Tracey Alvarez's Blog, page 3

Monday Morning Mumblings

Can you believe it’s one week until Christmas?
In this crazy-busy time of year, I’d like to ask you guys a favor. And that is: be kind to others and be kind to yourselves. That mother dragging a screaming toddler with her through Walmart might’ve just lost her dad to cancer during the year. That person who takes the last parking spot at the mall might have had a day from hell and forgotten to buy his wife a Christmas present. That shop assistant who smiles while trying to deal with a rude customer might’ve been dumped by her fiancee the night before. That elderly man moving like a snail through the supermarket aisle might be spending another Christmas without family…again. We just don’t know what goes on in other peoples’ lives, and other people don’t know the stresses that can dominate ours. So especially around this time of the year, be kind to yourself. Don’t worry if your presents aren’t perfectly wrapped (or if there aren’t presents), just be present. I’m sure your family would rather have a happy, healthy you than a perfect (or what you think is perfect) day.
I’m taking a break from my Monday Morning Mumblings for a couple of weeks over Christmas & New Year, but I’ll see you back in 2017. So until then, wishing you all a wonderful Christmas or happy holidays, and a peaceful and joy filled 2017.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite You-Tube sensations, a funny kiwi guy and his adorable baby in How To Go Grocery Shopping with a Baby by the How To Dad guy.

 

Monday Morning Mumblings

 Yesterday we put up our Christmas tree and I learned two things.
One, my Miss 16 has developed a touch of OCD about decorating it. She decided on a ‘theme’ of red, gold and silver and no matter how much I begged she wouldn’t let me hang the glittery, purpley-blue ornaments. This is payback from when she was a kid and I would quietly go around after her and her brother hung baubles and space them out more…evenly. Okay, so she gets it from me!
The second thing I learned, much to my relief (so far!) is that Kevin and Alfie my naughty fur-boys, aren’t as interested in the tree as I feared. I say ‘so far’ as it hasn’t been up 24 hours and the two of them have a habit of destroying things. Let’s not talk about what they did to the living room blinds! Kevin (pictured below) contributed to the festivities by catching a mouse in our living room (OMG!!). He was MOST unimpressed when Miss 16 and I started shrieking and my DH had to confiscated it from him.
Anyway. For now our Christmas tree looks pretty and perfect in red/gold/silver with presents underneath…unfortunately, somewhere in that pile of presents Miss 16 wrapped some cat treats for the boys…ulp. I’ll keep you updated.

 
Meanwhile, here’s a hilarious commercial about a Christmas CATastrophe!

12 Days of Christmas!

 

Christmas With You e-book is currently on Sale for $0.99!
Available from:
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Excerpt from CHRISTMAS WITH YOU
“Give it your best shot. Show me what you can do,” said Carly.
Kip glowered at the roll of snowman-printed paper, scissors, and tape dispenser, lined up on his right side like instruments on a surgeon’s sterile tray. After dinner, he’d muscled the coffee table away from the couch, and the two of them had kneeled on the floor, surrounded by shopping bags and gift-wrapping crap.
If his mates could see him now…they’d laugh their damn asses off. He wouldn’t blame them.
Carly, opposite him, wore a wide this is gonna be hilarious grin.
Perfect.
If making a dick of himself was the only way to make her happy, he’d play the fool. Given his talents with gift-wrapping were approximately as good as his talent with floral arrangements; he’d have her in stitches in no time flat. Though he didn’t want to think about why it’d become important to hear her laugh—a sound that filled his stomach with tickly feathers and made him grin moronically in return.
“Come on, how hard can it be?” She nudged the first of the two Lego boxes closer to him. “It’s the easiest one to wrap.”
“You promised—no female commentary or advice.”
He shot her a sharp glance, and she mimed zipping her lips, her eyes—still a little puffy—dancing with humor. Puffy-eyed or not, she was beautiful. Breath-stealing, gut-wrenchingly, heart-palpitating-ly beautiful. Keeping his hands off her during dinner had taken a feat of willpower equivalent to that of a starving man sitting at a ten course banquet and managing not to eat.
“All right, then.” He shook out the wrapping paper so it unrolled in a long tongue across the carpet, then he stuck out a hand, palm up, without glancing at her. “Scissors. Hit me.”
Scissors slapped into his hand. Shuffling along on his knees toward the end of the roll, he measured a length that he figured should do and hacked across the paper. Boo-yah! Half way there already. So far, so good.
He dropped the scissors and held out his hands. “Lego. Hit me.”
She passed the box, and he placed it at one end of the paper. Grabbing the edge, Kip flipped the sucker end over end until he ran out of wrapping.
Hand out—“Tape.”
The dispenser hissed and clicked as Carly tore off a strip and stuck it on his fingertips. He slapped it on, ordered her to hit him again. She did, and he stuck that bit down, too. He paused to examine his work, didn’t even bother glancing at Carly for approval, because, man, he was in the zone. Nailing it, and only the ends to go.
With about four layers of paper to manipulate, taping up the ends required Carly to hit him with tape strips six times each side. But the end product, when he’d tossed the present over and applied the finishing touch of a red bow-thingy
Gift-wrapped like a boss, baby.
 
© Tracey Alvarez 2015

 

 Silly Season Funny…
Speaking of gift-wrapping – if you need a chuckle in between shopping and holiday preparation, check out the below video. Note, there’s a little bit of fresh language for those who don’t like it.

 

 

 

 Other Authors Participating…

Check out all the 12 Days of Christmas Romances here.

 

And enter to win an amazing Christmas basket of books, goodies, and a $50 gift certificate here: 

 

 

 

 Win a Christmas With You
Kiwi Christmas Giveaway!

(Open Internationally)
1st Prize includes:
~ Christmas With You (Due South Book #4) signed paperback
~ Pohutukawa (NZ native Christmas tree) printed napkins
~ Unique Pohutukawa Christmas tree decoration
~ Pohutukawa notepad
~ New Zealand made Crimson Kowhai Hand Cream
Runner up prize:
 

1 runner up winner will get a New Zealand fire fighters 2017 calendar as pictured.
 
To Enter: Just click on the below Rafflecopter giveaway links below.
* Prizes are not exchangeable for cash or anything else.
* All due care will be made in ensuring the prize arrives at the winner’s address, but I am unable to refund prize value in any way should it not arrive due to postal disaster. Please note – this prize likely WON’T arrive before Christmas due to international postage times.
* Entries close on December 12th and winner will receive a direct e-mail from me shortly after – so please ensure my e-mail address is added to your safe/contacts list. If I haven’t had a reply from the winner in 48 hours, I will redraw a new winner.
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday Morning Mumblings

Here in New Zealand it’s 20 days until Christmas. TWENTY! I have barely started Christmas shopping and I’m in a kind of love-hate place thinking about the effort of putting up and decorating a tree only to have Kevin and Alfie, our year old kitties, experience the Joy of the Season by trashing it. Christmas is a little different her in the Southern Hemisphere, and if you’ve read my Christmas Novella CHRISTMAS WITH YOU (e-book currently on sale for $0.99 on all retailers) or HIDE YOUR HEART (which is set around Christmas in the Far North of New Zealand) then you’ll have some idea of what the Silly Season is like Down Under. As a general rule, we don’t do roaring fires – unless it’s a BBQ fire. We don’t do snow – we do sand or grass or dirt as a lot of us head to the beach or out camping. A lot of us don’t do heavy roast meals – we do BBQs, salads, ham, and desserts like pavlova and trifle.
But we do do Santa parades and late-night-last-minute shopping and Christmas parties and carol singing, and most of all, we do family. Whether they’re coming to us or we’re going to them, or everybody meet in the middle at Uncle Barry’s house in the sticks, we like to be together. Sitting around in the sunshine, getting a little sunburned as the kids play with their new pole tennis set, drinking beer or wine or sparkling grape juice, pulling Christmas crackers and reading out the terrible pun jokes while wearing a silly paper hat. 
To give you another glimpse of a Summer Wonderland, Air New Zealand put out this fun video last week especially for us Down Under folk. Featuring all the Irish sexiness of Ronan Keating (I’m studying him for researching Joe in Saying I Do, promise) and the cute-and-super-talented Julian Dennison from NZ iconic film ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ it’s classic kiwi humor and good fun to start us Southern Hemisphere folk thinking about pav, back yard BBQs, cricket on the beach and wearing our jandals all summer long. Enjoy!
(Note: If you subscribe to my blog and don’t see the video in the e-mail, click on the blog’s title and view it on my website)

Have you ever experienced a Southern Hemisphere Christmas? Would you want to? What do you think you’d enjoy the most? Let me know in the comments.

Monday Morning Mumblings

DH and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary last Friday and it felt like a milestone reached – our marriage is now a legal adult! Actually, in New Zealand, you’re a legal adult at 18, but we still felt very grown up.

Thanksgiving Down Under

My family and I have been fortunate to share two Thanksgivings in North America. The first was a Canadian Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the second Monday in October. This was our first time in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island and we were blessed to share it with my husband’s Uncle and Auntie and extended family. We were very thankful indeed as we sat around a huge table loaded with turkey and all the trimmings, and especially the candied yams which my husband’s Auntie had prepared. My son, who doesn’t like pumpkins discovered pumpkin pie. He had to have two helpings to test out whether or not he ‘liked’ it.

via GIPHY

The second Thanksgiving we spent with my husband’s cousin two years later in Phoenix, Arizona. There we discovered the weird tradition (weird to us Kiwis) of deep-frying a whole turkey. We also discovered the dubious joy of Black Friday sales, and Oh Lord—I never want to do Walmart at 4.30am on a Black Friday again! But spending time with our Kiwi cousins who live in the States gave us a unique glimpse into what the buzz about Thanksgiving is all about. Family. And being thankful for what we have.

New Zealand doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, or have any public holiday that’s an equivalent, and I think it’s a shame. And this is why I think New Zealand misses out. We have a public holiday that celebrates the important signing of a treaty between Maori and European back in 1840, but that day is often fraught with tension. Then there’s the Queen’s birthday, which quite frankly no one gives a hoot about, it’s just a day off work. Anzac Day is special, remembering the fallen soldiers in both New Zealand and Australia, but it’s an acknowledgement, not a celebration. And then there’s Guy Fawkes, which isn’t an official holiday, but every year people go nuts with fireworks and probably don’t even remember that Guy Fawkes was actually a man—a not very nice man—who planned to blow up the English parliament in 1605. Charming fellow.

I would love New Zealand to adopt a similar holiday to Thanksgiving. I don’t know what it would be called or when it would be held, but I think we as a nation need to stop once a year. Just stop and go be with our families for no other reason than we’re thankful to have them. Even those of us without families can find something to be thankful for. Clean air, food in our bellies, indoor plumbing. Something. Especially after the earthquake that rocked New Zealand last week, now is a good time to remind ourselves of all we do have.
Wishing all my American friends and readers a wonderful family time this week. I’d love to hear about some of your special family traditions around Thanksgiving in the comments.

 

Mystery in your Mailbox?!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, which means it’s time for a SPECTACULAR giveaway! Along with 140 other authors, I’m taking part in this holiday-feel-good giveaway. Here’s a sneak peak at my contribution – and NO, you can’t shake it! I hope you like the wrapping paper – it’s vintage from my late mum’s leftover collection.

 

Here’s how it works:
Our 140+ participating authors will sign and wrap a book. You enter by following the instructions below. You can enter on as many author’s pages as you want, so be sure to hit all of their pages for more chance to win! 

If you’re one of our lucky winners, you’ll receive a book, but you won’t know what you’ve won until you unwrap it.
To enter:
Grab your FREE copy of Romance Down Under (which has Book 1 In Too Deep from the Due South series and Book 1 Hide Your Heart from the Far North series) in it here: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/ZGTem You’ll be added to my readers group where you’ll receive more goodies from me in the weeks leading up to Christmas. 
Then fill out this form: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeQmnuadU70ZfdNLA8iqcWAxZth1QKQniWRVM_2XLRtm2gNsw/viewform, checking off which actions you’ve completed and enter your email and mailing addresses. For more entries, click on the link for each author. You must complete the task AND fill out the form for your entry to count. All entries will be verified.

Monday Morning Mumblings

Today really will be a mumbled and short blog post. It’s 8.35 a.m as I’m typing this and I have no idea of what to write. As I sit drinking my second coffee of the day, the temptation to not write anything because that little voice in my head says, “Dude, nobody really cares what you have to say. Why don’t you just look at some funny cat videos, instead?” This time last week I was exhausted after being up half the night with the massive earthquake New Zealand was struck with. Today, I’m a little less tired, and a little less stressed, but it hasn’t been a great week for me. It hasn’t been a great week for many New Zealanders, especially those closer to the quake’s epicenter in the South Island.
So I try to put things into perspective – as you do. Yes, I’m worried and on edge about another big aftershock hitting…but at least my family and friends all came through the quake relatively unscathed. Yes, I am way behind writing my next book as I’m finding it almost impossible to be creative at the moment…but at least I have power, running water, a roof over my head. The only step I could take, this weekend, was to get our family as prepared as possible. So we moved a ton of books that could potentially fall on us from our bedroom, secured some hutch dressers to the walls so they won’t fall, bought extra containers of water and food and repacked our emergency supplies, and talked to the kids about worse-case-scenarios of what to do if we’re not together when another big quake happens. It’s sobering stuff, and I really encourage all of you, no matter where you are in the world, to have an emergency plan and supplies in place in preparation for a natural disaster. Because while I am still worried about aftershocks (I’m a natural born worrier, it’s a gift born of an overactive imagination!) I do now feel I’ve done as much as I can humanly do to ensure we’ll be okay.

I’m going to leave you with this quote I found on Pinterest. I really like it, and will keep looking at it today to remind me to listen to that other little voice.

P.S Check out the the New Zealand Civil Defence page for ideas on getting you and your family prepared. Click here.

Earthquake

A little after midnight, DH and I were woken by the bed trembling beneath us. Living and having grown up in the capital city of New Zealand, this was nothing too concerning. Until the shaking didn’t subside after about ten seconds. DH, man of quick reflexes even at night, leaped out of bed to stand under the door frame. I’m a little, how shall I say, slower in my reflexes and muttered something like yeah-meh-nah and stayed under the covers–then the shaking got a lot worse. So, I moved, fast, and scrambled to stand beside my hubby. We braced, held on, and I screamed like a little girl as the biggest, most violent quake I’ve ever experienced shook our house from side to side like a puppy whipping his head back and forth with a chew toy in its mouth. Crashes were coming from in front of us (a vase went flying and my mum’s beautiful china tea sets in the living room flew out of the cabinet I found later) and behind us, more crashes and thumps as books and papers and all the various crap one keeps around went poltergeisting off the shelves. I could see my son in the doorway opposite us (thankfully) but there was absolutely zero chance that I could make it to Miss 16’s bedroom because no solid ground existed beneath our feet and it was just too dangerous. Terrifying. The shaking/swaying/rolling took a looong time to stop.
During this time, the only thing I could think of was my family. And as soon as were were safe, my extended family and friends. Thank God our mobile phones were working and we were fortunate enough not to lose the power. I can honestly say, I’ve never been so scared in my life. Then the aftershocks started coming, and holy crap, they kept on coming. 
We got the worse of the broken glass off the floor and decided to leave the rest until the morning. Good luck to us trying to get any sleep at this point. Master 19 had disappeared back into his room, and we’d got my 82 year old father back to bed. Miss 16 was still too traumatized to think of sleep – especially as the big chest of drawers in her room had completely fallen over. But we tried. Unsuccessfully, considering the bed continued to shake under us every few moments. Then the phone rang, a friend calling to tell us a tsunami warning had been issued for our area since we are on flat land near the coastline. As a child growing up in this suburb, my greatest fear was a tsunami–so you can imagine the pounding of my heart as we grabbed our bag with important papers, shoved kittys Kevin and Alfie into a carrier (unfortunately our 3rd cat had slipped outside and we didn’t have time to find her – update, she’s fine!), loaded up the car with us and my dad, and headed to higher ground to the friend who’d called us.
We arrived to their house with an almost party atmosphere (we Kiwis are a resilient, stoic bunch, even when we’re scared) and there were 20 of us crammed into their living room, (more refugees arrived after us too) including 2 dogs and 3 cats. We drank hot tea and ate potato chips, listening to the TV and hurting to the stories of so much damage in our beautiful country. The tsunami warning was lifted around 5:00 a.m and we were able to return just as dawn was breaking. We managed to doze for a couple of hours before we got up to tackle the clean up. I’m so thankful for the safety of family and friends, and that the damage in our house was only superficial. Other places in New Zealand were much harder hit, and sadly, two people have lost their lives.
One thing is clear in my mind this Monday morning. Family is important. Friends are important. Our fur-babies are important. Stuff, is just stuff.
Kia kaha, Aotearoa.

Monday Morning Mumblings

After another weekend of me ‘Driving Miss Daisy 16′, because my DH had to go away for work, so it was on my shoulders to keep up with the driving lessons. I found this YouTube clip from the awesome HOW TO DAD guy and thought you’d enjoy some Kiwi humor.

 Hope you’re having/have had a wonderful weekend!