Thanksgivukkah

Let's forget the fact that another year is winding down and Christmas decorations are going up even though we haven't enjoyed Thanksgiving. This year is really crazy since Thanksgiving and Hanukkah coincide. Let me tell you, if you think Christmas is coming fast, anyone who celebrates Hanukkah is really scrambling! This is certainly a first in my lifetime--celebrating Hanukkah on Thanksgiving. I'm thinking I'll have to try making some sweet potato latkes. (Sounds good right?)

This melding of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah won't occur again for more than 77,000 years. (77,798 to be exact!) That's a long time, people! The last time it happened was in 1888. (I find the succession of the 8s and 7s very interesting, but that has nothing to do with anything.)

Of course, this melding of holidays has not lessened any of my family's dysfunction. It's possible that the dysfunction has multiplied. Ugh. In fact, I've decided to put this year's first dysfunctional story into a book. Now I just need to write a holiday book and fit it in. Haha. I've never set out to write a holiday specific story, although Dangerously Close does take place just before Thanksgiving and runs through Christmas, so I guess it could be called "holiday light." I've begun to bill it as "Add a little suspense in your holidays." (Actually, the Thanksgiving after-dinner scene might be my favorite scene in my fourteen years of writing. I giggled through the whole thing and only hope other people feel the fun as they read it.)

This year I'm especially thankful for having a healthy husband and daughter. I'm EXTREMELY thankful for my new kitchen after 23 years of waiting/saving. The space has transformed our little family unit since we have space to converge/cook/eat/sit. In the last few months we've had some awesome times in our new kitchen and I figure I have 2 more years to soak it up before my daughter is off to college. Here's a pic of my dream kitchen (with my dog's tail as she's walking out). The old kitchen ended right where the fridge starts. (We more than doubled the space.)

What about you? Anything you're particularly thankful for this year?

Puppy Love

You know how sometimes life gets so crazy and you forget things? Well, that was me with this blog post. With a couple of days to think of a topic, I really had no clue what to write about. The answer came with a little Yorkie Terrier named Chocolate, because she reminded me about love.

Chocolate lives a block away from me and most every day when I take my pooches for a walk we see her. She is the sweetest little morsel you'll ever meet. For the longest time I called her Muffin Top because she is so sweet and of course muffin tops are the best thing about a muffin. I finally met her owner and learned her name is Chocolate. Very apropos, let me tell you.

This little puppy probably weighs about 5 lbs. She is about the size of my Pitbull's head.  I snapped a couple of shots so you could see the size difference.

Zachary adores this little piece of fluff. He waits by the gate when we walk by, his tail wagging in anticipation, his sad eyes looking from me to the yard, in hopes she'll run around from the backyard and say hi. She wiggles and squirms and can't get close enough and he kisses her through the fence. They are quite the pair. (My Border Collie, Liz, puts up with it only because she's smart enough to know that Chocolate won't be going home with us and she gets Zach to herself once we leave.) Chocolate is actually a bit of a hussy...she puts her butt to the fence so Zachary can get his sniffs in. I've tried to tell her a lady doesn't do that sort of thing, but she just squirms more and wags harder. (Hey...I tried.) Here's a shot of Zach giving her a big wet one through the fence.

My point of all this is that love knows no bounds. Though Zachary and Chocolate are not compatible at all, it doesn't keep them from wanting to be together. They cry for each other and Zachary pulls to get to her house every day. It's love at its purest.

I guess that's why I love writing romance. I get such joy watching these two fawn all over each other that it makes me want to go home and write a good romance. I want people to get that same feeling while reading one of my books. I think I also want to incorporate a puppy romance in an upcoming book. I wrote a dog in Dangerously Close and got great feedback so I'm thinking the next time I write a dog, I need to give him/her a love interest.

What about you? Any furry romances you can share?