The Tree is NOT Coming Down!

I love Christmas time! It is full of traditions at our house. The tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving. On the four Sundays before Christmas, we light the candles on the Adventskranz. St. Nick comes on the 6th of December and leaves treats in the kid's shoes. We watch ELF, and I always make my famous Schwarzwald Kirsch Torte. Technically Christmas time ends on the 6th day of January. Traditionally it is the day the wise men came, the last day of the 12 days of Christmas, and the day the tree comes down.

This year we have not quite stuck with tradition. For one thing, the tree didn't go up until the 23rd of December. I was busy with finals (I ended up graduating Suma Cum Laude!) and work, M had just made the Olympic Development team for the third year in a row, and I had a couple of manuscript edits that I promised would be done before the New Year.

Maybe it was the fact that the tree went up late, or maybe it was the fact that since the New Year started my life is still running on full gear, but the tree didn't come down on the 6th of January. I though that maybe it would come down today since I am off work and between edit jobs, but there is still the house to clean, books to be read, children to play with, a hubby to watch Downton Abby with, and a submission to get ready for this weeks writing group.

So, it looks as if the tree is here to stay. I remember one year when I was little. We used to have real candles on our tree, back in the day when it was easy to go to a Christmas tree farm and cut down a fresh tree each year. One year, the tree stayed fresh for so long that we kept it up well into February just for the lovely evergreen smell. We took down the Christmas ornaments and decorated it for Valentine's Day. The way it is looking I think I better get the kids to start cutting out some paper hearts, and who knows, we may even end up having to cut out some four leaf clovers as well!

The Next Chapter

Once upon a time there was a stay-at-home mom who cooked, cleaned, chased after kids, and all of the million other jobs that only a mother can understand. Knowing that soon all of her children would be in school she decided that maybe she should go to school as well. Because she also loved to write, she signed up to take an English class at the local university one night a week. Three years later she graduated.

Yes, it is official. I am a college graduate. I have a BA in History through Utah Valley University. So now what?  What is the next chapter in the book of my life? Most important is that I get to pick my kids up from school everyday, and spend my evenings hanging with my family and not with my textbooks. I hope that I will have time to blog a bit more, I plan on hitting a long line of books on my GoodReads list that have been put on hold, and I definitely plan on writing--a lot!

The good thing is that all my jobs are beneficial to my writing goals. Working as a part time cashier allows me time to read and brainstorm ideas. Working as a freelance editor gives me the chance to improve my writing and critiquing skills. And being a mom to a soon to be teenager keeps me up on the  current trends that all my YA protagonists need to know about!

In January I plan on continuing sending out queries on And the Sky Full of Stars. I plan on working intensely on a second draft of Room for Two. And I plan on keeping up with my blog and hope to catch up with all of you. 

I wish you all a wonderful New Year! 

Write On!