Making Spirits Bright -- Christmas Traditions Guest Post

About the Book

​Merri’s Christmas Mission by Chautona Havig 
Merri doesn’t want much from life–a job, healthy kids, a modest apartment, cheap fun… And a LAVISH Christmas. No, really. While other people save for vacations and cars, Merri saves every spare dime for her annual Christmas Extravaganza! But when she loses her job three months before Christmas, survival means dipping deeper and deeper into the Christmas fund! What’s a Yuletide fanatic to do? All Barney wanted was to win a pool table for The Mission, but watching a single mom’s dogged determination to win a great Christmas gift for her kids makes it hard to keep his eye on the needs of the mission instead of the shifting hopes of his heart.

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Check out my review HERE.

Lead a Merry Dance by April Hayman
Trip Devereaux's time has run out. If he doesn't arrange for and execute a solid plan for a honeymoon, things are going to get ugly at home. Solution: a Caribbean Christmas cruise! But when he and Libby arrive, something is off. Why is everyone on board old enough to be his grandmother? And what happened to Lady Helen Beauchamp’s necklace? In a race to solve the case before they reach port and the thief can get away, Trip and Libby find themselves embroiled in a plot thicker and more sinister than they originally anticipated.

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Check out my review HERE.

​A Sidelined Christmas by Toni Shiloh
Sidelined with a career-ending injury, wide receiver Jahleel Walker is forced to return to his hometown of Peachwood Bay, Georgia to heal. Nothing shocks him more than running into his high-school sweetheart, Lucille “Bebe” Gordon. Bebe Gordon returned to Peachwood Bay three years ago with a divorce certificate and her daughter, Hope. When Jahleel returns, all the memories of the past come rushing back. She can’t decide if he’s changed or if her heart is holding onto past hurts. Will Jahleel and Bebe take a chance on love or let life sideline them at Christmas?

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Check out my review HERE.

Hope for the Holidays by Cathe Swanson
Newly arrived from her home in the Congo and armed with a brand-new degree in nonprofit management, Carrie Strough is eager to organize and improve the Unity Plenkiss Community Center. Unfortunately, no one wants to be organized, and only Micah Neresen, the charming and handsome pastor of the local church, is interested in her plans. Or is he just interested in her? With a cast of lively and eccentric characters including a homeless vet with PTSD, a con man, an elderly couple with an over-the-top Christmas display, a feisty committeewoman with a past of her own, and a police investigation, Micah and Carrie wonder if there is any hope for the holidays this year!

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Check out my review HERE.

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About the Authors

Chautona Havig

Chautona Havig lives and writes in California's Mojave Desert with her husband of nearly 30 years and six of her nine children. When not writing she enjoys reading, a couple dozen hobbies, and trying to learn to like workouts at the gym. She writes Christian Fiction without apology or pretense--lived not preached. Her desire is to encourage Christians in their faith through fiction.

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April Hayman

April Hayman lives in the high desert of California with her husband and their three sons. During the day, she focuses on homeschooling the boys and working on client projects. She writes at night when the temperature outside is only somewhat cooler than during the day.

Her passion for reading began in grade school and her teachers often reprimanded her for reading when she should have been completing her math assignments. Now she reads whenever she likes and writes for those who love to read.
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April collects fountain pens, has too many pen pals (and always looking for more), journals sporadically, creates art when she can squeeze it in, and hordes stationery.

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Toni Shiloh

Toni Shiloh is a wife, mom, and Christian fiction writer. Once she understood the powerful saving grace thanks to the love of Christ, she was moved to honor her Savior. She writes to bring Him glory and to learn more about His goodness.
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She spends her days hanging out with her husband and their two boys. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and president of the Virginia Chapter.

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Cathe Swanson

Cathe Swanson lives in Wisconsin with her husband of 32 years. They enjoy spending time with their family and being outdoors, kayaking, hiking, birdwatching and fishing, but summer is short in Wisconsin, so it’s important to have indoor hobbies, too. Cathe has been a quilter and teacher of quiltmaking for over 25 years, and she enjoys just about any kind of creative work, especially those involving fiber or paper.

Her family is growing steadily; she and her husband had three sons, and those boys all grew up and married delightful women and started producing grandchildren: four boys and three girls so far!
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The long Wisconsin winters are perfect for writing and reading books! Cathe enjoys writing stories with eccentric characters of all ages. Her books will make you laugh and make you cry – and then make you laugh again.

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Guest Post from the Authors:
​Christmas Traditions

Chautona Havig

Our family is all about Christmas. We love the lights, the trees, the stringing of popcorn, and singing off-key. Well, I don't love that part, but I have a family full of semi-tone deaf singers. Stockings, pretty packages, guessing who got your name in the drawing, daily advent boxes. Our family goes "all out." But only one of the traditions that we enjoy goes all the way back to my childhood, so it's probably my favorite. The annual Hungarian Coffee Cake marathon. It begins about seven o'clock on Christmas Adam. I have enough yeast, flour, eggs, sugar, butter, and cinnamon to feed the town for a year. It'll be gone by the end of the night. I mix, knead, roll, cut, dip, and layer in half a dozen or more angel food cake pans every hour. I have to make it in batches because the dough has to rise... twice. And then it has to bake for half an hour. So if you don't time it just right, you have a cake all ready for the oven long before the last one comes out. In December, here in the Mojave, it can be COLD or temperate. You never know which. But usually, it's in the low thirties outside, but I have the windows open because it's just too hot in there!. Then we share with friends in town, saving at least two for us. We'll eat them before the end of Christmas day. A word to the wise. Never call Hungarian Coffee Cake by its cheap, undesirable, copycat. This is not your cheater's "M..." I can't even say the word. But that Primate Glop people sometimes mistake it for... this is NOT. :)

April Hayman

I was eight years old when the desert town we lived in flooded. And when I say flooded, I mean people used kayaks in the middle of the streets. It was a hundred-year flood which damaged many homes, including ours. The biggest loss, according to my mother, was the tree topper given to her and Dad on their wedding day as a present.

Later that year, during our holiday break, Dad decided my sister and I would help him to make a tree topper for the Christmas tree. He pulled together tin foil, thin box material, scissors, and glitter and we made a twelve-inch star with a twist-tie on the back to attach it to the tree. Not sure how Mom felt about it – remember, I was eight at the time – but that silver and green glitter star still decorates my parents tree each Christmas to this day, four decades later.

Toni Shiloh

This time of year always feels me with joy. People are quick to smile or offer a holiday greeting. Christmas music fills the air wherever you go. But more importantly, my time with family increases. My kids usually get two weeks off of school and that gives us time to hang out and watch Christmas music. We're a fan of Home Alone 1 & 2 as it always leaves us laughing.

And when Christmas Eve rolls around, the boys eagerly open their Christmas presents. My husband and I decided when the kids were young that we would open presents on Christmas eve rather than day. This gives us time to reflect on Christmas day the true reason for the season: our Lord and Savior. If we're fortunate, we can go to a Christmas day church service, although most are closed. We also finish the day off with football and the blessing of a feast.

Cathe Swanson

Our extended family—over 30 of us now—enjoys playing a white elephant game after dinner at our Christmas celebration.  We all collect small gifts—some funny and some practical or nicer things—throughout the year and end up with nearly 100 wrapped packages for the game. There is much laughter and silliness as we play, crowded into the living room at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Over the course of the day, we separate into small groups for conversation or projects, or the cousins go off to play with their new toys, but the white elephant game is the one activity that we all do together. Even the youngest members of the family can play, if they can tell when they have rolled “doubles” on a pair of dice. It’s a game for the whole family, and we enjoy the special time together.