Countdowns

We do countdowns for lots of things – when we’re young we countdown till our birthday, when we’re older we countdown till our children’s birthdays. We countdown for the ball to drop each New Year. Even NASA does countdowns to launch things into space. The Christmas countdown has always, and will always be my favorite. There are nine more days till Christmas Day… There are Christmas carols to be listened to, or sang if you’re good at that, and loads of Christmas movies to be watched. There are treats to be cooked, baked, and of course decorated. There are also Christmas stories to be read, whether you’re into Dickens, Clement Clarke Moore, Luke Chapter 2, or all of the above, the stories are all wonderful and definitely are very good re-reads each year.

In my book New Parish there’s plenty of Christmas fun to read about… and even more in the coming soon, Return to New Parish.

I hope your Christmas tree is up and giving you constant reminders to celebrate this wonderful time with your family and friends.

Excerpt from New Parish:

Chapter 4 – Girl Talk

“On Christmas morning Sarah and Mary were up early because Mary said Sarah, “Didn’t want to miss this!”Entering the main sitting room, it looked to Sarah like a magical place of happiness. The tree was full of colored lights and was filled to the brim with ornaments that depicted children, toys, and candy, and all sorts of Christmas paraphernalia. The tree had been there when Sarah first arrived and she’d immediately loved it. Mary had complained that she missed the decorating and explained to Sarah that the whole family gets in on the event, they put the tree up together, place the lights together, hang the ornaments together, make homemade things like popcorn and cranberry garland together and put it on together. She’d given Sarah the whole run down on Christmas at her home.

The presents that had been added over night were covering a third of the room and there was a table with hot chocolate, marshmallows, and cool-whip. The table,with hot chocolate, made Sarah think of that “incident” she had been trying not to think of.

The room looked and felt like Christmas, the best part of Christmas, you could feel it when you walked in… the kids were all filing in with excitement in their eyes and big smiles on their faces. Everyone was in their pajamas. This made Sarah think of her own childhood and the wonderful feelings she’d had on Christmas morning. This made her both happy and sad, as a deep longing to share this type of experience with her own children filled her heart.

Brother Michael came in last and as the kids excitedly jumped up and down pleading with him for permission to open presents he laughed and said, “Okay, have at it.”They did just that, there was a present opening frenzy the likes of which Sarah had never seen. She watched as Brother Michael slowly walked over and put his arms around two of his wives and kissed each on the cheek. Sarah smiled thinking she might like something like this, “It could really work… maybe,” she thought.

The rest of the morning was spent with hot chocolate and viewing the gifts the kids had received. Mary shouted looking out the window, “It’s snowing! How perfect is that?” Everyone crowded around the windows to see the Christmas magic falling down in large fluffy feathery flakes outside.”