2011 Virtual Advent: Day 24

And so, we come to the end of another virtual advent tour. It's Christmas Eve and I am at home hoping like crazy that I don't suddenly remember that one more thing that will mean that I need to go to the shops.

Here are the final stops on the tour:

Gretchen @ A Ten O'Clock Scholar

Kelly @ The Written World

Carl @ Stainless Steel Droppings

Kendra @ My Greenwood Life

Nicole @ All I Ever Read
Marg @ The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Before we close off for 2011, we want to say a super special thank you to Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings who has supported the Virtual Advent Tour right from it's inception six years ago! Thank you Carl. Kelly and I both appreciate your continued participation and hope you will be on board again for next year!

We would also like to thank everyone who participated in the tour this year, whether it be by posting, or commenting, or tweeting or anything.

We hope you enjoyed the tour. We are already thinking about ideas for next year, and if you have any feedback or ideas to make the tour better we would love to hear them!

My final quote for this year's tour comes from a novella in the Holiday Kisses anthology - This Time Next Year by Alison Kent. It seems a fitting way to end seeing as so many of our advent tour are about sharing traditions.

"You're pretty good at that. the cookies. The tree." He dipped up more glaze.

She shifted the pan again, nudging her hip against his and staying there. "Mostly I'm good at Christmas. I love it. The corny songs, stringing popcorn for the tree. Eating as much as ends up on the needle and thread."

"You do it by hand?'

"Gran and I do. Some folks buy finished strands, or fake plastic ones. But stuck fingers and Bing Crosby is our thing."

"What's Christmas without traditions, right?" 

2011 Virtual Advent: Day 23

Welcome to the penultimate day of the 2011 Virtual Advent tour.

Here are today's hosts:

*

Tania @ Lots of Book Reviews

*Brooke @ The Bluestocking Guide

*Georgie @ Georgie Lee

*Margot @ Joyfully Retired 
Sylvia @ paindecampagne

Now I need to go and finish my post for tomorrow!

Today, instead of a quote, I thought I would share a couple of contemporary Christmas songs. One is new to me this year, and the second is one that I first heard a couple of years ago now but really, really love. Enjoy!

2011 Virtual Advent: Day 22

We are now very nearly at the end of the tour and I have to say ... it's been another fabulous year!

I am sure that our hosts today will only add to the fabulousness

*Susan @ Bloggin' About Books

*Karen @ Sassymonkey Reads

Brenna @ Esther's Ever After

*Sasha Soren @ Random Magic Tour - The Coven

*Kathy @ A Glass of Wine

Today's quote comes from a book that I only just finished a few days ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I found it hard to actually put it down which is always a good sign!

I did however forget to note down which pages the quote came from!

Christmas wouldn't be the same without Mikhail.

The room swirled with laughter and music, Peter and his brother Matt, the stockmen, were singing a drunken goodbye song, Lucy was jumping up and down near the Christmas tree demanding to know what the 'big green present' was. And Mikhail stood by the empty fireplace with his arm around his fiancee, grinning as widely as he had for the entire six months since he'd met her. Mikhail was marrying Catherine - a widow with two grown children - and they were moving to Launceston to be near her elderly parents. And Beattie would just have to learn to manage without him.

"Come on," Beattie said, flipping up the lid of the piano. "Rosella, will you play us a song to stop those men singing so terribly out of time?"

Rosella was her new neighbour. She and her husband had leased Jimmy Farquhar's farm at the start of the year, and become good friends to Beattie. Their daughter Lizzie was the same age as Lucy, and they spent every moment of the holidays together, racing around in the paddocks, building cubbies and making mud pies.

As Rosella sat and started playing 'Jingle Bells' and everyone joined in, Beattie curled her arm around Lucy and her eyes moved from face to face, counting her Christmas blessings. Two fabulous wool clips and growing side business in designing women's work wear had brought her the financial security she had long dreamed of. The piano, the little utility truck, the glass Christmas decorations.

2011 Virtual Advent: Day 21

Day 21 and it really is so close. I hope you are all ready. I am pretty much done I think, but grateful, as always, that I am not the one doing all the cooking!

Here are our hosts for today:

Memory @ Stella Matutina

*Julie @ Anglers Rest

Christa @ Hooked on Books

*Tasha @ Truth, Beauty, Freedom, & Books

Lindsay @ Turning the Pages

One of my favourite series to read is the Virgin River series from Robyn Carr, and I am not alone in loving it. I am sure I heard something somewhere which said that there was a community in America who have taken the idea of honouring the armed forces with the Christmas decorations on their town square and made it their own.

This quote comes from pages 88-90 of Bringing Me Home for Christmas by Robyn Carr pages 88-90

The cutting of the Virgin River Christmas tree was an all-day affair that involved way more spectators than actual woodsmen. First, there was hunting for the tree - a thirty-foot fir high in the mountains. Becca watched from the truck the entire time. Then there was the cutting down. She would've expected that to take seconds, but it took a very long time and involved pulleys and ropes and chain saws. Next came the netting and dragging of the tree along barely visible old logging roads. Only big pickups with four-wheel-drive ventured back into the thickest part of the forest.

Once the tree was dragged as far as a main road, a local builder, Paul Haggerty, and his crew met it with a big flatbed truck and their hydraulic gear to lift it and haul it the rest of the way. By the time the tree made it to Virgin River, it was dark, but half the town seemed to be present to look at the catch, so to speak. There was lots of "oohing" and "aahing" going on.

On Saturday the tree was erected - a process that took many hands and more of Paul Haggerty's equipment and men.

"The first time we brought a tree this size into town, it was just Jack, Preacher and Mike Valenzuela standing it up," Mel told Becca."During the night, it fell down. Thankfully not on the bar."

Becca sat on Jack's porch between Mel and Paige. They all held hot drinks. Her eyes grew large at the prospect of that huge tree falling on the bar. "Should we move?" she asked.

Mel just laughed. "I think that now Paul's on board with this project, we're in pretty good hands. And I think your brother and his friends are kind of enjoying this. Too bad they won't see it completely decorated."

"That must take a long time," Becca said.

"A day or day and a half, and at least one cherry picker," Mel told her.

It was past noon before that tree was upright and stable. Mel and Paige were back and forth to the porch, taking children in and outside. By afternoon, a couple of cherry pickers had arrived and the stringing of the lights commenced.

Becca was surprised she wasn't frozen to the bone, but she couldn't stand to miss a second of this process.  And neither could anyone else! Townsfolk came and went throughout the day, everyone with a new opinion  about the tree. By then, night was falling, although it was only about five, and Jack and Denny were fastening up the last of the lights.

Cars and trucks were pulling into town. Becca gave a wave to Noah Kincaid and his family. Connie and Ron walked across the street from The Corner Store. Lorraine Thickson arrived in a beat-up old pickup with a passel of kids stuffed into it. No husband and father, she noticed. Becca sat up a little straighter as she saw Denny in the cherry-picker basket, going up up up to the top of the huge tree. Mel and Paige came back outside; their kids ran into the street. Everyone seemed to sense that culmination was near.

Denny fussed with the top of the tree, then the cherry picker lowered him to the ground again. Jack must have connected the electricity, because the tree came alive! Light twinkled all over the giant fir and on the very top was a star that positively brightened the sky! There was a collective "aww" in the crowd and as the night grew dark and the lights bright, there was silence. People seemed motionless.

Then magic happened - a gentle snow began to fall.

"Unbelievable," Becca whispered to no one. "Amazing." She felt her eyes water from the sheer beauty of the moment. Then the tree went dark and, after her eyes adjusted a bit, she noticed people beginning to disperse.

Suddenly Denny was beside her, scooting his chair close. "You okay?" he asked.

"Sure," she said, wiping at her eyes. "It was just so emotional - seeing all the work done and so many people turn out.

"Its far from done. There are ornaments and trim still to do. The official lighting is tomorrow night, after the rest of it is decorated. It takes half the town to get it done." He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "You're going to love it. Too bad the boys can't stay for that."

And then from page 104

And that tree - a town project - was awesome. Finally done, it was trimmed with red, white and blue balls, laminated military unit badges and strung with gold tinsel. It was gorgeous in daylight; it would be magnificent lit against the night sky.

2011 Virtual Advent: Day 20

Welcome to Day 20 of the Virtual Advent tour. Here are your hosts for today!

Eva @ A Striped Armchair

Heather @ Capricious Reader

Kay @ Dead Beat Darling

Shannon @ The Savvy Reader

Here is my quote for today from Camp Nine by Vivienne Schiffer

I was as guilty as everyone else in my desire to pretend nothing was happening at Camp Nine, and with my first sight of an autumn leaf in October, I welcomed the thoughts of Christmas vacation that began creeping into my head. The reedy, echoing sound of a woodpecker indicated the thinning of the air that foretold coming holidays even before the landscape changed. These sight and sounds primed me to drift away from my lessons, down deep into a fantasy of the boxes Mother kept up the dark stairs in our gloomy attic, which was illuminated by a solitary four-paned window through which light barely filtered. While my teacher deadened my reality by scratching fractions on the chalkboard, my mind climbed the stairs with anticipation, searching among the dusty cardboard boxes stuffed with satin Hallowween costumes, baby toys, and clothes since discarded, until I found the holy grail of the season - the glittery glass ornaments and velvet skirt for our tree.


It seemed to snow more then than now, and, too young to appreciate the difficulty that accompanied the occasional dumping of heavy snow, I was always enchanted by it. Along with a welcome snowfall, Christmas was a time for special treats, like the multi-colored iced molasses cookies baked each morning by Mrs. Capps down the road and the oranges Mother ordered for me from New Orleans.

I can't help wonder what the equivalent to oranges is now? It is often said that the children of the past looked forward to an exotic treat each Christmas when they all got an orange.

2011 Virtual Advent: Day 19

I am wondering if it is time to start counting down, rather than counting up from the start of the tour. Either way, it isn't long to go!

Here are the stops on the tour today:

*Amy @ My Friend Amy

*Rebecca @ Rebecca Reads

*Nat @ In Spring it is the Dawn

*Krissi @ Lighting my Light

Today's quote comes from page 303 of Kommandant's Girl. These memories come from the Kommandant himself.

"Christmas is coming," he says at last. he sounds as if the realization has only just occurred to  him, though I had mentioned the holidays in his office earlier in the day.

"Just a few days away," I reply. I might have forgotten the holiday myself, but for the sprigs of fir and red bows that Krysia has placed around the house in lieu of a tree. The city, usually festive with displays in the window shops and the aroma of holiday treats, was virtually unadorned this year.

 "Christmas was such a grand affair in our house," he says. For a moment, I wonder if he is speaking of his life with Margot, but he continues, "Our father would take us on a midnight sleigh ride through the woods to search for the Weinachtsmann, whom we believed would bring the Christmas gifts." He walks over to the sofa and sits down beside me. "We never found him, of course, but would come back to the house to find that he had sneaked in while we were gone to the house to find that he had sneaked in while we were gone to leave us wonderful presents. And the next morning, the breakfast table was always piled high with cakes." He smiles, his expression almost childlike.

"That sounds lovely," I say. My mind races to come up with a story about my childhood Christmases, in case he asks.

2011 Virtual Advent: Day 18

A week to go until the end of the tour, and the big day of course! Helping us get into Christmas mood today are:

*Suey @ It's All About Books

*Jenn @ Jenn's Bookshelves

*Leslie @ Under My Apple Tree

*Julie @ Anglers Rest

Kim @ Life in the Little Nest

Today's special shout out of thanks goes to Suey from It's All About Books as this is her fifth year of participating in the tour. Thank you for your contributions over the last 5 tours and your support Suey! Kelly and I really appreciate it!

Today's quote comes from a story by Jill Shalvis called Kissing Santa Claus which is in the Small Town Christmas anthology.

What hadn't helped her was the costume she now had on over her sexy little red dress., complete with a stuffed belly and butt, white beard and wig, red fur-lined hat, and the final touch, thick wire-rimmed glasses.

Santa Claus.

From outside her office and down the hall, there was only silence. The party had emptied out, leaving her alone in the building. Tomorrow night, Christmas Eve, everyone in town would be here for the annual Christmas parade, Santa would head up in the same 1972 Buick convertible, aka rust bucket, that they'd been using for years. The evening would culminate at the end of the pier, with all the kids lining up to sit on Santa's lap so they could whisper their holiday wish.

Sandy's wish, if anyone had asked, would be that Anderson hadn't caught the flu so he could play Santa as planned. She'd tried to get a last minute replacement, oh how she'd tried. But Jax Cullen, Lucky Harbor's mayor, was master of ceremonies of the parade. Ford Walker and resident hottie had taken his new fiancee to Palm Springs for a holiday getaway. Sandy's third and final choice, Sherriff Sawyer Thompson, was going to be on duty at the parade, handling crowd control.

There was no one else to ask, which panicked Sandy. No one but her... She took her roll of town clerk very seriously...but this was going over and above the call of duty. Yet all she could think of was the kids of Lucky Harbor, and how disappointed they'd be without Santa. Dammit. She sighed and took one last look at herself. She did actually look a little bit like Santa, albeit a very short one.