Showing posts with label Advent Blog tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent Blog tour. Show all posts

Friday, December 11, 2009

Advent Blog Tour '09


I thought I'd participated more years than 2006, but the only other Advent post I can find is this one. Click link in the title above to go to Marg & Kailana's Advent blog. You'll find lots of other folks who're writing. The Tour is a great way to find other book blogs, often from all around the world. Head on over there & check it out. This year I find myself in a more contemplative frame of mind than usual. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes here Chez Bookwormom, other than the absolute dearth of posting here, and it has affected my mood.

In an effort to cheer myself up I decided that I would decorate using a snowman theme. I already have several acrylic snowmen cavorting across the top of Pianist's new piano. A skiier, a caroler, a nurse (to tend the skiier who always falls over), a penguin riding an ice cube, a couple of glass Christmas trees. Silly, fun little charms, really. I found glass snowmen ornaments with glittery orange carrot noses (cheap, too!) and one that has a long striped hat streaming above his head. I dug out some old snowflake placemats. I bought a large package of hard Christmas candies & poured them in a bowl, the Hubby was surprised- I rarely buy candy to keep in the house.

What else? I wrapped the back door in bright red Christmas paper & ribbons, now it looks like a giant present. I'd not done that for a few years. I put a new purple cloth under my advent wreath. I think I need a cinnamon broom, I saw one the other day in the craft store but skipped it. There's nothing like scent to cheer you up and bring back memories. I put a giant pink-freckled poinsettia on the dining room table. I made the kids hunt down the giant pinecone wreath buried up in the attic & its on the front door now.

I don't normally like to associate Christmas with more shopping, more stuff, more more more!!! but somehow this year a little retail therapy goes a long way towards lightening my mood. Sorry this post is a little down, but I can't help it. This is the only place I can 'let my hair down a little' so to speak & you guys just have to listen. I'm glad I stocked up on romances last month, maybe subconsciously I knew I was going to need a surefire pick me up this month.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Advent Blog Tour, '08 edition



I've participated in one other advent blog tour, waaay back in 2006, click here to read that post. This year's your is jointly hosted by Marg, link to her blog in the title above, and also by Kailana of The Written World and Historical Tapestry. If this is your first time here, welcome. Stay a while. Look around some. It's harder to figure out what to say this year, I think. The economy is way down and people's troubles are up, yet for me Christmastide has never had anything to do with getting more "stuff". Yes, I love to buy gifts for my loved ones and I have some Christmas collectibles I look for. Primarily though, I associate November and December with family related activities.

When I was little advent family activities often meant sleigh rides, tobagganing, snow forts and walks along snow covered lanes gilt with moonlight. Untangling endless strings of Christmas lights. Fittings of Christmas dresses my mother would sew for us. Now I'm the one doing the organizing, and living in the south makes the activities different, but November and December are always similar: getting out the advent wreath & checking the candles, until recently I bought the kids advent calendars, cooking together, helping the needy somehow, family gatherings, climbing into the attic to pull down boxes of Christmas decorations. Well, that last one is now someone else's job. Decorating indoors and out, watching endless holiday related specials, planning the schedule of who visits whom & when. Buying and writing Christmas cards.


Under the Kissing Bough; Shannon Donnelly Traditional Regency

Dark Celebration; Christine Feehan Paranormal- vampire

Under the Mistletoe; Mary Balogh Traditional Regency anthology

A Christmas Kiss; Elizabeth Mansfield Traditional Regency

Winter Wonderland; Elizabeth Mansfield Traditional Regency

This winter season I wish you joy and contentment and good books and good friends and enough of the necessities to get by.