Yankee Doodle Christmas and a giveaway!!

In only three days my friend Sheila has a novelette being released!

Sheila Seiler Lagrand, Ph.D., earned her doctorate in anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, she studied anthropology and literature with an emphasis in writing. You will find her blog on the home page of this site. Sheila is a member of The High Calling. As a young woman she published poems in dozens of literary magazines. She has also contributed to anthropology journals and contributed a chapter to the book Fieldwork and Families: Constructing New Models for Ethnographic Research.

More recently, her work has appeared in Wounded Women of the Bible: Finding Hope When Life Hurts, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (BibleDude Community Commentary Series), and a few volumes of Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has work forthcoming in Soul Bare. 

I was blessed to be able to read an advanced copy of this warm and delightful tale about a bit of a Christmas mix-up.  I also had the opportunity to have a sort of virtual coffee date with Sheila to ask her some questions.  Why don't you go pour yourself a cup of something comforting and join us.

Sheila, your novelette Yankee Doodle Christmas is releasing in just a few days.  That seems like a wonderful gift for a writer. What other gifts would you like to receive this year?

Karin, thanks. It IS a wonderful gift. I would love to receive the gift of time--more time--to spend with our extended family. 

What are your favourite gifts to give?

Something that shows I've been paying attention, I guess. We took three of our grandchildren to the tall ships festival and Ayden, the 9 year old, was very interested in a book about pirates. We bought him one for Christmas. 

Your main character struggles with the need for approval.  What would you say to others who share the same struggle?

Oh, that's a hard question. Because I want to say, "God made you just as you are for a reason. Of course you're 'good enough.'" But I know when I've been in the throes of insecurity, that statement wouldn't soothe my spirit. I might be more likely to pray for that person rather than dispense advice.

What was your most memorable Christmas? 

Oh, that's a tough one. They've all been memorable. Maybe it was the Christmas I spent in the hospital when I was 14, recovering from a ruptured appendix. My parents were there with gifts at 8 a.m. That left a sweet impression on me. 

Coming from the Midwest and now living in Manitoba, to me winter has always meant snow and cold.  How do you make it look and feel like Christmas in California?

We hang lights, put up a tree, decorate, drink eggnog. Sometimes it gets all the way down to the 50s, you know.  And some years it's 80 degrees on Christmas. I've lived here all my life (except for a year in Polynesia, where it's even warmer) so I really don't have anything to compare it to. Snow is something that happens in the mountains and we drive to visit it. 

Mrs. Delsey's butter cookies are mentioned often in your story.  Do you have a recipe?

What a great idea! I don't. Do you?

Now, I ask you all the  same question?  What is your favourite butter cookie recipe?  Share it with us in the comments and you'll be entered to win a free e-copy of Yankee Doodle Christmas as soon as it releases.

Winner will be chosen by random draw on Wednesday night, not by bake-off!

A day adrift

I have spent the day adrift, living in an odd sense of being unattached while at the same time totally connected to my Lord. I have moved in and out of times of prayer. I am in new territory, and every time I plant my foot it feels as if the ground shifts. I imagine it would feel the same walking on a trampoline. But I know that I am indeed rooted and grounded in the truth of His promises.

He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. Psalm 40:2b NLT

Life spins around me with a rhythm of its own and I reach out to grab hold of ... air. Time is both my enemy and my friend. I wonder if time has meaning at all for my father as he drifts in a world we cannot decipher. We, his family, in varying stages of letting him go, cannot know if he is holding on or releasing his grip. Does he know that death comes knocking? Has he yet considered that the sting of death can be neutralized, removed?

Death swallowed by triumphant Life! Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who's afraid of you now? 1 Corinthians 15:55 The Message

I pray in this final span of time my father will indeed be rescued, not from death in this world, for that will surely come, but from eternal spiritual death.

Ron Hutchcraft has been quoted as saying: "Every single person who has Christ in their heart has been positioned by God to be a rescuer to people who are spiritually dying."

I must say yes to His positioning. I must say yes to His timing. I turn again to seek His face and ask Him to show me what it would look like to share with my father.

I see myself beside the care home bed, taking his hand, pale and cool into the wamth of my own. My voice soft, almost a whisper, the feathers of angel wings, as I say "It's okay Daddy. You don't have to be afraid. Jesus is waiting for you." And then, the holy hush of a moment lived in obedience.

I return again and again to the vision on this day adrift.

We will wait for days, or weeks, or months. Time set apart in time. Like a breath caught, our lives and plans continue yet hang suspended.

I have never been good at waiting. The great Teacher is in the middle of His lessons.

Picture found at http://www.alifeadrift.com/2009/02/auspicious/