'Twas the Night Before ...
- Liz Flaherty
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
by M. J. Schiller
Hi!
Reading all the posts from Liz’s Christmas guests has made me nostalgic for my days of Christmas Past. Usually, the day after Thanksgiving I’d begin decorating the house. We had a party every year in the first or second week of December, so everything needed to be in its proper place. Next would come the baking. I could never decide on what cookies to bake, so I’d end up with anywhere from 10-15 different kinds. This year, without the kids at home, I’ve kept it down to seven. That probably sounds like a lot, but in the end, I added two to my first five that were gluten-free, for a neighbor. (They actually turned out to be the best tasting of them all, I think!) And we’re having a mini-party, with a half-dozen guests.
My love language is gift giving, so I’m all about Christmas. I have more holiday clothing and jewelry than a woman should have, and they come out of storage December one. Each day in December, one of our four children would get the job of advancing Christmas. They were the chosen person who got to cross off a day on our countdown chalkboard. They would also be in charge of helping Santa down the chimney. We had a decoration where, each day you’d remove a piece of wood from underneath Santa, and on December 24th, when the last slat was removed, he’d come out of the fireplace. Also on the special chore list was opening a tiny drawer on a Christmas tree decoration we had. Inside were little ornaments for the tree. In addition, we had a felt Christmas tree surrounded by pockets for each day of December leading up to Christmas. Inside were little stuffed pieces with Velcro that were then stuck on the tree. In the pocket you’d find an angel, a drum, a horn, etc, and the last one was always the star for the top. No wonder my kids were always late for school! 😉
The day before Christmas we’d prepare individual coffee cakes for the morning. I had little pans shaped like a stocking, a snowflake, an angel, a candy cane…and I can’t remember the rest. I had a recipe that made a yellow cake with layers of cinnamon and sugar. Hmm…I haven’t made that one in a while…
It was tradition at our house to read The Night Before Christmas (A Visit From St. Nick) on the eve of the holiday. We had an ideal setup in our old house for this, as, at the top of the stairs, the rooms were laid out in a spoke wheel type fashion, leaving a large hallway of sorts where we could gather in a circle. In the morning, NO EARLIER THAN SIX O’CLOCK, we would again meet outside our bedroom doors and read the story of the Nativity, as a reminder of what Christmas is truly all about. Then I would go downstairs to “check if Santa came” i.e. turn on the tree lights and throw the coffee cakes into the oven. The kids lined up on the stairs in birth order, or reverse birth order, depending on the year. Our tree was usually set up in the sunroom, so the kids couldn’t see it from the living room. First order of business, then, was the stockings! Our son, Ryan, would have eaten half his candy, and discarded his orange, by the time the others got to the bottom of their stocking.
When the coffee cakes were finished, I put a glaze on and stuck candles in them. Then we sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus before heading to the sunroom to open presents.
Christmas looks a lot different these days. I’d say it’s lost its magic, but it hasn’t. It still means being with family, which is always great. There may be less presents, fewer high-pitched screams of excitement, and a whole lot less running around, but it’s still got the love and that’s what makes it magic.
What are some unique ways you share the holidays?
If you’re looking for a truly unique way to spend the holidays why not read about…murder? That’s right. It may just come UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR…
Dylan Fisher is an EMT and part-time Santa Claus at a mall in Denver, Colorado.
He has logged plenty of time with children sitting on his lap asking for anything from the latest electronic gadget to a week’s worth of homework passes, but he never heard anyone ask for what little Delaney Kelly asked for on one snowy night in December. A dad! When Dylan’s eyes search the crowd for Delaney’s mother and land on Keira Kelly, the paramedic almost finds himself in need of a little CPR. She is stunning.
Keira Kelly is still grieving over the loss of her husband…
… but a reckless driver has her thinking about nothing but survival as she’s headed home from the mall. When Keira wakes in the hospital to find a hunky EMT at her bedside, she begins having a few thoughts that would put her on Santa’s Naughty List for sure.
Neither is ready for what is coming UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR.
When she finds out the EMT is only hanging around because the police believe someone is out to get her, she’s not sure what to think about his kindness. Is he helping her because he wants to, or because he feels he needs to? And what about the man who rammed her car, could he have had something to do with her husband’s death?
CHECK IT OUT HERE: https://books2read.com/Upon-A-Midnight-Clear
Thanks for reading and happy holidays, however you celebrate it!
M.J. Schiller is a retired lunch lady/romance-romantic suspense writer. She enjoys writing novels whose characters include rock stars, desert princes, teachers, futuristic Knights, construction workers, cops, and a wide variety of others. In her mind everybody has a romance. She is the mother of a twenty-eight-year-old and three twenty-six-year-olds. That's right, triplets! So having recently taught four children to drive, she likes to escape from life on occasion by pretending to be a rock star at karaoke. However…you won’t be seeing her name on any record labels soon.
Author/286382241460365
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mjschiller/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mjschiller
Tumblr: http://mjschilz.tumblr.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/mjschiller
Goodreads:
Comments