Today we travel. It’s a prospect that fills me with both dread and excitement. The 11 hour drive through barren midwest landscapes is not fun one, then there’s the prospect of sleeping in someone else’s bed for over a week, and there’s all the visits to make, and polite conversations with people I only vaguely remember that I have to look forward. I feel the tension in my shoulders just thinking about it.
Then I push through the back door to my parents home, and the smell of home cooked food will overwhelm me. My folks will be waiting in the kitchen and pull us in to a circle of hugs, snagging my sleeping son. The lights on the tree will guide us too our room and we’ll awake to the sounds of my son playing with his grandparents. Extended families will gather around too much food and too much wine. Laugher and the sound of running children will fill every corner, until the beautiful golden light of Christmas Eve church services fill us with peace.
Suddenly the drive, and the work, and the awkwardness pale in comparison to my readiness to be home.
Rachel Spangler never set out to be an award winning author. She was just so poor and so easily bored during her college years that she had to come up with creative ways to entertain herself, and her first novel, Learning Curve, was born out of one such attempt. She was sincerely surprised when it was accepted for publication and even more shocked when it won the Golden Crown Literary Award for Debut Author. Since writing was turning out to be a real blast, Rachel decided to combine it with another passion and set her next romance on the ski slopes, and was absolutely stunned when her second novel, Trails Merge, won a Goldie in the category of Contemporary Romance. However, no amount of book signing or award winning can really change a Midwestern boi, and her third novel, the Goldie finalist The Long Way Home is just that, a return to the themes and settings that mean the most in Rachel’s life and writing. Her forthcoming novels include LoveLife (April 2011) and Spanish Heart (October 2011), both from Bold Strokes Books.
Rachel and her partner, Susan, are raising their young son in small-town western New York, where during the winter they all make the most of the lake effect snow on local ski slopes, and in summer they love to travel and watch their beloved St. Louis Cardinals.
Regardless of the season, Rachel always makes time for a good romance, whether she’s reading it, writing it, or living it.
Rachel can be found online at www.RachelSpangler.com as well as on Facebook.
View more posts
One thought on “25 Songs of Christmas: Day 20 – Celebrate Me Home”
Wow, I want to come home with you! Lovely song & lovely post, thank you.
Rachel Spangler 
Wow, I want to come home with you! Lovely song & lovely post, thank you.