Holidays' Best

It’s Christmas Eve! My older son and daughter-in-law will arrive tomorrow to celebrate the holidays--for our second time. We already had one celebration with other family members who were passing through L.A. earlier.

That’s a fact of life for me. My family has always celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas by gift-giving, so our holiday season lasts for a while.

My favorite gift, especially these days, is the ability to spend the holidays with as many beloved family members as possible. My mother-in-law is giving us the special gift of staying with us for a month. Our younger son pops in and out, since he lives in San Diego, only a two hour drive away from L.A. And of course our pups Lexie and Mystie are around to help us celebrate.

I also get a kick out of store-bought gifts. I’ve always liked collecting wristwatches, which is a bit of an anachronism in these days when people tell time by glancing at their Blackberries or cell phones. The gift I loved best as a child was a watch that had interchangeable bands and frames for the face. I begged for it, and wound up getting a band and a face for each day of Hanukkah.

The only Christmas story I’ve had published so far was a romance story in an anthology called WINTER WONDERLAND, published by Dorchester as a Love Spell book. All of the authors based their stories on a Christmas carol they chose. Mine was “Up On The Housetop.” This year is the ten-year anniversary of its publication, but it reappears on store shelves every once in a while near Christmastime.

Who is spending the holidays with you? I wish you all a wonderful Christmas!