Oh you lucky, lucky ducks! In honor of the holiday craziness season, the Pond is giving away not one, but two recent historical western releases from Harlequin Historical!
Alaskan Renegade by Kate Bridges
In need of a bodyguard on her mission into the Alaskan wilderness, nurse Victoria Windhaven is shocked to recognize the hired gun as none other than Brant MacQuaid—a man she had thought never to see again! Brant, now a notorious bounty hunter with a burning passion for justice, had once betrayed her.
But closely confined in the stagecoach by day, and even more closely combined under the stars by night, Victoria can’t help but dream of turning this renegade into ideal husband material….
Her Colorado Man by Cheryl St. John
When eighteen-year-old Mariah found herself pregnant and unmarried in her small Colorado town, she disappeared. One year later, she returned with a baby—though minus the “husband” who had conveniently ventured off to Alaska’s gold fields to seek his fortune….
But now, with handsome adventurer Wes Burrows turning up and claiming to be the husband she had invented, Mariah’s lies become flesh and blood—and her wildest dreams a reality!
One random commenter will be chosen from the comments on this post. All you have to do? Since both of these were November and December releases respectively, we want you to share with us your favorite winter holiday tradition. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, anything goes! Any of the November or December holidays will do 🙂
Contest will close on December 13, 2009. Both copies were purchased by the blog and are not signed. Contest is open to all.
Hoo boy! I love Christmas. I don’t go crazy decorating, I’m not particularly religious, we don’t even go overboard with gifts (much). I just love the feeling of contentment I get from seeing my kids excited about giving and receiving (oh let’s be honest: receiving). I also love the feeling of tradition and connection.
And I like Western romances 😉
My husband and I have a Christmas Open House where we invite all our friends and neighbors to drop in for some Holiday Cheer. We bought the Christmas tree today so decorating tomorrow and there is a chance of snow!
I really love Thanksgiving dinner, because of having family together, but I really enjoy my Christmas trees. It’s a toss up.
I have 7 “children” (the oldest being 23, now) and we have done everything from home-made popcorn balls to pulling taffy. Still, my favorite is decorating sugar cookies. Everyone gets involved and we always wind up with 10 times what we need but it’s fun!
The mr & I make pizzelles every christmas time. I mean to send them to family & friends, but we wind up eating them all instead. =)
I enjoy decorating the house and putting up the tree for Christmas. If the kids are around to help then we all have some eggnog.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but my favorite specific tradition (which I sadly won’t get to do this year) is decorating the tree with my mom while listening to our favorite Christmas carols. We always start with the same Johnny Mathis CD that’s been my mom’s favorite since I was a child.
Favorite winter memory….driving and looking at holiday lights with my Mom 🙂 Every December we went out almost every week night to drive around and look at Christmas lights. It was magical 🙂
I love me some westerns so I would love to have one of these! My favorite tradition is going to my sisters house on Christmas Eve for a hugh dinner and to open gifts. My sister’s house used to be my mother’s house so it was the house I grew up in, its going home. We have had this tradition for years. Also enjoy putting up my tree and decorating the house.
Sledding down the hills of my old home in Illinois with my cousins…oh how I loved the snow. Now I worry sometimes about the ice beneath, but I loved the past when all I worried about was whether or not I’d have a snow day.
I enjoy Thanksgiving, when we all get together and have a good meal. Especially since I usually don’t have to cook it.
My favorite tradition growing up was our yearly trip to Oregon. We lived in CA and every year (no matter the weather) we would go to Grandma’s house for the holidays. My other grandparents only lived 1 block away…so Christmas Eve was spent with both families together (it was a heck of a party) and then on Christmas morning we would open our gifts and have a quiet Christmas dinner (everyone was recovering from the night before). Those were great times and I miss them dearly!!!!
Best tradition ever : baking cookies !! Great contest today, count me in PLease !
Best tradition is going out to see the city Christmas lights and enjoy the Winder Wonderland fair thats on. The whole family goes out for that – great fun!
My favourite winter tradition is putting up and decorating our Christmas tree at the beginning of December each year – one whole month of admiring the tree! :o)
Hi everyone! Good luck to you all in the draw! I’m happy to be included with such fine company as Cheryl St. John 🙂
Christmas Eve is always special at our house. We always go for a long walk in the snow around midnight and then open some presents (not all). No snow yet here in Toronto, though. I’ll have to put in my tape of White Christmas and dream of some!
We have 3 traditions that I love. The first is a Thanksgiving one. On Friday, we have a bunch of friends over for a dessert leftover evening. Everyone brings all their leftover desserts and the kids eat all the desserts and the parents hang out over coffee and… well… desserts. The original idea was to get rid of all the stuff that all us moms would eat over the long weekend, and just a great way to touch base with friends. And since dessert is involved, even as the kids have gotten older, none of them are willing to miss out on this evening.
Since I’m Jewish and my husband is not, we’ve always celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas. We began both of these next traditions when the kids were tiny. I went through a Martha Stewart phase and made my own Christmas tree skirt. Each year we have the kids paint their hands and put their handprints on it. I’m amazed when I see how they’ve grown from tiny toddlers into men. This is what they most look forward to each year when we decorate the house for the holidays.
Last, each year at Hanukkah, we read the story of Hanukkah from the Rugrats Hanukkah book. We started this when my oldest was hooked on the Rugrats (he was about 3). Now, it’s just fun and silly, but in its own way still reminds us what the holiday is about. The kids get a big kick out of it, and I hope that it will remind them of how important it is to do something like that with their own children.
My favorite is watching A Christmas Story over and over. I can’t get enough of Ralphie.
Our family comes together (even the ones a state away) for a week of fun; sometimes if we’re really good, we get to open presents on Christmas Eve. 🙂
I love Christmas! It makes me feel like a child again, although I’m already 37.
we’re all celebrating in my parents flat with a huge tree (8,9 feet) with real candles and lots of cookies. the whole family (that sounds much but in fact we’re only 6) is sitting around the tree and each of us reads his favorite Christmas story to the others.
each year one of us gets the task to invent a new Christmas story, that’s always funny. this year it’s my turn – I’m still waiting for inspiration…….
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree while listening to Christmas music.
My friends and I started a cookie exchange a few years ago. We each bake 6 dozen cookies (everyone does a different kind) and bring them to the host’s house and drink some wine as we sample the cookies. Then we each go home with 6 dozen different types of cookies. Holiday sugar nirvana!