Naughty and Nice Blog Hop - A Christmas Memory

Welcome! I'm participating in the Naughty and Nice Blog Hop so this post 

will be up from December11th to the 16th!

The blog hop rules and instructions are listed on the Safari Heat site. Click here to go to hop headquarters. The overall hop Grand Prize is a Kindle Fire HDX 7" with eBooks! Other prizes will be rewarded to commenters at the various blogs each day of the hop! Only residents of US and Canada are eligible to win prizes that need to be shipped due to postage costs, but anyone can winBooks or digital prizes. 

I remember the first Christmas after marrying my husband. We decided to stay in the Bay Area rather than fly to New York to be with his family or Oregon to be with mine. I was worried I might miss my family since I'd never spent Christmas away from them, but I had to admit a romantic first Christmas alone with my husband sounded pretty perfect to this newlywed and unpublished romance writer.

Of course being alone never happened. And forget about missing being home with my family. We were too busy, surrounded by loved ones...our friends!

Christmas Eve arrived with an invitation from a college friend to spend the evening with him and his family. His father cooked the most incredible dinner and gave me pointers to use for my Christmas dinner, ones I continue to use today. We watched my friend's sister-in-law light the Menorah, then said goodnight so we could attend Midnight Mass.

Christmas morning, my other best friend from college and her husband paid us a visit bearing good tidings and gifts. They gave us an engraved frame marking the occasion. We have a pic from that day in it! That afternoon, our apartment became the gathering place for anyone who didn't have a place to go. We ate Christmas dinner, the first I'd ever cooked, together!

Not much romantic alone time as we'd planned, but that was okay. Everything, and more importantly everyone, came together to give us a perfect first Christmas! Do you have a special memory of a Christmas you want to share? 

Sometimes getting together takes so much effort, but that Christmas plans fell into place perfectly, proof to me there really is Christmas magic, something that plays into each of my Christmas stories out now.

A kitten reunites lost loves… Short Story Free at Amazon Home isn't always where we think… 39K words Novella $2.99 at Amazon All you need it to believe… 55K words novel Amazon, BN, iBooks Trade-sized includes  Home for Christmas 3 novellas $13.14 at Amazon Now some blog hop info:  Prizes will be awarded on comments left here daily so be sure to put your email address when you comment. To get four extra entries into the Grand Prize Kindle Giveaway: Leave a comment, follow my blog, follow on FB and/or on Twitter. Just note that you've done these on your comment, but a comment alone enters you. The extra steps are for more entries! If you want a format to follow you can copy and paste this for your comment: Name: Email: Twitter: Followed @username Facebook: Followed by Your-user-name Blog: Followed by (put name if it's different from your own) Country you live in: (so we know which prizes you're eligible for) Comment: I'm giving away prizes at my blog during the hop, too: Daily: a $5 Amazon or Starbuck eCard to one commenter randomly chosen from all the comments Wednesday's winner: Shari Thursday's winner: Elisabeth (also won a book from the main hop, see comment section) Friday's winner: Barbara Saturday's winner: Denise Sunday's winner: Valerie Monday's winner: Janine After the hop ends, three winners randomly chosen from all the comments left on this blog during the hop. The prizes are: 1) $15 Amazon or Starbuck eCard 2) $10 Amazon or Starbuck eCard 3) $5 Amazon or Starbuck eCard To keep blog hopping click here.