#blogblitz – Christmas at the Candied Apple Café by Katherine Garbera @katheringarbera @rararesources
Welcome to my stop on the blog blitz for Christmas at the Candied Apple Café by Katherine Garbera. Thank you to Rachel Gilbey from Rachel’s Random Resources for the place on the tour. I have a lovely guest post from Katherine about what makes Christmas magical for her and there’s also a fabulous giveaway but first let’s see what the book is all about.
There’s nothing so magical as Christmas in New York…
Santa is coming to New York!
Snow is falling, excitement is high and the delicious scent of chocolate drifts along Fifth Avenue – the Candied Apple Café is ready for Christmas! And no one is busier than publicist Iona Summerlin. With so much to do, she doesn’t have time to think about men, dating, or the fact her last boyfriend ditched her for her brother… Relationships are off the menu!
Hotel boss Mads Eriksson is not looking forward to the first Christmas since losing his wife. His six-year-old daughter Sofia has lost her belief in Christmas magic along with her mother, and he has no idea what to do. But an unusually festive business meeting at the Candied Apple – and meeting the beautiful Iona – starts to defrost Mads’ frozen heart, and suddenly life seems full of light and sparkle again.
If only they dare to believe, maybe all their Christmas dreams will come true!
What makes Christmas magical for me
I’ve always felt that Christmas is the most wonderful time of year. I love the way my house looks when I come home and turn the lights on for my Christmas tree and then of course the lighted garland that is on my mantle and up the stairs. My kids and I have the tradition of writing clues and hiding little advent gifts around the house. It’s a lot of fun to come up with the clues and we all take turns writing them though I buy and hide the gifts. The clues we use are usually just a little rhyming couplet. As the kids have gotten older the clues have gotten more sophisticated.
Another important part of our celebration in the lead up to Christmas is setting up our manger in the living room. We don’t put the baby Jesus in his crèche until Christmas morning and we take our figures of the Three Wise Men and we have them journey through the house. It’s a lot of fun and I love seeing where they end up. Sometimes when the kids were little a favorite toy would end up on the journey with the Wise Men. One year it was a Pokemon figure and Ron Weasley figurine.
In my family most of our traditions revolve around food and it’s something I’ve passed onto my kids. So we have a Sunday where we pull out the cookie recipes that have been handed down from my grandmother and make those traditional butter cookies and biscotti. We spend all day in the kitchen cooking, eating dough, eating baked cookies, singing Christmas songs and laughing. If I had to pick one thing that I loved the most it would be this.
Then on Christmas Eve we make a traditional seafood supper. It’s not the Feast of the Seven Fishes as some Italians and Italian Americans make. Ours is more of a feast of lobster, crabs, boiled shrimp (prawns) and salmon with a tomato and onion salsa. This is also a time when we are all in the kitchen. When my extended family is together we all take one of these dishes and make it. When it’s just my family of four we do everything together.
Then we watch Home Alone on Christmas Eve and drink hot cocoa with whipped cream and the kids go to bed early. Even though they are university aged now we still don’t put any presents under the tree until they go up to bed. So I do that and then they wake up early on Christmas morning (like 5 a.m.) and we open our presents. I guess every moment I spend with my family makes the holidays magical for me.
What makes it special for you?
Thank you, Katherine. It’s lovely to have those traditions that you do every year.
If you like the sound of Christmas at the Candied Apple Café then it’s available from Amazon UK or Amazon US.
And why not take a look at the other blogs taking part in this three day blitz.
5 lucky winners will win a copy of Summer in Manhattan, Katherine Garbera’s previous book for Harper Impulse.
USA Today bestselling author Katherine Garbera is a two-time Maggie winner who has written more than 60 books. A Florida native who grew up to travel the globe, Katherine now makes her home in the Midlands of the UK with her husband, two children and a very spoiled miniature dachshund.
What a lovely guest post x
Thanks, Kate 🙂