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The winner of the January 1 drawing is Carol Sutcliffe of New Hampshire! Congratulations, Carol. The next drawing will be held on February 1. I’ll be giving away a copy of VALENTINE BABY, a Silhouette Special Edition with a Valentine’s theme in honor of that day. I’ll post details soon. In the meantime, to enter, just send an email with your name and address to gina.w@live.com.

My husband, son and I spent 8 hours yesterday volunteering at the Salvation Army Angel Tree distribution in central Arkansas. This was our first time to participate in that, and it was such a rewarding and eye-opening experience for all of us! We see the bell-ringers outside the stores and the little angel cards dangling from Christmas trees at the mall and other places, and we’ve contributed to both in the past, but it was the first time we’ve seen behind-the-scenes of the Angel Tree program.

Dozens of volunteers collected the gifts purchased for the children, and other gifts were donated by local retailers and community members. The volunteers separated everything by family and then by child. Everything was numbered and checked and rechecked for accuracy. Volunteers distributed the gifts to the parents, who were allowed to “shop” from tables of toys and gifts for the children who were not selected from Angel Trees. Everyone left with at least a few gifts for each of their children 15 and under. If I heard correctly, over 1300 families were served this year in central Arkansas (I don’t have exact numbers, but I saw gifts for many, many children).

In tough economic times, charitable giving drops — understandably. But many of the organizations are also desperately in need of another type of assistance — your time. Charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army need help year-round, not just at Christmas. If you can only give a few hours to assist the Salvation Army or a local food kitchen or homeless shelter or animal shelter or any other charity that appeals to you, I urge you to do so. The few hours my husband, son and I spent yesterday were more rewarding to us and put us into the spirit of the season much more than any of the many hours of shopping we’ve done during the past weeks!

For all my visitors here who celebrate Christmas, I wish you peace and joy in this special holiday. And to all my family and friends, nearby and far-away, those I know personally and those I meet only through my books and this blog, I wish you a  happy and healthy 2010!

Don’t forget to enter the drawing for the January 1 prize. Click the Enter to Win! tab above for details. I’ll post again on January 1 to announce the winner. Until then, take care.

I’ll be participating in something new for me today, December 16, 2009. It’s a Live Chat at eHarlequin.com from 7 – 8 p.m. EST. This hour is dedicated to Home, Hearth and Teen writers from Silhouette Special Edition, Harlequin American Romances, Harlequin Super Romance and Harlequin Teen. Quite a few of us will be there to chat about romance books, answer reader questions … it’s going to be quite a party!

For details of the other writers who’ll be participating in the chat with me, and for the other chat hours scheduled, check Cafe Social at eHarlequin.com. (Here’s the link: http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/cafe-social/2009-open-house-author-list).

If you’ve never visited eHarlequin.com before, I highly recommend it. It’s a fun and informative site for all readers of romance, and a place to order books that are no longer available in stores. I hope you’ll join me for the live chat tomorrow. It will be nice to “see” some familiar faces there.

Don’t forget to register for my book giveaway on January 1 (click the Enter to Win! tab above for details).

And don’t forget that A VERY NASCAR HOLIDAY, with my story, SECRET SANTA, is available in stores and on-line now!

My daughter Kerry and I did our usual Black Friday shopping frenzy this year. I was glad she was able to come home from New England for both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, though she warned me not to get spoiled to that, since it’s unlikely to happen again during the remainder of her medical residency. We’ve done the Black Friday excursion every year since she was very young (my other daughter and my son having no interest in hitting Kohl’s at 4 a.m., for some reason) and we had a great time again this year. We bagged some bargains, had a nice lunch at Shorty Small’s, laughed and gossiped and people watched. In this tough economy, there were a lot of people out bargain hunting, but everyone we encountered seemed to be in a good mood. We returned home late that afternoon (twelve and a half hours after leaving) tired, grubby and satisfied with our results.

I’ve finished my Christmas shopping now, and managed to stay on budget (using coupons, hitting sales, price-matching and doing some shopping on-line), but I’ll have to watch myself during the next two weeks. Once I start gift shopping, it’s hard to stop. I get in the mind-set of looking for just the right gifts for my recipients, and the problem is I keep finding things I think they’d like even after I’ve made my purchases! I love giving gifts, but our family has long made a practice of not over-doing or going into debt at the holidays, so I have to rein in my shopping impulses.

The best gift this year is that we’ll all be together. Our oldest daughter Courtney is flying in from her post-doctoral position in the Pacific Northwest. Kerry and her husband will have a week to spend with us before returning to her medical residency and his graduate school classes in New England. Our son David will be home from his junior year of college for winter break. There is no material possession that could be a better present for me!

I hope your holidays are filled with joys that money can’t buy.

* If you’re looking for a feel-good holiday read, don’t forget to look for A VERY NASCAR HOLIDAY, on shelves now. It includes three heart-warming, Christmas-themed stories with dashing race car driver heroes. My own story is called SECRET SANTA. For more details, click on the Books Available Now tab above.

** And don’t forget to enter the drawing for the New Year’s Day giveaway of my New Year’s Eve-themed book, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER. It’s a fast-paced, fun story with lots of humor and a little heart-break — but always, of course, a very happy ending. Check the Enter to Win! page for details on how to enter. I haven’t received many entries yet (everyone must be busy getting ready for the holidays), so if you enter, your chances of winning are very good now!

Now, off to wrap …

I love Christmas. Everything about it — the music, the decorations, the schmoopy TV specials, the cold air, the fattening food, the crazy shopping experiences, and — most importantly — the time with family. Yet it is a very busy time, and always hard to get everything done, especially when deadlines loom.

I finished my decorating over the past weekend, and have only a couple of gifts left to buy, and now I have to try to concentrate on work and other everyday responsibilities until my girls arrive from their separate coasts and my son will be home from college to spend the holidays with us.

I put up two Christmas trees every year. One is filled to maximum capacity with the ornaments I’ve collected during our 32 years of marriage — I always pick up ornaments as souvenirs of my travels (though, as I’ve mentioned, most of my traveling is of the armchair variety), and the others all have a story that makes them special to me. The other tree (pictured above) is filled completely with ornaments my husband has made for me either on his scroll saw or his wood lathe (the ones he prefers making). He sells the turned wood ornaments on his website and at the Historical Arkansas Museum Store, but I always sneak a few out of his inventory for myself. This year he made some using sea urchins with turned wood finials — very cool! He had to hide some of them from me so he’d have some left over to sell.

I’ve had quite a few requests by email for autographed books to be given as Christmas presents this year. I’m always delighted to comply — it’s very flattering! — but I do have to ask that if you want any autographed books mailed to you before Christmas that you get your orders in soon. I have a few copies of most (but not all) of the titles on my backlist page. I ask $5 a copy for them, and $5 for priority mail postage for up to 2 titles, check, money order or PayPal. Send me an email at gina.w@live.com, preferably before Dec. 20,  if you want one.

The details for the new contest prize are up. In honor of the January 1 drawing date, I’m giving away a copy of A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, a New Year’s Eve themed book I wrote for Harlequin Temptation in 1997 — a collector’s book! Entering is super easy — just send your name and address to me by email and you’ll be entered in the drawing.

One final note today: Don’t forget that A VERY NASCAR HOLIDAY is available in stores now, including my Christmas story, SECRET SANTA. Details are on the Books Available Now page. Click on the tab above.