The heroine of From Here to There has decided to bring her husband's family to Montana with the hope there can be healing and reconciliation. It won't be easy. This snippet is when she is talking to her cousin's wife, also her best friend, about her plans.
The novella, A Montana Christmas, is 99¢ until January 1, 2017
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“How
many are you expecting now?” Nancy
asked as they popped the first cookies into the oven.
“Overnighters
or Christmas Day dinner?” She sat at the table as she looked for the recipe for
biscotti.
“Both.”
“Okay
not so many for staying. Phillip’s mother, Linda. Derek, his brother and for
sure Laurie but not sure right now about Rita. That was still iffy. So I need
to put up three at Uncle Amos’s and his mother here. I think. Or do you think
that works?”
“And
you feed that crew for five days? Would you all like to come to our place one
night?”
“That
might help if it’s not too much for you. You have your hands full too.”
“My
cooking will be easy since we go to his folks for Christmas Eve dinner. So I
can bring whatever you’d like for Christmas.”
“I
can figure it out. Will you guys come over for the Solstice celebration?”
Nancy giggled. “Solstice and Emile. Let me
count the ways that could go wrong.”
“I
absolutely promise, cross my heart, no naked dancing around a bonfire.”
“So
how do you celebrate it?”
“To
be honest I only have a vague idea as I’ve never done it in a group and my idea
of what Phillip and I have done doesn’t translate.” She laughed. “My thinking
is it should be with candles and a fire to bring back the light. It’s primitive
and pagan. Does that make it evil?”
“Like
a Christmas tree perhaps?” Nancy
asked with a knowing smile.
“Exactly.
What I think we do, since the naked reveling is out, is burn a log as the Yule
log in the fireplace although I’m a little unsure how we get a Yule log. We
play some board games, drink spiced cider, and I hide the hard liquor in the
kitchen as we are trying to get Rafe off the booze. Linda had an alcohol
problem at one time, so probably better not to tempt her either. Obviously I am
not drinking anything but the milk of motherly kindness.” She made a saintly bow.
