Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Christmas Pageant, Birthday, Anniversary, St. Louis Reflections

Dear Mom,

The holidays are a busy time of the year anyway, but then I added a few extra things into the mix. Saturday I went to old St. Charles (Main Street Books) to support a few writer friends who have stories published in Chicken Soup for the Soul books... as part of their book signing event, if you brought a canned good, you received 20% off your entire book purchase. The canned goods went to the food pantry, so the event was more than just supporting my friends. I also had the pleasure of seeing a few other writer buddies, Sioux and Dianna.

Chicken Soup for the Soul
Here are the lovely women from left to right, Cathi, Tammy, Linda, and Theresa:

Later that same day, Norm and I had a Christmas party to go to. The next day, we had another Christmas party to attend and followed that with a party at our house to celebrate my grade school friend's movie that he wrote...

The Christmas Pageant
There it is, Mark's name on the screen: Written by Mark Valenti

First we all ate:

Then we were all being silly acting as if the movie put us to sleep:

We're all really proud of Mark and had a great time celebrating his success.

Monday I visited with another friend, and finally did some Christmas shopping. I seriously don't know how some people are finished AND have it all wrapped at this point.

Tuesday I decided to take it easy, after all--I'm another year older. One year older than you when you died. Seems odd as I remember you as being old. I guess since I was 12 and you were 53, it'd make sense that I'd think you were old. Just like the grandkids think I'm old. There are days when I feel old, but for the most part I feel like I did when I was in my 20s. Is that weird? Then I look into the mirror...

Not only did I celebrate my birthday, but it's Norm's birthday. We're exactly 10 years apart. Him being older. Some may think otherwise... speaking of old. And we got married on our birthdays. Nine years. Definitely a record. Technically this year Norm is tied with all of my other (three) marriages added together. The little stinker sent me a dozen roses.

And check out his creative wording on the card...

We celebrated by having dinner and then I had to drag him to another book launch/reading/signing for St. Louis Reflections. It was the launch party for another anthology by St. Louis Writers Guild members. The books weren't ready, but the party went on.

St. Louis Writers Guild President, Brad Cook started things off explaining the history of the guild. He's also the historian of the guild and has done an exceptional job at that!

Here I am reading my story "Hendel's Market".

I had a few props with me: a picture of Hendel's that hubby made for me, along with a jar of penny candy (not really a penny any more) but I talked about the candy in my story. Sugar Shack, where I purchased the candy for the book launch, was sweet enough to give me some wooden quarters to pass out at the event--good for 25 cents worth of candy in the store.

In my story I mentioned one thing my little sister and I would do is pretend to give one another communion with the flying saucer candies, and here's my daughter giving communion to my two sisters after she heard my story.

It really was a lovely event and I felt honored to be among special writers and part of the anthology. I'd like to thank everyone who ventured out, and for those who made the event possible.

Linda Austin wrote a nice article about event, A Gathering of Writers and Memories of St. Louis.

And if you're interested in ordering a copy of St. Louis Reflections, visit StLBooks.com and they're only $9.99!