Happy Fourth of July weekend, everyone! So, this is the weekend we celebrate our country’s Independence, the brave men and women who stand up and defend it, and the traditions are usually parades, fireworks and of course, food! I love the Fourth of July, as one of those holidays, like Halloween and Thanksgiving, that comes with very little pressure and expectation, and just a chance to get together with folks and have fun.

I have a love/hate relationship with fireworks. As a kid, I loved sparklers the best, especially the large or multi-colored ones, and those little weird tablets you could set a match to on the sidewalk, and it would explode into a long black snaky-thing. Too much fun. I never get tired of a big fireworks display, either, and try to see one each year, though we’re lucky enough to be able to see one of them from our house, so we can just peep out the window on years we don’t want to fight crowds and traffic. What I don’t like is when the neighborhoods are alive with the sound of firecrackers at 3am, or for several days, especially as it can spook pets. To that end, if you haven’t read it, check out this link to the Humane Society for how to keep your pets safe and comfortable this weekend.

I am not much of a parade fan, either, I have to say. I don’t go to them, but I do love the cookouts. We’ll have one with the family, but also, I have bought groceries with a mind to cooking out all weekend. Bring on the macaroni salad, the sausage sandwiches, and the lemonade! To that end, I want to share one really good dessert recipe we have made for years. I am not a Jell-O fan — it’s never been my favorite, but I love this particular dessert, so I’ll be making it this weekend. If you don’t like strawberries, you can use raspberries, too, and add in blueberries for a red, white, and blue theme! Enjoy!

Jell-O and Pretzel Dessert

Ingredients:
2 cups crushed pretzels
3/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tub (9 ounce size) Cool Whip
1 cup sugar
8 ounces cream cheese
2 packages (3 ounce size) strawberry Jello gelatin
1 package (16 ounce size) frozen sweetened strawberries
1 cup boiling water

Bottom Layer: Combine pretzels, butter and 1/4 cup sugar. Press into 9 x 13 baking dish and bake at 350F for 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
Middle Layer: Cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in Cool Whip. Spread over pretzel crust.
Top Layer: Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in frozen strawberries, Chill until partially set, about 1 hour and spread over white layer. Chill until set and serve.

If you have any traditions, recipes, or favorite fireworks, please do share! And have a safe and wonderful weekend,

Sam

December 27th. It’s kind of a limbo day between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Nothing really special about this day. The excitement of the holiday, the parties, the gift giving is over, and on top of that, some of us may even have to go back to work tomorrow. Or worse, some of us may be working retail today and patiently helping all the people who are out returning everything they received and didn’t like. Ugh. A job I used to have and respect greatly. If I know my critique partner–and I do–she’s already got her Christmas decorations down.
When I was a child the days between Christmas and New Years were magical. No school. All the new toys to play with. Baked goodies my mom only made at that time of year, and the best thing: playing the new board game with my mom, dad, and sisters.
Every year we’d get a new game, and we’d play it for the next week. Anyone else remember a game called Masterpiece?
Or how about Mille Bornes?
And who didn’t play Life?
Ahhh, my childhood. Those were the days…

Now days when asked my favorite holiday, I half-jokingly answer; Labor Day. It’s the only holiday I don’t have buy, wrap, bake, cook, or cater to someone else. I still love Christmastime, but as an adult, I have a lot more work and a lot less time to play during the Christmas break.
And yet, there’s still something special about Christmas. I still believe in Santa Claus, and in the magic of this season. Every year I feel the ghosts of Christmases Past—my grandmother, my grandfather, and my father–surrounding me with their love, living in my heart.
I feel the excitement of Christmas Present, the anticipation of all my loved ones opening their gifts, eating a wonderful meal, and sharing the day.
And I can envision Christmases to come, when I might be dangling a beloved grandchild on my knee and watching with unspeakable joy as she experiences her very first Christmas.
Oh yes, I still believe in Magic.
After all, there’s nothing more magical than love.

One day this holiday, a friend of mine handed me a book she had gotten from the library. It was urban lit with African-American characters and, she confided, it was badly written. “You should be doing these!” she declared. Now, I know that she meant that I was such a good writer, that I could be making millions if only I stepped into this other market. It didn’t matter to her that I’m not African-American and have no understanding of their experience. Nor did she understand that I was doing just fine in the romance market. She simply meant zillions of dollars could be had if only I wrote something else entirely.

I thanked her for her advice, of course, because that’s what polite people do, but inside I was thinking: would you tell a trial attorney that he ought to be in tax accounting because there’s money to be had there? Or perhaps you would suggest to a successful oil painter than he should slide into computer graphics because that’s a big market. Please tell me that this is true! Then I won’t think that writers get the bulk of the well-meaning but clueless advice.

Now if this was a one-time thing, I wouldn’t even be blogging about it. But over the years, I have gotten a few doozies. One of my relatives asked who reads my books. Ignorant secretaries? My mother once firmly told me that I should stop writing that historical romance trash and write real literature like Gone with the Wind. And my uncle, God love him, told me that I should stop writing romance and do something like the movie Sabrina. Oodles of money to be had there.

I know I should be grateful. Honestly, they’re taking an interest in my career and at least making conversation beyond, “Wow, the Bears really suck this year” and “why the hell did you dye your hair red?” I love my relatives and know that they don’t mean to hurt me when they ask, “So when do you plan on making the NY Times list?” (I’ve decided to schedule it in for 2012). I just needed to rant somewhere, so here it is. You’re subjected to it.

Now it’s your turn to share. Surely someone else has gotten well meaning but clueless advice this holiday season! Tell me! Please!

Recently, I was grading some papers from my lit students, and while they were well written and interesting (yay!) there was a topic a few of them mentioned that made me a smidge disheartened– the over-commercialization of Christmas and the movement away from what the holidays mean. Now, I don’t argue student perspectives. I’m there to critique the writing and help them improve their techniques. But I figure I can share with YOU all what I think about this so-called commercialization of Christmas. Humbug.

I really love the holiday season. And I don’t buy into this idea that we’ve moved away from what the season means. I personally think one of the coolest things about the holidays is that this month encompasses so many ancient religious beliefs bound up with newer ones. No matter if you’re Jewish or Christian, pagan or atheist, you can find something to celebrate this time of year. I don’t think that any of us have the market cornered on the meaning of the season. We celebrate the things that are meaningful for each of us. How cool is that?

If things feel over-commercialized this time of year, I recommend turning off live TV and sliding in a DVD or Bing Crosby in White Christmas. Or turning off commercial radio and testing out Loreena McKennitt’s gorgeous Midwinter Night’s Dream for some holiday tunes. Light some candles and remember to enjoy a few of your favorite things this time of year. Bake your mom’s perennial favorite holiday cookie recipe. Or simmer some nutmeg and cloves on the stove to just make it smell like your baking. The effect is as heavenly and calorie-free. For me, it’s not the holidays without hunting for the perfect tree, watching my kids sled down a snowy, or hosting a big shindig for the whole family.

Beyond those traditions, I have a few faith-based acts that help bring the meaning of the season home to me and my family. But I don’t discount the outward trappings of the celebration that make it so memorable and joyous every year. I hope you remember to pull your family close to you this holiday and enjoy a few of your own favorite things. Happy Holidays!

What are a few of your favorite things this time of year? Favorite holiday CD or film? Beloved holiday tradition? Share with me the sweet and simple things that make the season fun for you and I’ll give away a copy of Blazing Little Christmas along with the NYT Bestseller The Thirteenth Tale, to a random poster, sure to make for fun fireside reading!

I watched The Proposal this past weekend (really cute movie) and the heroine mentioned reading Wuthering Heights every Christmas. Do you read one special book every holiday? Are you looking forward to receiving a gift of books this year, or do you expect to be too busy to read (gasp!) this season? What books are you giving?

I tell family and friends never to buy me books — a gift card is fine, but I buy far too many of my own for anyone to know what I’ve read or haven’t, so books as gifts never work for me, but I do enjoy giving them. I try to make notes through the year of books I think family members will find interesting or fun, though sometimes I don’t wait. When my MIL visited this past September, I bought her the first four Karen Marie Moning Fever books because I was too anxious for her to read them to wait for Christmas. As for books we read every year, I don’t really have any particular book I return to over and over again. Last year, my husband had their Uncle’s enthusiastic reading, which he enjoyed, too. It’s nice for kids to have books as well as TV shows for their annual traditions, I think, even though I love many of the TV specials we grew up with.

I will be reading a lot through the month, working through my Kindle TBR and enjoying curling up in the evenings with some good reading. I am reading Charlaine Harris’s Grave Secret at the moment (not very Christmassy, I know, but it’s a good book), and have a list of romances (including some Blazes, of course) that I am looking forward to, as well. Are you reading any holiday-oriented romances you would recommend?

So what books are you reading, or do you want to curl up on a holiday evening and read this month? Share your current reading and I’ll pick two winners to receive a signed copy of my previous Christmas Blaze, Talking in Your Sleep, along with a tin of hot chocolate and a pretty mug. If you have this book already, just let me know if you would like it signed for someone else, and maybe it can be one of your gift items this season. Merry, Merry, and best wishes for a happy and peaceful month, whichever holiday you celebrate.

Sam

I want to live at the North Pole with Santa Claus. I have this idea that everything is perfect there. They most definitely have a white Christmas. There’s always enough hot chocolate to go around, and there are lots of elves to help with everything from toy making to house cleaning.

I could use a few good elves. I need an elf to help me promote my upcoming Blaze, “Take Me If You Dare.” I need an elf to finish my annotated bibliography for a school project. I need an elf to do my holiday shopping and write those holiday cards. I need an elf to write these three proposals for new book projects that I promised before the first of the year. One of those pointy-shoe folks to do the cooking and the cleaning. One to write all my TV and movie columns over the holiday would be nice. And those are only the first few things on my list for December.

My children will tell you I’m short enough to make a perfectly good elf, and quite honestly if I could clone myself I would. What I’ve learned over the years is that when it comes to holidays, you do what you can. I try to get done the things that make me and my family happy, and the ones that pay the bills.

That means I may not send out those holiday cards, but I will provide a lovely buffet meal on Christmas Eve for family and friends. I will most likely do the majority of my shopping online, though at least one day I’ll stop by the mall to enjoy the decorations and to get that feeling of the holiday bustle.

I’m determined that I will make time to do the things I enjoy. That might mean working some late nights the first part of the season, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make. I will DVR my favorite holiday programming, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, A Charlie Brown Christmas, to watch while I’m wrapping presents. Ugh. I’m so bad at wrapping presents. I can’t tell you how many times someone has said, “Oh, how sweet, you let your kids do the wrapping.” I’m not kidding. I know they make those beautiful bags you can just slide stuff in, but I like watching people rip open that paper. We’ve already decorated for the most part. By we’ve, I mean my husband set up the tree, and I did everything else.

This year we are traveling for Christmas Day, which means even more to do. But it’s okay. We’ll have Christmas Eve here, as we have since the kids were tiny. None of it matters as long as we are together. My kids are older and I know there will come a time in the future when I will have to share them, but for now I’m holding on as tight as I can. The best part of the holiday for me is when we are sitting around on Christmas Eve singing carols. The kids grump and complain, but the one year we didn’t get to do it because of a family illness, they were depressed.

Normally, Christmas isn’t about the gifts for me, but I’ve been very lucky in that department the last couple of years. This year all I want is for us to be happy, healthy and together. Though, um, I will be purchasing all those December Blazes for myself.

So I want to hear about your plans for the holidays. I’d love to hear about some of your holiday traditions, food or fun stories from the past. Is there a gift you want for this Christmas? Don’t be shy! If you don’t celebrate Christmas, tell us about your holiday traditions too. I’m always curious.

Santa, if you’re reading this. I’ve been very good this year, except for that one time, and um… You know what? Never mind.

Happy Holidays Ya’ll

Yesterday was Black Friday. For all the wild shoppers out there, that means a cold, sleepless night of bargain shopping, wristband snagging, killer sales deals galore. For most of us, its that day we sleep off the Thanksgiving feast stupor.

Early in the week, my sister-in-law (hereafter referred to as SIL) asked me if I wanted to go out with her at midnight Thursday to do a little Black Friday shopping. I laughed. Seriously. I’m all for shopping -and am always up at midnight. But Black Friday? Isn’t that the traditional trampling-shoppers-day? Um, no thank you. But then she started quoting deals. iPods, Rock Band (the Leggo version, no less!), dolls and toys and clothes. Suddenly there were a million things NOT on my gift-buying list that I just had to have.

So I quit laughing and told SIL maybe.

She called Thursday night to see if I was ready to rock. I was actually in the middle of making a pie (we celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday since there were so many demands for everyone’s time on Thursday), but stopped crimping the crust to flip through the ads and talk bargains. There were tons. But as usual, time and sanity had cooled my impulse-shopping-jets.

I looked at the ads. I looked at my half-crimped-crusted pie. And It told my SIL I was going to skip the wild and crazy times of Black Friday shopping.

What stopped me? The only thing I was really REALLY tempted to brave the chilly air, crowds and credit card shock on… it was for myself. Hey, that new iPod Touch is awesome! But after long consideration (at least a minute) I decided to stay home and finish making the pie, then reward myself by curling up on the couch to read (Better Naughty Than Nice – its on shelves now!) and relax. But I did put that iPod Touch on my birthday list…

So how about you? Are you the brave-the-crowds-for-a-bargain kind of gal? Or an early shopper, scoff-at-the-idea-of-Black-Friday type? Or maybe you really like to live on the edge and start all your shopping in mid-December??