For many years, baking gingerbread cookies has been an important part of my holiday celebration. The tradition started several decades ago when my kids were little and now, I’ve discovered, that they don’t think it’s actually Christmas unless these cookies are made. Of course we always left these cookies for Santa, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Is there anything more whimsical or festive than iced gingerbread?
Anyway, the other day my daughter-in-law confessed that she tried to make gingerbread last year but that her attempt ended in disaster. So, she came by the house this weekend (bringing my granddaughter with her) and we baked cookies. She told me that my dough recipe was “way better” than the dough she used last year. So I thought I would share it, along with some photos of the cookies we baked and decorated.
I have to admit this gingerbread recipe is not an old family secret — it came out of a holiday magazine I bought twenty years ago. And it’s never failed me. You’ll find the dough this makes is easy to roll and cut.
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Katie Lane and I are please to announce the winners of our Small Town Christmas giveaway.
Congratulations to Nikki Wight the grand prize winner. Nikki will receive $50 in gift certificates from Amazon.com, as well as a bound copy of Small Town Christmas and autographed copies of my books and Katie Lane’s books.
But . . . drum roll please . . .
We have three runners-up all of whom will be receiving bound copies of Small Town Christmas. They are:
Pat Hollenbeck
Lisa Hutson, and
Kim Matlock
Thanks, everyone, for entering our Christmas giveaway. And may all of you have a happy and bright holiday season.
Join both Katie Lane’s and Hope Ramsay’s mailing lists and be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate, a printed copy of the book, Small Town Christmas, and autographed copies of Katie’s and Hope’s books. To enter, you must join both author’s mailing lists. If you are not a member of both lists, then sign up now…click here to sign up for Katie’s mailing list and here to sign up for Hope’s. (Current members of either Hope’s or Katie’s mailing lists are eligible as long as they are members of both lists. Winners will be announced December 12th!)
This is a reprieve of a blog I posted last year at www.blameitonthemuse.com. I’m bringing it back by popular demand. It being good gravy season.
When it comes to Thanksgiving, I am thankful for gravy – and the generations of women who handed down the art of gravy making so that I could share it with you.
I learned how to make gravy from my mother’s two older sisters: Aunt Doss and Aunt Annie. Mom, who came from the same gene pool, could not make decent gravy to save her soul, but, ironically, Mom is the one who taught Aunt Doss and Aunt Annie how to make gravy. She accomplished this feat even though she had never made gravy in her life.
How, you ask?
I travel a lot and I always sit in a window seat. I am a confirmed window gazer.
Not too long ago during approach into Baltimore on a beautiful clear autumn day, I got an eagle’s view of the fall foliage colors. And yet, the thing that impressed me most from that high place was not the oranges, or the reds, or the goldens. No, oddly, it was the evergreens.
From my view out the window I could clearly see the way the wind blows. How the seeds of pines and other evergreens grow stands, that reach like fingers down from the tops of mountains. The greens on that autumn day impressed me.
And made me think of this winter song entitled “Green” by Peter Mayer, one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Here’s a YouTube link, because I’m too dumb to get my blog to embed the video. 
No, not a transvestite. Not that kind of tranny.
I’m talking about the transmission for a 1982 Fiat Spyder Convertible.
This is the price you pay for marrying a Georgia boy who is also a shade tree mechanic. The tranny has been sitting in my kitchen for at least nine months. There is a radiator in the downstairs den, and a floorboard in my husband’s office.
When I married this man 34 years ago, he moved into my one bedroom apartment and stashed Triumph Spitfire parts in the walk-in closet. For some women the reality of marriage hits when they discover that their husbands don’t put the cap on the toothpaste. For me — it’s grease in the kitchen sink, and I’m not talking about vegetable oil.
Good thing there are fringe benefits.
I’ve been working on Last Chance Christmas, and yesterday I ran into a snag.
My hero and heroine needed to go on a date and it had to be holiday themed. Also, I wanted to inject a little humor into the story, because the book has been far more emotional that I had originally planned. So I wracked my brain for fun Christmassy things that my hero and heroine could do, and every idea sounded like something right from the Hallmark Channel.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Hallmark, but I wanted something funny not sweet. The book is filled with sweet, poignant moments. I needed a few belly laughs.
The winners of my mailing list giveaway of an advanced reader copy of Last Chance Beauty Queen are:
Louise Zenefsky
and
Carol Luciano
Last Chance Beauty Queen will be available in bookstores on on February 1, 2011.
I am so thrilled to be a part of a new e-book Christmas anthology that will be available on November 1. The Title is Small Town Christmas. And my story “I’ll be Home for Christmas” is one of three heart-warming stories in the collection. I’m joined by New York Times bestselling author, Jill Shalvis and Katie Lane. I know you’re going to love all of these stories. For more information check my books section.