our house, Jesus is the reason for the season. 

But Christmas is also a time to remember and appreciate those we love, past and present.  For me, the decorations on my Christmas tree are like the fan quilt my Grandma Eastman made me out of the bits of cloth she saved from old dresses she had worn for many years.  Each bit brings back a much cherished memory of when she wore that dress.  The same is true for old ornaments on a tree. Memories of a revolving door of family and friends.  Love, laughter, egg nog, my dad reading me the Night Before Christmas, Mitch Miller Christmas music, footies, and my bestest gift ever. . .a transistor radio in a leather case.  :)

The small tree is in the den is my Toy Story, Coca Cola tree.

. . .Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Barb

Christmas Tree Tour: Treva Harte's Purple Christmas Tree

Treva sent photos of her purple tree. I know of a few people who are going to love this one!

Treva's daughter said the only Christmas tradition they have is that she and her brother get to eat candy for breakfast on Christmas morning. (That's because they get into the stockings before she can get breakfast going.)  This year she demanded they do a Jewish Christmas so Treva thinks instead of her husband cooking up a Christmas feast, they're going out for Chinese and then seeing a movie.

How fun is this?!

Click here to visit Treva's website.

Great Christmas Tree Tour: Julie Hilton Steele

"When I was first married, I developed a fascination for nativities.  Other young married couples began their traditions with a “First Christmas” ornament, I bought a starter Fontanini nativity set.  These beautiful creations have been around since 1908 and are made by the fourth generation of the Fontanini family in Italy.  Maybe my inspiration came from the Moravian putz in the church next to our elementary school (every year, we took a field trip across the playground to see it).  It could be my love for St. Francis who invented the nativity scene to illustrate the Christmas story for poor, illiterate villagers.  Whatever the reason, I loved nativities more than the Christmas tree and other décor.  My husband loves ME a lot because we have added to our collection for thirty years now.

"First I started with the basic Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus figures. The next year I added shepherds and followed, a year later, with the wise men.  Sheep, camels, and even ducks were interspersed with fishermen, young boys, artisans and centurions.  As our family grew, my daughter caught the bug and we began shopping together each year for a different villager or building.

"In addition to adding characters in the Christmas story, we began looking for pieces which reflected our family or events during the year such as a little red-haired girl with her mother, a bakery when my daughter started marketing her baking skills,  a dog to remember our dearly departed Duchess.  Other years, we decide on a village well, a flower cart or a lighted fireplace for pizzazz. The nativity is never set up the same and has grown so large this year we have had to put it on two different buffets in our dining room.   Traditionally, my daughter is also the one to set it up.  I didn’t know it was a tradition until I set it up without her one year.  Never again!"

 Had to include Julie's lovely sig file quote:
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.  ~ Melody Beattie

 

Thank you so much, Julie!

VISIT CONFESSIONS OF A BACKYARD HERMIT

Christmas Tree Tour: Abi

Abi's tree is up now!

"We don't have a set theme for our tree. The ornaments are just different ones that people have bought us down through the years, the girls have make or we've gotten on vacation. My girls and I like to bake goodies during the Christmas season and give to friends and neighbors. I'm sharing with you some pictures of our tree and different decorations around the house."

 This is a beautiful tree, Abi! Thanks for sharing with us!

VISIT SCRAPS OF LIFE
Click here to visit 4 the Love of Books

Abi also shared other Christmas decorations around her home. 

It's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Catherine Palmer: The Gunman's Bride

Bart Kingsley had followed her to New Mexico, ready to lay his love—and his life—on the line. But spirited Laura Rose had made a fresh start for herself. She hadn't left her controlling father in Kansas to let some gun-slinging outlaw ruin her hopes—no matter what scandalous past they shared six years ago. Or how his green eyes beckoned!

Rosie was his light in the darkness—Bart would do anything to win back her trust. But he was a wanted man. Would the past, with its dangerous demands and debts, conspire to destroy their new beginning? Or would his faith in God—and in Rosie—be rewarded?

READ AN EXCERPT

Great Christmas Tree Tour: Deborah Vogts

 Deborah Vogts contributed this lovely tree and a story from her childhood. Thanks for sharing with us, Deborah!

As a girl, my family always put up a cedar tree cut from one of our pastures. One day I hope to have a living room with a wood floor so I can do the same. Here's a favorite Christmas memory from that time:

When I was ten or eleven years old, I remember looking out the window at bedtime as it had started to snow. Now mind you, it wasn’t one of those icy, frigid snowstorms Kansas is well-known for, but rather a gentle snowfall with flakes as big as silver dollars. Dressed in my pajamas, robe, and rubber boots, I snuck out the door of our old farmhouse onto the porch and gazed up at the beautiful site. Unable to stay put for long, I took off on a stroll beneath the tall, ancient cedar trees that lined the side of our home. 

I remember the colorful lights from our Christmas tree blinking through the living room window, the crunch of my boots in the snow, and being filled with absolute wonder and peace as these huge snowflakes fell silently onto my face and into my outstretched hands.  In that moment, I recall thinking that this must have been what it was like when Jesus was born and how blessed I was to share in such a moment. ~ How blessed we are today to rejoice in our Savior’s birth.

When opposites attract, sparks fly--like an electrical malfunction. That's what happens when former rodeo queen Natalie Adams meets the new pastor in Diamond Falls.

Christmas Tree Tour: Michelle Willingham

Michelle's tree and her home look as though they're straight from the pages of a magazine, don't they? I want to spend Christmas Eve with Michelle. How about you?

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

In our household, we decorate the day after Thanksgiving.  We have an artificial tree, and the younger children sort the colored branches while the eldest helps his dad put them on the tree.  Every year, we give the kids an ornament, and they put them up the following year.  When they move out of the house, we plan to give them their ornaments back, to start their own Christmas trees. 

The baby grand piano in the corner was made in 1917, and I just love the sound of the instrument.  It belonged to a neighbor who passed away when I was three, and my parents bought it.  My father always played the piano, and I took lessons from the time I was five years old.   Both the children and I play Christmas carols throughout the season, and my daughter and I can play a duet of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” 

We don’t put any presents under our tree, except those that come in the mail from family members.  Then on Christmas Eve, my husband and I haul down all the gifts, and the kids wake up to an explosion of presents under the tree.  We do stockings first, and when we go to open the presents, someone is elected Santa and passes out the gifts, one at a time so we can all watch one another.  It takes a long time, but it makes it more fun to see everyone’s reactions.

Hope everyone enjoys a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Christmas Tree Tour: Margaret Brownley's Lucky Horseshoe Tree

Every year Margaret comes up with something unique! Love this one.

Margaret says:
“What kind of crazy Christmas tree is grandma going to have this year?” is a common refrain around our house.  Last year it was a saguaro cactus, this year it’s a horseshoe tree, decorated with a cowboy Santa and other western ornaments.  Now that our children are grown and have traditional trees of their own, I’m now free to be creative.  The challenge is to come up with something new and different each year, but that’s part of the fun. I’ll try anything once and sometimes, like the year I decorated a prickly tumbleweed, once is enough!

When looking for a husband, it's best to go where the odds are in your favor.

And that would be Rocky Creek, Texas, 1880. But Jenny Higgins's plan to find husbands for her two sisters hits a snag when enthusiastic applicants fail to meet her stringent requirements.

Rejecting her sisters' choices for mates and riding herd on her growing feelings for Marshal Rhett Armstrong, she refuses to give up.

Jenny thinks choosing a husband is not a job for the heart. It'll take one strong and handsome marshal to convince her otherwise.

Great Christmas Tree Tour: Cousin Diana

 CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Here is my cousin Diana's Christmas tree. She made every last ornament on this beauty herself. And this isn't the extent of her talent. She has made ornaments as gifts for years. I have several on my Victorian tree and more on my Santa tree. Many of these are made up of hundreds of tiny beads and seed pearls. She also knits stockings and paints village houses.

Thank you for sharing your exquisite tree with us, Diana!
Smooches!
 

Great Christmas Tree Tour: Eve Savage

"For the first year, we've put an angel on top. I always had a star when growing up, but I wanted an angel this year, since there are obviously angels watching over my family during this year of change. :)


"The ornaments are a mix of vintage 1940s glass ones. Some are hand painted by my mother and others are part of my collection of ornaments from my husband's travels.


"I've never done a themed tree, but perhaps one year I'll do a strictly Victorian tree. I love to shop for ornaments and am always at the 50% off sales, following the holidays."

Eve, you're my kind of girl with those after-Christmas sales! I can't help noticing your lovely collection of plates on the wall. Thank you for sharing your tree with its special collection of ornaments. Merry Chistmas!

Christmas in Cedar Cove

Christmas in Cedar Cove

 

• Debbie Macomber
• MIRA

• Nov 2010
• Miniseries: Cedar Cove
• Category: Contemporary Romance
• Paperback
• ISBN: 9780778328223

Back of the Book

You're invited to Cedar Cove this Christmas!

First, drop in at 5-B Poppy Lane, where you'll get a chance to visit with Helen Shelton, her granddaughter Ruth and Ruth's husband, Paul. They'll offer you a cup of mulled cider and the story of how they met—and they'll share Helen's breathtaking adventures during the Second World War.

Then drive out to Grace and Cliff Harding's place. They have a small horse ranch not far from Cedar Cove. Mary Jo Wyse and her little girl, Noelle, will be there, too. Join them in reliving their memories of the Christmas Mary Jo came to Cedar Cove, pregnant and alone, and had her baby in the Hardings' stable (well, actually the apartment above it). That's the night firefighter Mack McAfee began to fall for Mary Jo and the idea of a family—with her.

Read an Excerpt

Great Christmas Tree Tour: Taryn Rae

Thanks to Taryn Rae for sharing her tree with us this first day of the Great Christmas Tree Tour! It's a beauty, Taryn, and I can see why you're proud to share it with us.

Now we're getting into the Christmas spirit, aren't we?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

From Taryn:

"I love my tree because there are so many ornaments that represent myself & my husband and our kids because we get one new ornament annually, not to mention there are several 'childhood' ornaments they've made at school. Every year the tree becomes just a little bit more 'us.'"