Happy 4th of July!

Merry Christmas

May all of my friends, near and far, 

have a wonderful and blessed Christmas Day!

 I hope that you are able to spend it with loved ones 

creating new memories to look back upon in the years to come.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends and family.

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Last Hurrah before school starts

I'm leaving for one last hurrah before starting a new school year! I'm so very excited because our son, Marc, will be joining us for the first time this summer..yippee!!! I won't be posting this weekend nor reading blogs because I'm going to truly enjoy this time together. This is Marc's Senior year and I want to savor every moment and make them count!! I hope you all have a fantastic Labor Day Weekend....see you next week!!

Peace,
Staci

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Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!

Memorial Day

 

Happy New Year!

Wishing all of you love, peace, prosperity, happiness, good health,  joy

 and wonderful books in the New Year!

2011: Wrapping it all up!

It's hard to believe that another year is almost over! I've had a great year with the number of books that really touched me in some manner. My favorite book list comprises of books that made me laugh, smile, cry, freak out, become enlightened and at times I kept the characters in my heart for days. 

Favorite Books read in 2011 in order that the book was read:

• Little Princes- moving memoir (Emotional Read)
• The Lotus Eaters- fantastic fiction takes place in Vietnam during Vietnam War (Emotional Read)
• Saving CeeCee Honeycutt- I loved her writing and CeeCee (Emotional)
• The Devil's Star- first intro to Jo Nesbo..(Thriller)
• When We Were Strangers- fantastic historical fiction (Emotional and gripping)
• To Defy a King- British historical fiction (Fascinating)
• By Fire, By Water- one of the best historical fiction books I've read! (Fascinating)
• The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus- hysterical and very true (Emotional)
• Only Mr. Darcy Will Do- fantastic Austen variation (Romantic)

• Faith- beautifully written contemporary fiction (Emotional)
• The Violets of March- simply gorgeous! (Emotional)
• A Wife for Mr. Darcy- made me daydream of Mr. Darcy (Romantic)
• Never Knowing- kept me in the grips of fear for hours! (Thriller)
• Northwest Corner- I loved his writing...(Emotional)
• The Homecoming of Samuel Lake- fantastic characters! (Emotional)
• To the Moon and Back- British Chick lit at its finest (Romantic)
• The Rose Garden- wonderful time travel story (Romantic)
• Shadowfever- phenomenal paranormal- (Thriller/Romantic/Riveting)

• Cross Currents- wonderful author with a beautiful story (Emotional)
• The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt- loved everything about this gem! (Fun)
  
  

Thank you so much for spending time with me during 2011 and always stopping by! I treasure all of my blogging friends and your the ones that make blogging about books a real joy!
I would like to wish each and every one of you a Happy, Blessed and joyful New Year! May 2012 bring all of us peace, love, happiness, prosperity, and good health!

Merry Christmas...from my house to yours!!

caught Daisy sleeping under the tree

Merry Christmas

 to all my family and friends. May the day be filled with love, happiness, family and wonderful memories!!

Happy Thanksgiving

May your day be blessed with family, friends, food, laughter and love.

Please say a prayer for our troops,
 and those who are not able to be with their families.

I kindly ask that you also keep my Son in your thoughts today
as he spends his second Thanksgiving away

from loved ones and his first one away from his wife!

Have a safe and Happy 4th of July!

Merry Christmas Friends!

Merry Christmas

to my friends near and far..may the day be filled

with wonderment and pure joy!!

How the Trees Kept Christmas

How the Trees Kept Christmas

A Christmas Story

One Christmas Eve the trees in a wood were very unhappy. They wished very much to keep Christmas, but they did not know how to do so. "We look so brown," said one.
"And so bare," said another.
"If we only had our pretty green summer dresses," said a third, "then we should be decorated and could keep Christmas."
"Hush, children, hush!" whispered North Wind in quite a gentle voice for such a rough fellow. "Make haste and go to sleep."
"Hush! children, hush!" softly murmured a sleepy little bird. He was roosting on one of the branches of the unhappy trees.
So the trees dropped off to sleep, one by one, while a little star twinkled peacefully overhead.
But while they slept something happened. And when the trees awoke they found that someone, perhaps North Wind, had, during the night, cast over each of them a lovely soft cloak of spotless feathery white.
"How beautiful we are!" said the trees. "Now we can keep our Christmas!"

Holiday Tag!

I was tagged for this by Lisa at Lit and Life"
Check out her blog where she will be hosting the Gilmore Girl Challenge 2011 and Fairy Tale Fridays.

When do you usually know and feel that it's finally the holidays?

After the first big snow, the lights are up and the Christmas songs are on 24/7.

What do you want for Christmas this year?

A phone call from my son Mitch who is at boot camp in San Diego.

Do you go all out with decorations?

Not really...my tree has blue/red bulbs with bows as hangers and white lights.

To top it off there is a blue star. I lost most of my decorations when our basement flooded

earlier this year...will have to replenish my garland and lights!

What are you doing Christmas Eve?

I usually make snack foods and then we watch "It's a Wonderful Life."

What are you doing Christmas Day?

Opening presents and having dinner. Our extended family lives over 3.5 hours

away so it will be just the three of us.

It's Christmas time. What are you reading?

Various Christmas books that I downloaded on my son's Kindle and a few

review books that I need to finish.

Favorite movie to watch during the holidays?

"It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Carol" plus any cute movies that may be

on. I love Elf too so we'll probably watch that one too.

Favorite Christmas song?

I love my entire CD of Christmas songs by Straight No Chaser.

Favorite holiday drink?

New Year's Eve vodka shots!

 

How is your Christmas shopping going?

Everything is done!! Now I just need to wrap!

If you could spend Christmas Day anywhere else, where would you spend it?

London, England

Any holiday traditions?

Watching It's a Wonderful Life and then my traditional dinner on Christmas.

Favorite thing about the Holidays.

Being with my family.

 

Please play along if you wish to!!!

Happy Thanksgiving !

May your day be blessed with family, friends, food, laughter and love.

Please say a prayer for our troops,
 and those who are not able to be with their families.

I kindly ask that you also keep my Son in your thoughts today
as he spends his first Thanksgiving away

from loved ones!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all!!!

Happy 4th of July!

Glitter Graphics - GlitterLive.com

Lazy Friday

Well, we're all just sitting around still in a turkey coma and enjoying our lazy Friday. I'm one of those people who do NOT see any reason to get up at the crack of dawn to fight with people over "stuff" just because it is marked down. Now, I might do that if my kids were still little and a good deal was to be had, but at their ages their wish lists are much easier to handle than in the past! So instead of shopping, I've been drinking coffee, eating pumpkin pie (for breakfast! yummy), watched "Family Stone" this morning and cried, drank some more coffee, ate some onion wraps, read my book and am now watching "Outbreak" and catching up on blogs. I hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving and I hope my crazy sister-in-law Heather got some great deals at 5 a.m. this morning!!

Now it's time for Friday Fill-Ins



1. My stomach __is full__.
2. __Pumpkin Pie is what I ate the most of on Thursday.
3. The yard is covered with snow!_.
4. _____Home is where I'd rather be at any given time.
5. The smell of ___cigars reminds me of _my Grandpa Bill__.
6. __Alcohol_ is what I need right now!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _reading____, tomorrow my plans include _reading____ and Sunday, I want to _read____!(I'm pretty ambitious!!LOL)