Happy Thanksgiving!

**When you start your holiday shopping, I hope you'll consider giving books as gifts. And if you do...I hope you'll keep DESCENDANT in mind for the YA Paranormal reader in your life. Thank you for stopping by, for reading, supporting, and for, well, just being.

Because I’m Thankful

This week, I will cook turkey and pie and potatoes and about 20 other delicious things and spend a special holiday with all but one member of my immediate family (my oldest son will be in Utah). Then, my daughters and I will spend the afternoon PLANNING a massive shopping trip for Friday.

FRIDAY. Not Thursday.

I have long been a Black Friday junkie. Even an addict, if you want to call a spade a spade. And my daughters have joined me in this obsession. But this year, some stores are opening on Thursday in order to try to entice some of us crazy addicts into skipping out of our Thanksgiving dinner—time that is actually very important—for…shopping. And as much as I love it, as much as I’ve been an advocate of great deals, this is too much for me.  

Yes, I’m aware that some stores are opening in the late evening, but that still requires all store employees to work through the holiday, which is a big deal. (I’ve worked in retail—these days are the reason people quit.)

I would feel horribly ungrateful were I to prioritize material things over this very special day. And so while we may jump online for some great things, my family and I will be sticking to tradition and not leaving our house for our adventures until the clock tolls midnight. I know I’m only one person, but I don’t want to be one single person who contributes to the problem. I have too many reasons for which I am thankful to squander away the one day of the year set aside for remembering my blessings.

My readers are among those blessings. So thank you for your amazing, wonderful support.

Regardless of where or how you spend your Thanksgiving, I hope you take a minute to remember all the blessings in your life. Happy Thanksgiving! 

A Little Bit of Both

I hate to say it, but I’m so glad to have Thanksgiving behind me. Not that I don’t love the holiday—I really do. But it was a massive stresser this year. Thirty-seven people, two giant turkeys, ten pounds of potatoes, twenty-something pies, and a Costco sized package of paper plates, all consumed and enjoyed and now in the past.

I love holidays. Family, food, fun, shopping—all things that make life worth living.

But there’s a lot of stress involved, too, and at the end of it all, I enjoy the satisfaction of having it behind me. Still, I continue to be grateful for this country in which I live, the freedoms I enjoy, and all the comforts of life with which I’m blessed. So, you know, I’m thankful for the holiday, and at the same time so relieved to have it over.

It’s one of those days I both dread and adore. Do you feel that way sometimes? When and why?

More Thankful Things

I figure I have a month’s worth of thankful statuses to catch up with, so I hope you don’t mind if I keep going for a bit. I did warn you that I have a long list, didn’t I? No? Well, consider yourselves warned.

It’s the small and simple stuff that makes life grand. So today I’m thankful for:

Twinkling Christmas lights, Little Giant ladders, and our Elves Gone Wild CD.

Online shopping, since Black Friday has turned into Black Thursday (which, IMO has gone out of control) and I have no desire to fight strangers over toys anymore. Also, special advance sales geared toward people who are prepared, and who can shop from the comfort of their bedrooms.

Free shipping!

Amazon—because they have everything, and usually at a discount.

Email. Seriously, I remember a time when I had to write letters to my long distance friends on paper and stick the paper in an envelope with a stamp, then wait days for my words to reach them. Now we can have real-time conversations via chat. Or for that matter, face-to-face ones with Skype,

Vacuum cleaners that pick up fake pine needles, dust, dirt, and sludge off my floor whenever someone walks in. Also, Clorox wipes, Awesome spray cleaner (yeah, that’s actually a brand), and melty wax cubes that make my house smell good.

My convertible Mustang, because even though it’s getting up there in miles, I continue to love driving it. (And it’s still cheaper than therapy.)

My followers, who give me a reason to write blogs every week, and who stick around and comment, even when I’m introspective or reminiscent. Or making silly lists, like this one.

Writer’s groups where I have made some amazing friends who have greatly enhanced my life. Also writer’s conferences and CON’s. Because, well, they’re amazing and fun, and great for my career plans. And the most amazing people attend them.

Take-out restaurants. Because, let’s face it. All too often this is the best way to assure the family gets fed.

Soft new flannel pajamas. Because that is my most productive writing outfit. (Now you know.)

And Chris Baty, who invented National Novel Writing Month, which thousands of authors now utilize in order to bulk up their levels of creativity to bigger, better heights. For the third year in a row, I hit 50,000 words. Yahoo!

So there you have them. My status updates that never made it to Facebook. I hope you’re having a beautiful, fun-filled Thanksgiving weekend. Oh, and if you’re out shopping, keep your eyes open and your fighting hands at the ready. And may the odds be ever in your favor.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful Kinds of Things

I’ve noticed there’s a trend on Facebook this November. Every day, certain friends of mine update their status by saying something for which they are thankful. I think that’s a really great idea, because anything that reminds us about all the many blessings in our lives, however small, makes us stronger.

Being that tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought I’d do something similar, because, well, I am feeling rather thankful at the moment.

My kids, who are wise beyond their years, and who have worked hard this week to prepare our house for the insurgence of people coming for Thanksgiving dinner (looking at 35+).

My husband, who works extra hard to provide our family with the things we need, and other things we just want. Like turkey and pie. And who also offered to brave Black Friday if I need him. (Don’t worry, honey, I’m taking the girls.)

Friends who stand by me and cheer me on and who would break me out of jail if ever I needed. (You know who you are!)

Stephenie Meyer for creating books that were turned into movies that my girls insisted on seeing at 12:29 on a school night last week, because movies like that aren’t nearly as fun without screaming, excited girls who are hopped up on sugar and caffeine.

The Baltimore Ravens for letting us in their stadium (last fall) to look around, and then gave us all hats and footballs and signed team pictures. We became life-long fans that day, and now you’re looking at Super Bowl possibilities. This makes us happy.

Hawaii—because it exists and gives us something to dream about.

Publishing companies who produce quality books that make us love to read and who give writers a goal for which to strive. And also, for giving me a reason to stay up all night because I just have to see what happens next.

Blue glow sticks, rock candy lollipops, and Thunder—the Australian kind. Oh, and also peanuts.

Steve Jobs for inventing…well, pretty much all things Apple. But specifically, my iPhone.

**To be continued**

What are you Thankful for this year?

Leftover Pie and a Touch of Insanity

Thanksgiving is over. Dinner with my family was a success, even with around 25 people present. We had plenty of room at the three banquet tables set up end-to-end, enough food to feed twice that number of people, and everyone was in a good mood. Probably because of all the pie.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love pie? My whole family does, and on Thanksgiving Day, you can expect to find a plethora of every kind of pie. Well, okay, maybe there are a few types that we don’t make—depending on who’s coming—but generally, we end up with an entire pie per person. This has been a tradition within my mother’s family since before I was born and longer.

Sounds like a waste, I know. But eventually, it all gets eaten and the consumers of pie are happy. Granted, it takes a few days to finish off the leftovers, but leftovers are a huge part of the big day, right?

It’s like that episode of Friends in which Ross has a meltdown because someone at work stole and ate his Thanksgiving leftover sandwich with the “moist-maker” in it, and has to go to rage management therapy to keep his job. Ever since seeing that episode, I’ve been convinced that without leftovers, Thanksgiving wouldn’t be such a big deal. But I didn’t really need a TV show to tell me that.

Anyway, after the big day was over, I took my girls with me for Black Friday shopping. I’ve gone every year since my kids were little. Yes, it sounds crazy, and I’ve seen and heard a lot of people lamenting the crowds and the insanity of the whole weekend. But I’m a Black Friday shopper, and I’m proud to admit it.

For one thing, I love a great deal. Partly because I’m cheap. When I need to buy something, I prefer to buy it for the smallest amount of money possible. Really, saving five or ten dollars per item adds up. And I can give up a little bit of sleep in order to stretch my budget. Which brings me to another point. I’ve never been rich, and have no idea what it feels like to go out and buy something without first looking at the price tag and evaluating if it’s worth the asking price.

I learned when my kids were small that I can stretch my budget much farther by watching the ads and getting to the stores early in order to purchase highly desired things at half price or lower. Yes, the crowds are insane. Yes, I’ve seen several fistfights over five-dollar Barbies. Yes, I’ve had things snatched out of my arms before, and had to chase someone down to get them back. But I do it for my children. Never has a Christmas passed when they didn’t have that one item that was most important on their wish list under the tree. Not because I paid a fortune for it on ebay, but because I made sure to be at the right place, on the right day and in the right frame of mind. It takes planning, and sacrifice, and guts. And I learned all these things from not only my own mother, but from my dear departed mother-in-law, who taught me the value of strategic planning.

I miss her terribly at this time of year. Her birthday was last Wednesday, and we had so much preparing to do that we never made it to the cemetery. But I thought of her all day, and wondered if she would be proud of how we’re doing. I feel her presence sometimes and know she is watching out for us on the other side of the veil. I hope she knows how much we miss her.

It is in her honor that I will teach my daughters how to get the most out of their money by shopping the ads—even the Black Friday ones. I will teach them how to plan, how to zoom from store to store grabbing and buying only the most important sale items and waiting on the rest. Eventually, everything is featured in some kind of sale or special deal, and when an item we're after is included, we’ll be there. This has been a tradition in the Giles family, one passed from Carol to her girls—including me. It’s a bonding thing, a learning thing, and best of all, a memory we’re creating for the future.

And hopefully when I’m gone my girls will remember our shopping trips fondly and pass the lessons on to their kids so Carol’s tradition will continue into the future. After all, traditions are important in every family, and family is what the holidays are about.

So do me a favor. If you are a Black Friday shopper, be proud. And if you’re on the other team, the one who teases, laments, and boos the die-hards, remember that behind each of us lies an important motivator, a reason for which we make the sacrifice and go to the work it takes to shop on that day. And believe me, it’s a lot of work. Maybe we are a little bit crazy. Insane even. But no one would go to these extremes without a reason—and we all have one. For a select few, the motivators might be consumer greed. But for the vast majority, it’s a matter of savvy money saving skill, done on behalf of the important people in our lives. We are the people who will take risks in order to give a thoughtful gift. Because a gift card can only go so far.

Happy Shopping!

Nichole