Monthly Archives: December 2015

Welcome Barbara White Daille

Author Spotlight,

Here is a special holiday gift for you. Barbara White Daille – an author you should get to know at The Daille-y News if you haven’t given yourself that pleasure already. Barbara shares her own family Christmas tradition from childhood to present. Plus an excerpt from her new novel The Lawman’s Christmas Proposal.

 Barbara White Daille photo

Deck the Halls—however you please! by Barbara White Daille

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. When I was growing up, during the week before Christmas we would all pile into the family’s station wagon. My dad would drive through the neighborhoods in our small town while we checked out the holiday decorations. I was most impressed by the sleighs on the rooftops and the Santas climbing up the chimneys. But I also loved seeing all the lights on the houses, the ornaments parading across the lawns, the fairy lights gracing the trees.

At home, we had decorations indoors, too, of course—lights and tinsel strung around our living room, Christmas wreaths hung from the windows. And while we didn’t have a hearth, we definitely had Christmas stockings to hang in hopes of having them filled by St. Nicholas.

Some years, we had a real tree, but most of the time, we put up an artificial tree that my dad would unbox and string with lights and that we kids would help to decorate.

And you know what?

As expert as I’d become at picking out what I liked and didn’t like on all those decoration-hunting drives around town, it didn’t matter a bit to me whether our tree was real or fake. The type or size or lushness of the tree didn’t matter, either. We could’ve had a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, and I would have loved it just as much.

My husband and I have a tree of our own now, and every year, that tree also is adorned not with “decorations” but with much love.

Because back when I was growing up and now, it’s never been the tree or the decorations themselves that matter most.

It’s the traditions associated with them, the care and concern that went into choosing or making them, and the beauty of seeing them year after year that make them all so special.

~~~

In the clip below, my hero and heroine are doing some decorating of their own. Neither one knows her grandfather is matchmaking to bring them together. But Andi is attempting to avoid Mitch and is dismayed when he shows up to help her.

Barbara White Daille book cover

She stood straighter. “I don’t need a helper, thank you.”

“Too late. I’m on board. What do you want me to do?”

She turned away and rummaged through a carton of ornaments. “Nothing. I’ve got everything under control.” The words made her think again of her reaction to his kiss. Of her loss of control.

“Andi, walking away yesterday didn’t make me go away. Pretending to be busy here doesn’t mean I’ll disappear. Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you?”

“At the moment, you are.”

“Well, that’s a start.”

She shot a look over her shoulder and found him smiling down at her. He was so close, she could have taken a step back and found herself in his arms.

Instead, she shifted aside. “Really, Mitch, I don’t need your assistance.”

“Jed seems to think you do. You and Tina and Jane. And I made a promise. So that’s that.”

She sighed. He had made a promise. And once Grandpa made up his mind about something, that was that. As she had no choice in the matter, she might as well give in gracefully. “Fine. And I’m not pretending to be busy.” She pointed to one carton. “That’s what I’ve got on my mind right now. Decorations for the wedding. Our client requested Christmas lights. You can get started with those.”

She had hoped having him work at a distance would keep him from distracting her, but she could still hear everything he said to her. Worse…or maybe better…she could see every move he made. Who knew hanging a string of lights required so much physical activity? His shoulders flexed, his biceps bulged, and she didn’t even want to think about what happened to the strong muscles in his thighs as he climbed up and down the ladder.

Good thing she had acquired a helper, because she wasn’t getting much work done herself.

~~

Hope you enjoyed the clip.

Happy holidays to all! And I would love to have you share one of your favorite Christmas traditions with us.

ABOUT BARBARA:

Barbara White Daille lives with her husband in the sunny Southwest. Though they love the warm winters and the lizards in their front yard, they haven’t gotten used to the scorpions in the bathroom.

Barbara’s new series, The Hitching Post Hotel, features a matchmaking grandpa determined to see his three granddaughters wed. The series began with The Cowboy’s Little Surprise and A Rancher of Her Own, and The Lawman’s Christmas Proposal has just debuted. Additional books in the series will be coming up next year.

Where to Find The Lawman’s Christmas Proposal:

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Lawmans-Christmas-Proposal-Hitching-Hotel/dp/0373755961

Barnes & Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lawmans-christmas-proposal-barbara-white-daille/1121775760

Books-A-Million
http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Lawmans-Christmas-Proposal/Barbara-White-Daille/9780373755967

Harlequin
http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=61196

IndieBound
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780373755967

Kobo
https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-lawman-s-christmas-proposal

Where to Find Barbara online:

Website  http://www.barbarawhitedaille.com
Newsletter  http://www.barbarawhitedaille.com/newsletter
Twitter  https://twitter.com/BarbaraWDaille
Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/barbarawhitedaille

~~~

I’m very pleased Barbara could join us. I’m sure you hear the beat of her warm and generous heart in everything she’s written here. You will find that same heart in her stories. Be sure to comment with your own family holiday traditions. Barbara and I would love to hear from you.

Blessings and Happy Holidays.  Alice

 

Homemade Ornaments

Stories of my Life, ,

Christmas 2013 -- Tree without lights onThe tradition began with my daughter in law back when our granddaughter was too young to handle anything more dangerous than scissors and glitter. Her mom took over where a hot glue gun was required. The gold and purple stocking at the top of the tree in the photo is an example of one such project.

I don’t honestly know if the stocking was made by our granddaughter or our grandson who joined the glue gun posse a few years later. What I do know is that I dearly love every one of those homemade ornaments.

I’m kind of a nut about Christmas. Maybe because my own birthday is December 26th and somewhere in my soul I imagine the Christ child is sharing a tiny bit of his thunder with me.

Friends and family are aware of this yuletide obsession of mine and the tendency to over-decorate that goes with it. Tree ornaments have been a favorite gift choice for years. The Bloomingdales taxi was also my daughter in law’s inspired bit of glitz in reference to another of my holiday obsessions.

In fact each of the ornaments on that tree is a gift from someone I love. But the homemade ones are all from our grandchildren. Eventually they graduated from scissors and hot glue to dough and paint and the era of the home-baked tree began.

We were living in the Pacific Northwest by then and every year new home-baked ornaments arrived. Carefully crafted and even more carefully wrapped they nestled under the tree they would soon adorn – waiting for Grandma to unswaddle them with a full heart and glistening eyes.

The Santa face and the red flower on a blue background and the brightly colored sun – all in the branches of the photo tree – plus many more. They accumulated as the boughs hung heavier and more precious to me with each passing year. Until it was time to move back home from the northwest to the northeast.

A great deal of packing was involved but none more crucial to me than the packing of the homemade ornaments. Yards of bubble wrap and heavy duty tape were employed. I didn’t care how many boxes it took. And I insisted they were not to travel in the moving van with the rest of our belongings.

My red Jeep Wrangler was being shipped east too. Under my vigilant supervision the cartons of homemade ornaments were stacked inside. Still I was anxious about their fate. Jonathan promised to call me the moment he saw the Jeep at the east coast pickup point.

“The ornament boxes are fine,” he said before I could even ask the question. “Thank you,” I answered. My heart was more articulate as it whispered, “God bless us every one.”

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.

RR

A Vacancy at the Inn – Alice Orr’s Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Christmas Novella – A holiday bargain for 99 cents at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017RZFGWC. Enjoy!

 

The Santa Suit

Stories of my Life, ,

Grandpa SantaThere’s been more than one Santa suit in the history of this particular tradition in our family. The first suit appeared long ago – even before our grandchildren. Santa visited our grown children in those days and always according to the same ritual.

We’d be in the midst of gift giving on Christmas morning when he arrived. “Ho Ho Ho” he’d boom in a jolly voice from the doorway. “Hello Santa” we’d respond with grins plastered across our faces.

“Isn’t that little Eddie?” Santa would ask eldest son who hadn’t been little in quite some time. Santa would then visit each of us with packages he pulled from a bag like the one that hung in our laundry closet.

The first time the Santa suit went public was at the Schenectady, New York YWCA holiday party. Rumor had it that Santa was hesitant about taking his show on the road on a Saturday morning being more accustomed to Christmas midnight creeps and solitary chimneys – until the children were let loose.

They barreled out of a room adjoining the one with the brightly decorated tree. Shouts of “It’s Santa!” filled the air and his mustache twitched into smiling position – swiftly followed by a hearty “Ho Ho Ho.”

At some point Mrs. Santa invested in a second Santa suit made of more substantial material. Velvet in fact with soft white trim. Santa’s beard had grown more curly and lengthy also and the peak of his red hat no longer drooped.

His former suit found a new home with another cash-strapped organization much like the YWCA. Mr. and Mrs. Santa were pleased to know that the long-beloved garment would be gleefully enjoyed by many children for years to come.

Meanwhile our own grandchildren had joined the family and they loved Santa’s Christmas morning visits too. Maybe even more than their parents and aunts and uncles had. Santa’s “Ho Ho Ho” was more enthusiastic than ever.

Nonetheless last year he asked Mrs. Santa a question that troubled her very much. “Do you think the Santa suit is getting a little silly? Maybe they’re too old for it.” The grandkids are twelve and seventeen now.

“Absolutely not” was Mrs. Santa’s vehement answer. “The children would miss it. We all would.”

That was especially true for her and she was quite relieved when he didn’t argue further. Because there are few things as lovable and dear as the Christmas gift of a good man in a Santa suit.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.

RR

A Vacancy at the Inn – Alice Orr’s Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Christmas Novella – a Holiday bargain for 99 cents at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017RZFGWC .