A Merry Crazy Craig Christmas & a Contest

Winner! Winner. Rfhater you won. Please send me your snail address to christie (at) christie-craig.com to send the card. Thanks everyone one so much for playing along. The guesses were funny. But a lot of you guys were right on.

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Merry Crazy Christmas & a Contest. Win a $15 Barnes & Noble gift card by guessing what’s under my tree. Contest posted a bottom of blog.

It’s December 18th, Saturday morning, as I sit down to write this blog. It’s seven o’clock and the rest of the house is asleep. The house is quiet. I wish I could tell you not a creature was stirring, but there is one. I hear it in my attic. I don’t know if it’s a raccoon, squirrel, or a possum. While it may not be in the spirit of the season, I’m gonna have to get hubby to throw some of that bad-smelling stuff that runs them off.

I haven’t finished my Christmas shopping yet. My tree stands outside my back door—naked--and waiting to be brought in and decorated. I think I’ll have to rinse it off first, I’m pretty sure my son’s dog mistook it for a fire hydrant. Not that it surprises me; he mistook my living room furniture for chew toys. The tree is a part of the gift our son gives us annually. And for some reason, they get bigger every year. The tree this year is probably seven and half feet tall. Heck, the animal in my attic probably used it to climb up to the roof.

I know I’m a bit behind with pulling Christmas together, but that’s okay. In the last eight weeks, I’ve finished Don’t Mess With Texas, the first book in my new series through Grand Central, I got the proposal done for the second book in the series, I did the revisions on my second YA, I gave two workshops and did one book signing. And for getting ready for the season, I plan to shop today, decorate tomorrow. Besides, the important Craig Christmas ritual has already been done. We all tracked our butts down to the mall and had dialogue with Santa. And that, by the way is the one and only Christmas decoration I do have out. Our yearly Santa pictures.

My daughter called me a few days before we had the date with the jolly ol’ soul, and told me she was taking my granddaughter out to buy her an outfit for the Christmas pictures. I envisioned some traditional red or maybe green dress. Ahh, but my daughter is for sure a chip off the ol’ block. She came back with a pink tu-tu skirt, and a bright pink shirt. We love traditions at the Craig house, but we’re always flexible. Being flexible brings a bit of craziness to life, but it also brings some laughter and memories.

My 22-month-old granddaughter was perfect sitting on Santa’s lap. She was mesmerized, not frightened, not crying, just in awe. Of course, she proved she had the Craig genes in her when, an hour later while sitting at a nice restaurant, the little angel dressed in a pink tu-tu looked at the waiter and announced, “I farted.” Hey, that will be one Christmas memory I’ll cherish forever and remind my granddaughter of for years.




The food I cook for Christmas day will be the turkey (Yes, I’ll be sticking my hand up a turkey’s butt again this year) and the dressing, mashed potatoes, and fresh green beans, rolls, gravy, it’s a pretty traditional southern holiday meal. Normally for Christmas Eve we have a spread of snacky foods: chips, dips, crackers, cheese, and usually some kind of fancy bread to make subway-like sandwiches. But this year, my fisherman of a son-in-law asked to cook us all fish tacos. Fish tacos may not scream “Christmas Eve” but hey . . . it works for us. As long as I don’t have to clean out its inners...gulp.

Now, I know I’ve blogged about this before, but here at the Craig house, opening gifts is always the highlight. And it’s not because of the gifts. It’s the game. We write clues on every gift and the person opening it has to try to guess what it is. You have to be fair; the clue has to be legit, one that when they open it, they think… “I should have guessed it,” but we purposely make it hard. I’ve already gotten about four calls from my daughter, who was itching to tell me the clues she’s written on the presents for everyone else. She told me yesterday, “I bought you some neat gifts. I don’t know if you’ll like them, but when I saw them, I immediately came up for the perfect clues, so I had to get them.” I have a feeling guessing my gift this year is going to be hard.

Not that I don’t plan to get even. I’ve bought a few gifts for the clues, as well. So what are all you doing for Christmas? Any crazy traditions you have? Below is the contest. Make sure you send your answers to my email posted below.

Contest

Guess what’s in the package. Below are three clues I’ll be writing on gifts that go under the Craig tree. By the way, there are also clues in the blog post that could help you guess.

One clue for my daughter’s gift is: Right there. No, to the left, no, to the right.

I have a gift to my son that states: It could be a foot long, or half that. But it costs more than five dollars.

One for my son-in-law states: It may be hard to swallow, but I think you’ll actually use this.

Can any of you guess what those gifts are? To the first person who guesses two of the gifts correctly (yes, I know they are hard,) I’m offering a fifteen dollar gift card. Email me your answers to christie (at) christie (-) craig.com. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from The Craig Family.