Happy Holidays 2022!

Christmas brings back memories of bygone times and it’s still one of my favorite times of year. People are what make the holidays special. When I was a child, we began preparing for Christmas right after the big Thanksgiving dinner at my grandparents’ home. Mom and Grandma would make plans for the next month while we cleaned up after the meal. Well, at least the women and girls cleaned, putting away food and washing dishes while the men-folk watched TV with Grand-dad. He was the ruler of the set in its big wooden entertainment center and since these were the days before remotes, my youngest boy cousin was in charge of changing the channel and adjusting the volume.

Meantime, in the kitchen, we decided when and where the guys would get the tree, a huge evergreen at least eight foot tall. We always knew it would go in the front corner of the living-room and my uncle would help Grand-dad shift the sofa to make room. Actually, my Uncle Patrick did that while my grandfather directed the action. Once it was in the stand, my uncle and I would do the lights, again under Grand-dad’s strict, loving guidance. Grandma always used string to tie the tree into place to keep Grand-dad’s calico cat from knocking it over when she climbed it to hunt the ornaments.

There would be days when we’d visit and help trim the tree, do holiday baking, and freeze the goodies for Christmas Day. My baby sis always managed to snag a ‘date bar’ or two, her favorite treat. For me, it was the doughnuts that Grandma fried in a pan of hot oil. She poured the grease into an old coffee can,

then froze it from one batch to the next. There were always traditional sugar cookies to frost.

Nothing interrupted Grand-dad’s favorite westerns or boxing on the TV, so we sang Christmas songs while we cooked. If we forgot the words, we made up our own lyrics. We shopped in downtown Seattle at long-gone discount stores and rode the bus out to my grandparents’ home in Ballard, wrapping our purchases in the paper Grandma always had on hand. She’d bought it the year before when the stores had their ‘after Christmas’ sales.

If she ran out, there were the ‘funny papers’, brightly colored comics left over from the Sunday edition. On Christmas Day, we’d do chores early on the pony farm, share our gifts – most of which were homemade or recycled – my parents bought me a used three-speed bike one year and repainted it to look new. My dime store dolls often had handsewn wardrobes made by Mom.

Yes, the extended family was poor, but we kids didn’t know it. This year, I’ll send gift cards to family members who don’t live close enough to visit. I’ll pick up toys to donate to the Christmas House the volunteer fire-fighters host. I’ve already ordered presents for my riding students and hopefully they’ll arrive at the barn early enough to be given out before the day. In Western Washington state, we rarely have snow, but often it rains. The days are shorter now, and the neighbors’ holiday lights brighten drives around the area.

This newsletter is jam-packed with goodies! Continue reading for a look at what the future could hold.

Book Information:

Looking for some Holiday Cheer?

Blurb:

All Sierra McElroy wants for Christmas is a guarantee that the beloved horses who live at Shamrock Stable will be home for the holidays. Watering, feeding and mucking are part of her daily responsibilities and she’s good with that. However, when her mother decides they can’t keep every horse in the barn and should sell a few to some of their lesson students, Sierra definitely has issues.Family shouldn’t be for sale, especially when the would-be buyers won’t take care of her four-legged kin appropriately. She needs to come up with a plan to keep everyone home where they belong. A stall-decorating contest may prove to be the answer until an unexpected snow storm shuts down the barn.Now, what can she do to save her friends and Christmas for her two-legged family too?

Start your adventures at Shamrock Stables with book one of the Shamrock Stables Series No Horse Wanted (e-book) for $4.99! Get your copy today! Find it on Amazon ~ No Horse Wanted (Shamrock Stables Book 1).

Because I'm Brown book three in Stewart Falls Cheerleaders is coming soon!

Fifteen-year-old Rita Fernandez’s problems overwhelm her. She knows they’re only happening because she’s brown! Her father refuses to buy her the horse of her dreams until her grades improve. If they don’t, it could jeopardize her status as a Stewart Falls Academy cheerleader.  

In addition, Dave Jefferson, the guy Rita adores, still sees her as a troublesome younger sister type. He tells other boys she’s too young to date until she has her quinceañera, the party she should have had a year ago when she turned fifteen. Even as her friends on the cheer squad rally to help Rita have her coming-of-age celebration, more issues arise when her mother tries to sabotage her quinceañera. Rita feels life is so hard because she’s brown. Now, how will she deal with it?

While you're waiting on Book Three to release check out books 1 and 2 of the Stewart Falls Cheerleaders series which are available on Amazon ~ Stewart Falls Cheerleaders.

Holiday Read!

In the spirit of the holidays there is a Holiday Novella for the Stewart Falls Cheerleaders series.



Check out the blurb:

Nikki Tiernan is tired of being bounced around her dad’s family, being sent from one relative’s home to the next while her father is busy honeymooning with his new wife. Nikki wants to be in Stewart Falls, Washington for Christmas since her mom is still overseas with the U.S. Army, but nobody listens. Instead, her aunt plans to send Nikki to a weight-loss camp for the holidays. Enough is enough! Determined to find her own way home, all Nikki has to do is buy a bus ticket—or so she thinks. But when a mysterious stranger claims the seat next to her on that bus, Nikki fears her adventure may not go as planned.

Gift (A Holiday Recipe from me to you):

While I create sugar cookies from my old Betty Crocker cookbook held together with duct tape, I’ll stir up a few memories too since my grandparents are gone now and we lost my Uncle Patrick in January 2021, although it wasn’t due to the pandemic. And I’ll turn on the radio to sing along with holiday favorites. Here's a favorite sugar cookie recipe, please stop by my social media pages and let me know what you think.

Facebook I Twitter I Instagram

May your holidays be merry and bright and may we all have the happiest of days to come in 2023!

Shannon

P.S. If you do not wish to continue as a subscriber, please feel free to hit UNSUBSCRIBE (or REPLY with either empty email or Please Unsubscribe, and I'll remove your email from my list immediately). Please do not click SPAM. It doesn't remove you from the list. Thank you for joining me this month. I hope you enjoy the newsletter.