Holiday Shopping: Easy on the eyes and the wallet

Most people love the holidays, but dread the lingering credit card bills or empty bank accounts that follow.I see the holidays as a challenge--how can I get the most bang for my buck? (*snerk*)

Here are my best tips, and cheap present ideas for the most discerning recipients.

Five ways to cut back your holiday present budget:
1.  Check your Sunday circulars for coupons. This is especially good for makeup and beauty products, because you can "layer" these coupons on top of drugstore sales. Always buy two copies of the paper so you get two sets of coupons! For example: I had two coupons for $1 off Neutrogena makeup. One of the drugstores had their line for buy one, get one 50% off. I used two coupons (one for each item) and saved a huge amount of money. While buying makeup may not seem like the idea present, think about nail polish or bold eye shadow colors--something a friend or teenage daughter would never buy for herself, but allows her to show her sassy side! Coupons for great hair products fall into the same category.

2. Always find the sale or clearance section of the store, usually at the back endcaps of one aisle (drugstores) or in each department (stores like Kohl's or Target). Often you'll find products that were "last season" or discontinued, for a great price. This is especially potent if you gather holiday presents year-round so what was out of season last January will be back in season now! I keep a big bin of gifts that I collect through the year. I don't necessarily know who will get them, but when December rolls around, I've amassed awesome presents on the cheap and just need to wrap and deliver them! Tip: office supply stores have EXCELLENT clearance sections.

3. Create your own gifts. No, you don't need to be crafty to do this--think about getting an airtight jar and filling it with all the dry ingredients for you favorite cookie, cake, or brownie recipe. Print up a tag or label to put on the jar with the full ingredient list and baking instructions. If you're really up for a challenge, find some beautiful ribbon to tie around the neck of the jar. Voila--beautiful, thoughtful, and inexpensive present.

4. Give homemade coupons. For friends and family, this is especially nice. In this economy, we all know that budgets can be tight. So give a mother a doubly good Christmas present with babysitting coupons. Or give your significant other massage coupons (the fine print is up to you!). If you search "coupon templates" online, you'll find awesome pre-made templates where you fill in the information and print. Beautiful!

5. Think outside the big box stores: Wander Home Depot or Lowe's, and see what presents jump out at you. Shop small local stores, or your dollar store. In SoCal, we have the $.99 Only stores which always have awesome gift-basket pieces.

Your gift-giving guide:
1. The Kinkster: Rope! From the hardware store, get a 25 ft. and two 12 ft. lengths of white polyester or poly-blend rope (not cotton). Feel the rope first, to make sure it's soft.
2. The Diva: A spa basket. From a dollar store, pick up a cute wire or wicker basket, line with fabric or tissue paper, and fill with goodies. Look at the dollar store, the makeup department, and the travel-sized beauty and body products carried by drugstores and big box stores--high end brands often sell minis there. Do a themed basket for each friend: Mani/Pedi (polish, toe separators, cozy socks, lotion, nail polish remover); Date Night (high-intensity makeup, volumizing mousse, massage oil); Relaxation (face masque, scented candles, bath salts, and lotion).
3. The Acquaintance: Plants. I know this sounds odd, but giving potted plants is a lasting, unique gift. For an office mate, get a fern or other hardy plant. Wrap the pot in thin fabric like tulle and snug it with a ribbon.
4. The Lover: A date night in basket. Include a blanket, candles, movie, popcorn, bubbly, and massage oil. Set up a gourmet picnic in front of the TV and let your minds--and hands--wander as they will.
5. Anyone: crochet a hat or scarf (super easy!), frame a picture of you two and decorate the frame, assemble a scrapbook, etc. Look at the Michael's Crafts for inspiration and how-to's.

How do you save around the holidays?

The Anti-Traditionalist

When I was a child, I was something of a tradition nazi. Every year I wanted every single aspect of the season from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day to stay exactly the same. Other than the presents I expected to find under the tree, of course. New rituals were allowed into the litany, as long as they didn't displace any of the older ones, but once they'd been admitted, I expected them to show up without fail every year after that.

Food traditions were the worst. The delectable combination of onions, celery and poultry seasoning frying in butter can still recall my very earliest memories of Thanksgiving--putting together a doll-house-sized feast in miniature while the "Macy's Day Parade", Babes in Toyland and Miracle on 34th Street, played in the background.  This, of course, was back in the day before TV marathons had even been invented.

I loved the sense of constancy these rituals evoked. My mother once made the mistake of baking coconut meringue cookies one Christmas, along with all the rest of the usual holiday favorites. No one else cared for the meringues very much, but I loved them. And I pouted every year afterwards, when they didn't automatically appear, until I was old enough to bake them myself. Then there were the struffoli, which an Italian boyfriend accidentally introduced me to one Christmas during my early teens. I left the boy, but I took the pastries.

The same pattern continued for many years. There was the vegetarian holiday lasagna my parents discovered during the 70s, made with bright red pimento sauce, pureed spinach and creamy Bechamel. They served it at a party one New Year's Eve and a lot of their friends found it odd. It was the raisins, I think (yes, raisins. omg, so good, you have no idea!). I, of course, immediately adopted it as my own, along with my mother in law's cream cheese apricot turnovers, the Cuban-style rice pudding the mother of a friend of mine introduced me to and, a little while later, my own take on lemon chess pie, which I developed when we lived in Southern California.

I'd switched my allegiance from Macy's parade on Thanksgiving to the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year's at this point, and was living in a house that had a huge Meyer lemon tree in the back yard. This was during the first few weeks after Clinton was elected and Southern cooking was suddenly on everyone's mind. To this day, cold lemon pie, hot, black coffee, the Rose Parade and bright sunshine is the only proper way to start the New Year in my opinion.

Gradually, however, things changed. Traditions disappeared. People either grew up or they broke up; they moved away or passed away; they embraced vegetarianism (raises hand sheepishly) or they turned their backs on organized religion (hand still up for that one) or they reversed course on both. OR...they moved several years in a row and ended up losing-and/or-permanently-misplacing not one, not two or three, but no less than FOUR consecutive sets of Christmas ornaments.

Honestly, if that doesn't cure you of your obsessive need to keep things the same, nothing will.

These days, about the only holiday tradition I observe is change. However I did things last year, you can pretty much  bet I won't be doing that again this time around. There's a giddy kind of freedom in that, I've found. It's kind of like being single: I can experiment all I want, with whatever I want, without fear of commitment.  I get gleefully excited walking into stores this time of year and wondering, what colors do I want to decorate the tree with this time around...or do I even want to bother with a tree at all? I saw a no-tree display recently--just a spiraling cone of ornaments suspended on monofilament thread beneath a single spotlight--that really has me thinking...

So, what about you? Are you a traditionalist or not? Do you like things the same sometimes? All the time? Or do you fall somewhere in between?

Giving Thanks For Thanksgiving

For the past week and a half, I’ve been living in hell, or close to it. We’re getting our house in Texas ready for sale. That meant clearing out the garage and anything left inside the house—many, many, MANY trips to Goodwill, to the recycling station at the neighborhood elementary school (we filled the recycling container at the house in a couple of hours), to the Habitat For Humanity store. It meant developing what we came to refer to as “Garage Lung” since everybody in the family was coughing from the dust. And it meant camping in the house where I used to live. Sleeping on an airbed. Eating meals off a small camp table. Sitting in folding chairs and the two Ikea chairs my son supplied after he took pity on us.

Through all of this time (and during much of it I was by myself since the hubs had to go back to work in Denver), Thanksgiving shone like a beacon. We would be in Fredericksburg, Texas, in a bed and breakfast where we’d stayed before. We’d be cooking Thanksgiving dinner together, drinking wine, sitting on an actual sofa and having meals at an actual table. And sleeping on an actual bed. Hallelujah.

As I write this, I’m still in the house trying to get the last few details taken care of. But Thanksgiving glimmers on the horizon like the morning star. I’ll be so happy to get out of here and to get to a place that seems normal again. That Fredericksburg is actually one of the towns on which I based Konigsburg, Texas, is a bonus. I can reacquaint myself with one of my favorite places.

Maybe it helps to go through a really rotten experience so that you can appreciate an experience that might otherwise seem pleasant but not extraordinary. This year, Thanksgiving is going to be salvation for me no matter how good or bad the food it.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all. Hope it’s as wonderful as mine will be!

Gobble Gobble Gumbo

I enjoy Thanksgiving a lot more as an adult than I did as a child. We always went to my aunt's house and, while I loved my aunts and cousins, there was a lot of friction between my mom and my dad's family (their fault, not hers). Plus my mom wouldn't let me out of her sight for more than five minutes, and my cousins fought all the time, so it wasn't all that jolly.

I much prefer the traditions my sister and I, along with my sisters-in-law, have established. Some years ago my best friend started having people over for gumbo the night before Thanksgiving. Her father and her mother-in-law are both excellent gumbo cooks (and her mother-in-law's crawfish pie is to die for). It started off with just a few couples and now it's huge. So everyone in our family, both sides, eats gumbo on Wednesday night.

Then on Thanksgiving Day we walk down the street to my husband's sister's house. All sides gather there--my sister and her family, her sister-law and her family, her sister-in-law's brother-in-law and his family, and their sister and her partner and their parents, and our next door neighbor, and my husband's family and whomever else hasn't made other plans. This year I think we'll have about sixty people. Kids will roll around in the backyard with a bunch of dogs. One of the brothers-in-law will fry a turkey in the front yard (because the backyard is full of kids and dogs.)



Best thing about all of this? I don't have to cook. There are so many people who can cook that my modest skills aren't needed. I'll bring wine and soft drinks. Diva's old enough now that she can make a trifle all by herself. All I have to do is show up. I'm good at showing up. And cleaning -- I'm very good on kitchen duty. So it's a day of food, and wine, and kids and dogs and about 30 minutes in the kitchen. No prep work, no stress. I intend to keep this tradition going until Diva and her cousins take up holiday hosting and cooking duties.

So what does your family do for Thanksgiving? Have you made your own traditions, or are you still stuck in your parents'? Maybe you like your parents' traditions and want to continue them. Share your Thanksgiving traditions -- the quirkier the better -- in the comments, and Happy
Turkey Day from the Nine Naughty Novelists.

Guest Blogger Teresa D'Amario - Relating

Thanks for having me here at Nine Naughty Novelists!

Let's take a moment and talk about our furry friends. After all, that's what we're here, about, right? Those hot, posessive, powerful males who would do anything for their mate. You know exactly the ones I mean. In SheWolf, Kieran was hot and surprisingly romantic. He killed to protect her the first time he caught her scent. An alpha male with a gentle side.

For Ryland, in Dark Succession, we get the true alpha male, the one who is aggressive and in full control. He has no need of a mate to complete him. Yet he can't resist the sensual scent and beauty of the one named Nora. She is his weakness. She is his strength.

For Blood Moon Betrayed, Sean is different. He's a beaten down alpha male, convinced of his own uselessness who has already let everyone down who's ever depended upon him. Sean is an engima among shifters. He's not the confident, decisive male we're so used to seeing. He doesn't trust his decisions, and he doesn't trust himself. After his wife left him, he pulled inward, swimming in his own self-defeat. But when he saves the life of a pretty human female, he's torn with the desire to open his heart and the need to protect himself. The question is, can he trust his own decisions enough?

We've all been there. Okay, maybe not his exact situation, since your former significant other probably isn't part hyena, (oops, letting secrets out), but we all know the basic feelings. And that's what makes Blood Moon Betrayed work. That's what makes any romance work. We've all felt the same feelings at one time or another, though our reasons may not be different.

So speaking of relating, tell me what it is you see in romance novels that you can NOT relate to. Is it one little thing? or do is there something in romance novels that just drives you nuts that you have never seen in real life, in any form or fashion? And feel free to drop by my website at http://teresadamario.coom and check out the new cover for the re-release of Lone Wolf, scheduled for mid December!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!

Well, it is here. Our first snowfall came and went, but yesterday it snowed quite a bit and got very cold, so I think it's here to stay! On top of that, when I went out to do errands last weekend, the shopping malls were crazy busy! Are people doing their shopping already? I'll confess I've started, but this year my goal is to do as much shopping as possible on-line so as to avoid the crowds and traffic.

So since it seems we're into that season I thought I'd let you know about my Christmas story which is now available at Amazon and B&N for just  $.99! (This is a re-release, so if you've already bought it, don't buy it again!) All I Want For Christmas is a fun and sexy little read.

Perfectionist Erin Nordman usually loves Christmas, but this year things aren’t going quite as planned. Lost gifts, too much work to do and organizing the office Christmas party are stressing her out. When Dex Mitchell comes by, the gorgeous Director of Finance who she’s had a crush on forever, she turns into a stammering klutz. What else could go wrong this Christmas?

How about too much to drink at the Christmas party, a sexy encounter in the ladies’ room and an embarrassed hangover the next day? Can anything turn this around so Erin gets what she really wants for Christmas?

Buy All I Want For Christmas at Amazon

Buy All I Want For Christmas at B&N

Okay so who else has started their holiday shopping?

Twitter Thoughts

It's no secret that I love twitter. In fact, one of the few things I dislike about my new job is that there isn't enough cell coverage inside the building to check my twitter feed on breaks. But sometimes I wonder if I'm doing it wrong.

I originally joined twitter to increase my web presence as Kate Davies, to interact with readers and other authors. And I do those things. But when I look at the majority of my followers, that's not what they're looking for.

I've got followers because of German soap operas. I've got followers because of American soap operas and actors. I've got followers because of Hawaii Five-0. (In fact, I've gotten a lot more followers because of H50 recently, thanks to a semi-ranting blog post about the addition of Lori Weston to the show. And about a half dozen of them sent the link to producer Peter Lenkov. Oops.)

All that is great, and I love chatting about some of my favorite pop culture things with people all over the world. But does it kind of defeat the purpose of being on twitter by being known for everything EXCEPT my writing? Am I enticing new readers to my work, or am I diluting the purpose of twittering?

I don't ever see myself abandoning my interests or focusing entirely on my writing at the expense of everything else. But I do wonder if I'm headed in the right direction.

Are you on twitter? Do you want authors to talk just about writing, or other subjects? Is it okay to be "followed" for something other than the books?