Holiday Traditions: Nicole O’Dell
Today, I’m tickled to introduce author Nicole O’Dell to my readers. Nicole is the author of a fabulous series of YA novels for Barbour (which I’ve had the privilege of editing): Scenarios for Girls (so be sure to check out the link at the end of the post to learn more about them). Today, Nicole shares with us some of her family’s Christmas traditions.
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Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, Dear Jesus!
Happy birthday to you!
We sing happy birthday to Jesus every year. We have a birthday cake—usually angel food cake (get it?) with peppermint icing—with three candles on top. We turn off the lights, sing a rousing celebration chorus, and then the kids blow out the candles. The young children always feel a little sad that Jesus can’t be there to blow out His own candles, but they’re more than happy to step in when needed. After we sing, we cut the cake and share it like we would at any birthday party. We make everyone take a least a small piece even if they’re stuffed–if they’re going to eat anything, it’s going to be Jesus’ birthday cake!
It might sound like a simple tradition, but, in my opinion, it’s one that has really shaped our view of Christmas and has helped keep our kids’ focus where it needs to be. They always, always comment how strange it feels that Jesus can’t eat His own birthday cake. Then someone will mention how sad it is that everyone else gets the gifts and Jesus doesn’t get any.
It’s a perfect, beautiful picture of how a sinless Jesus bore the punishment for the sins of all mankind, giving them the gift of eternal life which only He deserved. With that truth in the forefront of our minds, we open gifts and thank each other for the wonderful things, but we keep in mind that the greatest gift of all came from Jesus.
Our other traditions are pretty simple. We have a big dinner—usually on Christmas Eve at my mom’s house (pictured)—and then open presents after we beg the kids to give us 20 minutes to get the kitchen cleaned up. By cleaned up, I mean the food put away and the dishes stacked in the sink. There’s no way they could tolerate the time it would take to load the dishwasher, wash the crystal and silverware by hand, dry it and put it away. Not to mention the pots and pans.
We gather in the family room around the tree–kids on the floor, adults in the chairs. With my brother or my husband holding the video camera, Grandma Party (my mom) starts to pass out presents, one at a time. It takes a long time, but we love it. We savor the thought that went into each gift and linger over the process. One year, when my daughter Natalie was three, every time she opened a gift, no matter what it was, she gasped, covered her mouth and squealed, “It’s just what I almost wanted!” Precious memories.
This year will be very interesting because the triplets will be 16 months old. Three toddlers who are experiencing Christmas for the first time will likely keep us all very busy. Something tells me there won’t be a whole lot of “savoring” or “lingering” going on. It’s certainly been interesting to have the Christmas tree up in our home. The babies toddle over to it and touch the few lights they can reach. I have it pretty barricaded off from their curious little fingers. They love looking at it, though. They stare up at it and blink in wide-eyed wonder. I wish I could read their thoughts.
One year, when my oldest son, Erik was almost two (he’s almost 18 now), we were staying at my mom’s house. She put up her tree and, with a burst of inspiration, made gingerbread cookies to decorate only the very bottom branches. She told Erik that all of the ornaments on the tree were Grandma’s and he couldn’t touch any of them except for the gingerbread men. She told him those were his and he could do whatever he wanted to with them as long as he didn’t touch anything else on the tree. Deal!
Every day, she’d check the tree and it looked untouched except for a poor gingerbread man missing an arm and another one missing a leg. He never touched anything else and by Christmas, the cookies were gone. Smart grandma!
Not to get all somber on you, but I do want to mention that this holiday season I’m thinking of the families who have lost loved ones—three families in particular come to mind, one of them lost an 11-year-old daughter last week. It’s so difficult and confusing to try to say goodbye in the midst of all of the celebrating going on everywhere around you. So, this Christmas, I’ll look around the packed dinner table with gratitude, then later, I’ll smile upon the children as they gather under the tree in anticipation. I will be praying for my grieving friends and thanking God for my family and all of the wonderful gifts—especially the gift of Jesus Christ.
I’d love to hear about some of the fun things you do with your family during the holidays! What are your traditions?
Nicole O’Dell
www.nicoleodell.com
www.scenariosforgirls.com
Truth or Dare and All that Glitters, 8/09, Barbour Publishing
Magna and Making Waves, 4/10, Barbour Publishing
High Stakes and Essence of Lilly, Spring, 2011, Barbour Publishing
Do You Have Too Many Books?
If you’re like me, whether you’re both a writer and a reader or just an avid reader, you probably have stacks of books that don’t fit on your burgeoning bookshelves in your home.
A display of a set of antique Harvard Classics in the living room . . .
A “brag” shelf displaying my books in the living room . . .
A crate of Ransome’s Honor and Menu for Romance in the living room (and a corner of a crate of books I’ve purged from my shelves that are going to my grandmother in a couple of weeks) . . .
A box of Stand-In Groom in the floor of the office . . .
Books in the corner of the office by the closet . . .
Books between the office door & closet . . .
And books all across the wall over the computer in the office . . .
So what got me interested in showing my “library”? This article about a flat in London where the renters have so many books, they got permission from their landlords to bring in an architect and add a loft bedroom to their apartment—with a staircase library to house their massive collection of books:
Have your books outgrown your bookcases? Have you had to find unique ways of storing them?
Holiday Recipes: Mamie’s Fudge and Pralines
In an effort to cut down the time it takes me to write a blog post (yesterday’s two hours, as a prime example—though there were a few other little things I got accomplished during that span), I sent out a request on FB and Twitter for people to send me their favorite holiday traditions, recipes, and crafts to share here on the blog. (And there’s still time—send them to me!)
Since, for me, holidays are all about family, I thought I’d kick off the inaugural post with two of my favorite holiday candy recipes from my grandmother, Julia “Mamie” McLellan. (Noticed that first name, huh? Yes, Julia from the Ransome Trilogy is named in honor of my grandmother.)
Mamie’s Fudge
1 stick margarine
4 cups granulated sugar
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow creme
1 12-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped pecans (optional)
In a heavy, four-quart saucepan, combine margarine, sugar, and evaporated milk. Over medium heat, cook, stirring occasionally to soft ball stage. Remove from heat and add marshmallow creme, chocolate chips, and pecans, if desired. Stir until combined. Pour mixture into a buttered 9×13 pan. Let cool completely. Cut into small (1–1.5″) squares (these are VERY rich). Makes about three pounds of candy.
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Pralines
2 sticks oleo (or butter/margarine)
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
4 cups granulated sugar
4 cups pecan halves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a large pot over medium heat, combine oleo, evaporated milk, and sugar. Boil ten minutes while stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add pecans and vanilla; stir until well combined. Drop by the spoonful on a buttered piece of wax paper or aluminum foil.
For brown-sugar pralines (courtesy of Aunt Linda): Pack about ¼ cup of brown sugar into a four-cup measure and then fill it the rest of the way with granulated sugar.
So Much to Do, So Little Time
Is it just me, or is this the worst time of year to have a major holiday? Or two or three? I don’t know about y’all, but it seems like every morning when I get up, instead of being shorter, my to-do list keeps getting longer and longer. I have freelance projects to do. Interview questions to answer. Sales videos to record. Christmas shopping to do. Computer systems/programs to upgrade. Blog posts to write. E-mails to send and respond to. Blog tours to set up. Christmas parties and concerts to attend. Travel to plan. Cards to purchase and send. And then there’s that book that has to be written . . .
Is it any wonder we have a tendency to lose our “Holiday Spirit” around about, oh, the 7th of December?
And just as I typed that, I remembered—today is a very special day. You see, today is the two-year anniversary of my first book contract. Yep, I received the contract from Barbour for Stand-In Groom on December 7, 2007. Happy anniversary to me!
Okay, anyway, back to complaining about how this is the most stressful time of the year.
(Wait—must go get my second cup of coffee first.)
That’s better. You know, it’s no wonder it takes me forever to get these blog posts written. I have to stop for coffee, stop to find images (yay for Google Image Search!), and then figure out where I was going when I stopped to do everything else.
(For example, I picked up the headset microphone that I got to dictate my writing to the laptop in the car to see if it would work on the desktop computer. It works, but apparently Windows Speech Recognition software doesn’t recognize Google Chrome, my default browser. I wanted to see if I could dictate my blog post, but I guess I’ll have to stick to typing for now. ;-))
So where was I? Oh, yeah, this is a very stressful time of year.
Yesterday, I was finally able to visit the “Young Adult” class at the church I’m now a “regular visitor” at. It was a small class, though that’s to be expected this time of year, and unbelievably, I wasn’t the only unmarried person in the room! (Though I think I was probably the oldest. Most of the rest appear to be in their late 20s/early 30s. But, hey, don’t ask, don’t tell, right?) They graciously invited me to go to lunch with them after church (the first Sunday of the month is apparently their “social Sunday”), so of course I went so I could have a chance to get to know the few who went better to start feeling even more connected to this church. (I sat with the couple I met the very first Sunday I visited, Cathy and Jim, during worship service this week, and had a couple of other people I’ve met over the past six or eight weeks greet me/come speak to me as well.)
Different denomination or not, there are two primary things that are leading me to want to join this church after the Christmas holidays: the friendliness/hospitality of everyone I’ve met so far (I’ve already been added to the young adults’ class’s e-mail list!) and the fact that, after more than a year of sleeping in on Sundays to the point where I couldn’t convince myself to get out of bed early enough to even watch my previous church’s service on TV live, since I’ve been visiting this church, I’ve not only had no problem getting out of bed, throughout the week, I actually look forward to going.
So how does this tie in with the subject of this post? Well, at lunch, they started discussing planning a Christmas party, but everyone around the table talked about how they have something going on practically every evening between now and Christmas (or being out of town). Since I haven’t been involved in church or choir or even had work events to attend this time of year since 2007, I had to count myself blessed that I don’t have rehearsals/performances and work events and SS class parties, etc., to add to the to-do list for December. But it did make me think that this is the worst time of the year to try to have a major holiday . . . or two or three.
I did manage to remember that my nephew’s birthday is Wednesday. Thank goodness for Amazon, and for the fact that a couple of months ago, I ran across something I wanted to get him, which I’d added to a Gift Buying wishlist. So all I had to do was go in, move it to my cart, choose the appropriate shipping address and gift options, and click “Complete Purchase”; and his gift will be there on his birthday. I’ll do most of the rest of my Christmas gift shopping the same way.
My aunt posted this as part of her Facebook status update on Saturday:
- We’re gonna . . . go Christmas shopping. Pray that our good moods don’t disappear in the store.
To which I responded:
- Mine disappeared in the parking lot.
I had to go out Saturday and pick up a few things down at the Cool Springs mall. And even though I got there pretty early, the traffic and parking lot were already crazy. And I couldn’t wait and go during the week this week when it wouldn’t have been so bad—because the store was only having their sale on Saturday and Sunday. Between people not paying attention to where they were going (or not knowing) or people seeing folks circling the parking lot trolling for a spot and going out to sit in their car to make it appear they’re leaving, sit there for a while, then get out and wave at me and mouth we’re not leaving, I had definitely lost my Christmas spirit by the time I did finally find a parking place.
And while I wish I could say I’ll be avoiding major shopping areas on the weekends between now and Christmas, that isn’t the case. Next weekend, I get to fight the traffic in the Rivergate and Mt. Juliet areas for the MTCW Christmas Book Signing events. So I’m going to have to load up on Christmas spirit between now and then (which should be easy, with the group’s Christmas brunch just before the first signing) to make sure I haven’t completely lost it by the time I get into the store.
Oh, that reminds me, I have to update my marketing flyers to include the cover for Ransome’s Crossing.
Sigh. See what I mean about how the to-do list keeps getting longer instead of shorter? So much to do, so little time.
How’s your holiday to-do list shaping up?
Fun Friday–Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
What do you think of my new Christmas theme for the blog? Pretty snazzy, huh? 🙂
As mentioned last week, for the next three Fridays, I’m going to be sharing some favorite clips from some favorite Christmas specials (TV & movies)—and I hope you’ll reciprocate and do the same!
This week’s clip comes from a movie that I’d never seen until around this time last year when I caught it on Turner Classic Movies. From the name of the film, you’d never realize it’s a Christmas movie and that it contains one of the ultimate, most favorite/requested Christmas songs of all time.
The movie: Meet Me in St. Louis
The setup: Developed from a series of short stories which appeared in the New Yorker magazine, written by Sally Benson, Meet Me in St. Louis was one of the musicals made during the Golden Age of MGM musicals, made in 1944 and released in 1945. It stars, of course, Judy Garland along with Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Leon Ames, and Tom Drake. It tells the story of the Smith family during the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Centennial celebration in, where else, St. Louis. The four Smith sisters’ lives—especially the oldest two—are turned upside-down when their father announces that he’s received a promotion at work and the family will be moving to New York City by year’s end.
The clip:
If you’ve never seen this movie, or if it’s been a long time since you’ve seen this movie, I highly recommend you watch it this holiday season!
Here’s your challenge . . . find a video clip of one of your favorite SONGS from a Christmas special and post the link here (or if you post it to your blog, share the link to your blog post).
The Start of Something New
As you saw yesterday (in the first post), I came up with an opening for the first chapter of Love Remains that I was pretty tickled with. Well, since I have to get this book written, revised, edited, and turned in in LESS THAN TWO MONTHS (I’m thinking I need to find a countdown widget for this one, since it is really marked in days and not months to deadline . . . 59 days, if anyone cares), I need to average a couple thousand words a day if I’m going to accomplish that.
I spent several hours yesterday afternoon working on collecting my thoughts about secondary characters, settings, and backstory—all in Microsoft One Note, which I’ll write about more next week. But I knew that before I went to bed last night, I needed to continue what I’d started the night before and get further into the first chapter. (I already have the 500-word Prologue written—I wrote that eight months ago when I was working on the proposal for this series.)
I’ve discussed many times before about how I don’t like writing first chapters, because I never feel like they’re any good. But I think I’m going to have to stop saying that, because the last three books I’ve written (MFR, ACFL, and RC) I’ve liked the first chapter. LR will be no exception to this trend. I wrote a little more than 1,100 words last night in under an hour. Of course, it helped that in the synopsis of this book that I wrote for the proposal, I had written the summary of the opening scene in pretty vivid detail, so I knew what needed to happen at this party where the sharks were circling. Not only that, but I was thrilled with how clearly Bobby’s character was coming through to me—ex-military law enforcement officer that he is. The way he looked at people and the words he chose to use in his narrative: surveillance, he identified himself, peripheral sightings, the all-male encampment outside, and jar-head. I can tell I’m going to have a lot of fun with his character.
Today, I’m heading back to Nashville (Mom and Dad talked me into staying an extra day so that I’m driving between two major storm systems instead of in the middle of one), and I’ll once again employ the speech recognition software on the laptop to get some writing done. When I ended Bobby’s scene last night, I was eager to get on to the second scene in the chapter—Zarah’s first scene. Since she’s a character I’ve worked with before (when I wrote the original manuscript this story is based on, though Bobby’s job/character has changed, as has the plot), but since I have not gone back and re-read that manuscript, it’ll be interesting to see how she reveals herself in this introductory scene—in which she has just run into (literally) the man responsible for getting her kicked out of her father’s house fourteen years ago . . .
Ransome’s Crossing Cover
Just received the image file of the “approved” cover for Ransome’s Crossing:
Sneak Peek at LOVE REMAINS
As I mentioned yesterday, I have two months to get Love Remains, Book 1 of The Matchmakers series, written. I started last night. Let me know what you think:
Chapter 1
The sharks were circling.
Bobby Patterson had been at the party a total of three minutes. But half that time was all it took for the smell of fresh blood to circulate amongst the single women.
Five Down, Four to Go
With one click of a button, Ransome’s Crossing has officially been turned in.
So what’s next? A vacation? A nice long break through the holidays?
Not hardly! Now I must immediately turn my attention to starting the first book of my new contemporary series, Love Remains.
There is something to be said about back-to-back deadlines like this. I know that when I am forced (by my own procrastination) to write at least 3,000 if not 5–6,000 words a day to meet a looming deadline, even though it’s exhausting, the words flow better and I’m always thinking of ideas for both that story as well as others (I’ve had my spiral notebook beside me for the past several days, writing down ideas for the Matchmakers series as they would strike while I was marathoning to get RC finished). And while it would be nice to be able to take a break and not have to worry about anything except for the two freelance projects I have scheduled for December, it isn’t going to work that way. My plan is to try to average a chapter a day so that I can get as much done before Christmas as I can, and then have more time in January to finish it up and do the revisions/edits I know I’ll want to do. (Or at least read all the way through it, which I didn’t really get to do with RC.)
So the Five Down are:
Stand-In Groom (turned in April 1, 2008)
Menu for Romance (turned in December 1, 2008)
Ransome’s Honor (turned in February 1, 2009)
A Case for Love (turned in July 1, 2009)
Ransome’s Crossing (turned in December 1, 2009)
The Four to Go are:
Love Remains (due February 1, 2010)
Ransome’s Quest (due July 1, 2010—or maybe it’s August 1, but I’m shooting for July)
The Art of Romance (due October 15, 2010)
Turnabout’s Fair Play (due April 1, 2011 ??? I think—I need to look that up!)
Not only does it feel good to have my book finished and turned in, it feels good to look at that list and see how many I’ve written (three just within the past eighteen months!) and then to look at the list of the ones yet to be written and not panic, knowing that not only can I write that many books, I can get them written in the allotted time.
Do you ever do that? When you start feeling overwhelmed by something, stop and make a list of what’s already been accomplished to show yourself that you’ve already done more than what’s left to finish for encouragement to keep on plugging away?
Back to Work Monday
I’ve been seeing everyone’s Tweets and FB updates complaining about having to go back to work/school (or a combination thereof) today. And I’m sitting here thinking . . . wow—I’m ready to take a few days off!
You see, ever since leaving my driveway last Monday at 10 a.m., I haven’t really stopped working. This is, of course, mostly of my own making—as once again, I managed to procrastinate myself to a point where I’m up against deadline not only with my own work but with a freelance project.
The good news is: I FINISHED WRITING RANSOME’S CROSSING SATURDAY!!!!!!! I averaged about 5,500 words per day and wrote almost 28,000 words in five days—and that included using the Windows speech recognition software that came on my new laptop to “write” while driving to Arkansas Monday. I’m really looking forward to using that feature to work on either writing or brainstorming ideas for my next book, Love Remains (due February 1), on the way back to Nashville Wednesday or Thursday as well as on the drive to/from Baton Rouge at Christmas. I recorded 1,700 words in the couple of hours from Memphis (where I had to stop and get one of those headphone-microphone thingies at Walmart—because the road-noise was too much for the built-in mic on the laptop) to Little Rock. So I can’t wait to see what I can do during the almost nine hours it takes me to get to BR!
The bad news is: I had a freelance project I needed to get finished by…um, let me check the calendar…TODAY, so I haven’t been able to even start re-reading RC yet. I have a few hours yet on the freelance project, so as soon as I finish that, I’ll start the read-through and revision on Ransome’s Crossing so that I can get it sent in and meet my deadline tomorrow.
Then, I’ll get to take my Thanksgiving break. We’re going to go over to Garvan Woodland Gardens to view the Christmas lights Tuesday night, and I’ll make the decision then if I want to drive back Wednesday or Thursday. (It’s so wonderful to have the freedom to do that!)
And then it’s right back to work—two big freelance projects in December and another book due February 1. Ah, the lazy, kicked-back life of a writer.
KayeDacus.com 