Christmas in July...

Greetings Friends...

 

I hope this post will find you well and enjoying your summer!!

 

Ours has been a pretty good one so far...busy in the beginning with the usual for this time of year...graduations, weddings, Memorial Day picnics and going to the cottage.

 

Our little Harper is growing like a sweet little weed and I so wish I could post a few pictures of him so that can all see what your prayers and good thoughts helped in blessing us with! He is doing GREAT and as all of you grandparents out there know, he is truly the love of our lives!!

 

Boy, it's a HOT one here today!!!

 

Supposed to be in the nineties for the next couple of days and very humid...I don't mind the high temps so much, but you can have the humidity, so.....

 

How about we celebrate a little "Christmas" in July?!!

 

Before I get started, I want to dedicate this post to a friend of mine who is having a bit of a hard time right now. She is a very dedicated follower and we have become friends via emails. She tells me that reading my blog lifts her spirits and I feel so badly that I have been too busy to post more often, but CANDI...even though my posts are few and far between these days, I do think of you often...so this one's for you!! :) 

 

I am going to tell you all a little story about when I was a child....it will probably bore you to pieces, but it brings back very fond memories for me and looking back, I wish that all kids these days could experience at least one summer like the ones I did when I was little.

 

Growing up in the sixties and seventies meant that things were very different from the way they are now, especially for me because I grew up in the country...we didn't have close neighbor kids to play with, computers or hand-held games, or cell phones...heck, we didn't even have a colored TV until I was in my late teens if I remember correctly!

 

For nine months of the year, September through May we had school every day so things weren't so bad, but June through August...let me tell you in a word...B-O-R-I-N-G!!!

 

For amusement we had to be creative and let me tell you, there wasn't much to be creative about living in what we called, "The Boondocks"! 

 

Every summer my siblings and I would venture out into the woods and build forts. We used what ever we could find for building materials. We took small, dead trees that were still sturdy enough to use for bases or foundations and nailed them about shoulder level to four trees and used any old boards we could scrounge up for the floors and walls.

 

Some of our forts were three stories high and had hand-made ladders so that we could get from one story to the next. It was just like Swiss Family Robinson!  I wish I had a picture of one so that you could all see what they looked like. Crooked and slapped together as best as we could build them and eye sores to most I am sure, but in our minds they were works of art and I can't tell you how much fun we used to have and how many hours and hours we spent playing in them!!

 

There was one year though, that I didn't take part in building the "summer fort". It was the year that we moved out of our first home, the old hunters cabin and up into the new house on the hill that my Mom and Dad built. Instead, my younger sisters and I sort of "took over" the old cabin and turned that into our fort.

 

I always felt safe and comfortable in that old place when we lived there, so turning it into a fort just seemed to make sense and it just felt right. Now, I can't say for sure what month it was, but we moved out of the cabin sometime after school got out so it had to be close to July if not for sure, so just for today's post, let's say it was July...OK? Anyways...that summer, when we were playing in the cabin I remember us going out into the woods and cutting a small evergreen tree and putting it up on an old table inside. We even made some hand-made paper ornaments for it and pretended that it was Christmas time with our dolls! Can you believe it...even as a child, I had Christmas on my mind all year long!!

 

It makes me sort of sad to remember that now because I think that that was the last summer that I actually "played" down there. I was getting a little older by then and that sort of thing was for babies, as we used to say, but thankfully I will always have my memories. Funny how something so insignificant at the time turned out play such an important role in forming my life as I know it today.

 

It's obvious that Christmas has always been special and important to me. It was always my favorite time of year when I was little too, and the last Christmas that my family spent living in the cabin has always been my favorite. It is no wonder that I grew up to write Christmas books!! ;)

 

Soooo...

 

Speaking of Christmas books...I wanted to let you all know that I am finally starting to take pre-orders for my new book, "Christmas of Olde" that is due out in mid to late September. I have posted all of the information on my Picture Trail so please follow the link if you would like more information on how to place your order.

 

I sent out an email to everyone in my AOL contact list, but I did get a few back as undelivered, so if you didn't get my email, that is probably why. If you have any questions please feel free to email me. Wholesale information will be provided upon request.

 

Here is one of the sneak peek photos that I have posted on my PT....just click on the link above to go to my site and see more Sneak Peeks.

 

 

Well my Friends... the day is slowly slipping away from me so I had better get going.  As always, I thank you all so much for stopping by and for hanging in there with me through these busy times.

 

Have a wonderful day everyone...and Merry Christmas in July!! ;)

 

Tina