Learning to just breathe, be happy, show love, gratitude

This year has been a marathon of 365 days that tests our humanity. We’re sooooooo ready to kick 2020 to the curb! Our world has a way to go before we defeat covid-19, but we’re gonna make it. 
 
In my last post of 2020, you'll find ideas to keep your spirits raised with an attitude of gratitude AND:

• 50+ fab free books for your Littles in the December Children’s Book December Mega-Giveaway
• free holiday musical streaming event from Duke Chapel 

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Show Gratitude

Some days, I want to scream.

Then I take a deep breath and remember how lucky I am. During a global disaster when many have lost everything, I have food on the table and a warm place to sleep.

I am learning to be grateful to wake each morning without a cough or pain and my sense of smell intact!

This year heightens my appreciation for each moment and every simple gift. I admire the way my writerly pal friend Julie Schooler always puts such a positive sparkle on her approach to life. She makes me smile as she shares three things she’s grateful for in what she terms "our banana-pants crazy 2020."  

Read Julie's uplifting post HERE

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Be Happy

In addition to Julie’s top three on her gratitude list, my guilty pleasure and happy place has been  bingeing on Hallmark’s Christmas movies. 
 
Conventional and formulaic, Hub and I giggle over dialogue cliches and laughingly predict the disastrous turning point that happens 30 minutes before the Big Kiss Final Scene. We know there will be a happy ending. where kindness always wins along with cocoa drinking, tree trimming, and cookie baking. 

btw: also happy to see more diverse actors and story arcs in this year’s offerings!

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50+ Fab Free Children’s Books

Many budgets are tight this holiday season, so I’m sharing a way to light up your Littles with literacy. I teamed with more than 50 children’s book authors for an awesome December Children’s Book Giveaway.

Check out the our collection and download your FREE faves by clicking over to Book Funnel for your HERE
Offer ends 5 January

(btw….you'll spy a familiar feline face in this #DecemberChildrensBookGiveaway collection   ... free chapter download of Just Between Sam and Me -:D.

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​Free Streaming Event: 
Messiah from Duke Chapel
​
This year, our holiday traditions are morphing into virtual streams we can safely enjoy. 

Now in its eighty-eighth year, the annual presentation of G.F. Handel’s Messiah at Duke Chapel is one of the oldest and most beloved musical traditions at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. This year, that tradition continued with a livestreamed Messiah concert on Sunday, December 6.

You can listen to this blissful recording of that concert until 6 January by clicking over to Duke Chapel HERE

Photo: Duke University - Chapel Music Director Dr. Zebulon Highben conducts singers and musicians performing Handel's "Messiah" for a livestreamed concert on Dec. 6.

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Catch you in 2021
 
I'm taking a break from authoring and social media until 4 January. I want to enjoy our downsized holiday celebration for two instead of despairing we won’t be with family for the first time EVER.
​

Maybe we'll  bake cookies
(like they do on the Hallmark channel - Tee Hee)

Or set up Gear-Head Hub’s funky transportation ornament tree, 

Hub's "Transportation" Tree & Ornaments

​We'll sprinkle more jolly holiday villages
throughout our home
to warm the season. ​

Cat's Holiday Village Vignette - Children's Candlelight Service

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Your Turn

What's up for you these last weeks of December?
Whatever it is, my wish for you is to ...

JUST BREATHE,
BE HAPPY,
SHOW LOVE, GRATITUDE
and
STAY WELL!

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