It's That Time of Year
- Liz Flaherty
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
by Lori Matsourani
December is here, ringing in the holiday season and, for me, the busiest time of year! Putting up decorations, scouting out gift ideas, planning holiday get-togethers, pulling out everyone’s favorite recipes, scouring Kroger and H-E-B for the ingredients I need for all the requested holiday dishes, and then baking a cornucopia of holiday treats.
As I rifled through my holiday files (that makes me sound extremely organized; but don’t be fooled, I’m really not), I ran across an old folder filled with holiday letters I’d sent to family and friends over the years. It was like opening a time capsule overflowing with snippets from our lives—complete with photos. Sadly, my postal correspondence dropped by the wayside as email and social media took over as my chosen vehicles to dispense information. Or maybe it waned because my life got busier.
Surprisingly, my past holiday musings still felt relevant as I scanned the pages, so I thought I’d share a couple.
A To-Do List Faux Pas
It was a week before Christmas, and as I sat with my early morning cup of freshly brewed Christmas blend from Starbucks, I checked off items crowding my holiday to-do list. Teacher gifts? Check. Stocking stuffers for the kids? Check. Homemade sugar cookies for Rose’s school party, goodie bags for Alex’s class, and chocolate pudding cake for the neighborhood luncheon? Check, check, and check.
Everything seemed to be taken care of, and plans were flowing smoothly. That was great, but it also worried me. Never in seasons past had I, Lori Matsourani, sailed through the holidays with the ease, confidence and organization skills of Martha Stewart. Nope. I usually tripped and stumbled somewhere during the process. The holidays and me were like Rob Petrie and the ottoman he tumbled over week after week on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
I must be forgetting something, I thought as I sipped my coffee. The fingers of a distant thought tried to reach the front of my consciousness as I moved through the day. And then, when Rose and Alex retrieved the mail, the revelation hit.
“What are these letters, Mommy?” Alex asked as he offered me an assortment of red and green envelopes.
A knot formed in my stomach as I frowned at the bundle in his hand. “Those are holiday cards, honey. From our friends and family,” I replied, realizing what I’d forgotten to put on my holiday list: Christmas cards.
Nouveau Shopping in Texas
The excitement of Christmas was in the air. Our lawn, along with the rest of the neighbors’, was ablaze with holiday lights. School was out for the holidays, Rose and Alex were home, and we’d decorated the house from top to bottom. It was time to address holiday gift shopping. With only six days to go before Christmas and unsecured gifts plaguing me, I finally hunkered down at the computer, seeking help via the Internet to garner our toys and treats. It was my first time to shop online, and the idea sounded wonderful—a perfect alternative to last-minute shopping at crowded malls or facing the disheveled inventory at Toys R Us.
The first website I found served up a goldmine! A Blue’s Clues playset and a Snoopy tent. I quickly put them in the shopping cart. To my utter delight, the site also offered an inflatable mini-trampoline. Click. And stilts. Remember them? Oh, a pogo stick, too! Woo-hoo! Click, click.
After surfing for several hours, buoyed by the promise of fast delivery, I tried to check out. But I couldn’t get past a pesky “error” message that kept flashing on my screen. I had to call an 800 number to buy my stuff. And I did, because I really wanted those stilts and pogo stick.
“Oh yeah,” the customer service rep chirped fifteen minutes later. “Our checkout isn’t compatible with your browser.” I didn’t know what that meant, but it was okay, though. I ordered everything in my cart over the phone. Easy, peasy. Right?
The box finally came, and I was officially an Internet shopper—a proud user of cutting-edge technology. I ripped into the carton only to find all the wrong toys. Penn State Barbie? I didn’t order that. The stilts and tent were missing, replaced by a Dr. Gross’s Fake Vomit Kit.
After several busy signals and forty minutes on hold, I finally connected with a real person over the phone and straightened out the toy order, then waited for the next box to arrive. The stilts and tent eventually materialized, but not in time for Christmas.
What I learned about Internet shopping? It’s not a sure-fire solution for procrastination.
A Word About My Book, Ghosted.
Similar to holiday traditions that close the current year with good cheer and ring in the new with loved ones, my novel, Ghosted, is about reconciling the past and celebrating the path forward with family and friends. Ghosted is a second-chance romance set in a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It’s a feel-good story that gives readers a happy ending with expectations of a bright future.
When Bethany runs into Nick ten years after he mysteriously ended their summer romance, she must decide whether falling for him again is worth the risk of another heartache. He offers her everything she wants in a relationship, and she wants to trust her instincts, but overcoming lingering doubts because of the past keeps getting in her way.
As they gear up for the town’s upcoming festival, the spirit of Samuel, an eighteenth-century plantation owner, reaches out to Bethany for assistance in unraveling the outcome of his fight with Frederick Howard. His ghostly intrusion leads Bethany and Nick to join forces and help Samuel remember what happened. As they work together to uncover Samuel’s truth, Bethany discovers the past is not always as it seems, and sometimes the only way to move forward is to believe with your heart.
Ghosted is the winner of the 2025 BookFest Silver Award for small-town romance. It’s available in print or eBook on Amazon and other fine retailers. Order here: https://books2read.com/lorimatsourani
Bio:
I am a romance addict. Give me stories with a touch of heartbreak and a spark of joy, and I’m happy. Throw in characters with a huge helping of heart and soul, and I’ll be reading all night in romance heaven! While currently a Texas resident, I grew up near Baltimore and often draw on the historical flavor of Annapolis and Maryland’s Eastern Shore to inspire my story settings. I authored my first fiction story at twelve and have been hooked on writing ever since. Early on, my writing career focused on articles for magazines and newspapers before shifting to my first writing love—fiction. For me, connecting words to tell a story is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, and I love the challenge of creating every piece.
Website: https://lorimatsourani.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lori.matsourani
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lori.matsourani/
