Party Time by Priscilla Brown

 

Australian journalist Jasmine, stuck on a small Scottish island after a difficult assignment, finds herself learning reel dances at the local  Hogmanay party.  New Year's Eve had never been...so, well...so sexy...and is this stylishly kilted guy really who he says he is?

 

Find this contemporary romance at

  https://books2read.com/Dancing-the-Reel 

💖

 As teenagers many years ago, my cousin Sally and I hated family parties. The worst were those at Christmas and New Year hosted alternately by my parents and by hers. Having survived the excesses of Christmas at one house, we metaphorically took deep breaths and braced the New Year scene at the other.

Our mothers would sit at the kitchen table, their gossiping accompanied by rapidly depleting bottles of white wine and quantities of strawberry jam tarts. If a reason had ever existed for these specific edibles, it was lost in the annals of long ago New Year's Eves. If we took our clothes off and danced on the table, we doubted they'd have noticed. Our fathers occupied the living room, hers thumping away on the piano and mine making excruciating noises on his violin. Lucky the houses in this street were detached, so unlikely the neighbours would have their ears assaulted, but even so, anyone outside would surely cringe at the volume of noise. But the 'oldies' were having fun. 

For our 'fun,' and I don't remember how old we were, one year at my house Sally and I took from the wine rack a bottle of red wine which the parents probably thought they had hidden in a shoe cupboard, two glasses, and the few leftover mince pies. In my bedroom, we sat on the bed, disappointed there were no more pies, testing the wine while wondering how people could drink this disgusting stuff but nevertheless sipping away, and giggling over stupid boys in our respective high school classes. Neither of us felt at our best the next morning.

Chatting with friends about previous New Year's celebrations, mid-summer here in Australia, one described how his parents had hired a jumping castle to be installed in their large backyard for their extended family of children. Aged about ten, he and his twin brother had a fight while jumping, both fell off and each broke an arm. Another recalled how when teenagers their family joined with two others for a picnic in a park. She and a boy from another family ran a contest to see who could catch the most cicadas in ten minutes. Children nil, cicadas safe.

May 2023 be kind to you, with lots of good books to read. Stay safe. Priscilla.

 https://bwlpublishing.ca

 

https://priscillabrownauthor.com 

Some Memories Of Christmas by Victoria Chatham

 AVAILABLE HERE

So here we are at the end of 2018 already and looking forward to another Christmas and New Year's celebration.  

Christmas always reminds me of family gatherings, During the war years, this gathering always took place at my grandmother's house. My cousins and I looked forward to decorating the live tree. The windows were covered with a blackout curtain and the tree stood in front of it.  We were allowed to clip the holders for real candles onto the branches. We never knew which dad or uncle might be home on leave, but if none of them was, then my grandmother lit the candles. Health and Safety today would have a bird about those candles! Decorations around the house were always branches of fir, mistletoe, and holly. I don't remember who started it, but it became

something of a tradition to outline the edges and veins of the holly leaves with silver paint and this kept us kids occupied while my gran, my mum, and aunts prepared food.

For a number of years, I lived in a 300-year old Cotswold house. When I first saw the house I thought the living room, with its exposed oak beams and open fireplace, would be the ideal place for a family Christmas, and it was. One year my boys took charge of acquiring the tree. I never asked where it came from, I don't think I really wanted to know, but it was so tall they had to take about 3-feet off the top so we had a tree and a bit. Another Christmas my daughter bought her eldest brother a beanbag and packed it in a big appliance box. Give cats and kids a box and they will have endless fun with it. I laughed myself silly as my son converted the box into a bus and his sister and one of the dogs squished in behind him. As they were young adults at this point there may have been some alcohol involved. 

 

A few years ago I was pet and house-sitting at a lovely country home in England. That year was wild and wet and with so much flooding washing out roads and leaving debris everywhere, I decided to not risk the trip to visit my family but stayed put. I've never minded being alone but appreciated the phone calls with my children even more on that particular Christmas Day. To keep the flavor of the season I had my table decoration and a Christmas dinner from Sainsbury's grocery store and finished the day curled up on the sofa with the two dogs I was sitting and watching TV.

For me, Christmas is not so much about giving gifts as spending time with family and friends and none more so than when I can spend that time with my nearest and dearest. My DDH (dearly departed husband) and I did not buy each other big gifts but instead donated what we would have spent to charities of our choice and simply spent the day alone together. One year we binge-watched all the Star Wars movies. Another year we had a turkey and trimmings picnic on the living room floor, never to be repeated as it proved too much of a temptation for our two dogs. 

Christmases come and Christmases go, and I'm fortunate to celebrate the season with friends who have become as close as family. I'm also now happy to enjoy a gentler side of the season. I don't worry anymore about the commercialism of it all as that's something I have no control over. It's up to each individual how they choose to celebrate, or not, after all. What I like is having come to a place in my life where I am happy to celebrate the joy and peace of the season.

I would like to wish everyone at Books We Love and all our followers a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. 

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It's Nearly Here! by Victoria Chatham

AVAILABLE HERE

OK, I admit it. I'm a sucker for Christmas. Admittedly there have been a few years when Christmas has lost some of it's meaning, but the older I get, the more I appreciate it. 

It's not so much the tree and the trimmings, or the food and the wine, but the realization that without the company of family and friends at this particular time of year we are somehow at a loss. 

My family is far away but I can still see them and talk to them because of Skype.  An e-mail can garner an almost immediate response and Messenger can help reconnect people who may have lost touch. Moving to a new location, whether it be a new house or a new country, often meant that someone's address got lost in the transfer, or maybe they had moved, too, and the notifications crossed in the mail. There could be a hundred and one reasons that people lost touch but now, unless they don't want to be found, that reconnection is not impossible.

Today is my daughter's birthday, so I called her as I usually do. We talked for not too long as she was at work (she manages a jewelry store in the UK) and we briefly discussed the family gathering we had in October when I went home for a visit. My cousin was home from Australia, an Uncle and another cousin were home from France and the cousin who hosted the family get-together and I had not seen each other for thirty years. We talked about our childhood Christmases spent at our grandmother's house when, post-war, we got a stocking

containing an orange, chocolate and nuts, and one or two gifts and thought ourselves incredibly well provided for. 

I think back to other Christmases when my children had so many gifts their father and I had to hold some of them back. The Christmases when someone finished up in tears because they didn't get what they wanted, or someone hadn't done what they said they would do, or the sheer exhaustion of getting everything ready for the table and having the turkey and whatever went with it all served hot at the same time. 

For me, Christmas is not to be found in the stores, but in the hearts of people. It's in the enjoyment of their pleasure and company and the hope of a happier and healthier New Year for one all. 

So enjoy the season, celebrate it as you may, and look forward with hope to what 2018 may bring.

Victoria Chatham

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