Best Games to Play on New Year's Eve

Wow! I honestly don't know where 2019 went. It seems time just flies. Sometimes I feel as if I want to slow the clock and savor every minute.

We welcome the New Year at home. I've never wanted to be on the streets with the drivers who haven't learned the meaning of designated driver.

Counting Down & Playing Games

This year one of our kids and his kids are joining us so we'll be playing games. We're all fierce tabletop gamers, and we have an entire cabinet of games for kiddies up to adults.

The latest addition to our cabinet is Rummikub, the travel version.This form of rummy is a great game for family, and the travel version is perfect for taking on a family vacation, like a cruise.

Video Tutorials for Games

If you're interested in the game, watch this Rummikub YouTube video.

We also play card games. Even our youngest player is a competitive shark. *LOL*

That's the great thing about family card games. They're suitable for young to old.

Our favorite card games for many players are Rummy, Uno, Crazy 8, Golf, and, most recently Hand and Foot.

Here's a video tutorial for Hand and Foot. and here's a video tutorial for Golf card game.

Video for the Top 5 Best Card Games.

If there's a particular card game you'd like to learn or become more proficient at playing, search YouTube for a tutorial.

Takeaway Truth

In the meantime, put your party clothes on, get the appetizers ready, and break out the bubbly. Ready or not, here comes 2020.

Happy New Year!

4 Ways to Pack Away the Old Year

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Today is the second to last day of 2019. Many of you are focused on New Year's Eve parties, New Year's Day resolutions, and other things to do with new beginnings.

I believe it's good to take some time to think about the waning year and literally and figuratively pack it away.

5 Ways to Pack Away the Old Year

1. Get a storage box for the literal packing away.

This can be as simple and small as a shoe box, more official, like a cardboard file box, or something more decorative like this set of 3 gray fabric storage boxes which I prefer since I stack them on a shelf that's visible to all.

Whatever you choose for your 2019 memorabilia, get started by going through what you want to save.

Place the papers, cards, and photographs you want to keep in the box you've chosen.

For the figurative packing away, as you place each item in your storage box, celebrate the happy events and achievements of 2019. Remember the unhappy ones because you survived them and grew stronger. You probably learned something from them.

2. Record the highs and lows of the year.

We always think we'll remember what happened when. As the years pass though, you may find yourself unable to recall whether something important happened in 2018 or 2019 or some other year. I always pack away my day planner in my yearly storage box.

If you don't have a day planner or journal to pack away, write something even if it's just to jot down the dates of the important events of 2019.

3. Start the new year with a day planner for 2020.

For 2020, I had to change day planners again. I couldn't find the one I used last year anywhere so I shopped Amazon until I found one that met all my needs.

I'm using this 2020 Daily Planner for 2020. It's 5-3/4" x 8-1/4" and has Monthly Tabs, an Inner Pocket, has a strong elastic band and a pen loop. My day planner keeps me on track with my writing goals, appointments, and other obligations.

4. Plan now to keep a Journal in 2020.

Love This Cover!

"A life worth living is a life worth remembering." My mother kept journals. I have a box of her journals that helped me see her as a woman, not just as my mother.

This "Love, Your Notebook" by Eccolo Dayna Lee Collection is the journal for 2020 that I love! It's a gray 8" x 10" hardcover journal. What the cover says sold me on it!

Every day I will write at least 3 things that I'm grateful for plus remarks about the day's events whether they be mundane or significant.

A journal will work as a day planner too if you don't want to use a formal day planner. Even a notebook or spiral composition book will work. Just use something to mark the momentous events in your life. Write a sentence or two about each day. You'll enjoy looking back on your life.

Takeaway Truth

Pack away the old year, and let's get ready for a brand spanking New Year!

Celebrate Boxing Day with Box Sets

If the weather outside is frightful, stay inside, avoid the after-Christmas crowds, and read something delightful!

Box Sets Perfect for Boxing Day

Many countries celebrate Boxing Day. Why not adopt that habit too?

As a reader, Boxing Day is perfect for stocking up on Box Sets of Fiction. The Holiday Romance Box Sets below are each only 99 cents.

Fill your Amazon cart with several and give box sets to your reading friends and family too. (Instructions to do this are at the end of this post.)

Christmas Shorts

18 Romance Short Stories, all new for 2019 Holidays, by New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors!

Love, Christmas 1, Songs of the Heart, inspired by favorite Christmas Songs.


Love, Christmas 2, Movies You Love, inspired by favorite Christmas Movies.

A Christmas She'll Remember, 7 holiday novels.



Snowflakes and Christmas Kisses, 7 holiday novels.



If you just want a single romance instead of a box set, here are 4 novels and 2 short stories for your consideration.

Brianna's Season for Miracles

Just One Look

Last Christmas

LuvU4Ever (FREE at most Kindle Shops)

Nobody's Cinderella

Stuck on the Naughty List

How To Give a Kindle Ebook as a Gift

To give a free ebook, just copy the link and send it to your friend. (To get it for yourself, just click the link and follow through.)

To buy an ebook as a gift, all you need to do is click the embedded link for the book that takes you to the book page. Click BUY FOR OTHERS then just fill out the form with the information.

Don't Know Recipients Amazon Email?

If you do not know your recipient's email address she/he uses for Amazon purchases, then you still click BUY FOR OTHERS, but in the TO box, put your email address. When you receive notice of the Kindle gift, forward it to your recipient.

About Kindle Book Gifting

• Send your gift instantly via email.
• Recipient can read their Kindle book on any device with the free Kindle app for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, PC and Mac, and on Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets.
• Recipient can exchange for a gift card if they have already read or don't want the book.

Takeaway Truth

Enjoy browsing these books. I hope you'll find some you'll like. Most of all, relax. You'll need lots of energy for New Year's Eve. *g*

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a Christmas of Joy!

Takeaway Truth

Good will to all.

Ready for Christmas Recipe

Christmas Eve is always special. For kids, it's the day before the big Santa day.

For adults, it's the day relatives begin arriving—children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, in-laws and outlaws too.

One of my favorite things on Christmas Eve is the candlelight service at church.

Before the evening though, it's time to make something that can be served warm on Chritsmas morning.

Nordic Ware Bundt Pan

Pumpkin Raisin Bread is one of my favorites to bake on Christmas Eve to serve Christmas morning. It has the spices of winter, and, with the help of a baking mix like Bisquick or Pioneer, it's easy peasy.

I bake this in the Bundt pan my Mom gave to me more than 30 years ago. It's a heavy, cast aluminum Nordic Ware pan like the one shown below.  There are cheaper pans, but this heavy one distributes the heat evenly and bakes without overcooking the batter that comes in contact with the metal.

Pumpkin Raisin Bread

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not the pie filling just plain pumpkin)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 2 1/3 cups baking mix
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cup raisins

Directions

1. Heat over to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray baking pan of your choice (I used a Bundt pan.) with Baker's Joy or use a little vegetable oil to coat it lightly.
3. In a large bowl, combine the vegetable oil, pumpkin, eggs, and sugar. Add baking mix and cinnamon. Mix well. Stir in the raisins.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

5. Remove from oven and turn out onto serving plate. Slice and serve warm
6. If serving tomorrow, let it cool then wrap well in foil and refrigerate.
7. When serving, slice the bread, place on a microwaveable plate, and re-heat in the microwave or a toaster oven.
8. Delicious served cold or warm.

Takeaway Truth

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a healthy, prosperous, Happy New Year!

Mischievous Christmas Angel by Mimi Barbour

Mischievous Christmas Angel 

Angels With Attitudes Series Book 5

by Mimi Barbour

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Sarna Publishing

Publication Date: October 28, 2019

After one night of blistering lovemaking that would bring any sane man to his knees clutching a ring, Jack’s forced to accept Mia’s unexpected rejection. Then when she seems to be warming up to having a relationship, danger erupts around him in freakish accidents and mystical happenings. How can he permit her and her little girl to be anywhere near these threats?

Mia lovingly adopts her best friend’s four-year-old child in accordance with her will. She also agrees to move her new family and her business to live with her aunt before the Christmas holidays arrive. But… she isn’t willing to hold on to a man because of one incredible night’s loss of restraint.

**On Sale for only .99cents! ** 

Goodreads * Amazon

Mimi is an incredibly busy NYT and USA Today award-winning, best-selling author who has seven series to her credit. The Vicarage Bench Series – Spirit/Time -Travel tales that have a surprising twist / The Angels with Attitude Series – Angels Love Romance / The Elvis Series – Make an Elvis song a book / Vegas Series – 6 books full of romantic suspense, humor and gritty conflicts / and… the fast-paced, edgy, humorous, romantic suspense, Undercover FBI Series /The Holiday Heatwarmer Series - puppies become cupids. And the latest, explosive Mob Tracker Series - six books full of conflicts and characters you'll hate to leave.

Mimi lives on the East coast of Vancouver Island and writes her various romances with tongue in cheek and a mad glint in her eye. She’s been known to say: “If I can steal a booklover’s attention away from their every-day grind, absorb them into a fantasy love story, and make them care about the ending, then I’ve done my job.”

**1st place prize of the 2015 - Chanticleer Reviews - Clue Awards. Special Agent Francesca

**A TOUCH OF PASSION, has just become the 2016 WINNER of The Romance Reviews Readers' Choice Awards. 

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads * Newsletter

$25 Amazon 

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

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Quick Blog Tip: National Whatever Day

Whenever you're stumped for what to blog about, you can turn to websites that tell you what happened on this day in history or what the day is known for. That often gives you an idea for a blog post.

Another resource is a website that tells you what this day is known for, i.e., National Book Day.

One of those "special day" websites is a bit different. It's called Checkiday, and it lists decidedly odd names for days.

For instance, on that website, it listed yesterday, December 18, as National Wear a Plunger on Your Head Day. Seriously? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't  wear a plunger on my head. However, I'd happily take a picture of anyone who did.

I can't tell you where Checkiday gets their information for what each day is, but I'm thinking there may be a freak flag flying at that website.

December 19, According to Checkiday

National Holly Day. Okay, that's normal and appropriate.

National Regifting Day. I guess everyone does this, but I had no idea there was a day to celebrate it. I learned that it's been celebrated the Thursday before Christmas since 2006. Who knew?

Be sure and look for December 20, National Cathode-Ray Tube Day. Hmm. A cathode-ray tube is the part on an old TV set that enabled it to show pictures. Why would anyone celebrate this?

Also on the 20th is National Dot Your I's Day. If you want to know how to celebrate the day, visit Dot Your I's Day on Checkiday.

Takeaway Truth

Bookmark the various websites that list historical events by date and national whatever days then use them for inspiration when your imagination needs a rest.