Back to the Routine
Are you recovered from the holidays? It is with bittersweetness that my youngest kid, 19, walks out the door today, back to college. His sisters, 22 and 24, have already left. The house is getting quieter…maybe I can hear myself think again, which might be a little helpful with the deadlines and all!
But while I long for my quiet routine, half of me wants to keep them all here forever.
…But the other half is completely fine with them going out into the world and doing their own things.
Anyway, each of them got me a Christmas gift that is reflective of their personalities. 
Daughter #1 knows that daily I dress in athletic pants and tops, so that when I have to dress up…well, it becomes a challenge! I’m always looking for a classy statement necklace that isn’t too overwhelming…and she found me the perfect one. It came in a special box from a boutique that she bought it from in in Philadelphia. Love it! Not too big, not too gaudy, matches with everything (but not the athletic tops, lol)…perfect!
Daughter #2 created this for me, using a photo of our omnipresent cat. The cat together with the typewriter…hilarious, to me anyway. Great gift. And the Hemingway quote…absolutely true!
Lastly, my son. Mr. Practical and Efficient. He did a craft, for the first time in ten years! He actually went to the craft store, bought stuff which he found of all places on PINTEREST, and created this mug for me. He made ones for his sisters too. I love it (but I’m a little afraid to drink from it, as he said something about “I put some chemical on it to seal it” which makes me a little nervous, lol…).
I will keep it in the kitchen next to the trivet he made me in grade school that has his grinning little toothy smile on it. (Precious.)
Hope you had lovely holidays. I’m happy to leave the Christmas cookies behind and detox! My wish for all of you is a happy and healthy New Year.
Feel free to share your favorite Christmas gifts here or on my author page…and you just might win a backlist book of your choice…
xo Miranda
‘Tis the Season for (Awkward) Holiday Dinners
How’s your holiday stress? Hope not too crazy. This week, I did a fun post over at The Romance Dish about the first time I had dinner with my husband’s family. It might make you laugh! You can view it here. 
Hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family. Back to my edits and holiday stress…I mean fun. Okay, a little bit of that too 🙂
xoxoxo
Miranda
Christmas Movies and Why We Watch Them
This post is part of a Christmas blog hop initiated by my friend, historical author Marin McGinnis! Read an excerpt of my brand new release CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU on her Dec. 8th blog and check it out every day this month to discover some great new authors! Thanks for including me, Marin!
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The other night, I was watching the end of a Hallmark channel movie when my husband walked into the room.
“Don’t ruin it,” I said. (He can’t help himself. His urge to say something, usually sarcastic, is too great.)
“Are they about to live happily ever after?” he asked, sitting down beside me.
“Shh,” I said. “Don’t talk. Just watch.”
The heroine was climbing up a ladder, her job to place the star atop the community center Christmas tree. (The community center that was saved from the wrecking ball, of course.)
“She’s going to fall, and the hero is going to catch her,” he predicted. (That’s the other thing he does. Tries to guess everything that’s going to happen. Anyone need a spare husband?)
“The hero is across the room,” I said. “She’s not going to fall. Please go away.”
At the top of the ladder, the cute German Shepherd that was in the movie nudged the ladder, causing the heroine to wobble precariously. The hero bolted across the room and was there in a flash!
Sure enough, she fell right into his arms, creating a beautiful moment where they shared a Christmas kiss. (No tongue. Because it’s Hallmark!) The movie ended.
“I should’ve been a romance writer,” my husband said, complimenting himself on his ability to predict things.
Honestly, I did not see that coming. Know why? Because I was under the magic spell of Hallmark Christmas movies. Sometimes (okay, often) sappy, always emotional, they bring out everything we love and hate about Christmas. But in general, they are about love. About mending fences. Facing up to your past. Correcting past wrongs. Finding someone who loves you for who you are and brings out the best in you (never the rich guy with lots of money and terrible parents).
“Let’s watch another one,” my husband said, putting his arm around me and settling in. Because secretly, he can’t resist the pull either. Now if only I could get him to watch in silence!
About CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU:
Lovers of romance understand that these stories, both on the screen and between the pages, touch longings deep within us to reconcile our own pasts, forgive ourselves for mistakes, and experience our deepest hopes and dreams for a loving relationship and family. Things are often far from perfect in a lot of these story worlds. But we latch onto the hope of things getting better for the hard-working but flawed heroine and the sincere, heart-of-gold hero. We want them to find happiness just like we want ourselves and our loved ones to find peace and a good, loving life.
The couple in my new release, CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU, truly have a lot of fence mending to do. Separated by a tragedy in their teenage years, they haven’t really spoken in twelve years. The story is about love, loss, friendship, family, and the idea that you have to confront your past in order to move on to the future.
Arabella D’Angelo worked hard to escape her past and move on—not an easy feat in her small town—until one day it returns in the form of her 6’2” darkly handsome, enigmatic first love, Roman Spikonos, who is settling back into town to take over his grandfather’s orchards, right next to her traditional Italian family’s garden center.
Arabella fell in love hook line and sinker with Roman Spikonos in high school. Their love was explosive, wonderful, and all-consuming…until she found herself pregnant, causing her to leave her private high school and give up her scholarship to the out-of-state she’d dreamed of attending. Yes, she was that girl in high school. And just like that, all her dreams fell apart. The life she’d imagined was nothing near the life she was suddenly forced to live.
And because of the anger of her traditional Italian father, she had to make an awful, heartbreaking choice that cost her everything. And then she had to somehow find the strength to move forward with her life.
My heroine undergoes a tremendous amount of growth as she is forced to confront feelings she’s swept under the rug for years, not only with Roman but also with her very supportive friend Ethan, and last but not least, her own father. CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU is a romance, and is told from both the hero and heroine’s points of view, but I consider it first and foremost Bella’s story.
I hope the end result is an emotional but hopeful read and a beautiful love story that took a very bumpy path to come full circle.
Buy CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU at these retailers!
Bio:
Miranda Liasson loves to write stories about courageous but flawed characters who find love despite themselves, because there’s nothing like a great love story. And if there are a few laughs along the way, even better! She’s a former Golden Heart winner who writes contemporary romance for Montlake Romance, Entangled, and soon for Grand Central. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, three kids, and Posey, a rescue cat with attitude.
Find me on Social Media here:
Website Facebook Author Page Twitter
Instagram Goodreads Amazon author page
Lastly, check out my release week tour with Rafflecopter giveaway here.
Release Week!
Just a quick note to say that many things are happening during the week ahead!
—CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU releases Tuesday, December 6th. It’s an emotional second-chance love story about love, loss, friendship, family, and one woman’s journey to confront her past so she can move on to her future. I hope you’ll check it out!
–I’l be around the blogosphere talking about my book, the holidays,writing, and other fun things. If you’re interested in reading the interviews and blog posts, check my Facebook author page for the schedule.
–Thanks for all your support! I truly appreciate it!
Miranda
Hubby in the Kitchen
“What dessert shall I make for tonight?” I innocently said to my husband before our friends came over a few weeks ago.
As I pretended to contemplate the options…cake, cookie bar, blah blah blah,…he remained engrossed in reading. So then I pulled out the stops. “Maybe I’ll make an apple pie.”
He instantly looked up and got that gleam in his eye that only those two words can conjure.
My husband loves making apple pie. Baking pie to him is what running a marathon is to other people–a challenge, a competition to outdo his previous work, a science experiment, and a race in efficiency. It also reminds him of his dad, a fabulous baker…who like his son, adored kitchen gadgets.
The spaceship has landed!
“I can make the pie,” hubby said.
Yes! I did a secret fist pump and checked that task off my list.
Ten minutes later, the kitchen was abuzz. “Can I help peel the apples?” I asked.
“I think you should just stay out of the way,” he said, not unkindly.
No problemo, I said, backing away. But not before I saw the fancy gadgets he’d assembled.
One was a gleaming little machine that peeled apples–actually, it did nine of them in five minutes. And left the peels in one long string. I could’ve made apple noodles out of them.
My grandma’s tried and true masher.
The other looked like a bright orange alien space ship had landed on our counter. Something called a Dynacube, that chopped all the apples into perfect little square pieces, again, in the blink of an eye.
For my hubby, baking is a chemistry experiment and it’s all about creating the best product in the least amount of time…which in my opinion, sometimes also leaves the most amount of dishes, but hey, as long as he washes the gadgets, I’m okay with helping out.
I am an anti-gadget, take-your-time kind of cook. I’m the person who shuns the salad spinner because it makes three extra dishes to wash and it takes too much time to pick all the leftover lettuce pieces out of the holes.
Mr. Liasson and his biceps…oops, I mean pie.
I’m the one who loves my grandmother’s eighty-year-old potato masher, the most sturdy and solid masher I’ve ever seen, which I still use to this day. No cords, no assembly needed.
Gadgets or no, the pie was spectacular. And the entertainment along the way was priceless. And hey, there’s nothing sexier than having a guy with big biceps make pie for you!