Where Romance and Suspense Collide

Author: sandra@sandrakerns.com (Page 3 of 16)

#9 on SMJ’s Christmas Countdown

Find a Great Book for Christmas!

IMG_20151210_081114Hey everybody! I don’t know about you, but I love books. Of course, you already knew that since I help promote Sandra’s books. What you don’t know is I love going to the library. I think I got that from Granny. She lives behind a library and walks over a couple of times a week. Man, can that old lady read.

Anyway, I stopped into the local library the other day and took some pics with the trees theIMG_20151210_081031y have displayed around the place. This one was pretty cool with all different kinds of ornaments on it. I liked sitting by it. It made me feel as special as a present.

This one has hats and scarves on it. I think, but I’m not sure, the hats are going to be given to kids who don’t have hats to keep their heads warm in the cold. It was decorated by the Loomy Knitters and is appropriately called the “Hat Tree.” Pretty cool for the library to do something like that. I liked that they used the hats to decorate the tree. It looks like the tree is playing dress up.

This next one might be my favorite. It’s called the “Oragami Tree.’ All the ornaments, IMG_20151210_080928eve the gold star on top are made with paper. That’s a lot of folding and creasing. I hope it wasn’t one person doing all the work. Can you imagine how long that would take? Some of these ornaments are really detailed. Although I’m usually not into white trees, this one really shows off the paper ornaments.

These three trees were brought to you by the Loveland Public Library. Right now they have a special Winter reading program going on. Click the link above and you can learn all about it. Kids from K-12 can win prizes for reading this winter. Cool deal!

If you visit the library, I’ll bet you can find some of my favorite Christmas books. A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, The Night Before Christmas, and of course the original The Christmas Story about baby Jesus. Sandra has a set of all four books and they’re pop-up books. In The Night Before Christmas one there’s a page where Santa pops up while putting presents under the tree. In The Christmas Story, the first page has a donkey and lamb that pop up. These were the books she read to her boys at Christmas time before they grew up. She still has them and someday her boys will probably read them to their kids. It’s one of those Christmas tradition things.

So, do you have a favorite Christmas book? Leave a comment telling me what it is so I can go to the library and check it out.

Time to go grab a book to read before I go to bed. Until next time!

SMJ

#8 of SMJ’s Christmas Countdown

Christmas Cookies Can’t be Beat!

SMJ in tree

 

Hi everybody! SMJ here, hanging around in a tree. Can you see that blue sky through the branches? How about the green grass with just a touch of snow on the ground? Well, that’s Colorado for you. One day we’re freezing and the next we’re out in our shirt-sleeves. I love it! It gives me the chance to get outside and climb trees or just run around without getting so cold I turn blue. Just in case you didn’t know, blue isn’t a much better color for Sock Munkees than green.

Okay, I guess it’s time to go back inside and get to work. I know I’m still two entries behind, but I promise, I will make them up eventually. I just know how much you enjoy having pictures with the posts and sometimes the internet doesn’t cooperate with getting the pictures where they need to be. So, onward!

Today’s main focus is cookies. Christmas cookies! Well, maybe not Christmas cookies technically. I mean, we didn’t decorate them or make cutouts. I guess I’ll have to get Sandra on that. She’s the residenSock Munkee baking cookiest ‘Betty Crocker’ in this business. However, Casey and I baked some chocolate chip cookies. Yum! One of my favorites. Here’s a link to a bunch of cookie recipes you can try.

Her you can see how I carefully placed the cookies on parchment paper so they wouldn’t stick or burn. They’re perfect, right? You will also note that I used a pot holder to get the tray out of the oven. I didn’t want to get burned. Just the burst of heat when we opened the oven door was hot enough for me. Safety first!

This might be a short post, but I did want to offer you a cookie. Sorry, I got hungry waiting for you and took a bite, but it’s just a little bite. I hope you think they’re as yummy as I do.

SMJ sharing cookies

Sandra needs to go run some errands so this is goodbye for now. Don’t forget to leave a comment answering this question. What’s your favorite cookie of the season? Inquiring monkeys want to know!

Signing off,

SMJ

SMJ’s Christmas Countdown Day 7

Decorating the Christmas tree. Yippee!

Sorry, everyone but I have to interrupt the tree decorating post for a special announcement.

I met SANTA CLAUSE!

Sock and Santa at Christmas Party

Remember I told you about Henderson Management donating a bunch of goodies for our Christmas packages? Well, they also host a Christmas party for children of their tenants every year and I attended. My mom works for them. Anyway, she asked if I could get my picture taken with Santa and they said yes! I was SOOOO happy.

Okay, SMJ and Christmas Lightsback to decorating the Christmas tree.

Like everyone else, I started with the lights. Obviously, that didn’t go so well. I was trying to untangle them when someone plugged them in. It startled me and I ended up in the middle of the tangled string of lights. It took quite a while for mom to get me untangled. By the time they freed me and we got the lights on the tree, I needed a break. So, mom fixed me some hot cocoa.Sock with Hot Cocoa in Sandra's favorite mug.

Mom’s the best. She even gave me extra marshmallows! Can you read the mug? We borrowed it from Sandra. It’s her favorite mug. My mom gave it to her as a gift one year because Sandra always says her characters talk to her until she writes their stories down. I like to use it once in a while in the hopes that characters will start talking to me and I can become a writer like Sandra.

Okay, if you haIMG_20151116_093513ve been following the countdown, you know I really decorated my tree earlier. You remember the picture with me hanging the shoes from the Mastering the Brides book on the tree? No? Here’s a picture of me with the shoes and other ornaments I wanted to put on the tree. It took some time to talk mom into puttiIMG_20151116_094218ng shoes on the tree, but I pleaded my case (and maybe whined just a little) and she gave in.

Of course, she wasn’t thrilled when I climbed up the tree to hang them. She told me I was supposed to use a step stool or some such thing. Personally, I thought climbing was fine, but then, I AM a monkey. 🙂

Next post I’ll show you some of the Christmas treats I made.

So, do you have characters talking inside your head? Or, have you silenced them by writing their stories? Any Christmas stories?

Until next time, this is SMJ signing off.

SMJ w/Day 6 of Christmas Countdown

CHRISTMAS TREATS FOR SOME

MILITARY PERSONNEL!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to post this quick before I have to go run errands. I have a LOT of errands today, so I’ll post more later. At least, I hope to get back and post more later.

I know, I said I’d post about decorating the tree I brought home yesterday, but I had something very important to do last night and I wanted to share that first. My ‘uncle’ Karl is floating out in one of the oceans somewhere with other U.S. sailors. I told Mom and Sandra thought it would be a great idea to send them some stuff. Mom told the people at her office at Henderson Management and they offered to help. I mean REALLY help. IMG_1013 (1)Look at everything they donated to our cause! I guess you can understand what I was doing last night. That’s right. I was boxing all this stuff up. I’m certain all the sailors will enjoy the treats.

We alsoSMJ addressing Christmas cards for sailors got a list of some military personnel and worked up cards to send. I had to pose for a bunch of pictures and then we picked out four of them for the card. I hope the people like them. To the left you’ll see me addressing envelopes, oh and there’s a shot of the card, too. Do you have any idea how long it takes to address envelopes to almost 200 different people? I definitely had writer’s cramp after that endeavor, but it was worth it. I knoSMJ stuffing envelopes with Christmas cards for sailorsw the silly pictures of me will give a chuckle to a lot of folks who can’t be home with their families for Christmas.

To the right, you’ll see me stuffing the cards into all those envelopes. It took more than one cup of cocoa to wash all the yucky taste off my tongue after sealing them. Then again, I’d do just about anything for a cup of cocoa, wouldn’t you?

So, here’s the final pic for now. What do you think of that stack? Huh? Pretty good work, don’t you think? Okay, I’ll admit, Mom and Sandra helped a little.

Well, now you can see why I’m getting a late start today. I slept in after all that work last night. One of the errands I have to run is trying to mail everything. Hopefully, the lines aren’t too long aSMJ with stack of Christmas cardsnd the mail people won’t think I have too much to send. If they let me, I’ll post pictures of sending them off later.

Have you sent cards or treats to some military personnel? Leave a comment letting me know so we can share the love all over!

Until then, have a great day!
SMJ

Sock Munkee’s Christmas Countdown Day 5

Sock Munkee picking his Christmas treeSock Munkee Picks a

Christmas Tree

Hey, welcome back everyone. Today was so exciting!

It wasn’t easy. We had to go to two different tree farms to find the perfect tree. Let me tell you, those farms are not little. I had to go all over both of IMG_0237them until I found it. Then I had to chop it down. It took FOREVER with my tiny little hatchet, but I was determined to do it myself. Mom offered to help, really, but I was adamant. I have to admit, it was kind of exciting to yell, ‘Timber!” when I took the last swing. After it fell, I had to drag it out to mom’s car and we tied it to the top of the car.

Before we left I couldn’t resist a patch of snow I found. IMG_20151204_063838I mean, I was so hot from all that work chopping and dragging. Mom didn’t want me to get all wet since I didn’t have a coat on, but I just had to do it. I rushed over, fell backward into the snow and made a Sock Munkee snow angel. When was the last time you made a snow angel? We don’t always get a lot of snow here, so I had to take advantage of it. What do you think of it?

So, after mom tsked several times, we climbed in the car and headed home. I was worried something would happen to the tree, but mom promised me it would be okay. I was very happy to find that she was right when we pulled in the driveway.

I couldn’t wait to get the tree inside and start decorating. Mom popped that balloon fast. Once we got the tree in the stand and watered it, she said we had to let it ‘settle’ over night. I guess the branches need time to warm up and relax a little after being out in the cold so long. All I know is I had to wait another night to get my Chrismas tree decorated. At this rate, I might not have it ready in time for Santa to put any presents under.

Okay, okay, I know I’m whining. I just love decorating for Christmas.

Do you like decorating for Christmas?

I’ll get back to you later.

SMJ

Day 4 of the SMJ Christmas Countdown!

Decorating the Office for Christmas Countdown!

Granny and Sock having cocoa and coffeeOkay, I promised you pictures of Lil Sock and I decorating Sandra’s office. Well, things didn’t turn out quite as well as we’d hoped, which is why I didn’t get back to you as planned. Plus, Sandra and I had to take Granny for coffee and shopping. This is Granny with me at Dazbog. They have really good hot cocoa there. Sandra and I had peppermint in ours. GranSocks and Christmas lightsny had a latte of some kind. I get too confused with the fancy coffee names so I can’t tell you what kind of latte. Back to decorating.

As you can see here, Lil Sock enlisted the help of another Christmas Sock Monkey who lives in Sandra’s office. I think the idea was to untangle the lights, but instead they tangled them around each other. I have to tell you, it is really hard keeping these two on task. They got really excited at one point and just had on GREEN Christmas lights. Of course, someone chose that moment to take my picture. I look like some crazy space alien or something. I don’t think green is my best color. It’s cool for Kermit the Frog, but not so much for Sock Monkeys.IMG_20151204_064136

Believe it or not, we Sock Munkee with Christmas Decorations on deskclimb all over the bulletin boards and monitor hanging lights, they decided it was cool to be in the office. They even made me clip them to the monitor so they could hang around like a couple of ‘real’ monkeys. As you can see, some of the issues with decorating were because Sandra has such a messy office. I think Santa should bring her a professional organizer for Christmas. She needs one.Christmas tree in office

There was one thing still missing from the office. You guessed it. A Christmas tree. Granny is really getting up there and didn’t want to put one up this year. I don’t know why. The one she had you don’t even put together, just pull it out of the bag. It’s even got the lights permanently attached. Sheesh! But, it worked out for us because she let us have it for Sandra’s office. It fit perfectly next to the printer. That way she doesn’t have any excuse about not working. It isn’t ON her computer or the printer. She has several projects in the works so I can’t cut her any slack. If she want’s Christmas day off, she needs to get busy! A Munkee can only do so much.

The really great news is we got the technical difficulties at my house fixed. That means the next post will be about more of my holiday activities.

What kind of holiday activities are you up to? Have you decorated yet or do you wait until closer to Christmas? Inquiring Sock Munkees want to know!

Until next time, this is SMJ signing off.

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