Christmas Memories

 

 

This is a picture of my Dad, Mom and my older brothers Bill (in Mom's lap) and Curtis (in Dad's lap). The reason I'm not in the picture is because I was just a twinkle in my parents eyes. I love this picture. It brings back so many memories of Christmases during a simpler time. I remember going to pick out the tree a few days before Christmas (so it wouldn't dry out). Who doesn't love the smell of a fresh tree? We had a big picture window in our living room and Mom would use the artificial snow to make designs on the window.

 

Our gifts were simple - a doll for me and maybe a woodburning kit for the boys. Things that you would use your imagination with. Then of course there was Christmas dinner. Along with the regular fare we would have home-made cakes - German Chocolate and Red Velvet. My Mom made a fruit salad that was to die for. How I wish I had my parents with me to celebrate another family Christmas, but since I don't I'll settle for the wonderful childhood memories that I have! I hope you have some nice memories and will make more this year!

 

Oh I just thought of a funny story. Those two brothers of mine put me up to going in Sears and asking Santa for a Corvette with all the trimmings (they told me what to say). They thought that was sooo funny and the Santa knew Dad and told him what I did. I don't think I got in trouble, but I never did it again. LOL



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember this candy?

 

 

 

 

Did you have a book like this?

 

 

What about these lights?

 

Christmas Ballast--by Linda Kozar

I am soooo done with my Christmas shopping and mailing! Three cheers! Now I'm working on my annual Christmas/New Year's letter. Yes, I kind of flipped things around--the letters are supposed to go out early in December, but hey, whatever works, right?

I've also done a bit of baking--some cookies, some fudge. I thought I might want to do more, but I'm sort of okay with what I've already done. Instead of pushing myself ever further, I've learned to just be happy right where I am.

Writing is like that too. Some authors are so ambitious or maybe obsessed is a better word. All they ever do is write. They don't take time to interact with their spouse or children, even pets. They hide behind a laptop, occasionally coming up for air and food. But do you ever want to be so driven that you drive others away? I think not.

A ship without ballast will lean to one side and certainly sink in time. It's all about balance. In the new year, aim to find that place. Talk to your family. Find out how they feel about all the time you spend writing. Work out a schedule that works with your loved ones. Kids grow up and are gone before you know it. And your husband or wife shouldn't have to make an appointment to talk you!

I love writing, and at times, it's been an idol in my life. But I learned to put writing in it's place. It's not my life, writing is a part of who I am. So is my faith, my family, my friends.

I hope you find you balance. What could be more satisfying than to be loved by God, doing what He created you to do, and being surrounded by a loving circle of family and friends? I am so blessed to be a writer! May you be blessed as well--in whatever God created YOU to do!

Our Twelve Cozies of Christmas Giveaway continues through December 23rd! Details on how to enter below. All you have to do is Tweet or post a Pinterest Board to be entered!

‘Tis the season for a great whodunnit!

If you love cozies as much as we do, then you’re in for a holiday treat! From December 12 – 23, we’re giving away one cozy mystery EVERY DAY!

So light the fireplace and grab a cup of hot cocoa, because you just may have a free cozy mystery coming your way!

HOW TO ENTER

There are two ways to enter:

1. Create a Pinboard entitled My 12 Cozies of Christmas. Fill it with 12 Spyglass Lane titles that either you want to read, or have already read and love! Be sure to use the #12CoziesofChristmas hashtag in the description of each pinned book cover. One pinboard will automatically enter you in each daily drawing!
2. Tweet about Spyglass Lane mysteries. Simply Tweet about the giveaway or one of your favorite Spyglass Lane Mysteries or authors and include the #12CoziesofChristmas hashtag along with the www.spyglasslanemysteries.com link. You may Tweet as many times as you want each day! Only Tweets sent out the day of the giveaway will be considered for that day’s drawing.

Follow us on the Spyglass Lane blog, Twitter @SpyglassMystery or Facebook for the latest info on the 12 Cozies of Christmas giveaway! Each day, we’ll reveal which Spyglass Lane cozy mystery we’ll be giving away.

GIVEAWAY INFO

1. Each day, we will reveal which Spyglass Lane mystery will be given away that day
2. A “giveaway day” runs from 12AM EST to 11:59PM EST.
3. There will be one winner per day
4. Winners will be announced the following morning
5. A Pinboard (see rules above) counts as one entry each day of the giveaway. Tweets (see rules above) only apply to the day in which they were originally Tweeted. For example, if you send 10 Tweets on Thursday the 13th, you will be entered 10 times in that day’s drawing. But those Tweets will not apply to the next day’s drawing.
6. Winners will be chosen via Randomizer.org, with Tweets and Pinboards each assigned a unique number
7. Winners will be announced via our blog, Twitter @SpyglassMystery or Facebook. Winners will be contacted via email or social media. If a winner does not hear from Spyglass Lane, they may contact us at SpyglassLaneMysteries (at) gmail (dot) com.
8. Winners will receive their prize in the form of a Smashwords coupon that they can redeem at Smashwords.com. Smashwords accommodates all ereader devices, though it may require the device to be directly connected to a computer for proper download.
9. The same person may win more than once!
10. There is no entry limit
11. Participants are expected to play nice! Inappropriate behavior (including but not limited to foul language, bullying, trolling, arguing) will not be tolerated and Spyglass Lane reserves the right to exclude such people from these and future giveaways

12 Cozy Mysteries of Christmas Contest!

12 Cozy Mysteries of Christmas – Nancy Drew

Ever since I was a young girl, I’ve loved to read. Especially Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon. By the time I graduated High School, I had almost a complete set of Nancy Drew mystery books, eagerly awaiting each Christmas morning to see whether I’d receive another one.

Christmas, with all its surprises, is much like a mystery to me. What’s in that package? Will they like the gift I’ve bought them? So many clues to follow. With a mystery story, the wonderful entertainment of a ‘whodunnit’ can last much longer than one day. With each turn of the page, your mind races: Will the culprit catch them before they solve the crime? Will the character be injured? What happens next?

Your heart beats along with the main character’s as you try to figure out who the guilty party is before the hero or heroine. Much like a Christmas present, you sigh when it’s over and realize what a wonderful gift you’ve received.

‘Tis the season for a great whodunnit!

If you love cozies as much as we do, then you’re in for a holiday treat! From December 12 – 23, we’re giving away one cozy mystery EVERY DAY!

So light the fireplace and grab a cup of hot cocoa, because you just may have a free cozy mystery coming your way!

HOW TO ENTER

There are two ways to enter:

1. Create a Pinboard entitled My 12 Cozies of Christmas. Fill it with 12 Spyglass Lane titles that either you want to read, or have already read and love! Be sure to use the #12CoziesofChristmas hashtag in the description of each pinned book cover. One pinboard will automatically enter you in each daily drawing!
2. Tweet about Spyglass Lane mysteries. Simply Tweet about the giveaway or one of your favorite Spyglass Lane Mysteries or authors and include the #12CoziesofChristmas hashtag along with the www.spyglasslanemysteries.com link. You may Tweet as many times as you want each day! Only Tweets sent out the day of the giveaway will be considered for that day’s drawing.

Follow us on the Spyglass Lane blog, Twitter @SpyglassMystery or Facebook for the latest info on the 12 Cozies of Christmas giveaway! Each day, we’ll reveal which Spyglass Lane cozy mystery we’ll be giving away.

GIVEAWAY INFO

1. Each day, we will reveal which Spyglass Lane mystery will be given away that day
2. A “giveaway day” runs from 12AM EST to 11:59PM EST.
3. There will be one winner per day
4. Winners will be announced the following morning
5. A Pinboard (see rules above) counts as one entry each day of the giveaway. Tweets (see rules above) only apply to the day in which they were originally Tweeted. For example, if you send 10 Tweets on Thursday the 13th, you will be entered 10 times in that day’s drawing. But those Tweets will not apply to the next day’s drawing.
6. Winners will be chosen via Randomizer.org, with Tweets and Pinboards each assigned a unique number
7. Winners will be announced via our blog, Twitter @SpyglassMystery or Facebook. Winners will be contacted via email or social media. If a winner does not hear from Spyglass Lane, they may contact us at SpyglassLaneMysteries (at) gmail (dot) com.
8. Winners will receive their prize in the form of a Smashwords coupon that they can redeem at Smashwords.com. Smashwords accommodates all ereader devices, though it may require the device to be directly connected to a computer for proper download.
9. The same person may win more than once!
10. There is no entry limit
11. Participants are expected to play nice! Inappropriate behavior (including but not limited to foul language, bullying, trolling, arguing) will not be tolerated and Spyglass Lane reserves the right to exclude such people from these and future giveaways

Mom's Recipe Box

Oh...My...Gosh. There it is. 

MY MOM'S RECIPE BOX

Yes in there resides, the I must have it so I will make it no matter how hard it is, Buttermilk Fudge. Also my favorite Thumbprint Cookies and that Lemon Cream Pie which is so rich you may not eat again for days after one slice but who cares?
But there are not just desserts in there. There's Mom's go to recipes. Chicken Marengo, Pepper Steak, Spinach and Swiss Quiche just to name a few. There are breads, soups and casseroles she made when she felt like it. Fortunately for me, she felt like it a lot.
Of course there are her specialties that aren't in there because Mom was mostly a scratch cook. You know, the kind of cook that can throw ingredients into a bowl, mix them together, throw it in the oven or a cast iron skillet and it all came out wonderful. Unlike me who could mess up canned soup if she's not careful.
There was her beef stew, which we had on rainy days, I had sourdough bread with mine while she had cornbread. Right, that she made herself. Fried Corn (which you ate with tomatoes off the vine, yum), smothered chicken and noodles, a fabulous meatloaf, and her water gravy, which I know doesn't sound so good, but was really, really good.  How did she make all this stuff? Well, therein lies the problem. You see although I know how she did a lot of what she did, I'm not sure how she did a lot of what she did. If that makes sense.
So why am I keeping the recipe box now that Mom is gone? Most of these recipes aren't designed for one person, they were way too much for two really. And there's also the well-known issue of my lack of cooking skills.
No, it's not very practical for me, and I could just gift the thing to my sister, who is a great cook and has a lot more people living with her. Then I could just keep the recipes that I can make. Like the Buttermilk Fudge (maybe) and the Thumbprint cookies.
Then again, it's just got so many memories of my Mom who really loved to cook until she got so sick. I wasn't kidding when I said Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday.
So I think I'll keep it around, because it doesn’t take up that much room.
Unlike all of her LA Dodger memorabilia which I am still finding all over the house! I knew she was a fan, but the woman was obsessed.
Did you know they made a Dodger Barbie? But that's another blog post.

 

Mystery writer C.L. Ragsdale is the author of The Reboot Files a Christian Mystery Series. A California native, she loves to "surf" the web to research plot details for her fun, quirky stories with just a bit of whopper in them. She has a degree in Theatre Arts which greatly influenced her writing style. Working in various fields as a secretary has allowed her to both master her writing skills and acquire valuable technical knowledge which she uses liberally in her plots. She loves to embroider and knit and is a big fan of the old Scooby Doo cartoons.

Current E-Books
THE REBOOT FILES:  The Mystery of Hurtleberry House, The Island of Living Trees, The Harbinger of Retribution, and The Wrong Ghost.

www.shortmysteriesandtalltales.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CL-Ragsdale219184744858421

 

Merry Christmas!

I've had a couple of unexpected, but totally welcome surprises this Christmas season. The first, most surprising, was finding myself onstage at Riverside Performing Arts' *Jazz Hands* Nutcracker, dancing a ballet after only six lessons. The picture is of me as a Snow Raven at dress rehearsal. (Feet doing a passe, hands in fifth)Sorry for the poor image quality, it is a still from a video made on the hot pink Sanyo camera my 6 year old picked out at Walmart. I like how slimming the black costume is against the black curtain.

I wasn't born graceful, so it was a testimony to the patience and talent of "Teacher Jenn" that I didn't fall on my face as I attempted a pirouette. You can read up on this fall's ballet adventures on my personal blog, starting with this post: Ballet.

Dancing on stage was a combination of my biggest fear and my childhood dream come true, and it was definitely unexpected!

Entirely unrelated to dancing, I found myself at a local bookstore the other day, shopping for mid-century literature that chronicled the changing world of the modern woman. (For a gift.) While digging around on the vintage rack, I ran across a little hardcovered book with a pretty dust jacket called The Peacock Feather.

I flipped it opened to find it was by Portland author, Anne Tedlock Brooks. I wanted to know a little more about the author, who signed the book in 1957, so I googled her. If it hadn't been for a website dedicated to matching grave locations and obituaries, her name would have been lost, though she authored over 40 books during her career!


 That's all well and good, I imagine you saying, but what was the surprise?

First, about the book. The Peacock Feather is about a spunky Portland girl who has to tackle the mystery surrounding a beautiful Victorian Mansion in Portland, destined for destruction. If you are familiar with the first two Mitzy Neuhaus Mysteries, Foreclosed, and Eminent Domain, you'd know I had to read this book! (I'm to chapter five now.) I love a solid genre mystery, and can't wait to find out the rest of this story.

 But the second surprise was about the author herself.

Anne Tedlock Brooks grew up in Kansas, like my husband, but spent her adult life in Portland. And when her end came, in 1980, after a long, full 75 years, she was buried in the cemetery that my husband worked at for 8 years. It know it's a cemetery, but it was also a little bit like home, since we were a part of it for so long. And the idea that she is resting there was very sweet to me.

I've surprised myself this Christmas, by being braver (or more foolish!) than I thought I could be, and I've been surprised by the happy coincidence of finding it really is a small world.

 Have you been surprised this season? Are you planning a surprise for someone else? I'd love to hear about it!

In the meantime, to celebrate Christmas, I've put the Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery series on sale for just 99 cents each!

Fudgy Salty Peanut Butter Brownies--Yes Ma'am!--By Linda Kozar

Thought I'd share one of my absolute favorite Christmas recipes! I found this recipe last year on the Food Network and decided to try it. And let me tell you, as one who successfully whipped it up in the kitchen and helped devour it (along with my family) afterwards, this recipe rocks! I hope you love it as much as I do!

Fudgy Salty Peanut Butter Brownies on the Food Network

Linda Kozar is the co-author of Babes With A Beatitude—Devotions For Smart, Savvy Women of Faith (Hardcover/Ebook, Howard/Simon & Schuster 2009) and author of Misfortune Cookies (Print, Barbour Publishing 2008), Misfortune Cookies, A Tisket, A Casket, and Dead As A Doornail, (“When The Fat Ladies Sing Series,” eBooks, Spyglass Lane Mysteries, 2012). Her latest novel Strands of Fate released October 2012 (Hardcover/Ebook, Creative Woman Mysteries). She received the ACFW Mentor of the Year Award in 2007, founded and served as president of Writers On The Storm, The Woodlands, Texas ACFW chapter for three years. In 2003, she co-founded, co-directed and later served as Southwest Texas Director of Words For The Journey Christian Writers Guild. She and her husband Michael, married 24 years, have two lovely daughters, Katie and Lauren and a Rat Terrier princess named Patches.

Represented by: Wendy Lawton, Books & Such Literary Agency

Member of: CAN (Christian Authors Network), RWA (Romance Writers of American), WHRWA (West Houston Romance Writers of America), ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers), Writers On The Storm, The Woodlands, Texas Chapter of ACFW, Toastmasters (Area 56) The Woodlands, Texas, The Woodlands Church, The Woodlands, TX.

Visit my website! www.lindakozar.com

I'm on Pinterest too!