Just Another Opportunity

Here it is, the end of one year and the beginning of another, and a good time to make plans for what I want to accomplish in the next twelve months. It’s time to change what date I write on my checks and other correspondence. It’s a good time to…

You know what? Tomorrow’s just another day, like yesterday, and the day before. Just like the day after tomorrow will be yet another day. It’s up to me to decide how I’ll spend that time. On Christmas day, I hung out with my family. We played, laughed together, went visiting, ate dinner, and just spent time. Best day possible. Granted, I realize every day can’t be like that. But if I make some effort, I know I can find one day a week, or one hour even, to dedicate to the important people in my life, and to do the things most important to me. Every day is a new opportunity to do things right.

Every year in January attendance at the gym (where I work out) doubles and stays that way until mid-February or the beginning of March before the crowds thin again, because those people who resolved to get in shape have lost their motivation. And every year, I let those people who stop coming to the gym become an example to me. I will not quit, I will persevere. I will press on even if my goals are hard to reach. My gym membership will be well used, and so will my time.

January is just another month whose number on the calendar happens to be one. It’s a beginning, yes. Definitely. But it is not an end (unless you’ve decided to let it be an end to bad habits—that’s a good thing).

What great things have you accomplished in the past year? Have you established a habit that is beneficial to you? I want to know about it.

Oh yes. And by the way, happy New Year!

That Will Do

Tis the season to make resolutions, and I—like probably ninety percent of the people in the world—find myself thinking on what I’d like to do, or accomplish in the following year.

The thing is, I’m not one of those people who writes down my goals. Really, I’m more of a decide-what-you-want-to-accomplish-then-keep-it-firmly-in-mind kind of girl. The method works for me, you know? At least, with the big stuff. Write a book, check. Edit a book (like, 25 times) check. Travel, check, check. That kind of thing.

But every year, as the beginning of another one approaches, I find myself wondering if I should consider making an actual list. Detailed. One that includes smaller things like organizing my house and my time, phone calls I should make more often, the little things that seem less important in the long run, but that would most likely make my life easier, thus, enabling more of my personal happiness.

Except I never actually do that. Maybe I will this year. Or not. Either way, all the above things are in my plans, along with sending out a minimum of 150 queries (or alternately finding an agent—whichever comes first), finishing the edit of my NaNo project along with two other manuscripts, and also finishing two more rough drafts.Read the equivalent of a book a week.

And spend oodles of time with my family. Cheer for my kids at basketball, soccer, art and music. Hang out with my honey.

Can I do all that in one year? Yeah. If I’m determined enough, I really can.

Hey, look at that? A blog post that evolved into a sort of list of resolutions. Whaddayaknow. That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.

What do you resolve to do in 2011?

Five Minutes A Day

Have you ever listened to your favorite song while also reading the lyrics? It seems to me that music tends to be the truest, the most profound expression of experience and emotion available to us in short increments.

Well, okay, there is poetry too. But what is music if not poetry sung to a tune?

If you read the words as they’re sung aloud they often take on a whole new meaning. This past week I have found it to be true of my favorite Christmas songs, as well as others I listen to throughout the year.

Have you ever taken time to sit still and just listen to one song without distraction? If nothing else, it’s a great way to clear your mind and help hone your ability to focus. And the best part is it only requires 3-5 minutes out of your day.

Go now, take five minutes and try it. I’ll wait.

*hums a tune*

What did you learn? Will taking five minutes a day help you keep a calm, focused frame of mind? If you were to allow yourself this much time each day, how would your life, your job, your relationships improve?

Well. You never know until you try it, right? Here we go. Resolution number one. Allow myself 3-5 minutes of personal focus time every single day.

What’s something you’re planning that will improve your life this year?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas. I hope your day is filled with joy, laughter, and love. I hope this video is a small reminder of the reason we celebrate this joyous day.

Joy, joy, joy!

Oh Fantastic Followers, How I Love Your Smiling Faces

Thanks for sharing your favorites with me this incredible holiday season. I could go on listing, because the truth is there are a lot of things to love about December. But the holiday week is upon us, and I think you get the point.

I wish you joy, happiness, love, and the best of all your favorites this holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Yule, and, well, Festivus. (Yeah, I said Festivus, for all the rest of ya.)

May your days be merry and bright. And may all your holidays be…well, you know the line.

Lots of love, from Me.

PS I'm taking the rest of the week off from blogging, but if you're wondering who won all my recent contests, you can see the winners on the following posts:

Signed copy of Leviathan
Twilight swag
Signed / stamped copy of MOCKING JAY

I'll be back next week!

One Last Winner!

What? You say I ran a contest? It ended when? Oh yes. That’s right. It ended Friday.

No, I did not forget. I’m giving away this fantastic prize. What was it again? Oh right.

A stamped copy of MOCKING JAY and a National Book Festival tote bag. Oh. Rightrightrightrightright. (Ala Jerry Seinfeld, in case you missed that.)

Fine. I won’t torture you any longer. Give me a few minutes to tally my list and run the numbers through the Random Generator (see the sidebar, handy little gadget if I do say so).

Drum roll please…

And the winner is…

Christine Bryant!

Clapclapclapclapclapcheerclapcheerdancedancecheeryellscreamclapclapclap!

Congratulations! I will be emailing you soon to get all the important info so I can get this prize in the mail. Thanks for playing, all! It’s been a great month. Stay tuned. You never know when I’ll have the urge to give stuff away all over again. I have a collection of signed giveaway prizes. Just sayin.

Oh, Holiday Music, Your Notes are Brightly Singing

So, I was driving down the street the other night and I happened upon a couple reindeer. No, I did not hit them with my car (thank goodness). They were in a yard as I passed by. Or rather, they passed me on their way through several yards.

It happened to be a snowy day, and as I passed the deer, a great Christmas song came on the radio.

Yes, I am a squishy marshmallow, because my heart turned into gooey mush. Yet two more reasons I love December. Real live reindeer (which I shouldn’t like, because they’re pests and also because the fact that they’re in town means there isn’t enough food in the mountains where they live) and Christmas music.

I won’t make a list of the deer. But oh I love the music. There are a handful of CD’s in my holiday stash, but the ones I play the most are probably SheDaisy, Amy Grant (yes it’s old, I don’t care), and Celine Dion. (Scroll down to my playlist if you want to give them a try.)

Oh, all right. Confession: When my kids are around, our family favorite is a CD called Elves Gone Wild. If you ever come across it, you should buy it. Funnest holiday music ever.

And if I had to choose three songs that make Christmas official at my house, they’re Santa Baby by Madonna, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer by (hm, who sings that song?) and Silent Night by—well anyone. It’s just a great song.

Wait. I can't stop there. I also love Oh Holy Night. Because it's just so pretty, about any artist can make it sound good.

Okay, your turn. All time favorite holiday song or entire album? Spill! (I need some new songs this year—so do share.)

Oh, Holiday Parties, You Do Rocketh

You know what else I love about December? Despite the massive amounts of extra housework that comes with putting up and taking down holiday decorations, and with having the kids home from school tracking mud and slush onto my floors, and leaving dishes all over the place, no one really complains about helping.

Maybe it’s because they figure Santa is coming so they should be good. Or maybe they just really want extra money so they can go to movies or out with friends. But mostly I think we’re all just in a better mood all the way around. And we spend time together.

And it isn’t just my little family. December brings with it a plethora of opportunities to visit extended family, coworkers, friends, and other people with whom we associate but don’t very often see socially. Even better, though, if we don’t have an invitation to visit someone, we have the opportunity to extend an invitation for others to come visit us.

In case you didn’t put those two things together, let me help you. Kids + housework= party with friends / family/ other misc people we like. And it’s usually not even a fight to put together.

Huh. Go figure.

Yet another thing I love about December. What possible gathering do you most look forward to this season? How do you know the people with whom you’ll socialize and when was the last time you saw them?

Oh, Holiday Munchies, I Love Thee Too!

All right. We’ve established our top three Christmas movies. But I’m nowhere near done. What about you? All this talk about the holidays is making me hungry. Let’s talk treats, shall we?

As I was growing up, one of my favorite traditions was our Christmas treat table. The week of Christmas, my mother would laden the table with holiday munchies and treats—mostly homemade—that we rarely or never ate throughout the rest of the year. Now that I’m a grownup with children of my own, we’ve carried on the tradition, and of course, my children love it as much as I did. So do their friends. Mine too.

Seriously, who doesn’t love treats? (I better not see raised hands on this count, otherwise I might have to call my friends at the mental hospital and see if they have a spare bed to cure you of this awful sickness. I digress.)

Best part? I eat whatever I want from this special table, and I don’t even care. I always love to have specialty breads (banana, zucchini, or a new fav—caramel apple bread), hand dipped chocolates (or certain delicious store bought ones) and a cheese ball with crackers or pretzels.

My daddy also makes this wicked awesome fresh salsa, and my sis-in-law has a yum recipe for spinach artichoke dip that could stop your heart (literally and figuratively). Both of those go great with tortilla chips.

Dang. That’s five instead of three. Oh well. You know what’s on my list of favorite treats. What’s on yours?

Oh Holiday Movies, How I Love Thee

Summer may be my favoritist season of the year, but I also really love December. I was going to do a post listing all my favorite things about this month until I realized how long that list could get and what a massively long blog post it would make. Cuz I really love a lot of things. (In case you’re worried, I have not recently been to the dentist, nor am I on pain medication, however, I might possibly have recently dipped my fingers into a stash of holiday chocolate. Maybe.)

Seriously, it’s the only month in the year that I don’t much mind when it snows, and everything sparkles with twinkling lights, both inside and outside my house. I love those little twinkly lights.

It’s nice to be home in the cozy warmth during a snowy December night, made all the better when every time someone turns on the TV, one channel or another is playing one of many favorite Christmas movies.

Just the other night, I happened upon Elf. That’s a channel surfing stopper, right there. Then there’s always A Christmas Story. LOVE. Oh, oh, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

See? There you go. A top three off the top of my head. And they all have the most awesome and memorable one-liners (because we all know how much I love one-liners).

Okay, I told you my top three. Now what are yours? Let’s compare!

It's Not About the Size of the Tree

The first Christmas after we moved into our house—feeling extremely festive and perhaps overly excited about the vaulted cathedral ceiling in our living room—we bought a new artificial Christmas tree. (I know, artificial isn’t nearly as awesome as real. But I have this thing where I’m pretty much incapable of keeping plants alive indoors. My thumbs are black, not green. And we prefer to not burn down our house.)

The thing is twelve feet tall, before decorations. (No, I am not joking. Yes, I am crazy. And before you ask, I probably won’t buy one quite this big ever again. It requires an insane amount of time to set up and take down. But I love the end result.)

Anyway, that first year when the tree was up and decorated, one of my new neighbors made an offhanded comment that was something like, “Wow, how will the rest of us ever keep up with that?”

Even though it was said in a joking tone, those words stung deep. Our choice of tree was not about competition. It was about joy. Joy for being in our new house, joy for the season and everything it meant, and joy for being able to make our family celebration as big or as tall as we chose to make it.Or on the other side of that coin, as simple or as small.

The day we walked into Costco and saw the tree, my kids squealed in delight, and their eyes lit up with sparkles. And funny enough, the cost turned out to be significantly less than many of the other trees we’d looked at that day. It was a good purchase that has lasted seven years and counting.

But every year when I’m decorating this monstrosity, that particular comment comes back and reminds me why I do things the way I choose, and why I don’t do them the way other people would have me do.

Regardless of what some might think, Christmas spirit is not determined by the size of your tree (or the number of lights) any more than a man’s masculinity is determined by the size of his truck or SUV. Any more than a woman’s worth is determined by her ability to sew or cook or clean house. (Yeah, that last one is so cliché it’s ridiculous. Forgive me for that. I’m lacking in all those departments.)

There was not a lit Christmas tree in Bethlehem or lights circling the roof of the stable. No gifts wrapped in expensive paper. No Black Friday shopping days. There was a family, experiencing quiet moments of pure, unadulterated joy.

Our tree could be a one-foot twig for all that it matters. We’d still find joy within the quiet warmth of our family. The only difference is it wouldn’t be quite so visible to the rest of the world.

What do you think? Does the size of your tree really matter? And do you really care what the neighbors think?

*Don't forget to enter this week's totally fab I *Heart* Followers contest* 

Mega-Awesome, Totally Fabulous, I *Heart* Followers Contest (Part III)

In case you thought I was finished giving stuff away, you are soooo wrong. Because it’s December and I’m in a giving-type mood. That’s right people. Let’s do this one more time, shall we? I still have that stamped copy of MOCKING JAY. If you think you might be interested in this fantabulous prize (because seriously, stamped, signed—really, it was still handled and done by Suzanne Collins, I have proof) raise your hands.

Wait. I can’t see your raised hand through the computer. Hm. What to do?

Got it!

Required:

First, become a follower (see the top portion of my sidebar to the right of your screen). Considering that this contest is a Follower appreciation event, I think it’s fair to require everyone who wants to enter to be one of those followers I’m appreciating, right? Right. Okay.

Optional:

Next, leave a comment on any of my many random and amazing (or not-so-amazing) posts. I don’t care which one. You don’t even have to read it, per-se. Just click on the comment section and say hi, and I’ll be happy. (+1)

Third, Facebook (+1), tweet (+1), or blog (+1) this contest so all your friends can enter too. It’s not required, but if you do it just to be nice, I’ll give you an extra entry for each thing. If you tweet, include me @nicholegiles, and I’ll come follow you. Same with FB. We can be friends! **New addition** I know there are a lot of people who will be interested in this particular prize, so if you FB or Tweet this contest more than once, up to three times a day (each) I'll give you an entry for each one of those, per day. Just be sure to come back and fill out the form with all entries before the deadline.

Required:

After all that, fill out this form. This is a requirement. Don’t worry, it’s easy. See, the thing is, if you don’t fill it out, your name won’t be on the spreadsheet from which the names will be randomly selected (using a random generator). That is a definite problem when it comes to you wanting to win. But I promise to never use the information for anything other than this contest. Deal? Great.

**BONUS**

If you entered to win the signed copy of LEVIATHAN, or the Eclipse bling package, those entries are still valid, so you have triple the opportunity to win! (No need to do anything else, I have all but the single winning entries already tallied!)



So, there’s MOCKING JAY, which I know you’re dying to own. (Yeah, the stamp did smear some--but the signature portion is still awesome.)

But ALSO, I’m going to throw in a tote bag from the Library of Congress sponsored National Book Festival, where this book was stamped. Because it’s just cool.

The contest starts right now, and will run until midnight on Friday, December 17th (notice this runs a little longer than my other contests). I’ll post the final winner on Monday, Dec 20th. (**US shipping only.)

Okay. Good luck! Ready? Set? Go!

Another Big Winner!

I ran a contest that ended on Saturday. And before I post another contest, I have a feeling some of you would like to know who won that Team Edward bracelet and the Team Jacob phone bling, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you.

Well, okay. If you insist. Hold on while I tally the scores.

*pauses everything else to go to spread sheet, tally points, then enter numbers into the random generator on the sidebar*

Ahem. I'm back.

*Pauses for dramatic effect*

Drum roll please.

And the winner is...

Margot Hovley

Clapclapclapclapcheercheercheerdancedancedanceclapclapclapcheerdancecheer.

Congratulations! I'll be emailing you this week to get all your important mailing information.

Thanks for playing everyone.

Hit the Gas and Go Around (or Holy Scary Snowstorm! Part II)

Still wondering how I survived driving in the storm mentioned on Wednesday?

Here’s what I did. As the fog thinned enough for me to see the tail lights of the SUV in front of me, I decided (at first) to follow that person. As long as they stayed on the road, so did I, and when they didn’t hit ice and slide around, neither did I.

Unfortunately, that only worked for a few miles.

Turned out, the incline was too much for that particular vehicle. The driver chose to slow down at some point, and ended up sliding backward. Bad for two reasons. One, they were sliding toward me (eek!). Two, I had to slow down to avoid them, and ended up starting to slide backward as well. Solution? Hit the gas and go around that SUV. (I was already in 4WD, thank goodness.)

Next, I tried driving behind a snowplow, because in the past, I’ve discovered there’s no better place to be while driving in a snowstorm. They’re spreading salt or sand, and plowing the worst of the snow out of the way, right? Not so in this case. No salt, and the plow wasn’t picking up much snow because everything was ice. The large tires threw a lot of slush on my windshield, impeding what small amount of visibility I’d gained. And my traction was no better than before. Not only that, the plow was sliding too. Solution? Hit the gas and go around.

That night I passed vehicles of all sizes and capabilities stuck in various positions of distress. I have no idea why some did well and others didn’t. Maybe it was timing, or driver mistakes, or possibly just dumb luck.

The journey that should’ve taken me 40 minutes took over two hours, but I did not stop. Sometimes I followed other vehicles, sometimes I forged my own path. Once I slid and once narrowly avoided doing a 360 merging onto an interchange, but I never allowed myself to stop or go off course. I prayed the whole way, shaking in fear of all the what ifs, but I kept my eyes ahead, having faith that even though I couldn’t see it, the goal was ahead of me and within reach.

I succeeded in making it to the airport the same way I’ll succeed in the other important goals in my life. One mile (or one step) at a time, using my best judgment, and more often than not relying on faith that I have the ability to see it all through.

*Don't forget to enter this week's totally fab I *Heart* Followers contest* 

(Hint--scroll down two posts.)

Holy Scary Snowstorm! (Part I)

Last week I drove through a massive snowstorm unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I'm not crazy. It's not like I wanted to go out in that mess. You only drive in conditions like that for a person you love a whole lot. I mean really, really love, because that wasn’t snow, it was a complete white out and the scariest, most unreal driving conditions I’ve ever experienced.

I had to get to the airport to pick up my husband. A lot of people left their loved ones stuck at the airport that day, and once I got going, I figured out why. Scariest. Freaking. Storm. EVER.

Picture this: Wind blowing at a ridiculously high speed, with air so cold it freezes any and all moisture on contact so that as you drive, your windshield freezes—even though the wipers AND defrosters are on full blast.

As that’s happening, you drive into this enormous cloud of white (but not the dreamy kind, the scary kind), and even though you slow down, there’s no avoiding this thing, because it envelops your vehicle until you can’t see anything. Not the vehicles on the road with you, or the sides of the road, or the road itself. No street signs. No sky. Nothing. Oh, and you’re doing this going up a fairly steep incline and then back down the other side. At night. The road is made of the same ice that continues to coat your car.

You consider stopping to wait out the storm, but as soon as you slow down too much, your vehicle starts sliding backward. And worse, you occasionally spot flashing hazard lights from other vehicles stopped in the middle of the road, which have somehow managed to stop without back-sliding. This creates a veritable obstacle course you must traverse blind, except for the occasional flash of taillights in spots where the fog is less dense.

If you stop, you risk being stuck and possibly hit by another vehicle. Depending on how long you’re there, you also risk freezing to death. If you keep going, you risk sliding off the road (or down a mountain) and / or hitting into something.

What do you do in a situation like that? How do you proceed?

(To find out what I did, read part II, which will post on Friday.)

*Don't forget to enter this week's totally fab I *Heart* Followers contest* 

(Hint--scroll down one post.)