Posted by

Posted on

December 11, 2017

Posted under

Comments

12 Surefire Methods For Getting In The Christmas Mood

There are exactly two weeks until Christmas Day (for those of you who are behind on your gift-buying, you’re welcome for that bone-chilling, adrenaline-kicking, stroke-inducing reminder).

For some reason, I’ve had a bit of a hard time getting into The Christmas Mood. I don’t know what it is, but I only really managed to snag the Christmas cheer this past week. Today, for anyone else whose spirits might be flagging, I’m going to share 12 surefire methods that are sure, beyond all shadows of any doubts, to get you in The Christmas Mood (because they’re basically science).

Oh, look, a red snowflake. How festive.

1. Wrap a present. (Note: if you don’t have any gifts for wrapping yet, wrapping a present to get into The Christmas Mood will not exactly work since it’s not, strictly speaking, possible to wrap a gift you don’t have–unless of course you wrap a metaphorical gift, in which case, use your imagination and make it look real good). For those who struggle with gift wrapping, you may refer to this incredibly therapeutic post from Penprints a couple years ago (you’re welcome in advance).

2. Take a drive after dark to see the Christmas lights. It is so fun and cheering to admire the lights that so many enterprising, Already In The Mood people have taken the time to decorate with. So, don’t be afraid to go out after dark; instead, take advantage of any opportunity to see the lights.

3. Invent your very own festive playlist. This one is new to me this year, but I’ve got a specialized playlist for Christmas on Spotify. I encourage you to do something similar because there’s nothing quite like music to usher in Mood and Anticipation. Since the beginning of December, I have added at least one song a day to my playlist (you can listen to it here; for cute and fun, I recommend “Hey Moon“; for nostalgic, go for “To Be With You“; for haunting and hopeful, “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day” and “End of Exile“; for abstract and reminiscent of the tender tone of some of the O.T. prophecies, I can’t recommend “I Will Find a Way” enough).

4. Decorate with red and green and garland and lights and nativities. ~~If I need to explain this one, well, I’m sorry for your childhood (or lack thereof).~~

5. Say “Merry Christmas!”, especially to strangers. You can’t use “Merry Christmas” more than five times without feeling The Mood come upon you. So say it.

6. Take quiet time away to reflect on Jesus and His birth and the hope of Him. Hope is so essential to the Christian life, and this time of year especially will be hollow if we don’t take time to recognize and reflect on what it meant back then and what it means today.

7. … And respond with joy. C. S. Lewis said that joy is not complete until it’s expressed. SO, when you’re thinking about everything Jesus’s coming means and the sheer joy of it hits you, express it. Sing. Extol God. Pray. Tell someone. Smile. The explosive joy of God is sometimes too much to explain or share, but try to communicate it anyway–to God, to your family, to your co-workers, to everyone.

8. Snuff some peppermint essential oil. Trust me, this is pure genius from yours truly. Bring up a chair, my padawans. Essential oils aren’t just about wellness.

dream bigger 1

Essential oils are about Mood, too. So, go out to your local Store and pick up some peppermint essential oil. There are a few ways to benefit from the fragrance. Put some in a diffuser necklace for easy access. During a hot shower, drip 2-3 drops on the shower floor. If you have a diffuser in your home, put a few drops in there and enjoy. It’s like inhaling candy canes and sleigh bells.

9. Following along the line of sniffing Christmas, light up a Christmas tree scented candle. Even if you have a live Christmas tree, there is never enough Christmas tree smell, and candles add to ambiance and Good Moods with the longer nights of winter. Plus, matches never get old. (If any of you thought we were going to make it through this post without a reference to fire, you were sorely mistaken.)

10. Write/design a Christmas card or two or three. This is good for you and good for the person(s) you send the card to.

11. Watch a Christmas movie. While Charles Dickens did not invent Christmas (obviously), The Man Who Invented Christmas looks like it would be a fun, festive one to go see in theaters this year. Other popular Christmas movies ~~aka: the classics we watch almost every year at my house~~ include: The Nativity Story, Elf, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (basically a Christmas movie), The Very First Noel, and The Muppet’s Christmas Carol.

12. Some sort of advent. There are so many options. Come Let Us Adore Him by Paul David Tripp is one that my mom is enjoying this year, but there are countless other resources available online and in bookstores.

And that is the most comprehensive, exhaustive, complete, surefire of all surefire lists of Christmas-y things to do you’ll find on the internet ~~nevermind that Christmas cookies, caroling, jingle bells, Christmas pageants, snowmen, and like 300 other Christmas things were never mentioned~~.

What do you do to get in The Christmas Mood? Any favorite traditions? What is something new you’d like to try this season?

With love,

Rosalie <3

P.S. – To all you lovely people who took the time to leave comments these last couple of months: I shall enjoy re-reading your thoughts as I finally reply to all your wonderful comments this week. I love getting and reading your comments, but for reasons unknown, I never reply to them in a timely fashion. I know. I’m a very bad blogger person.
ugly-llama-face-1

I shall make it right.

P.P.S. – Just another friendly, give-you-heart-spasms reminder: two weeks until Christmas.

Posted by

Rosalie Valentine

Posted on

December 4, 2017

Posted under

My Writing, Writing

Comments

21 Comments

An Introduction to My Latest Novel (the nanowrimo 2017 edition)

So I wrote a new novel last month. I’m pretty jazzed about it (it’s a major mess right now, but I’m ignoring the First Draft Disaster and basking in the satisfaction of it being well on its way to Wonderful).

Today I’m going to introduce you to it as much as I’m able. I’m going to be using some of the questions from the Beautiful Books link up put on by Cait and Sky. Let’s get to it.

my latest novel feature image 1.jpg

~ What inspired the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea? ~

I don’t know even know what inspired the original bits for this novel. Over two years ago, I somehow (I have no remembrance how) ended up thinking about wolves and a medieval mage with a strong sense of justice who traveled between worlds.

And then a little over a year ago in my imagination wanderings, I came across a sassy creature who was worshiped as a god and in dire need of a humbling experience.

And then a few months ago, lightning struck my brain…

~ Describe what your novel is about! ~

I think this is the part where I’m supposed to give some sort of blurb.

Lol, that’s not gonna happen.

I cannot currently write an understandable blurb about this novel (I know, we’re all so despairing), but here’s the general gist: I plucked my world-tromping mage out of her travels, dropped her in the sassy so-called god’s world, and pitted them against each other. Thus, this novel was born.

~ Introduce us to each of your characters. ~

Adele is my mage. She’s… so amazing. The natives call her the Moon One for her pale skin, moon tattoos, and the crescent moon on the hilt of her sword (between you and me, the sword’s pretty amazing too). She travels to various worlds to set captives free and make truth known (aka: JUSTICE) in the name of her Lord. And sometimes she’s a wolf.

adele

Asha is my sassy creature who thinks he’s the god of fire and ardor (among other things). He’s the eldest of fourteen siblings, each with unique power which they refer to as their “birthrights”. Asha’s birthright is fire (hint: his power with fire is not limited to the everyday candle variety), and he’s been worshiped by the humans of his world as a god in the pantheon since he was born thirteen hundred years ago. Worship and bad parenting have made him quite the something-something who thinks quite a lot of himself.

asha

~ List three things about your novel’s setting. ~

1. The myrtle tree. There are many myrtle trees, but I’m talking about the myrtle tree ~~have fun figuring out what that means~~. Lots of things go down at the ol’ myrtle tree. Most of the book occurs in a landscape similar to the near to mid-east of our world, hence myrtle trees among other pieces of beautiful near and mid-east landscapes. But this myrtle tree is a special one.

2. A river that was bent to flow in a circle by one of Asha’s younger sisters (Gomti, the water goddess). (And, no, the river does not have a name; I’ll figure something out in the next draft.)

3. The temple of Chanderkala. Chanderkala is the ruler of Asha’s family of gods (he also happens to be Asha’s father, but they have issues–father/son/firstborn problems), and his glittering temple sits in the heart of Chena, the holy city of the humans where they worship Asha and his various fellow so-called gods. Just like the myrtle tree, Chanderkala’s lavish temple is also the setting for many pivotal scenes.

~ What’s your character’s goal, and who (or what) stands in the way? ~

Asha’s goal is to become the ruler of the gods. His father (Chanderkala ~~<—–that name though; it’s so over the top, just like Chanderkala himself~~) and Adele stand in Asha’s way.

More than anything, Adele wants to hear the voice of her Lord one more time, but she doesn’t know what’s in the way (spoiler alert: it’s herself, and later on, Asha).

~ What are your book’s themes? ~

– Spiritual dry season. Dealing with loneliness and silence. Remembering the truth you knew in the beginning. You are not meant to be alone, and you are not alone. –

– Owning weakness. Living alive. You are not the end all be all. Lose your life for His sake and save your soul. –

Perhaps that’s too many themes, but those are the things that kept cropping up as I went through the characters and story. I guess we’ll see what it looks like after a few rounds of edits. You can read some of the verses at the heart of this story here, here, here, here, and here.

~ And is there a title? ~

Um, that would be a no. Back when they were two separate stories, Adele’s was called Howl and Asha’s was False Gods. Now that it’s become one story, neither title seems to fit, and I can’t come up with another one to save my life. For now, I refer to it as False Gods in all my notes and such, but that title is likely to change as soon as I can come up with a better one.

And that’s about all I’ve got.

What about you?? Did you write a novel for NaNoWriMo? What’s it about? For my non-writer friends, did you have any big projects you tackled in November??? Also, any title ideas for me?

With love,

Rosalie

P.S. – if you want to check out a really amazing novel that was written for NaNo this year, stop over by Katie Grace’s blog to see the info about her superhero novel (that is, if you haven’t seen it yet).

P.P.S. – have any of us really gotten over the cover for Fawkes? (No, no we have not.)

P.P.P.S. – tomorrow I start in on edits for Beasts. Send help.

P.P.P.P.S. – so this whole “p.s.” thing is getting a bit excessive, but I just want to publicly acknowledge that I used way too many parentheses in this post. Wait, actually, that’s impossible (mwahahahaha!).