Helping and loving family~
In the community—at work and church~
When I sit at my computer and write~
I serve a risen Savior!
“And if Christ had not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” 1 Corinthians 15:17
But my faith is not useless.
My life is not without meaning,
Nor is my writing an exercise of futility.
I serve a risen Savior!
He is ALIVE!
Took the tree down this past weekend and attended the last Christmas party of the season. Finally, the cookie crumbs have settled. Now that all the gifts have been opened, I can share pictures of several that I made.
Vintage clear glass buttons make this icicle sparkle! The buttons are strung on light blue embroidery floss.
This hanging snowman’s hat is actually a rosy color. Made of cotton quilt batting, I sprayed stiffener on the back of it to give it a little more structure.
Here’s a close up:
The Victorian Santa was made for my son. He’s patiently waited years for me to make it for him. I presented him with the basic Santa on Christmas morning and let him go through my bins of trims to choose what Santa would hold. 
I love writing my stories, but creating these items reminded me how much I also enjoy the process and satisfaction of creating with my hands. Looking forward to 2015, there will be time spent in my craft corner.
Available on Kindle, Nook and iBooks.
Have you signed up for my newsletter? Before writing INTO THE DEEP, I interviewed Jack ‘Preach’ Conroy. The January newsletter will have that interview. If you’d like to know a little more about the man, be sure and sign up here:
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Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;
he is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:11
Sparkle and Light
This year I didn’t do my usual ‘over the top’ decorating throughout the house. We have our tree with Son’s collection of Old World ornaments and I gussied up the living room fireplace and the china cabinet in the dining room.
The mantle came out beautiful. Perhaps ‘less’ really is more!
The mirror is from ‘the girls bedroom’ at home. The vase is a piece from my milk glass collection. Silk poinsettias and red ball ornaments add color. White lights and gold beads add sparkle.
Have you finished your holiday decorating?
Please join Christian Indie Novelists in the celebration of our Savior’s birth. We have a progressive Christmas story hop to share with you, as well as a post about favorite Christmas songs. Each author is having a drawing at their blog and there is an overall Grand Prize.
Here’s what you need to do to enter:
1. Go to each blog in the order that is listed below.
2. Read the section of the story posted. Then follow the link to the next blog where the next section of the story is posted.
3. At each blog, click on the Rafflecopter link to be entered in the Grand Prize drawing ($100 Amazon Gift Card), and leave a comment on the blog to be entered in each author’s individual drawing. Your comments can be about the story. Or you can tell us your favorite Christmas song, movie or book. Be sure to tweet and like us on Facebook to be entered multiple times.
My drawing —
Comment on this blog for a chance to win a digital copy of OUT OF THE WILDERNESS, my inspirational romantic adventure novel, as well as a small (3.5 x 5.5 inches) moleskin notebook with a hand-embroidered cover created by Bonnie Paper Works (Etsy).
Follow blogs in the order listed below:
Pre-dawn light glowed on the horizon. Meredith checked her watch and stepped away from the window. Time to go.
Hurrying out to her car, she climbed in before a case of nerves caused her to chicken out. She refused to spend another sleepless night wondering why Garth had come back. The scars on his face and his slight limp were evidence that the rumor of a medical discharge was true. But that had happened several months ago. Why show up here now?
The sun was cresting the horizon as she turned her car onto the farm’s driveway. The run-down house loomed ahead with no vehicle in sight. Had he left as quietly as he’d arrived? Last night, she and the children were so caught up in the fun of caroling for someone new in town that she hadn’t questioned the empty parking spot.
Parking her car, Meredith took a deep breath and got out. She climbed the steps and raised her hand to knock. Her knuckles never connected with the wood.
The door opened and a hand shot out, clamped around her forearm and yanked.
“Aahh. Hey!” She stumbled forward and fell to her knees. The door closed behind her with a thump. Her heart thudded against her ribs. In the gloom of the interior, the shadow of a man loomed above her. “Let go of me.” She surged to her feet. Free hand clenched in a fist, she swung at her assailant. A strong hand captured it and held on.
“Merrie, stop.”
Meredith froze. No one called her that name. No one except Garth. And it was his voice that said it now. She tugged against his hold. “You frightened me.” The low light deepened the grooves that slashed across his cheek. He was dressed like a one-man militia.
“You shouldn’t be here.” He glanced out the window then pulled her deeper into the room.
“I had to find out why you decided to come home.” She refused to be cowed by his glare. “For so long I’ve wanted to see you.” Her whispered admission hung in the air between them.
He let go as though scalded. “So now you’ve seen me. It isn’t the face you remember, is it?” He turned away and fiddled with a piece of gear attached to his vest.
The harsh words hit her like a sucker punch. “Is it your scars? Is that why you didn’t come home? You didn’t want me to see you?”
His head came up but he wasn’t looking at her. She glanced toward the window and caught a glimpse of a person in the field before she was shoved against the wall with Garth pressed close against her. “You do exactly what I tell you to do and we may get out of here alive.”
Meredith closed her eyes, desperate to sort out what was happening. She’d known him as a military man, but that knowledge had never prepared her for the hard-shelled warrior pinning her to the wall. Fear warred with the love that had never died for this man standing so close, but still miles away.
“Come on.” Grasping her shoulder, Garth shoved her toward the back of the house. “I want you out of the way.”
“Who is that man out there, Garth, and don’t tell me ‘nobody’.”
His face was set in a hard ruthless mask and, for one moment, Meredith wished she’d stayed home.
“Someone I’ve been expecting.” He pushed her toward the small pantry.
Meredith dragged her feet and grabbed the doorjamb. “You can’t just stuff me away.”
“I can and will. You’ll be safer in here.”
She clung to his arm. “I’m not letting go until you tell me what’s going on.”
His gaze traveled over her face. He lifted her hand and rested it against his cheek. “The man out there did this to me.”
She trembled. Beneath her palm the smooth scar tissue moved with each word he spoke.
“It’s time he paid for what he did.”
Tears pooled in her eyes making it hard to see clearly. “Revenge, Garth? Is that what this is?”
His lips pulled back in a snarl. “Justice. I may be scarred, but what he did left others dead.” He stroked his fingertips across the inside of her wrist.
He moved so quickly, she didn’t have time to react. One moment she stood before him, trying to understand this man she had loved for so long, and the next moment, she was inside a tiny room, the door closed and locked.
For Part 5 and the conclusion of A CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER, visit:
Don’t forget to leave a comment below and click on this Rafflecopter link to enter the drawing for the $100 Amazon Gift Certificate!
If you are enjoying the hop, be sure to follow us on The Christian Indie Novelists Blog Hop Site!
Following are the two Mother’s Day cards I created for my mom and my mom-in-law.
I had a thing for flowers this year! On the first I sponged a small paper doily with moss green ink to use as the background for the flowers. On the second card, I embossed the background with the Cottage Floral embossing folder from Craft Concepts then colored it with chalk.
And finally, here is the hat I wore for Hat Day at church. Lace, ribbon and a vintage pearl button! 
Wearing hats is not the norm in my church, so this is a fun way to include all women in the the celebration.
I was blessed with a day full of sunshine, love and laughter.
This is the time of year that I feel like a little kid all over again. I have so many sweet memories of Thanksgiving at Gramma Dinwoodie’s with all the aunts, uncles and cousins – the dining/living room so crowded with people and the extended table, you couldn’t move an inch. The family was loud, the food smelled wonderful and as a child, all I had to do was show up to the feast.
Several of us kids would have to duck beneath the table to get to the sofa on the other side in order to take our place. No one cared that we knocked elbows or could barely hear each other over the din. In the small house Grampa built using the lumber from another house he’d torn down, we celebrated our very own Norman Rockwell and Currier and Ives moments.
No, our table wasn’t beautifully set with matching crystal, silver or candles. An open flame in the middle of this crowd could spell disaster. And the turkey never made it to the table beautifully browned and decorated with parsley and kumquats. It was sliced in the kitchen, loaded on platters and set on the table for passing and fast self-service.
After the feast, when the table had been cleared, we would sit around the fruit bowl, each of us swathed in a turkey torpor, cracking mixed nuts or slicing through the tough skin of a pomegranate to suck on the juicy membrane around the seeds. We didn’t have an internet to tell us how to slice and eat a pomegranate without making a mess, but we had fun – mostly because it was the only day of the year we had a pomegranate at our disposal.
My Thanksgivings are still celebrated with family, but it’s not the huge gathering it once was. Now I’m one of the aunts and there aren’t as many little ones underfoot. But the love and the fun and the fellowship is still part of the celebration. There’s still no expensive crystal and the turkey continues to be carved in the kitchen, but I don’t have to climb beneath the table to find my place and there are lovely place cards at each setting and appetizers to enjoy.
So many happy memories, and all of them have melded with, and some how become attached to, the happiness depicted in Norman Rockwell’s painting and modern media’s idea of a perfect Thanksgiving. I see beautiful holiday pictures in home decorating magazines and immediately feel that warm rush of recognition. My real-life experience jumbles with the ideal depicted on the page to create a fantasy Thanksgiving that, though I may never fully live it, serves to enhance the homey, down-to-earth imperfect perfection of my real-life holiday which is truly a time of thanksgiving.
If you want to see bits of a fantasy Thanksgiving mingled with the reality , hop over to my board at Pinterest and take a peek.
Photo Credit: http://www.visualphotos.com
This time of year the weekly trek to the supermarket is anything but mundane for me. Walking through the automatic doors to see the season’s first display of Clementine oranges is a sure sign that the Holiday Season has begun. Yes, I’ve already seen artificial Christmas trees, inflated Santas and gift items stacked high in other stores. But in the supermarket, where the shelf life for items is shorter, there is a special thrill when the meat section is rearranged to accommodate turkeys, the butter is on sale and the canned pumpkin is stacked on the end cap.
The Holidays truly are here. Preparations must begin in earnest.
I’m so thankful to have the means to buy what I need to make a bright holiday for my family. Not every one is so fortunate. So a part of my holiday tradition is to take some extra cash on this last shopping trip before the holiday so I can put a few extra items in my cart.
What do I do with those items?
For several years now, the local NBC station – Channel 10 – and Shaw’s Supermarkets have teamed up for a ‘A 10 Thanksgiving’. Shaw’s donates the turkeys and Channel 10 puts the word out that collection boxes are set up in the front of every store ready and waiting to receive donations for Thanksgiving dinner fixin’s. The Salvation Army distributes the food to those less fortunate.
Choosing stuffing, cranberry sauce, canned vegetables and biscuit mix from the bountiful display on the store shelves, gives me that special joy that comes from knowing I’ve made a difference for another family. How thankful I am that God has given me the privilege of blessing others out of the abundance He has so graciously showered upon me.
What holiday tradition do you observe that has special meaning to you?
Where inspiration, creativity and faith intertwine
Anita K Greene 