Favorite Christmas Traditions by A.M.Westerling

The 25^th of every month is my day to blog here at the Canadian Historical Brides Blogspot. You know what that means – today is Christmas Day. Without further ado, I would like to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and hope you’re having a day filled with love, happiness and good food! I know you're busy today so if you want to opt out now and stop by  again later, that's just fine. Otherwise, read on!

My family has a couple of traditions. The first is listening to Perry Como’s Christmas album entitled Home for the Holidays and it was always the first album we played when we decorated the tree. My younger brother converted it from LP to digital and gave us copies one year as Christmas gifts. I still love it and make sure to play it over the holiday season.

The other tradition is giving out chocolate letters in the initial of your first name. My mom carried that one on for years and now that she’s older and no longer able to manage it, I’ve taken it over for my own kids. Dark chocolate, not milk chocolate is our preference. Seeing as how I'm a romance writer, I will add that these two just got engaged to be married! Congratulations to my son Kevin and his fiancée Kate. :)

And that’s it for today’s post, short and sweet. I do wish you the very best for 2019! 

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Are you looking for something fun to read over the holiday season? How about reading about Rose, Harrison and Hannah and their adventures in Barkerville, British Columbia, Book 4 in the Canadian Historical Brides collection?

Find it here at your favorite online store.

San Francisco Christmas Spirit

Delve into the dawning of New Brunswick's history, the Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, and a forbidden romance, in ON A STORMY PRIMEVAL SHORE. Buy Link Below.

But now on to Christmas memories. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, in a small town called Pacheco. Almost every Christmas we traveled the 25 miles to the Big City where my father's sister, my Aunt Mary lived. Aunt Mary never had children, though she'd had about three husbands. She was a Registered Nurse, but also a free spirit who wore turbans and dangly earrings. Her laugh was uproarious. She was my Auntie Mame.

Aunt Mary as nurse

Christmas in San Francisco was magical to a child: the creeping fogs, the groan of the foghorn out in the bay, and Macy's department store with the huge decorated tree in the store's center.

Not Macy's but similar.

When older, my brother and I would leave the chattering adults and roam the city. We'd ride the clanging cable cars down to Fisherman's Wharf. A freedom most children couldn't enjoy today. I loved the old Victorian buildings, the bustle of the trollies, the fat sea lions grunting on the pier.

The city was decorated with ribbons and tinsel. Giant Christmas ornaments hung from the street lights. The store windows looked like Christmas scenes out of a storybook.

We'd wander through China Town, with the shops set up on the sidewalks.

By the time we returned to our aunt's apartment, a delicious dinner would be served. My beloved aunt and brother are long gone but I'll always have these wonderful memories from my childhood.

To purchase my books at Amazon or All Markets: Click HERE

 

For more information on me and my books, please visit my website: www.dianescottlewis.org

 

Diane Scott Lewis grew up in California, traveled the world with the navy, edited for magazines and an on-line publisher. She lives with her husband in Pennsylvania.

If I Could Change Anything, What Would It Be? by A.M.Westerling

I have to honestly say - nothing. I wouldn't change a thing in my life. The challenges I've faced and the decisions I've made over the years have shaped who I am and I'm happy with the face that stares back at me in the mirror every morning. Crows feet, wrinkles, odd ball freckles and all. I would add grey hair but ahem, my hair dresser takes care of that. *wink*

Some of the decisions I've made? In university I opted to take engineering rather than music. I'd played piano for years and even taught but in the end I decided I didn't want to be a piano teacher the rest of my life. Luckily enough, I had the marks and the aptitude to become a chemical engineer, along the way acquiring my husband, also an engineer. After working a number of years, we decided to open our own engineering firm and although my husband wanted me to keep working for the company I was with at the time (something about a steady income and paying bills) I insisted on joining him. Initially we had some scary times financially as we had our boys  at the same time (maybe planning wasn't our forte) but over the years we became so successful that a larger firm bought us. We joke quite often how we went from two jobs no kids, to two kids, no jobs. :)

Anyway, it allowed me to retire at an early age and that's when I became serious about writing. Not just any writing, but historical romance because after all, who doesn't love a Happily Ever After? Especially because I feel as if I'm living a romance novel with my own Happily Ever After!

My day of the month to post on the Canadian Historical Brides Blog is the 25th and of course today is Christmas Day. I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year! May the joy and wonder of this season stay with you throughout the upcoming year and may all your dreams come true. 

Speaking of historical romance, Barkerville Beginnings is available at your favorite online retailer: https://books2read.com/u/bQB6Mv or order print copies at your local book store.

Would I Redo by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

 

http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/
 

When I was in school, I wanted to travel and my dream job was to be a stewardess as they were called back then. I studied French, German, and Russian so that I would know some other languages for when I landed and maybe stayed over in another country. In my last year a job show was held at my high school and I went to talk with the representatives from an airline. She was dressed in her uniform and was very nice.

     I explained that I wanted to be a stewardess and asked for information. She told me that I had to be a certain height and weight, which I was. She said that all stewardesses had to wear a girdle even though their figures might be perfect. I was okay with that. Then she told me that anyone who wore glasses could not be a stewardess. I was devastated, since I needed prescription glasses but seldom wore them. I went to an optometrist to get contact lenses. This was when they were still made of hard material and my eyes could not adjust to them.

     So I gave up my dream of being a stewardess. However, I married, had wonderful children who have given me wonderful grandchildren and went on to become a writer. I travelled extensively through British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon and Alaska, when writing my non-fiction backroads series.

     I belong to a dragon boat team and I have taken part in international festivals in Caloundra Queensland Australia (spent four week visiting the sites of Queensland and New South Wales then a week in Fiji) Sarasota Florida USA, (my husband and I travelled through two provinces and nineteen states on our way there and back home) and will be going to Florence Italy in 2018. While there I hope to visit many other European countries. I’ve also been to Japan and China. So not being a stewardess has not stopped me from doing the travelling that I wanted to do when I was younger.

     Just a note: my sister owned the Canadian Tourism College in Vancouver for many years. One of my granddaughters took her course and is now a flight attendant. She doesn’t need to wear a girdle and, while she doesn’t wear glasses, today it wouldn’t matter if she did.

Risalamande, A Traditional Scandinavian Christmas Recipe by A.M.Westerling

My husband is Danish and this is one of the fun little customs we keep going.  

Risalamande - Danish Rice Pudding

1 cup pearl rice

5 cups milk

¼ cup sugar

½ cup slivered almonds

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups whipping cream

Cherry Sauce

Boil rice in milk over low heat 45 minutes. Cool, then add sugar, almonds and almond extract. Whip cream until stiff and fold into rice mixture. Chill. Turn into bowl and top with Cherry Sauce or spoon into individual dessert dishes and top with sauce. Makes about 12 servings.

Cherry Sauce

1 16 ounce can dark sweet cherries.

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Reserve about 1 teaspoon cherry liquid. Turn remaining liquid and cherries into saucepan and heat to boiling. Blend cornstarch with reserved liquid and stir into boiling mixture. Cook and stir until well blended, then cool sauce and chill.

Now here comes the fun part. Place a whole almond in the pudding and whoever finds the whole almond wins a little prize, usually a marzipan pig. As our family has grown, I now use 2 almonds.

This recipe comes from the late 19th century so perhaps was not made during the time of the Cariboo Gold Rush.

Barkerville Beginnings is available online here

A Recipe for a Holiday Dessert by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

 

 

The following is a recipe for a dessert that I made for many years for my husband’s birthday and Christmas and when requested for other gatherings. It is simple to make but takes a while because you have to let it cool between layers. It is very rich and each person only needs a small piece.

 

Cherry Delight

Bottom Layer

1 ½ cup graham crumbs

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup melted butter

Mix these together and pat down into a nine by nine inch pan. Put in refrigerator to harden.

Middle Layer

1 cup whipping cream

1 4oz package softened cream cheese

¾ cup icing sugar.

Whip the cream until almost stiff. Blend in cream cheese and icing sugar and beat until mixed well and stiff. Spread on bottom layer and return to fridge until set.

Top Layer

Open a can of cherry pie filling and spread on top.

 

Enjoy