This year is a very quiet Christmas for me and my husband. Our daughter, our only child, is away from us for the first time in her twenty-two years. She's staying with friends in California, a long way from Sydney. They are the nicest possible people so she is in very good hands. But we miss her...
Her cat Tabitha howled and cried outside her closed bedroom door last night. When I let her in she saw daughter wasn't there, cried some more and slunk out in misery. Of course I consoled her and she slept happily on my pillow. That I didn't have a very good sleep is beside the point, isn't it!
Fortunately we will have the company of two nieces and three great nieces on the actual day. It will be the first time for years we haven't cooked Christmas dinner, as the younger generation is taking over this year.
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| I'm sharing my all-time favourite Christmas photo. Three years ago my darling old cat Albert found my sweet great niece, then two, admiring our Christmas tree. He ambled over to keep her company and I quickly got this shot. It was his last Christmas, he crossed the rainbow bridge six months later aged twenty-two. I'm spending Christmas Day with this same lovely niece - and her hamsters! |
Christmas is usually huge for us in terms of entertaining. For years we held a party on Christmas Eve and then woke up and did it all again the next day. It's quite nice to be quiet. But perversely I feel a little let down that I'm not stressing out with all that's to be done!
All over the break, I'll be working on a book due early in the new year for Harlequin Romance so won't have time to miss daughter (lie, I miss her already and she's only been gone two days!)
As a writer, Christmas is lovely for me this year with two new Christmas stories out. My novella Millionaire Under the Mistletoe is part of the wonderful LoveCats boxed set Hot Christmas Nights, seven brand-new holiday-themed romances. Also from me is my Harlequin Romance Gift-Wrapped In Her Wedding Dress which is heavily Christmas themed.
What about you? Are you celebrating your usual Christmas or doing something different this year? I'd love to read your comment! I'm giving away a free download of Hot Christmas Nights to one commentator.
