Live to Love on the Edge Blog

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13 Things to Do on the Holiday Countdown

With Christmas Eve just over a week away, it seems time to do the countdown of things still left to do for that big day! So here goes:

1. Make a list.

2. Check it twice.

3. Find out who has been naughty and who has been nice. (LOL! Okay I’ll get serious now).

4. Keep to budget for gifts that I still need to buy.

5. Check the pantry and make a list of what’s needed for Christmas Eve dinner.

6. Coordinate with Sis who helps out with the meal.

7. Make sure hubby has my favorite Gloria Estefan Christmas CD ready for the night.

8. Wrap. Or maybe find some nice gift bags for all the goodies.

9. Call friends and see how they are doing.

10. Send out Christmas cards.

11. Buy some more people and cars for the Christmas Village. It’s looking a little lonely.

12. Write. Write. Write.

13. Remember it is Christ’s birthday and thank the Lord for all my blessings.

Take a moment to share what’s on your holiday to-do list.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!

Since I mentioned the Christmas Village, I thought I’d share this little slideshow I created of this year’s Christmas Village that my daughter and I put together. If you can’t see the video below, you can click here or cut and paste this link: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1703762830471

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Murder, Mayhem & Chocolate

Today I’m doing a holiday visit over at the Carina Press romantic suspense authors blog on which I’ll be writing off and on during the course of the coming year – NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS.

So what do murder, mayhem and chocolate have in common? Why not pop on over and visit with me and Bobbie (aka Sunny) Cole as we discuss those three key ingredients for a romantic suspense. LOL!

And just in case your feeling the winter bite today, let my personal assistant (don’t I wish!) bring you a little something to chase away the chill or try the marvelous Chocolate Chile Recipe over at NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS.

Caridad's Personal Assistant

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Cheese Puff Olive Appetizers

This weekend we had our holiday party at the fabulous Liberty States Fiction Writers and there were so many wonderful treats that the members brought to share with friends.

My friend and fellow author, Chris Redding, baked these tasty cheese puffs and has been nice enough to share the recipe with me! So here goes:

Ingedients:

    4 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
    1 cup butter (Either softened or melted)
    2 Cups Flour
    2 Dashes Worcestershire Sauce
    Jar of pitted olives

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

2. In a small bowl, mix together cheese, butter, flour and Worcestershire sauce. Knead the dough. Pinch the dough into small balls, flatten them in the palm of your hand, then roll each circle of dough around one olive. Arrange the wrapped olives on the cookie sheet.

3. Bake for 15 minutes until lightly brown.

Now just a hint to keep these light and flaky. You may want to first use a pastry blender to mix the flour and butter before adding the cheese and Worcestershire sauce. Also when kneading the dough, don’t work it too much or it will get hard.

Chris’s cheese puffs were flaky and totally delicious!! When not heating up the kitchen, Chris is firing things up with her new romantic suspense release, INCENDIARY, from Sinful Moments Press, a division of Lachesis Books. INCENDIARY hits shelves tomorrow, December 15.

Incendiary by Chris Redding

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Guilty Pleasures Monday – Naughty Santa and a Visit Down Under

Imagine it’s the day after Christmas in the Carrera-Bradford household (Yes, Liliana is too modern to just drop her family name). After days of visits to their Irish and Mexican families and celebrations packed with food, Jesse has to work off a few of those pounds. Since he’s still in Santa mode, why not a little red to keep the holiday cheer going and share his gifts with Liliana?

Jesse Bradford as Naughty Santa

Now I don’t know about you, but this Naughty Santa can come visit any day and not just on Guilty Pleasures Monday!

But it’s a double day of fun here since I’m also taking a trip down under to visit my friend and fellow author Jenny Schwartz at her wonderful blog. Take the trip with me and find out what inspired AZTEC GOLD, my vampire E-novella from Carina Press which will be available online on January 3 and also available as an audio book (more on that as soon as I know the release date).

You can click here to visit Jenny’s blog!

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Fun Friday – Christmas is almost here!

Saturday we went and chopped down our tree in our annual holiday tradition. The weather was brisk, but not too cold as we traipsed through the fields, searching for this year’s victim… I mean tree.

We went through a number of different evergreens, avoiding the kind that had drawn blood last year with incredibly prickly sharp needles. The white pines were looking a little yellow due to bouts of warmer weather the week before so we walked and walked, avoiding holes and stumps from prior years. Finally we found a patch of odd-looking pines. Some kind of cedar I suspect from the smell of the small round we cut from the end, another holiday tradition. Hubby has a box filled with a piece of the stump from every Christmas tree since my daughter was born, each one carefully labeled with the year.

After dragging it home on the roof of the Jeep, we set it up and began the decorating. As always half the lights were dead, so we ran out and bought some new LED bulbs. Very bright and they’re shaped like the old ones hubby and I remembered from when we were kids. Hopefully I won’t have to replace them again next year.

So today’s Fun Friday is a little video of our tree selection and decoration! Hope you all have a fun weekend!

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Thursday 13 – Holiday Favorites

With Christmas just over two weeks away, I am struggling with work and writing deadlines and getting the house ready for Christmas Eve, and yet there is no denying that I am getting in the holiday mood. I love this season with all that it represents – love for each other and sharing that love through the simple things like a hug or a smile. For Christians like me, the celebration of our Lord’s birth and embracing the principles of love and respect for all humans, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion. The important things, you know.

But there are also the little things that bring a smile and lift the heart and so today I am sharing thirteen of those little things that elicit joy in me during this holiday season!

1. Christmas carols. Love to hear them and sing them.

2. The smell of roast pork on Christmas Eve morning.

3. Hot apple cider.

4. Hot chocolate.

5. Christmas lights.

6. Santas. One year we were on a train filled with dozens of Santas on the way to Santacon. What a blast!

7. The Nutcracker. We go to see the ballet every year as part of our holiday tradition.

8. Christmas trees. Love picking one out and decorating it (look for more on this on Fun Friday).

9. Exchanging gifts with friends and family.

10. A child’s face on Christmas morning as it lights up at the presents Santa brought.

11. Watching Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original animated one).

12. Christmas Eve dinner with family and friends.

13. Going to NYC to see the holiday windows, the tree in Rockefeller Center and the pond at Bryant Park.

Hope you enjoyed today’s Thursday Thirteen. I welcome you to share some of your favorite things about the holiday season.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!

As a P.S. – This is a photo my Christmas village from a few years back. It’s still in the works this season and I hope to finish it soon!

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Wicked Wednesday – When Jesse Meets Liliana

Jesse's Back on STRONGER THAN SIN Paranormal RomanceToday I am sharing with you…Jesse’s back! What a gorgeous back and shoulders!

Wait no excerpt? Okay, so I’m also sharing with you an excerpt from STRONGER THAN SIN. This excerpt is the first scene in the book where Jesse meets Liliana, but where you also find out that the two have crossed paths before and not necessarily in a nice way.

Hope you enjoy today’s wicked excerpt! If you cannot see the excerpt below, you can also click here or cut and paste this link into your browser:

http://www.scribd.com/full/44895991?access_key=key-1cp9uzv5yubl1fdl8u2s

Stronger Than Sin Jesse Meets Liliana Excerpt

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