I Need A Production Crew! AJ Nuest. Christmas Blog Event

Only ten days left until Christmas and my ‘What Every Woman Wants Beneath Her Christmas Tree’ blog event continues! Now through Christmas an author or vendor will be swinging in every two days to share a part of their holiday with us. Each and every featured guest is leaving something under this blog’s Christmas tree for YOU to win. In addition, everyone who comments between now and December 25th is entered to win a $100 gift certificate to Amazon!

Today and tomorrow, it’s my pleasure to welcome over romance author, AJ Nuest who will graciously be giving away an Ecopy of Jezebel's Wish to one lucky commenter.

Let's hear from AJ...

Help! I Need A Production Crew!

As the married mother of two, our family looks forward to Christmas with all the fervor and enthusiasm due middle-class American family. The day after Thanksgiving, we begin pulling out decorations, making wish lists, and scouring our favorite cookbooks for that one special recipe.

One would think this ensures our holiday goes off without a hitch, just like all those Christmas specials on television.

The happy family sits down to a delicious home-cooked meal. The stockings are hung above a roaring fire and the tree displays a stunning arrangement of hand-crafted ornaments. The children are perfectly behaved. Mom is gorgeous, her hair a bonnet of perfection, her stylish dress wafting around her knees while she floats around the kitchen in a pair of spotless high heels. Dad comes in from shoveling the walk and smiles at her in that special way, handsomely attired in his new Christmas sweater. After dinner, the children don their pajamas, kiss Mom and Dad on the cheek, and trundle off to bed. Mother and Father share a smooch under the mistletoe and glass of wine before the crackling fire. Christmas carols hum romantically in the background and a pile of shiny wrapped presents are stacked neatly under the tree. Everything is perfect.

I don’t know about you, but this ain’t how things go at our house.

Mom gets up two hours earlier than normal to start the preparations for the evening meal. Thinking she has more than enough time, she puts off showering and whips her hair into a ponytail using the rubber band off the asparagus. The children wake up and grumble for breakfast. Realizing she forgot to buy eggs, Mom wakes up Dad and asks if he could please go to the store. Dad grabs a coffee and heads out the door, only to return moments later and announce the car has a flat tire. Mom gives the children a candy cane off the tree for breakfast, hands Dad the checkbook, and returns to the kitchen.

The children decide to go sledding. Mom leaves the stove to gather gloves, scarves, hats, snow pants, and boots. She spends a half hour negotiating with daughter that even though last year’s snow pants have a small tear in the left knee, they will still work, and can she please stop arguing with her brother about who gets to ride the sled first.

Mom returns to the stove to find the hollandaise sauce burned beyond recognition. Dad enters kitchen reeking of motor oil and announces that he is just now heading to the store. Daughter reappears from outside, crying because she fell off the sled. Mom calms daughter down and hands her a second candy cane.

Roast gets inserted into the oven. The cat tears into the kitchen batting a glass ornament across the floor. Mom returns the ornament to the tree, only to find the bottom half is bare and the ornaments have been scattered throughout the living room. An hour later, the tree has been redecorated and the pine needles vacuumed.

Dad comes back from the store with a gallon of milk, enough double-A batteries to power Chernobyl, and an extension cord. Daughter pulls out painting project and arranges all her supplies on the dining room table. Son decides it’s time for band practice and spends the next hour banging out the same rhythm in his bedroom. Dad disappears to fix a string of broken lights on the front of the house. Mom returns to kitchen, pours a glass of wine, and peels potatoes.

The children decide to build a snowman. Mom leaves the stove and realizes the first set of gloves, scarves, hats, snow pants, and boots are soaking wet, lying in puddle on the utility room floor. She ransacks the closet for new gloves, scarves, hats, snow pants, and boots. A half hour is spent negotiating with daughter that even though she has to wear her brother’s hand-me-down snow pants from last year, no one will notice. They’re navy blue, for God’s sake.

While the children are busy and the husband has a task, Mom cleans up painting supplies, changes into sweatpants and begins (yes, begins) wrapping Christmas presents.

Four hours later we sit down to our Christmas Eve meal. No one has showered, the kitchen is a disaster, and Mom is on her third glass of wine. The cat walks into the dining room and barfs up a gelatinous combination of pines needles and candy cane goo for our viewing pleasure.

THIS is the way Christmas dinner goes at the Nuest household. And while it’s chaotic, loud and messy, I wouldn’t change a thing. Except maybe this year, I’m thinking of hiring a production crew.

Sky here. WOW, you have your hands full, AJ! The idea of hiring a production crew sounds fantastic. LOL. Wishing you and yours a wonderful Holiday Season!

AJ Nuest lives in northwest Indiana with her loving husband and two beautiful children. She is the Senior Editor for Still Moments Publishing, and the author of two contemporary romance novels.

Visit her on the web at her Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter.

Email: ajnuest@yahoo.com

Purchase Jezebel’s Wish at The Wild Rose Press and Amazon.

Watch a book trailer for JEZEBEL'S WISH



Don't forget to comment for a chance to win. Contest ends Saturday, December 17, 12 AM, EST.