Remember Ebeneezer Scrooge from Dicken’s classic tale, A Christmas Carol? He learned his lesson and became a man who kept Christmas in his heart all year long. I love that idea, and I intend to make sure I keep the Christmas spirit going.
Of course, that’s the idea behind my new book, The Twelve Months of Christmas. My main characters all have Christmas fails and decide they want a redo. Then, when that’s a success they get inspired and decide to extend that redo, turning it into a monthly Christmas celebration. Their celebrations will take them through good times and bad, laughter and tears.
Now, you may not want to leave your tree up all year. I won’t. I need the space in my living room! But I sure want to keep that giving and celebrating attitude all year. I want to stay joyful, and I want to do my best to spread that joy. Life can be hard, can’t it? So finding ways to smile and be grateful, finding ways to get our family and friends and neighbors to smile also sure sounds like a good idea to me. So, merry Christmas early. Let’s keep the joy going all year long.
Before we get to Christmas we have Halloween (caramel apples!) and Thanksgiving (my blessings!), and I’m looking forward to those. I’ll be in Florida, spending Halloween with my good friend Nancy Berland, and then that week will be appearing at bookstores in the Tampa area. I’m looking forward to that and to meeting readers. After that, I’m looking forward to hanging out at Liberty Bay Books, owned by my pal Suzanne Selfors, to celebrate small business Friday with my other pal Susan Wiggs. This Thanksgiving I’ll be sending up grateful prayers to God for another all clear with my gynecologist. Ten years cancer free. Yay!
Then, of course, comes Christmas, my favorite holiday, and New Year’s Day. (Party!) After that comes…. January, which can feel anti-climactic. But this coming year I intend to kick the year off doing the things I wanted to do in December and ran out of time for. Caroling party, anyone? I know I’ll have cookies that didn’t get baked. And there are those January sales.
It will be a good beginning. Like Scrooge, I’m gonna keep Christmas in my heart all year long. ☺