I can’t put up a tree this year, and it’s gnawing at me. There is no point in putting it up, because we are probably moving in less than two weeks. Hoping the contractor will get on with the floors, because we would like to move in before Christmas.
Every contractor I’ve ever hired, with exception of two, has to be prodded. I have gotten to the point when, after reminding them 3 times to do something, I automatically switch to raging bitch mode, and then miraculously they start doing things to placate me. I resent this, because I don’t enjoy being a raging bitch.
I have a mysterious piece of art in progress for you.
What is this, you ask? Nobody knows. Ooo, mystery! We are having to wait while it’s done, and it’s kind of difficult, so now you can be waiting with us. I spread annoyance to the world.
You know what else I’m waiting on? Finishing this novel. We’re about 15-18K from the end, and it’s full steam ahead, and I want it to be done already. We know how it all ends, and Gordon and I just need to vomit it on the screen. I am super stressed out, because Kate is super stressed out. People sometimes ask if the emotions from the characters bleed over. They do. To be able to write emotions convincingly, you have to experience them. So like Kate, I’m super irritated by everything. Kate, at least has an excuse.
I knew the magic was up, because my aunt exploded into our bedroom and roared, “The child is missing!”
I sat bolt upright on the bed. Curran groaned. I realized I was still naked from last night and pulled a blanket over my chest.
“Knocking,” I told her. “Privacy.”
She glared at us. “This is no time to have sex! Your son is missing! I can’t feel him.”
Kill me, somebody. “He isn’t missing. He’s across his street with his other grandmother. You can’t feel him, because I strengthened the ward on George’s house to mask his presence.”
She squinted at me. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I went there yesterday to check on him around one in the morning. I saw him sleeping. Grendel is with him. There is enough werebears in that house to hold off an army.”
Erra considered it. “Very well. Also Redacted and some blond woman are in the car in your driveway, talking. You should probably do something about it.”
She turned and swept down the hallway, right past the remnants of the door she’d broken.
I turned over and bumped my head on Curran’s chest a few times. “Why me?”
I have no excuse. Snarling at the total strangers in the grocery store and internet “because I’m trying to finish my book” isn’t exactly going to win me any friends. So I am going to hide at home today, mourn the lack of Christmas tree, and try to write until I fall over.
Not having a Christmas tree sucks.
Go to H-E-B and get one of those pre-decorated Norfork Pines. They’re really pretty and you can bring it with you to the new house.
Man I’m sorry to hear you’re hurting like that. I don’t have a tree up either as I’m going to be away on holiday over Christmas and I’m moving out of my flat next week so I get your pain.
On the upside you could be in a cool new home for Christmas don’t forget that
When we were doing construction at our home, we couldn’t put up our real tree. I went to a Christmas tree lot and bought a small tree, stuck it in a #10 can with some rocks and put in water. Then I added lights. It was perfect — small, it smelled good and it helped me feel festive. Maybe a little tree would help you?
Good luck with words. And the floors. And all the stuff.
Good idea!
Also, thanks for the awesome snippet.
This is a great idea.
I feel that wrongness as well. My husband’s one job at Christmas is to get the tree from the attic and out the lights on it. I do everything else, and I refuse to let my annoyance evolve into me doing Everything That Is Christmas, so I am waiting for him to do his one job, that I have reminded him about twice now. Sigh.
Just like the Whos in Whoville, Christmas will still arrive. I’m treating the latest snippet as my early birthday/Christmas present from you two. Thanks! I love it.
I’m sorry….have a tree…..
I didn’t put up a tree last year, as I was just overwhelmed by life in December. Life is even more stressful this year…and I’m getting a tree this weekend. I missed it so much!
Thanks for the snippet!
The year I couldn’t do a tree I went to Bath & body Works and got a bunch of the Balsam pine plug ins. Made the house smell nice and festive. Good luck – creating art is never easy. Sending positive vibes.
I have playful cats. Can’t have a tree either. Sigh. It’s like a amusement fun ride for them.
I feel for you.
We used to have cats who did that. We ended up tieing the top of the tree to the ceiling with fishing line to keep it upright. Current cats? One ignores it (“The hoomans are doing weird stuff again”), the other likes to majestically pose (and nap) underneath. (“Ah, thank you, hoomans, for returning my Personal Forest yet again.”)
I have a dog who views all spheres as his ball. His doggy sister has made it her mission to take everything from him. Christmas trees and ornaments don’t do well here. We put out many little trees on tables and bookshelves and the place looks festive and terrific. Maybe a few small ones if you’re moving……
Another cat attendant here. The fishing line trick didn’t work for me. I’d have to hang/suspend a tree from the ceiling as it’s the only way a tree & decorations could survive in my house. However, my eight foot ceilings would still dictate a small tree. There are some serious jumpers here.
On another note, many years ago my aunt put hers inside the playpen to protect it from her young children.
It seems a shame to add to your unhappiness for the sake of convenience. Would a tabletop tree that is easy to move be a compromise?
I can’t even find contractors! Dallas is booming and everyone is too busy. You have a lot to be stressed about. I hope it all settles for you soon.
I don’t have a tree, either. Mine drowned in the harvey flood, and I haven’t replaced it yet. Contractors are due to start fixing my walls next week, so why bother.
For my Christmas spirit I am making candy, made fudge last weekend, cookies perhaps next weekend, and I have stuff for pralines if I can figure out how to keep the cat out of it while it sets (and also stops raining long enough for the humidity to drop enough that it will set).
You have my sympathies.
Great snippet! Interesting art – it looks like a monstrous arm pulling a death head sword…
Sorry your Christmas decorating is temporarily on hold this year.
I thought it looks like a dragon.
You could hang up and decorate a string of garland. It’s still very festive, fun to do, looks good, and is super easy to pack up!
I know you’re moving and don’t need any more stuff, but maybe a mini tree (or one of those rosemary trees with a few ornaments?) would lift your spirits enough to make it worthwhile? Or I have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, complete with single ornament, that you could put on your desk for the next couple weeks. 🙂
My freshman year of college, mom sent me a mini Christmas tree because she couldn’t bear me not having a tree. That was 22 years ago. The tree has since fallen apart, but I hang the little bitty ornaments on our tree.
I love those rosemary trees. It could live on in an outside planter at the new house.
Haven’t put up a tree for last 3 years. I’m supposed to be moving this month or next if I can find a place to rent. Also with my ex in full care and probably dying soon of early onset dementia the ornaments hold too many memories
Sorry about the tree 🙁
*Redacted* … you mean Hugh right?
Totally Hugh and Elara, I think, too.
Sorry to laugh, but that’s what IA does, even when complaining. So witty. Your bitchiness is funny. Mine is just . . . bitchiness.
I feel for you guys, I adore Christmas ? trees…I think a desk top one would be the answer to your problem, small and easy to pop in a box on moving day ?
Hope you get your floors sorted, it’s a pain when people let you down ?
Thanks for the great snippet, and happy writing ✍️ hopefully the stress will lessen as the words flow ?
okay I have looked at the photo, enlarged the photo and squinted with my glasses off… nope no idea.
First if you look hard enough a snake comes to mind… yep I know it really isn’t a snake but in a book world it could be. The next place my imagination went to is a really long hand crafted key chain doo-dad. When I was young you started with four strands of leather or plastic strings tied a starter knot or tied together for a starting point and then proceeded to make a square of alternately woven strips across the box you started. Early version of macrameAOr a rocking chair arm piece?
Love the snippet and sympathies on the xmas tree and nodding in agreement on contractors (who all seem to want you to loose your mind before admitting they’re over extended on jobs and can’t really get to yours).
I saw a 3.5 ft live tree at my local store and thought yep that is about the right size for me. I also saw the oddest item at my local convenience store … a small string of led lights with clips to hang your xmas cards and photo’s from. At my local “stop and go” … do I really do my shopping for xmas things there. Shaking my head at that one.
if you bump up the brightness of your monitor or just have it naturally high since I work in graphics and need good lighting you actually see a hand holding a sword. the hand is clad in some kind of scales but also has some cloth over it, so the scales only peek through. and that sword is spooky and has a face. No idea what it is, but it looks good 🙂
I’m not in a christmas-y mood so I’ll probably won’t decorate at all. I did bring up the stuff from the cellar but the mood hasn’t hit me yet.oh well. the whole decorating thing isn’t a huge thing here in my city anyways. which is probably why I don’t feel like it .
thanks for the info… now I know why I can’t understand some of the pic’s on my screen.
I hate moving. Makes me very cranky and I think its safe to say that’s true of most of us. Doing it during Christmas, extra cranky. We moved 3 times in 18 months, not because we wanted to, but because of life’s unforseen major life turns. I was extra cranky by the 3rd move. So cut yourself some slack. You haven’t hit anyone.., yet.
When my grandparents moved into an apartment, they bought a very small table top tree and my grandmother made really lovely tiny ornaments for it. After they passed, Mom always put it out as part of our decorations. She made a skirt for it and added miniature presents to put under it. After Dad passed and she moved into an apartment, it was her tree. It’s now mine. I love it.
So, maybe a small table top tree might help you feel more in the spirit of the season and help with some of your stress. And start a new traditon.
I have the same problem with contractors. I have added a step before I get to raging bitch which is “aggrieved professional” where I call them and ask (usually to voice mail) to have the professional courtesy of letting me know if they are still planning on doing the work and if they are not able to comply with the terms of our contract, to let me know as soon as possible so I can hire someone else. The voice is important for this – you have to express exasperation and heated anger that is still under control because you are being professional and they are scum. If that does not work, I fall back on raging bitch but I have found that most contractors hate to lose work to competitors and this threat usually does it.
I’m sending hugs your way Ilona. I have a tree with the lights already on it, but I’m not putting it up. Why? One, I don’t have the room. Two, even if I had the room, it’s still raw for me to have one up (had one up when my mom died…. Took it down right away).
I agree with everyone else, have a small tree on your kitchen table or countertop. If you don’t want to do that, a wreath or garland may work too.
If you have to push your contractor to do the floors, do it. You’re paying them money for work that needs to get done. Kate would consider having her sword out to get the contractor to get the job done. Erra would just hit the contractor upside the head (if she could).
Thanks for the snippet. It’s good to know you and Gordon are almost done with the writing! Yay! 😀
Thank you for the snippet! Oh no! can you put lights up on an outside tree? One at your house and one at your new place so you have something shiny to look at no matter which house you are in? 😉
I second and third the comments on holiday-scented room fresheners and table-top sized trees. My preference is always artificial – but that’s what we had when I was a kid and it was always a big production (and a sign Christmas was almost here!) when we hauled everything down from the attic and started putting the tree up.
We decorated mini (roughly 2′ tall) artificial trees for my grandmothers one year, and all they had to do at the end of the season were stick them in a box or bag to keep the dust off, and then pull them out the next year. If your kiddos aren’t too busy, perhaps they could help with that? Then you’d get a little holiday cheer without much additional fuss. Also, if you got finished with the move before Christmas and you didn’t want to keep the mini-trees, then you could donate them to the local hospital or nursing home, and someone else could enjoy them as well, and not have to worry about allergies.
I hope you find a way to enjoy the holidays without getting super stressed out, whatever you end up doing. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I understand your Christmas tree dilemma. We are about to start a big home renovation and we are living out of boxes with no where to put a tree. However, the two little girls are afraid Santa will miss them if we don’t have a tree, so we have compromised on just setting up their small Santa tree.
I have a small pre-lit tree, and it has been a godsend. I never feel like getting the big tree out and assembling it so I just throw the pre-lit in the garage and pull it out at christmas and plug it in – it’s also easily movable if you hang felt/non breakable ornaments. Good luck with all of the projects and merry christmas!
We love you Ilona, even with all your bitchiness… You deserve that this year it seems to have been a bit over the top. But on the bright side you are giving Kate a bang up ending and we have hung on to every word. You have a wonderful new house, that when it is done it will be amazing and you won’t have to fix it for a while. This is the Christmas season, it should be all about the giving, caring and sharing. Like Frozen…Let it Go. Relax as much as you can enjoy your family and friends…and calm yourself. Have a safe and beautiful Holiday Season and remember your readers “who feel like family and friends” cause you share yourself and your family with all of us. We all love you and only hope the best for you and your family.
It Just stinks when you can’t put up a Christmas tree. My sister-in-law had a situation where they lost power for three weeks prior to Christmas. They didn’t want to invest in a tree if they didn’t know if they could light it or even manage it in the dark. She went to Amazon.com and ordered a small tinsel tree and had it delivered. It was 2 feet tall and now it is part of their Christmas traditions.
Whatever you decide make sure you take a little time with the family to enjoy Christmas.
Awww, not having a Christmas tree sucks. When I was in grad school, my apartment was too small for a tree. I got one of those tiny table top ones with a mini string of lights, so I could at least feel like I did something. Good luck, you will make it.
We always wait until the last minute to get a tree, because my husband likes to bargain with the tree guys. You can Grinch right up until Christmas Eve if necessary. Christmas isn’t about that stuff at all. Thank you for the snippet! I won’t have a tree to put it under for weeks yet.
Sounds like my parents. Then we would have the annual “Keep rotating it until the worst side is in the back” installation process. Occasionally limbs would need to be cut off from one side and inserted elsewhere.
I’m pretty sure the appearance of my father on the tree lot was the official sign that it was time for them to shut down for the season.
Buy and decorate some kind of little tree and give it away to someone in need before you move. Someone in a nursing home or hospital
I have a lot of elderly distant relatives and for the most part they would have no trees if we didn’t send mini trees to them.
It’s a lovely feeling to give a tree to someone who wouldn’t have one.
Maybe you should have a tee-shirt or sweatshirt made that says something like: “Apologies in advance. My deadline is looming and I’m stressed-out.” (Will all of that fit on a tee-shirt?)
Or “I’m not really a raging bitch. I only play one when my deadline is looming.”
Or “WARNING: Author on a deadline”
Or “I’m channeling my inner Kate Daniels. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.”
Or “My sword is sharp and pointy.” (Okay, maybe not that one. That one will probably get you arrested.)
OMG, I am totally going to steal your T-shirt idea.
🙂
I love those t-shirt sayings! The last one makes me giggle. 😀
Oops, didn’t see this page of comments. I had the t-shirt idea, too. I had a couple of ideas that were close to a couple of your suggestions.
I personally like the inner Kate t-shirt.
We haven’t had a tree up in a couple years. It makes me sad too. I love decorating them.
But we take the train 800 miles to go home every year. Since we leave the cats at home, leaving up an unsupervised Christmas tree is a terrible idea! Imaging the Christmas carnage…
Sadly, I don’t have to imagine it. I haven’t had a tree for a few years due to cat carnage. Even if the tree doesn’t “fall” down, the ornaments can be brought down like pretty glass birds which, surprisingly to the mighty hunter, shatter as they are bounced around the house. Just too dangerous to leave that unattended, even to go to work. I’ve been looking at a wooden tree that folds into a box for storage and has a STURDY base, but that doesn’t solve the “pretty ball” problem. I just live vicariously at my kids/grandkids houses.
You are the best! Thank you for the snippet. I have a whole day of crazy as a Mom and it was a great way to start off.
I most definitely not thinking about packing for my family of 5 to go visit extended family in another state over the holidays. Family I am so looking forward to spending time with that we are staying at a hotel and have tacked 4 days of pure “vacation” away from them onto the trip also. We are not leaving in less than 2 weeks with 5 holiday events between now and then including hosting a party at our house. Nope, that is not what is happening because that would be crazy and make me a gigantic stress ball…….you are not alone in your pain.
Two thoughts, you might like to get a tiny living tree that you can then plant near your own home. I’m not sure how pines survive in Texas though. And in my house, we follow the Anglican tradition, where a tree is not put up until Christmas Even and only stays up 12 days. We put up other decorations during Advent, but the tree and the baby Jesus for our manger are not put out until December 24th. So, if you get a tree up on the 24th, you can say, it’s what the Victorians use to do.
Right there with you on the christmas tree, we are closing on our new house next week and need to pack and move by end of December. Decided against the tree this year – as there is no point – since I need to pack it all. My poor almost-3-y.o. will have to enjoy the tree at grandparents’ house this year.
p.s. I guess I’m feeling like Kate these days too.
Have you learned yet that “Come here and look at this…” is contractorese for “I’m about to charge you more money”?
I always resent having to trot out ‘the bitch’ or ‘the whiner’, because I’ve fought myself for years to NOT become that person – having spent 30 working years dealing with those and myriad other bad or annoying personalities.
But sometimes, that’s what it takes to motivate other people. And then I tuck it away and become my smiling and appreciative self. [Takes a while to blow off the resentment, though. I always did my job, why can’t they just do theirs?]
You can just get one of those fake little trees (as in small enough to put on a coffee table) and decorate with a few ornaments and a small string of lights. My former roommate bought one one year and it became a tradition for to take it out each holiday season and dub it the “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.” There was no point getting a tree for our apartment since we all went home to celebrate Christmas anyways. It might not be much, but you can have your little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and watch A Charlie Brown Christmas while you’re at it. Also no pine needle mess to deal with!
I haven’t had a tree since the first year I got a cat. Now that my current cat herd has a median age of 14, I still can’t get a tree because the Big Dog thinks vertical things are there for his peeing pleasure and a tree in the living room would just reinforce that belief.
I’ll just have to keep growling “Bah humbug!” when I pass people in the street.
Make a tree on the wall or a door with tape. Then you have something to look at.
And you can write down some annoying messages to other people and stick them on the wall instead of being the raging bitch.
When you have had enough of the messages, turn then around and make christmas ornaments of them with more tape.
Tape some lights on the wall too.
Easy to remove….
Big hug to the family for being in this pre christmas and move stress.
The year my husband had bypass surgery just before Christmas, our son was 9. Had to have a tree, though I had no idea how. Called our neighbor, who has the local Christmas tree farm. He dropped a small tree off in the driveway. In the dead of night, son and I wrestled that sucker into the house, up the stairs, and into the stand. We put lights on it. Anything else was beyond me, since the hospital, where I was spending most of my time, was an hour from the house and time was at a premium. I picked husband up from the hospital in an ice storm on Christmas day. It was the best Christmas gift ever, and the very best tree. I hope you can get some kind of tree. It’s good for the heart.
Thank you for the snippet! Your writing makes us so happy.
We did a full kitchen remodel last year. Contractors – you have my sympathy. The “Aggrieved Professional” approach worked very well when used by my husband. I played the Good Cop. Neither of us was on your kind of work deadline though. Hang in there!
A few command strip hooks, a string of lights and a garland and your wall tree is ready.
pic 2
I haven’t done a tree since the kids left home. Up until my retirement, I did Christmas retail for a boss who never hired extra holiday help. The season started in October. (We did receiving and marking in store. No time for it after mid-November.) The season ended in mid-January, after inventory. One memorable year, I had a two week paycheck that had 80 regular hours and 45 overtime hours.
When my teenaged children asked what I wanted to do about Christmas decorations, I am afraid my answer was to suggest a “Bah, Humbug!” sign, if they could find one. Then I told them they were old enough to decorate the house and their dad would help, but Mama was already pooped and it would not get better until after they were back in school.They did a great job, but nobody did it any more when they left for college.
Do I miss it? I’m not sure. I do put a wreath on the door these days, but the stockings stay put away in December and I don’t tempt the mini-lions with a tree they could destroy. (They’d kill the stockings, too.)
I appreciate a decorated house, but it isn’t mine.
Oh, sorry. I should have started with “Thank you for the snippet.” I am simmering with the desire to just read this book! I know you are working as hard as you can to get it to us, but every time you do an excerpt, I just think how great the book is going to be and I want it.
Do it right, i.e. your way. I will welcome your latest creation as soon as I can. Please, ignore the whining. I will shut up now.
Happy holidays! Happy new house! Happy new year! and thanks for all the books! (fish? No, not fish…)
This sounds strange to me becous we put the tree up at 24th. We eat fish to dinner and sail some candle boats in a bowl (to predict future). And then we give gifts. The tree goes down at 6th january (three kings day). I feel for your lost tree but when do you put it up? When do you put it down? Do you predict future? What are the differences between Russia and US traditions?
No tree pulls a vacuum. We’ve been there a few times. just hanging a few lights does help, or having a small table top tree.
Good fortune with the move.
Thank you for the snippet!
Like the poster above we put our tree up Christmas Eve. I do have other decorations up but no tree. This a tradition from my husband’s side. The hard part of doing this is timing of getting a tree from a farm before they close down for the year.
As someone suggested above. A tiny tree!! What a great idea. I was just going by some trees not long ago and they smelled so good. I think I might do that this year.
My husband puts up a small fake tree in the music room. I hate it. We used to put up big live ones till my back went bad and I can’t put it up or take it down. He is crap at stuff like that.
So sorry about the stress. It’s a bad time of year to be finishing a book let alone an important series. Then the moving thing would break all of us.
Yes, nearly all contractors everywhere seem to suck like that. It’s universal.
I’m slow today. I read the snippet and stopped at Redacted thinking, who names somebody Redacted? I’m also bitchy. Today I can’t win. Excellent suggestions on interim trees. Thank you for the snippet. I laughed at myself and calmed down a bit.
Love the snippet–awfully generous of you to share it amidst the bitchy feelings!
I was in a meeting today and one person remarked that contractors are particularly unreliable these days due to the high-end offers they’re getting for big Harvey remediation projects. They’re putting off the “little jobs” because they can–so much demand right now. Hope yours get down to business soon.
We put up a tiny tabletop Christmas tree one year because we started moving Dec 28. The kids loved it and absconded with it downstairs to play with year round after that. It was worth.
This time of year, I sometimes have trouble not being that way even when I’m not waist deep in book, so many hugs to you, some relaxing coffee/tea, and remember, the end, is in sight.
I’m having one of those days. My thing is that I have to study for my 5 finals for next week, but I just want to be left alone to try to get it done.
I put up drawings of trees since my cat likes to eat real or fake versions. You could have everyone in the family draw a Christmas tree or something similar….it’s not the same, but coloring can be a great stress relief!
Crayola makes so fun coloring pages too.
http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/holidays/christmas-coloring-pages/
Hey, Gordon, I know what you can get Ilona for Christmas. A t-shirt that says something like, “Don’t talk to me. Deadline looming. I am not responsible for my actions if you irritate me at this time.” OR “WARNING: Writer on Deadline. Proceed with Caution.” Ooh, I kind like that one. Then Ilona can wear it out to the store when needed.
Thanks for the snippet. I can’t imagine trying to pack, move, and Christmas shop all at the same time. You’re either a female Hercules or a nutjob. 😉
Oops, Nifty beat me to the punch on the t-shirt idea.
Ditto on all of this. Hahaha
Ilonas? How about Gordon? They can get them in coordinating colors.
Or better yet…
Ilona’s t-shirt: “WARNING: Writer on Deadline. Proceed with Caution.”
Gordon’s t-shirt: “What she said.”
Or maybe his just says “Ditto”. Then she could get a bunch of warning t-shirts and he just needs the one t-shirt.
Tink, I literally laughed out loud at your last T Shirt comment. I showed it to my husband. Oddly, he didn’t seem to be quite so amused. I can appreciate Ilona’s frustration. For reasons I won’t go into Christmas is going to be really difficult this year. I have so much to organise and only a few days to do it but everything and everyone seems to be conspiring to frustrate and annoy. Bitch Queen has nothing on me. Then I read Ilona’s blog and sympathised. Then I read your comment which made me laugh – thank you for that. Then I thought, you know what, all the trimmings and bells and whistles don’t really matter. What really matters is that we will all be together as a family to celebrate. I am focusing on this and counting my blessings.
Short of a cattle prod for the contractors (which some might frown upon, I don’t know why…) “bitch-mode” seems the only way to get it done. When we had our floors installed, I tried: 1) being nice, 2) persistent, and finally, 3) bitchy. Guess which one worked. All I can say is that I gained weight from the stress.
When I read your books, I can feel myself taking on Kate’s feelings. Which is great if I’m chopping away at garden brush, not so much if I’m talking to the hubby.
I looked closer at your art. Someone’s arm holding a very, very scary looking sword. Gave me the shivers!
Howabout a little baby pre-lit tree for your office, to make you happy when you see it :-)? That would be easy and fast to pack on the last day you’re in this house–just pop it in the back seat when it’s time to go. Good luck with book-finishing!
Hey Ilona, I get the Christmas tree thing. I was super excitrd this year because it was the first time in two years I would get to have one.
While I was deployed, I did some thing fun in my barrack space though. I took large sheets of construction paper to cut a tree and fire place and taped it to the wall. It gave my space a festive feel that took no space and I could clean up in minutes when I needed to. Just a suggestion
Go to Lowes. Buy a small, transportable Leyland Ceypress. Also buy a pretty pot to put it into.
This is the year to keep the family heirlooms safely tucked away. Buy some plastic ornaments – there are pretty ones available. Actually, they’re preferrable small cats attracted to shiny objects. (TINK) Also available at Lowes.
With small, live tree, I’d also go with a ribbon bow tree topper.
Redecorate your tree for Easter.
Don’t forget to water your tree until Spring so you keep it alive.
In the Spring, after all danger of frost has past and following proper planting guidelines, plant your tree in an appropriate place at your new home. It will be a wonderful remembrance of this moment in your life. You can call it Kate & Curran’s tree.
Leyland Cypress is the prettiest tree. It is just beautiful with snow. It does take a lot of room. I trimmed mine so I could walk under it and then it did not take as much room. I miss my Leyland cypress trees since moving to Houston and I miss snow.
Thanks for the snippet. Art looks like a jellyfish with a pinecone hanging above it. Wonder what Rorschach would say about that….
Been there. Put up a damned tree. It doesn’t have to be huge. It only has to have lights and shiny things and maybe cookies. Chocolate would help. Did no one buy you an Advent calendar with chocolates behind the doors? Serious oversight. Put up the tree. Eat chocolate and Christmas stuff for one day. Kate will feel much better.
Second Christmas afters husbands sudden death. Then major house remodel after air conditioning and main electrical panel basically blew up. Which then shorted out and burned up ancient washer dryer and cook top. Workers dropped new air conditioning unit through bathroom ceiling. No washer dryer cook top for five weeks. Insisting on tiny Christmas no matter what because I now expect everything to take much much longer. We will endure. Xxoocf
That sounds horribly reminiscent of the remodel on the zendo. I mean, we knew it was going to be a big project – it had been pretty badly neglected and need a lot of work. But first someone removed all the copper piping before last viewing at taking possession (possibly with help from the former owner…) Then the kitchen remodel stalled because it turned out the former owner’s engineer father had cut through most of the main supports for the bathroom above the kitchen, and the bathtub was slowly on its way down… Then we had to re-do the sewer line, which meant digging a trench from the house to the street… Meanwhile, since my lease was up (they’d extended it a month because we were well liked, but they were on an academic schedule) all these delays meant I was living in various folks’ guest rooms while all my possessions were in the zendo garage. It was, um, an exercise in equanimity.
I hope your tiny Christmas goes smoothly.
OMG, did the house inspector report any of that? At that point it’s deep calming breaths all day long and screaming into a pillow as necessary.
We were taking on an extremely distressed property – there were places from the second floor you could see sky – and there were things you just couldn’t tell until you opened them up. Like we knew we needed to replace the upstairs bathroom floor, but not that when we opened the kitchen ceiling the kitchen guy would announce he didn’t feel safe working there until the bathtub was out. (And everyone was in complete sympathy – I am all for DIY, but please understand “load bearing”!) Meanwhile, the head contractor’s father died during the process – again, totally understandable, but a couple of the people involved got pissy about how it affected his schedule and work (the same people who were upset that the floors and ceilings weren’t perfectly level – and they had experience restoring historical houses, and folks, so did I and it’s not happening! We ended up asking those folks to step back from the process.) The sewer line is a whole saga…
I was a bit insulated from the worst – partly because at that point I was still a resident and not an investor (that came later – I wish I’d known, there were a few things that were declared out of budget that I would have just thrown money at had I known I’d end up owning half the place) but mostly because was preoccupied with dealing with a spine injury that would soon lead to surgery. I do love the house – it’s a craftsman place, with nice deep porches, and a wide balcony on back. We saved all the original woodwork (and I really thought one bit of floor would be too warped to save. The kitchen is fully updated (…I still miss my old kitchen) and the zendo is lovely, and a good place for me to practice and teach. And big yards, because it’s Cleveland, where we have porosity where other places have density. Quirky as heck, but there you are.
Just buy a predecorated mini Christmas tree for this year. You can easily move it around wherever you want.
Never say never. It’s rather amazing what one can pull out of one’s sleeve at the last minute (sheer gumption). Five years ago, we closed our B&B and moved on Dec 12 in the snow. A week later on Dec 19th we had to go back and move again since the first move didn’t move everything. Think professional move one week then us a week later, me in tears, in U-Haul’s biggest truck having to find helpers (bless those two brothers) all of us working for 10 hours in a blizzard to get us out of there then driving 2 hours then unloading the next day still in snow. It was so cold. The next day on Winter Solstice, I couldn’t stand the thought of no Christmas and I got a tree, found the ornament boxes, grabbed a bottle of champagne and some glasses, cleared away boxes and put up a tree. My Gordon managed to wire up some carols and my folks showed up. Still a sweet memory of our new home. Never say never my dear. It will be Christmas in whatever meaningful way that is to you and yours wherever that happens to be. ❤️
Sorry but having ruined a vacuum cleaner last year vacuuming up the never ending pine needles on the floor in the living room and everyone else (thank you cats!), I’m happy with no tree — plus having grown up in Hawaii and Xmas trees are really expensive and really pitiful, though the cats and dog miss having something else to screw with during the holidays, I’m not upset one way or the other. Deep breath! More Christmas trees are in your future. Push comes to shove, get a tiny living tree and put it on a counter or table and enjoy it! Oddly enough I do love glass Christmas ornaments so each Christmas I pull out my Radkos and Department 56 or 65 and do my “oh” and “ah.” Puts me in the holiday spirit!!
My friend got a tiny Christmas tree that plugs into her Apple computer desktop. Was cool. Get some kind of small tree and put it up and spend an hour decorating and drinking hot chocolate . You need some down time. And I think it’s a talking sword sooo cool. This is stressful
time. They fired someone last week so I am doing 2 people’s job. Eating a lot of candy .
The markets around here are selling lovely 1 to 2 foot tall rosemary ‘trees’ wrapped in red. They look lovely, smell heavenly and can be replanted in your garden after the holidays. They won’t grow to be a huge pine, won’t drop needles, and add that festive feeling. And, as someone who has helped hubs build several houses over the last 40 plus years, contractors always need prodding. The main problem is that they take on more than one job at the same time. The owner who yells the loudest wins the most time from them. Good luck. Can’t wait to see the pics of your new home.
Oh wow!! I must have one of these!! My Rosemary didn’t survive the summer and this would be two birds one stone! thanks!
Work on advent first, that just a small wreath and 4 candles. Then in your new place, tree of whatever you can manage. By then you should be done with Kate and family.
Go with tree in pot. We currently have a potted balsam fir in our living room decked only in lights. After three days of bitchy, I am soothed. Hubs already has hole dug in yard for post-holiday planting.
I envy you!
You have family close… and you have a reason for a tree…
I live by myself and my family is over a 4 hour drive from where I live… I don’t even know if the days I’ve requested off are actually going to be given to me so I CAN go visit for a day or so.
So I, personally, do not see the need for a tree or decorations… as I would simply need to take them down and put them away after Christmas was over.
Not feeling that work, either.
But thank you for the snippet and for the hope of a wonderful piece of artwork!
Merry Christmas, at least!
Bam. Is it a tree. Is it a hat? No. It’s BOTH.
She needs to be holding a glass of vodka so she can tell people she’s watering the tree.
Too Funny! I remember a few holiday seasons when I wanted lots of water or to give some relatives lots of water.
My sister just produced an aerial show for her teen students involving some kind of Shakespeare theme. I haven’t seen the videos yet (I hope there are videos) but there’s a great one, I assume afterwards, featuring the three witches, all adults, all with stemless glasses of red wine. I was feeling it…
I’ve never had a tree as such since I moved out on my own. (The first shared house I lived in as a teen had a tradition of decorating a hatrack, and hanging everyone’s presents on it, which I remember fondly.) I’ve been more of an evergreen boughs and lights sort of gal, i suppose – my old property got pretty darn dark on the long nights, with all the trees around. (Also, the evergreen boughs I brought in were only a tithe on the trimming back the cedars away from the driveway, and we had some pretty impressive holly.) Yule was about evergreens and candles and keeping the fire going all night long (and pizzas in the brick oven, and too much sugar, and…)
At the zendo I have… a scraggly hemlock. And a lot of ivy. (My vast and beloved white oak is no help for this – and most of the rest of the trees are also deciduous.) So I usually buy winter berries from a friend at the farmers market, and maybe a door swag. Neighbors across the street have offered their holly. Also, I’m busy, and my immune system is really into hating me right now. But it’s also kind of a gesture to the zendo – I’ll give my nod to the season, and then on the 23rd, I’ll fly home. I am so grateful.
I recommend the tiny table top tree. It will help with that empty feeling. You can put on a few ornaments, wrap a single piece of tinsel/ribbon around it and be done. When you move and for after Christmas, don’t take anything off. Pull a plastic trash bag up over it and save it for next year. Then you can glow in the thought you already have a jump on next Christmas’s decorating.
As for the raging bitch syndrome, you can always drop small, delicious snippets. We all would be delighted to help relieve this problem for you. **squints**
Idk what ya’ll see, but the pic is the arm of a warrior holding a sword that has a little ugly face on it.
For a tree, one year I took lights and made one on the wall. Like those artsy trees that swoosh back and forth getting bigger as you go towards bottom. That was fun and looked great at night
I agree with most of the others. Get a small tree and decorate it in your office.
Personally I never decorate, mostly because my mother goes so overboard and I always had to help with that. It takes weeks to do her house. I think she is up to 14 trees this year? Hum, I am not sure. Some rooms have up to 3 in them, all done by theme with matching quilts on the bed and wreaths on the doors. Then there is the village, the cookie jars, the nutcrackers, etc. You get the idea. She also decorates 5 acres outside. (She is in the country). Her house is a showplace and people come to take tours and drive bye outside all hours just to stop and look.
I won’t even get a day off work this year. I have to go in and pre-op the plant I inspect so they can kill the next morning. 🙁 My next day off will be when I have vacation the end of Feb. I will probably be pretty bitchy by then.
You wouldn’t consider going 20 days without food and an artist going 20 days without nourishing her soul is kinda the same thing. You’re allowed a last Christmas tree in your old family home. The memories -your’s and the family’s-make it worth the effort, no matter how small that effort has to be this time.
As for prodding the contractors- In my best
Marie Antoinette voice,
“Let them meet Kate!”
Kate grins savagely, prods contractor with smoking saber, Ilona shrugs apologetically, work gets done.
The mystery picture is cool! Imagining it as an arm covered in blood armor weilding a Living Sword …
Thank you for the snippet! Erra bursting in on a drowsy Kate is too funny!
Encouraging hugs for you!
Wait a moment here. Erra??? Did I miss something somewhere?
Oh yeah the whole book
I agree with the recommendations to get a small tabletop tree. For the past few years my mast cell disorder has gotten so bad that I can’t have a Christmas tree in the house. Didn’t realize quite how much it bothered me till my mom surprised me this week with one of the live tabletop ones in a planter outside with decorations that can survive outside weather. Even a small tree makes a huge difference with regaining Christmas spirit!
Thanks for the snippet 🙂
My parents and I being Russian always put up christmast tree late in the season, because it needed to last until Jan 13 (old new year). Could you get a christmas tree at the last possible moment and just keep it in the bucket until you move? Hug, tea, a nd we all look forward to reading this book, its going to be fabulous! Also moving sucks!
Love this snippet.
I hope you can move as you planed it
Well you got whole bunch of advice so I’ll skip those. I bet that redacted is Hugh
Good luck with the floor
I think it’s Roman with Dessandra.
I love the snippet! ❤Sorry about contractors taking for ever. Maybe get a tiny Charlie Brown tree? Easy to move but can help you feel more festive and less irritable.
The artwork is that an Innkeeper world vampire arm????? Arland’s or Maud’s????
Ooooh, my mind didn’t even go there! Your amazing idea has me wondering if it might be Maud’s cover art!
One year, when moving from the Netherlands back to the States at Christmas time I went to the park and cut a tiny pine branch, which i put in a vase at our hotel room. The kids made paper decorations and we sang carols (badly). Just do something festive and you’ll feel better. Best wishes to you.
Is it a snake necked dragon?
No tree for us this year, we are empty nester this year.
If raging helps, go for it. The BDH can stand it, especially if it helps you with the characters. Also, if you have a local charity that provides trees to those in need, consider a donation.
Just get a tabletop tree. Real, fake, just something 2 feet tall and light that bad boy up so it shines. I don’t have my tree up yet and I think it is depressing me.
Contractors…Oy! Los Angeles had an overpass that needed to come down. They offered a bonus for early completion, and a hefty deduction for every 15 minutes over. They were done several hours early. I think that is how all contractors should act. You should just tell them you expect them to act professionally, they get one reminder to get cracking and stay on schedule, and then you will read them the riot act on the second time. Why waste time? And get creative while being bitchy so you can have fun. Channel your inner Kate.
Good luck with contractors, and get a tree. I mean, Happy Holidays! And I can’t wait for the next book. Any book you write is alright with me.
I hope your contractor gets in gear, stat!
I’m also writing furiously toward the end of a draft, and I’m massively stressed because the characters in my book are massively stressed. I’m glad I’m not the only writer with this issue. 🙂
When it wasn’t practical to get a tree, my husband and I have sometimes decorated a bookcase. It is made of trees, after all. Ornaments hanging from colorful books strung with lights actually winds up being quite pretty, and it doesn’t freak out my engineer dad the same way that wrapping a string of lights around a lamp did (something something electromagnets).
If the point is to avoid creating additional things to pack, though, getting a tabletop pre-decorated tree is probably a better option.
In the office we would have a small tree and use some Christmas wrapping paper on a panel of our cubicle. Garland on top of our old fashioned computer screens and paper on the panel and we were ready for Christmas.
I agree on the table top tree. They can come with lights and decorated and you’ll at least get the Christmas “smell” in your house.
Contractors are a breed onto themselves. My husband has been trying to find one to fix the stucco on his Mom’s house — just about impossible. He’s met with close on to a dozen of them and there’s everything from the job’s too small, they never call with a bid and, the best, the one who’s State contractor’s license is suspend because he hasn’t paid his alimony payments.
But, so lucky for us, your frustration has resulted in a snippet. THANKS!!! ?
I had the same tree problem a few years ago. Can you put up a little 2 foot tree? It would be easy to move.
We have a living Norfolk pine in a pot. Every spring it goes outside on the porch. Every fall when it starts freezing it comes inside and sits on the fourth side of the dinner table like a tall, green member of the family. Two weeks before Christmas the Norfolk migrates into the living room and gets decorated. Every year it gets a little bit higher…
For you…
My sister for several years had a tree quilt about 6 feet tall for her wall. Beautiful and took up less space. The mysterious artwork has a sword with an amazing face as the hilt/guard.
For those of you who are getting a living Christmas tree, try to find one native to the local climate zone. Every year my cousin buys a blue spruce sapling for my aunt. And every year my aunt plants it in her back yard with its own dedicated water line. And every year she watches it die because blue spruce isn’t native to the Coachella valley. There are evergreens that would survive in my Aunt’s back yard, but her daughter never buys them.
Thank you for the snippet!
I just re-read your Innkeeper series and the scene with Helen decorating the Christmas tree is one of my favourites. I tear up still and I’ve read them so many times.
No Christmas tree, but if you look up from your book manuscript and peer out your office window, I do believe you will see snow falling. Enjoy.
Oh. The sword Arland gave Maud in Maud’s hand?
OK so did not have time to go through all the comments so if someone has suggested this first sorry.
I saw a book Christmas tree earlier but I realised likely most of your books are packed up. So what about a box tree. Just add a few yarn pompoms for decoration and when you move it just goes with without a problem.
Hi Ilona and Gordon
That piece of art snippet looks awesome – can’t wait for the full weapon to be revealed.
Ask the kids to put up the tree and then come by the night before you move to take it down. You are such loving parents I am sure they would do it for you.
You sooooooo deserve a tree to make you smile – and vitamins. It’s kind of odd to say thank you for working till you fall over (duty of care and stuff) but thank you.
You know we will love it and you will be no 1 in no time.
O K ‘ Buttercup’, let me just say . . .
Your sweetness & light are a challenge to the dark of our world,
You have overcome the joy & freedom of rampant ‘itchiness & so
You must be tormented until the inner kernel is exposed & they can return
to their knowledge that no one is exempt . . .
Waiting is not an exquisite torment until the moment prior to the reveal
Until then it’s something to look forward to, praise god it Will happen
and the answer to Kate’s query is heart simple, she wanted family
What was she thinking, & what could she possibly remove?
Thanks for sharing your joy
Oh gosh erra! I enjoy her banter with kate alot! Thank you. 🙂
You could get a small one that would fit in a trash bag fully decorated then pop it in and move it when ready. (Been there, done that).
Good suggestion. But might want to use the non- breakable ornaments for this one. (Tiny snicker). Want this tree to help the stress levels, not raise them.
Love the snippet. But what’s amazing is that Kate could talk Erra down by just a couple of reasonable statements. Erra didn’t seem to be in a reasonable mood.
This is exactly what I was thinking! My parents actually had a tree exactly like this, so they wouldn’t have to decorate it every year.
That’s what I was going to suggest, too. I had one like that when I was studying in another city and knew I’d go home for Christmas anyway, so putting up a big Christmas tree in my small flat wouldn’t have made sense. But the small one kept the spirit up. 🙂
Yep. Adjust your standards for 2 weeks. Find a pretty small tree with or w/out ornaments, this can be found, brought home, set up, etc. in 2 hours.
Then finish Kate 10.
Merry Christmas!!!!
Good luck with the move, don’t envy you. Moving is awful at any time, but Christmas? That calls for hard core therapy ?. At least you won’t have to contend with blizzards and frozen pipes and icy roads and furnaces deciding it’s too cold for them to work properly…
That piece of art… The bit on the top right looks just like the flower I have on my Swiss cheese plant (yes, it flowers in Scotland ?). Am I right?
Wow, that looks both alien and tropical! I must do a little digging (ha, see what I did there?) on this one.
Oh, btw, I just assumed the art was a teaser for the next INNKEEPER. *fingers crossed *
It’s a hand drawing a sword. The sword has a face on it. Is it alive?
Ilona, buy a table top tree at Sam’s Club or Costco. Pre-decorated. Put it in your office, so you can smell the green. Take it with you when move, and plant it at your new home. A promise of better things to come. 🙂
Great idea! I need one of these at work.
Obtain some of those plastic headbands that go over the head from ear to ear, some green and red pipe cleaners, some christmas tree star decorations, afix star decorations to headbands with pipe cleaners (take care how you twist the pipe cleaners, you don’t want the ends digging into your scalps). Obtain some silver tinsel and wrap it around some sort of either christmassy top, or one that’s green, and afix it with appropriate clips. (I have a white t-shirt with ‘Hugs! Hugs! Hugs!’ written in red on it that is usually worn during christmas celebrations).
Hey Presto! You *ARE* the christmas tree.
If you really miss the smell, find the nearest pine tree on public land. Attempt to climb it. I think it unlikely you’ll succeed, but the attempt should give the grazed knuckles that handling any pine trees usually results in, which should rid you of the desire to be around pine trees.
The headbands might be too much trouble. I can see hairs getting caught up in it. An alternate is just to look for some pre-made christmas themed hair thingimajigs. I saw some christmas pudding hair ties on a web page somewhere…
Or, another alternative, buy a miniature pot plant/tree (cactus maybe?), stick it in the middle of the kitchen table. Hey Presto! Miniature, portable christmas tree!! (With little to no clean up!) Try to only look at it from the side of your eye and rely on your belief that it is, indeed, a christmas tree.
PS. That wasn’t Roland wearing an illusion of Erra, to which Kate just told the location of her son to, was it?
Hopefully not because, ugh, breast-flashing your dad … (shudder).
If you don’t like a small desktop tree then perhaps you have an outdoor tree you can decorate? They have all sorts of decorations of food stuff for critters so you won’t have to “undecorate” it when you move.
I have’t had a tree since I moved out on my own 30 years ago. Apartment living does not provide adequate storage space for decorations that are only used 1 month of the year. I do like going to Christmas Markets for the holiday spirit – especially the ones in Europe where you can wander around drinking hot mulled wine at night with all the lights on. The one at the Vienna town hall (Rathaus) is my favorite so far.
https://www.austria.info/uk/things-to-do/skiing-and-winter/christmas-markets/christmas-markets-in-vienna
Enjoyed the scene with kate, you could buy a small potted Christmas tree or they sell rosemary cut into christmas tree shapes this time off year.Walmart sells tiny artificial trees and ornaments for desks that would also work.
Go to Michaels, or Walmart, or Target and buy a small 2 or 3 foot Christmas tree and decorate it. It is amazing how much better you will feel. I have 8 of them all over my office at work.
After all the suggestions about decorations I won’t touch that, except to say I hope you end up doing something and feeling better!
As for the contractors and raging bitchiness – if that is what it takes to get something done, go with it! I know you said you don’t enjoy being a raging bitch but try to use those times when the contractors force you into it as a relief from all the stress you are under. I also agree with the comment that you should only give 1 try before going to the raging bitch mode. You already know through experience you are going to have to go there and you will save time and some added stress.
I hope whatever happens you are able to make the move before Christmas. I also hope you and Gordon have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends!
The picture is of an armored wrist & hand holding a cool sword with a wicked face on it. Some of you may not be able to make out details depending on the device you are using to look at it. I am suitably intrigued and will be anxiously awaiting further information regarding this. My imagination went right to the Innkeeper series as well as some others did.
As always, thank you for the snippet. I LOVE Erra and her interactions with Kate!!
My Christmas wish for you is for you to be in your new home (with new flooring complete) by Christmas so you and your family and friends can begin the first in hopefully a long tradition of happy holidays together there. I also hope the peace and hope at the core of the meaning of Christmas is able to help soothe some of the stress (a massage from Gordon wouldn’t hurt! ?). Hugs ??♀️
Could you get a small easily moveable Christmas tree instead?
I would like you to meet Bobby, our Christmas tree this year. We are moving exactly 2 weeks from today (what!!) so I feel your pain. The kids pulled him off my MIL’s gorgeous tree, named him, stuck him in a vase and each put a decoration on him. My kids are definitely rolling with it better than I am. ?
Get a small tree for the table. Be happier!
I don’t have my Christmas tree up yet either. Divorce sucks and I have been too depressed. Also, one grammar error from the snippet:
Yes. I went there yesterday to check on him around one in the morning. I saw him sleeping. Grendel is with him. There is enough werebears in that house to hold off an army
Should be “There are enough…”
Thanks for the snippet—it made my day!!
I love the Kate Daniels books so much!!! I don’t know what I will do when I am done reading them all. 🙁
I enclosed my cat’s christmas tree photo.
Thanks, Melissa
Cheap and easy alternative for the tree. Easy to make, easy to undo.
And pretty…..
Love that idea!!!
We had one of those 4′ $40 pre-lit trees made for outside as our main tree last year because we moved 2 days before Christmas. We set it up on a box of books and put our full sized treeskirt around the box. I think it came out really cute and took maybe 15 minutes (we put a few of our favorite family ornaments on it). Good luck with the move! We thought it was the best present ever to have our new house for Christmas and was totally worth the extra effort. 🙂
Put up a tree now! It can be a Second Advent Sunday Tree…That’s what I would do…and eat cookies and drink hot chocolate under it while growling at the book to write itself faster. No need to wait until Christmas when you can enjoy your tree now 😉
We put up Christmas tree on the Christmas Eve and it keeps up till the Three Kings 6th of January. I can’t see a reason to put it up earlier, because it looses it’s magic with every day.
It would be a sad world if the magic was dependent on a specific date… Magic is where you find it – for one of our palliative care patients we once put up a Christmas tree in july – and it was the greatest christmas ever celebrated.
If you follow your snarl in the grocery store with “I’m Ilona and working on the last Kate Daniels book,” it will TOTALLY win you friends 😀 😀 😀
That art! (if you don’t already know how to enlarge your screen view hit CTRL and then + several times in a row) Oh my gosh. Awesomest sword EVAH! I hope it’s sentient.
Dragon. The unknown picture, I mean. Though your energy when confronting contractors could apply to that word as well. So, not a raging bitch but a forceful dragon getting things done. ??
I’m so excited to read about Erra and Conlan! And I think the sword is a vampire sword of some kind
You need a ceramic lighted Christmas tree.
https://m.bedbathandbeyond.com/m/product/ceramic-led-vintage-christmas-tree/1061260450?keyword=ceramic%20christmas%20tree
?
I literally NEED this book! I’m so excited to see what happens. It’s the last book in the series isn’t it?
B&N has a link to pre-order and a blurb about what to expect in the Magic Triumphs…https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/magic-triumphs-ilona-andrews/1126974320?ean=9780425270714#/
— hang in there!
YAY!!! It’s so good to hear from Erra! I was wondering if we’d see Erra in this book. I had no reason to think we wouldn’t, but she hadn’t shown up in any snippets yet. While I can’t wait to read Magic Triumphs, I will be here waiting for it no matter how long it takes. Thank you for the snippet, I needed that 🙂
Think of it this way:
You don’t have to clean up after the Christmas tree!
Or you can do a Charlie Brown Christmas tree….
Thanks for the snippet!
Wait, wait! I know who that is in your picture!
Channel your inner Azrael, and then, you’ll feel better having gained something for your troubles.
I hope your transition goes better. -C.
Ooh, ooh, ooh! I want to make a guess on the picture! It’s an arm and hand grasping a blade with what looks like a living being on the knife/sword. Could be Erra, or an artist’s rendering of Sarrat. The outline and placement suggests a Russian sickle/scythe. We do know from the first book that Kate was meant to be her father’s gift. She could also be the embodiment of death if the ancient enemy has returned. There is detailing on the sleeve of the arm suggesting three things: armor, overlapping scales, and a pupa representing growth, change, and rebirth.
I feel your frustration. We are moving into our first home next Wednesday. My spouse informed me we will not be getting a tree because of all the house things we have to do. My first Xmas without a teee in over 25 years. The husband is not my fav person right now. Grrr. Thank you for sharing the snippet.
Good luck on your move! Hope everything gets done in time for you to be in your new home by Christmas.
Annnnnd super stoked for this book! Bittersweet eagerness for its arrival. Thank you for the snippet
So, are the strangers in the car Nick and Desandra?
One year we couldn’t put our tree up for multiple reasons: my friend’s Lab puppy was staying with us while she and her family moved into their new house (let me just say Lab tails and trees are not a good combo), a not quite 1 year old who could, and would, climb anything she thought was climbable, and our own moving date of Dec 27. I was so bummed and depressed that I decided to get creative. I pulled out a couple of boxes of ornaments, went and bought some green garland (I didn’t own any garland), and some 3M hooks. I hung the garland from the 3M hooks all around my living room and hung the ornaments from the garland. It was quick, I could still enjoy my favorite ornaments, the dog and child couldn’t reach them, and it was so quick to pack up afterwards when we moved.
Hi, thank you for the snippet!
I have a question, somewhat random to this post, but not sure where else to ask.
Where did Grendel live after Andrea and Raphael got together but while Kate was still at the keep? I searched, and he is only mentioned once in all of Magic Breaks (when Curran says Grendel can anoint people with his vomit). So, since today is an awful day and reading about puppies is the only silver lining, I wanted to ask you.
Thank you so much! Reading your books makes me very happy and in fact, I am currently re-reading the whole KD series because it makes me feel better about, just about, everything.
Ohhh! Nice suspense there! And I feel your pain on the no Christmas tree this year. I’m in the same boat. 🙁
Is Erra getting more powerful?? Since when does she break doors? Wouldn’t she just appear out of thin air? And why specify ‘other’ grandmother? Martha is the only grandmother, isn’t she? Hhmmmm…
The torture! The joy! The anticipation!
I’m in the same boat. My moving van leaves the 22nd and doesn’t deliver to the new house until the 28th. I can tell my youngest is really disappointed.