On the first day of Christmas, your Geevie brings to you...

A favorite holiday song:

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to laugh, so funny Christmas songs are all over my playlist, case in point "The Twelve Pains of Christmas." Let these folks have the holiday meltdown. You can just smile with sympathy and understanding.



A favorite holiday movie/show:

I grew up in the 1970s/1980s, back when there were only three channels from which to choose for your viewing entertainment. That meant an entire generation had a collective experience when viewing TV, so annual broadcasts (like watching the Wizard of Oz) were more of an event. The same is true for the Christmas Classic, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." It wasn't Christmas until I heard those familiar songs, watched that carefully crafted claymation, or cowered behind the living room coffee table as Bumble terrorized the North Pole. Even now, in the DVD age, there's nothing more special than sitting down to watch the annual broadcast of "Rudolph" when it airs, which I will be doing tonight. Join me, won't you?





A holiday recipe:

Cookies are most fun to make at Christmastime because you get to share your bounty with the ones you love most. Here's a family favorite!

Snickerdoodles

A Christmas memory:

I've mentioned on this blog before how I used my Barbie dolls to create all kinds of stories as a kid. One of the first dolls I remember getting, I got for a Christmas gift.

I ended up naming her "Laura," since I got her right around the time I started watching "General Hospital," and Laura was my favorite character. Over the years, my Laura married (an original sounding character named Ken) and had four kids. She was the rock of my cast, the most stable, the one everyone would go to with their troubles because she was centered and had her stuff together. She taught me a lot about the limitations we put on our characters when we love them too much to hurt them. The stars of the show always, ALWAYS suffer.

The Book of the Day:

I have written a Christmas romance with my novella, "San Francisco Serenade." It is my own personal rock-star romance that used one of my own idols as a prototype for the hero.



I won't say who, that might get embarrassing and weird. Besides, I'm never one to be that obvious.



But suffice it to say, it is a story near and dear to my heart. These characters popped up in a special Easter Egg in "Epic," and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you see them again and again, cuz that's just how I roll. But until then... enjoy their Christmas romance with this lil' teaser:

I closed the door feeling that familiar melancholy I couldn’t quite explain. It lingered long into the night when, even though I was exhausted, I couldn’t fall asleep.

All I could think about was the lonely man who had shown me a bit of his soul that night. It lingered in my subconscious and even managed to seep into my dreams once the dreams came. I dreamed of meeting his mother over a Christmas dinner surrounded by music and candlelight.

This set me on my mission that following day while I was out in between my interviews and public relations engagements. I told my driver what I was looking to do and much to my delight he drove me right to the kind of boutique that could supply exactly what I was seeking.

I was still smiling to myself as I exited to the hotel late that afternoon, carrying a festive gift bag in my hand. I liked playing elf and I was pretty excited to provide an unexpected gift to my new friend. That surprise was nothing compared to what I found when I opened my suite. The golden splendor was now accented by green garland with cranberries and frosted pine cones around the window facing out over the bay, which now framed a huge and completely decorated Christmas tree. Red candles that sparkled subtly with gold glitter sat atop the coffee table, along with a bowl full of nuts and fruits.

Christmas was still technically three days away, and yet here it was right in my lonely hotel room.

I shrugged out of my coat as I crossed the room toward the tree, placing the gift bag on the coffee table. Dozens of delicate crystal ornaments sparkled where they sat on the tree, in between strands of gold beaded garland. White lights shot brilliant prisms through the different shapes of the crystals, some balls, some bells, some snowflakes, and as I drew closer the tree twinkled at me gleefully.

As I reached out to touch the ornament an unexpected tear fell from my cheek. I hadn’t been looking forward to the holiday, but this was so beautiful I could do nothing but well up with appreciation for the reminder of lovely Christmases past. My cell phone rang almost as if on cue.

I glanced down at the caller ID. It was Vance.

“Merry Christmas,” he said, and from the playful tone of his voice I knew that I had been out-elfed.

“You did this?”

“Did what?” he asked innocently.

I had to laugh. “The tree, you goof.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“You really do lie beautifully,” I told him with a grin of my own.

“So it’s been said,” he retorted. “But I can’t have my first real human contact in a decade thinking I’m a creep, just because I impulsively violated the sanctity of her hotel suite. Especially to decorate it for a holiday neither one of us were particularly looking forward to.”

I sat on my sofa and glanced over at the gift bag I had brought from downtown. “I dunno,” I offered vaguely. “I think it’s definitely looking up this year.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” he said in a low voice that shot electricity down to my toes. “So what are your plans tonight? Aside from taking over the literary world?”

“Already done,” I answered with a cheeky grin. “So my evening is wide open. Although I feel like I should be making cookies for Santa or something in this winter wonderland I suddenly now occupy.”

He laughed. “Let me take care of that. How about I meet you at your room in about an hour?”

I agreed instantly, never pausing to think that this was virtually a stranger I was inviting to my room. In no way did I feel threatened by him; instead I was excited at the prospect of spending an evening with him where I didn’t have to share his attention with anyone.

I quickly freshened up, getting cozy in my comfy jeans and a soft knit turtleneck sweater. I kicked off my shoes and instead wore some funky socks covered in neon colored peace signs. It wasn’t exactly seasonal, but it wasn’t like I had packed anything Christmasy to begin with.

Maybe I’d have to go out shopping again the next day, this time to elf myself.

Vance arrived promptly at the top of the hour, looking casual yet dapper in his dark sweater and slacks. He wore his hair in a tight, neat ponytail and a playful smirk that gathered tiny lines at the corner of his dark eyes. He held out a small giftwrapped box.

“What’s this for?” I asked, thinking he’d already done so much.

“Nothing sadder than a Christmas tree with no presents he said as he entered the room.

I shut the door behind him. “What makes you think that there are no presents?” I asked.

He cast me a glance before he walked over to the tree, where he saw my gift bag sitting there all by its lonesome under the heavy low branches. “What’d you do?”

“You think you’re the only elf staying in this hotel?” I grinned.

“Well you’re definitely a much cuter elf,” he said as he placed the box under the tree next to the gift bag.

I warmed to his flattery as I walked over to the sofa. “So what are your plans, Mr. Gale

As if answering my question there came a knock at the door. He motioned that I go ahead and sit as he went to answer it. A bellboy rolled in a brass tray laden with Christmas goodies. Vance tipped him and sent him promptly on his way before rolling the tray over to where I sat.

There was egg nog chilling in an ice bucket, a plate full of homemade cookies and fudge, next to a stack of Christmas DVDs and CDs. He also thought ahead for a little protein to counter the carb overload with a cheese and sausage plate and some mulled wine. “This is some spread,” I complimented as I reached over for a wedge of cheese.

“It’s my first Christmas to entertain,” he confessed as poured me a mug of wine. “I figured it better to have lots of options rather than not enough.”

“I like the way you think,” I mumbled between bites, which made him laugh. “Remind me to invite you back for the Fourth of July so that we can have burgers and s’mores.”

“It’s a date,” he agreed as he held up his mug to toast. Our eyes met and held for a tiny moment longer than necessary, which made us both look quickly away. He cleared his throat and reached for a DVD. “What shall we watch first?”

On the top of the stack sat one of my favorite Christmas movies, a comedic re-imagining of Dickens’ classic Scrooge story. “I love to laugh. Let’s start with that one.”

He agreed and he set up the machine on the TV sitting just across from the couch. We settled next to each other under a throw blanket and let he movie begin. Though it was a movie I had seen dozens of times before, it was an entirely different experience sitting cuddled next to Vance. I felt the heat of his body next to mine, and with each shift to get more comfortable we got closer and closer together until we sat flush side by side.

I wanted to blame the rush of warmth through my body on the wine, but every little part of me that touched him became acutely aware that I was sitting beside Vance Gale – a man I had dreamed about as recently as the night before. That was his throaty laugh that sent tiny chills over my heightened senses, that was his cologne I could smell coming from a body he still kept healthy and fit even into his 40s.

Never in my wildest, adolescent dreams would I have ever thought I’d be there, like that, with him. This was a man who had always been behind a velvet rope, and now I sat practically in his lap while we watched movies in the low light of a private hotel suite.

It was the stuff of fantasies for any girl who had ever lusted after a rock star. Somewhere in me was that same awkward 15-year-old who blushed when our eyes met with shared laughter over the movie. Those eyes weren’t looking into a camera anymore. They were looking right into mine.

And, being slightly older than 15, I already knew that the interest I saw there was real. Maybe it was because we were lonely and fending off the holidays with a convenient friendship. Or maybe it was simply a matter of two people who shared a mutual attraction.

Whenever he looked at me, however, it really didn’t seem to matter. Suddenly I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. I wanted to be there in that moment with him. And we were both single adults… so why not enjoy it?

But as God as my witness, when his arm slid across the back of the couch I didn’t know quite what to do. I stared at the screen although I had ceased to care what was going on there. I felt my blood thunder in my ears as electricity singed each and every nerve ending. I felt his hand on my shoulder and whether he pulled me into the crook of his arm or I just found my way there on my own was unclear. Yet in a second I found myself comfortably situated right in his embrace as we cuddled together under the blanket for the climax of the movie.

It ended with a rousing and uplifting song, which made me glance up at him to see if he’d actually find his voice to sing it. Instead there were tears glistening in the corner of his eyes. My soul ached for the pain he still harbored losing his beloved mother. Without any conscious thought on the matter my hand reached up to caress his cheek. It inadvertently captured one of his tears.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

He gave me a brave smile as he pulled me into the circle of his arms. He held me close and whispered in my hair, “I am now.”

Spread some joy:

A lot of folks bitch and moan about the "true" meaning of Christmas being lost. Some blame political correctness, some blame commercialism, but the truth of the matter is Christmas is alive and well wherever there is one person who seeks to bring "peace on earth and goodwill toward man." In honor of that, I will feature charities over the course of the next 12 days which all do their part to make a difference in our world.

RED CROSS

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