Casa for the Holidays Blog Tour and Giveaway

November 4, 2013 Book Girl of Mur-Y-Castell Guest Blog: Sourcebooks Holiday Authors 

For today’s Casa for the Holidays blog post, our authors are chatting about their favorite holiday traditions! 

Juliana Stone, author of The Christmas He Loved Her: 

There are several holidays throughout the year that I absolutely love but for me, the one I look forward to the most is Christmas.  Thanksgiving is wonderful and ours falls in early to mid October, so that means all the fall fairs, apple cider, turkey, and pumpkin pie.  But Christmas is the one holiday that always takes me back to when I was a kid and still BELIEVED. 

Now, my kids are teens and they’re not up at the crack of dawn anymore, but that’s okay since Christmas Eve is where it’s at.  A couple of our friends always have open houses Christmas Eve and we drop in for some visiting, laughs and drinks. Once we get home, I always settle in with a bottle of wine and while I wrap the stocking stuffers (yes I’m a  mom who loves to wrap every single thing) I watch It’s A Wonderful Life with my mom (who comes with my dad and spends the night).  We relax, chat, and have a great night.

Every. Single. Christmas Eve.  And I hope it never changes.

Terry Spear, author of A SEAL Wolf Christmas: 

We always decorate the day after Thanksgiving so from that day until after New Year's, the house is cheery with sparkly lights and evergreen boughs, red bows, and decorations we've picked up over the years that meant something special. We also pass around our Christmas wish lists at Thanksgiving, and the night before Christmas, we open one gift. The next morning, someone passes out presents and while we're drinking eggnog or tea, we make a mess with gift wrappings everywhere. Every year, someone knows they bought a present that can't be located and we find it when the decorations are put away. We also love to share all the funnies of shopping for the gifts, because something always happens that we're dying to tell about but can't until we give out the gifts.

Carolyn Brown, author of The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby: 

These days since the family has grown so much Husband and I have Easter, complete with a huge Easter egg hunt in our back yard, and Thanksgiving, complete with Husband getting out the guitar and the whole family two-stepping all over the house or out on the yard if the weather is good. But on Christmas, the kids all stay at home so Santa can visit. Even the grandkids who are old enough to vote and buy their own beer know that Santa doesn’t come down the chimney unless they believe and everyone in our family believes.

 Husband and I call them all sometime on Christmas Day to say Merry Christmas from the beach in Florida where we go for a two week vacation every year. We dig our toes into the sand, feed the sea gulls cheese puffs, give a saucer of milk to the black and white cat that belongs to the motel and love being together on Christmas Day.

Grace Burrowes, author of Lady Jenny’s Christmas Portrait: 

Growing up, the best part of Christmas, from my perspective, was ten days home from school. Ten days to sleep in, play in the snow, read, bake cookies, take long walks in the winter-bare woods, make more cookies, wrap presents, decorate the house… ten days to NOT WORRY about this or that homework assignment, test, or quiz. 

It’s still my favorite aspect of the winter holidays. Because I was one of seven children, and the entire family could barely fit in one station wagon, we weren’t much for traveling in the winter. The occasional cousin might pass through before Christmas on the way to visit parents, grandparents sometimes popped in for a day or two, but mostly, we stayed put and had Christmas at home.

I loved that. I loved having time to myself at home, though Christmas break was by no means entirely consumed with hibernation. I have siblings thirteen years my senior, which meant from the time I was quite small, those siblings might grab a few of us “little guys” and head out for a skating expedition to Tait’s pond, a day of skiing at Oregon Hill, a winter hike up to the fire tower if it wasn’t too awfully cold. It didn’t hurt that our front yard was the best sledding hill in the neighborhood, either. 

Then too, I grew up in a college town, and that meant the university skating rink was a possible destination. If Mom really needed the house to herself for an afternoon, she might send a group of us off to the movies, and that was lovely—my grandmother’s candy store was right next door to the theatre, and Nana ALWAYS allowed us to sample the inventory. 

Christmas then, was about spending time at home and in the company of family. The big meals, the presents, the religious rituals for me were all secondary, and to this day, unstructured time in the place I call home is my greatest treasure. 

Giveaway

To enter to win a prize pack of all 4 of these Christmas authors’ novels, tell us about your own favorite holiday tradition in the comments! This contest is open internationally. 

1. Open internationally

2. Answer the question

3. Ends November 28th

To find out more about these authors, please visit their websites!

Carolyn Brown Website: http://carolynlbrown.com/

Grace Burrowes Website: http://graceburrowes.com/

Terry Spear Website: http://www.terryspear.com/

Juliana Stone Website: http://www.julianastone.com/

FOLLOW ALONG WITH THE “CASA FOR THE HOLIDAYS” VIRTUAL TOUR!

October-December 2013

Fun Holiday-Themed Posts from Carolyn, Grace, Terry and Juliana,

And Chances to WIN Books at Each Stop!

October
Oct. 8	Booked and Loaded	http://bookedandloaded.com/
Oct. 16	Ramblings From This Chick	http://ramblingsfromthischick.blogspot.com/
Oct. 23	Debbie's Book Bag	http://debsbookbag.blogspot.com/
Oct. 29	The Reading Café	http://www.thereadingcafe.com/
November
Nov. 4	Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell	http://books-forlife.blogspot.com/
Nov. 6	Smexy Books	http://smexybooks.com/
Nov. 12	Cocktails and Books	http://www.cocktailsandbooks.com/
Nov. 14	The Bookish Babe	http://thebookishbabes.blogspot.com/
Nov. 20	Night Owl Reviews	http://www.nightowlreviews.com/V5/Blog
Nov. 22	Fresh Fiction	http://freshfiction.com/pages.php?id=blog
December
Dec. 4	USA Today HEA	http://www.usatoday.com/blog/happyeverafter/
Dec. 5	Under the Covers	http://www.underthecoversbookblog.com/
Dec. 10	Romancing the Book	http://romancing-the-book.com/
Dec. 11	Anna's Book Blog	http://annavivian.blogspot.com/
Dec. 16	What's on the Bookshelf	http://whatsonthebookshelf-jen.blogspot.com/
Dec. 17	That's What I'm Talking About	http://twimom227.com/