I am still amazed that today is December 31st. At times, it seems like this year has dragged on and would never end. Other times, it has flown by so quickly, if I didn’t have my calendar I’d be lost.

2008 was a year of many firsts for me:

• I signed with an agent.
• My oldest son made his First Communion.
• My family celebrated many holidays without my grandmother.
• I started a new decade. 40 is the new 30, right? That’s what I keep telling myself.
• I worked a full year since 2000.
• My agent shopped (and still is!) one of my manuscripts.
• The first anniversary of my grandmother’s death passed.
• Many of the books I worked on at NPM were published.

I’m sure there are many, many more – but these are the ones that come to mind first.

But there are so many others that happened in the world – just look at the USA election. Two women were running for two of the highest offices, and an African American man won. We certainly do live in amazing and changing times.

I believe that 2009 will be a wonderful year even in spite of the Big 3 problems and sagging economy. If we all live with doom and gloom attitudes, isn’t that what we expect to experience? I certainly don’t want that. I put enough pressure on myself; I don’t need to be adding anymore, thank you very much.

May you have a healthy, joyful, and safe New Year, and may 2009 be a year in your life that you’ll remember. Make every day count.

Peace.

~Kris

A holiday gathering of my family is never quiet – laughter from young and old is as ever present as the holiday we’re celebrating. Add some jello shots and there’s more laughter from the adults than the kids!

My older sister talks about her famous jello shots a lot. I’ve never experienced them, so at Thanksgiving I suggested that she bring some to Christmas. Of course, I say a lot of things and I’d forgotten about this simple request.

My sister didn’t.

When she arrived at my other sister’s house, she came with these really cute candies and a bowl of jello shots. The kids wanted the candies, and the adults wanted the jello shots.

Now it’s been years since I’ve had one, but that was no deterrent for me remembering how to down the jiggly concoction. She made margarita, pina colada, chocolate covered cherry, lemon drop, and her own special fruit punch. Of course I had to sample them all. They were yummy. Just like any other leftover, I even brought some home!

Even though we had something new this year at our holiday gathering, it was still the same – family, food, and love. I wouldn’t change any of it.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season ~ no matter which holiday you celebrate!

Peace,

Kris

I hope this finds you well and warm. Here in SE Michigan, it’s raining. The youngest asked me if we were going to have a green Christmas. The older one said that if we had a green Christmas, we’d have a white Easter. These boys.

A few days ago I sent out my holiday cards. I was a bit late, I’ll admit. I thought about not sending any this year, but that’s not nice. Last year I passed on sending cards out because my beloved grandmother had just passed away and I was no mental mood for writing cheerful greetings. This year, I was just too busy. I didn’t send out nearly as many as I should have.

When I took my small pile to the post office, I should’ve taken a camera with me. The box was so stuffed with holiday cards that it actually looked like tax season! I still have that image stuck in my head.

We are having a quiet holiday tomorrow. I don’t host Christmas – my second oldest sister does. I’m responsible for bringing carrots and salad this year. Easy peasy. I’m sick of baking cookies – I baked something like 6 or 7 batches in the last 2 weeks. Enough is enough! But they are good. We don’t have any hockey until Friday, and that’s just a practice. HockeyBoy is doing a 3-day clinic next M, T, and W. What a surprise, right?

I wish you a safe and joyful holiday season.

Peace,

~Kris

Why do my children insist on getting up at 6 am? Every day? First off, today is Sunday. It is one of the rare days that we don’t have anything on our calendar this month except perhaps church. I say perhaps church because we are on again off again attendees. Not very good, I know, but heck I’m trying.

Secondly, they are on break. They have the next two weeks off, and again we have NOTHING to do today. It cheeses me that they get up so early, come downstairs, and make a ton of noise. Even if I wanted to go back to sleep, I can’t now because they’ve insisted on telling me that they’re coming down and well, I’m awake.

I shouldn’t be surprised; they’ve been like this their entire lives. No matter what time they go to bed, they wake up between 6 and 6:30. I hate to say this, but I’m looking forward to when their bodies make them sleep in a bit longer.

So, I know this is a stupid rant, but I’m tired, cranky, and now see that we’ve gotten more snow.

Oh well…happy first day of winter!

Peace,

Kris

With the year ending, it’s no surprise that we are all busy. Now my kids are off until January 5th, and I wish I could spend the days with them lounging, playing in the snow, or just enjoying a movie. But I’ve got to work in between all of the holiday gettogethers. The extra cash will be nice, but I really miss the downtime.

The boy’s break started a day early with a snow day. About 6 or so inches were dumped onto our little part of the world. Others just north of us received a foot of new snow. The county has cut overtime so most of the roads were not plowed until late today. The main road right outside of our subdivision still wasn’t plowed at 8pm tonight. They’re also cutting down on the amount of salt they’re going to use. Not because of a salt shortage, but because of the money issues hitting Michigan. So I spent the day feeling like I was bahaing through my suburban town.

I still can’t believe that Christmas is less than a week away. Time to start wrapping.

Peace,

Kris

This is a bit early, but I know that none of the current books will be published by year-end. I though I’d share with you those that were published this year.

I’m proud of all the books I’ve worked on as well as those that I continue to work on. There are two books that will most likely be published in January, and then I’ve got four others in my pipeline.

If you interested in learning more about these books, or any of those published by Ferne Press – including the seven-time award-winner, Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?, please visit Nelson’s site.