Happy holidays! from Roxanne Rustand

Best wishes to everyone here.  May the wonder of the Christ child's birth touch you this Christmas and bring you peace, happiness and hope in the coming year!

Though the true reason for the season has nothing to do with tinsel and bows, I have to admit that I so look forward to all of the decorating, baking and shopping for our family that usually starts the weekend of Thanksgiving.

And, being a true Minnesotan, I love snowy, wintery weather.  Both ice storms and blizzards are, I have to admit, exciting to me.  The thought of hurrying off to the grocery store for some extra supplies stirs the pioneer spirit, maybe. 

And maybe my sense of anticipation stems partly from all of those years in school, when inclement weather kept me close to  WCCO on the radio, hoping to hear that school was closed.  :)

This year, we had our first taste of what a far southern Christmas season was like.  What fun!  Our daughter and her husband live right on the Gulf, and we just returned from an eight day trip to see them.  All of those days were humid and in the 70's, T-shirt weather for sure.  The grass was green, the evenings balmy.  At first, the Christmas decorations everywhere seemed incongruous to us without a blanket of snow.  

But the evenings---how beautiful those Coastal towns are, with Christmas lights twinkling in the live oaks, and rimming the beautiful old houses.  We spent an evening in Bay St Louis for dinner and shopping, and pretty Christmas lights were everywhere--even on the sailboats docked along the shore.  There were carolers on street corners, small bands playing zydeco and Cajun music as we walked past.

And even, a live nativity scene at a Baptist church in town, with a large audience gathered to watch the story unfold.

The season is truly beautiful wherever we are, isn't it?  Because the true meaning is unchanging.

Where do you spend your Christmas season each year?  And what are your favorite traditions?

Blessings to you all!

Roxanne Rustand

USA Today bestselling author Roxanne Rustand is the author of over thirty-five traditionally published novels, and four indie novels.  A Golden Heart winner in 1995, she has received two RT Bookclub Magazine Reviewers' Choice Awards, was nominated for two others, and has been nominated for an RT Bookclub Magazine Career Achievement Award.  She is currently working on a three-book contract for Harlequin's Love Inspired line, and is continuing with self publishing.  She and her husband live in the country with three horses, two goofy rescue dogs, and a half-dozen barn cats.