Even though I don't really like cold weather, my favorite holiday are the "season" beginning with Thanksgiving, through Christmas, and Hogmanay, which is a Scottish holiday that gets celebrated along with New Year's Eve. Why? I love family gatherings! When the weather gets cold and depressing, nothing cheers me up like getting together with my family, whether there are gifts involved or not. It's the hugs, the catching up, the pictures--everything makes me happy! Thanksgiving is always fun, even though I really don't like turkey. Instead, I love the side dishes! My husband's sweet potatoes with maple syrup, brown sugar and nuts, with a splash of rum. I make homemade cranberry sauce--super simple, and super good, even plain! My sister-in-law makes broccoli casserole with cheese. YUM! Christmas was always Mom's favorite holiday, since she grew up 8th of 10 during the Depression, in a large Polish immigrant family in Chicago. No toys or gifts ever, so she made sure that our family never lacked for them. We didn't feel spoiled--just loved. Hogmanay was special to me faither who was from Glesga. He said that when he was growing up, Christmas in Scotland wasnae a big deal. New Years was, because they celebrated Hogmanay. How? At midnight, you eat homemade shortbread cookies (I make them every year.) You drink ginger beer, or have a wee dram of Scotch. Then the next morning, on New Year's Day, he remembered visiting all of the bars in the area. There would be lines outside of them, filled with women, and blond and red-haired men. Tradition says that the first person through your door, for good luck all year, must be a tall, dark-haired man, with a piece of shortbread in his pocket so you'll have food all year, a lump of coal in another pocket so you'll have heat, and something to drink that will keep you warm and happy all year. My dad would get pushed to the front of the line, because the barkeep wouldn't open the door until there was a tall, dark-haired man at the head of the line. Dad got free drinks everywhere he went! No wonder it was his favorite holiday! I don't usually feature holidays in my books, but in Never Too Old For the Game of Love, and Recipe For Love, Reyes Family Romances Books # 1, and 2, there are scenes crucial to the plot that take place during "the season." In the first book, Tegan and Alejandro realize separately, at Thanksgiving, that they are developing feelings for each other, when their affair started out as just one hook-up weekend a month, when her ex has the kids. She has them for Christmas, but she and Alejandro spend New Years in a very romantic cabin in the woods. In the second book, Patti hosts Thanksgiving, and her ex tries to ruin the day. The biker she hired to help her cook in her diner, puts him in his place--leading to a romantic encounter Patti and J.T. have both been waiting for! What are favorite holidays of other authors? Check them out: /www.longandshortreviews.com/miscellaneous-musings/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge-for-may-6-2020/ Lisabet Sarai is an author that I really enjoy. When I say that she writes hot stories, that's an understatement! I always enjoy her books. So when she offered to host me, to help introduce people to my female spies, I jumped at the chance. Head on over to her site for an exclusive totally hot excerpt from Secret Lover-- lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2020/05/falling-in-love-can-be-deadly.html And while you're at her site, check out her latest book: D&S Duos, book six, that has 2 stories in it. Lisabet often writes about the blending of pain and pleasure. This book is no exception. lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2020/04/happy-walpurgis-happy-release-day.html Searing tales of erotic surrender. Muse--Of course she’d dreamed of being a slave. The passion leaked out, even in the tamest of her kinky scenes. Détente--I can’t help it. I’m dizzy with instantly kindled lust. He nips at my lips, probes me with his tongue. He drinks me in, consumes me. Between my thighs everything melts. Excerpt – from “Détente” I tried to choose, ten years ago. I married David, traveled the world with him, settled down, as much as I’m ever likely to. My ties to Eric wouldn’t let me rest. I would dream of his voice commanding me, his hands alternately caressing and tormenting me. I craved the sensation of him ravaging me until I was too sore to walk. I yearned for the near-telepathic connection we shared when he called me to his dungeon and bound me to his service. “Give me your body – give me your mind,” he had whispered in my ear on that night long ago, when I was young and impressionable, before I’d ever met David. Malleable, he called me, gently mocking. Indeed, he molded my desires into strange and fearful shapes. Lust, obsession, love, whatever you want to call it, it flowed between us like currents of fire. Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough to keep us together. His sensitivity could turn into irritability. His sense of power could dwindle to miserable inadequacy. He was intuitive, but didn’t always share his insights. I was young, as I said. I reacted instinctively to his desire, but I didn’t really understand his heart. I thought that I was nothing more to him than his slut, and never would be. Meanwhile David exploded into my life and swept me off my feet with his quirky gallantry. We skinny-dipped under the full moon, drank vodka and pondered philosophy until dawn, spent entire Sundays in bed feasting on each other’s bodies. David wrote me poems and sang me the blues. He took me to the strip clubs in the seedier part of town, then later plowed me with long, slow strokes while we fantasized about the dancers. He recounted picaresque tales of his travels, bus trips through jungles in Sumatra, hurried couplings under the bridges of Paris, epiphanies in the mountains of Peru. He promised to take me with him on his next set of adventures. I married David. Eric still hasn’t forgiven me. ***** You’ll find information and excerpts from all Lisabet’s books on her website (http://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html), along with more than fifty free stories and lots more. At her blog Beyond Romance (http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com), she shares her philosophy and her news and hosts lots of other great authors. She’s also on Goodreads, Pinterest, and Twitter. 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Contemporary Erotic Romance
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