A California Online Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal
Rory Anderson is a computer programmer but has a talent for painting—as in Christmas ornaments and the like. She and her friend Liz are set to sell their wares at a craft sale. Kicking off the holiday season are concerts, a pier lighting ceremony, and the annual sand-snowman contest. That is, snowmen built from sand. After all, this is Vista Beach, California, where actual snow is unlikely.
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BFF Josie gives Sally an early gift meant also to recognize Sally’s greatly improved baking abilities: an engraved “six-inch serrated silver cake server.” Ok, I know my cozies; this is incriminating evidence in the making! Sally is also pregnant with her first child, and although her due date has come and gone and she’s feeling clumsy, she is still in good spirits.
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“We can’t afford that.”
Margaret had spent a good chunk of time helping a customer select a pattern and yarn. In a second, that customer’s husband killed what would have been Margaret’s best sale in months.
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Roxy and Patrick Cane have been blissfully married for a year, and have finally arranged to put aside their very busy schedule for a romantic date night. The Bean Hive has been on holiday overdrive, and Patrick’s construction company has been booming, so some quiet, delicious food, and melting in each other’s eyes was just the prescription for their weariness.
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As the days shorten and the air turns cold and crisp, thoughts turn to the holidays and all of the chaos that they conjure. ‘Tis the season of mad dashes on Black Friday, packed parking lots, a veritable flood of Christmas parties and gift exchanges, and the scramble of last-minute everything.
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Kate Hamilton is an antique dealer in the U.S. Her daughter, Christine, has followed a boyfriend to England and is working alongside him as an intern on an estate in Suffolk, England. During a visit to Scotland a couple of months before, Kate met Detective Inspector Thomas Mallory of the Suffolk Constabulary. Even though a relationship seems impossible given the 3,200 mile commute to see each other, neither wants to give up on the idea. Since the holidays are usually a slow time for crime, Kate is visiting both Tom and Christine.
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The prodigal son returns! Gemma’s first introduction to the handsome stranger was awkward, but fortunately his escalating advances were curtailed by an important phone call he couldn’t decline. Later, Gemma’s mother pressured her to agree to last minute catering for her friend Annabel Floyd, daughter of Sir Hugh Morecombe, whose Sinterklaas Foundation is having a Christmas tea party for underprivileged children at her family’s estate, Thurlby Hall.
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As a child, I didn’t realize that our family Christmas traditions were not everyone’s Christmas traditions. I thought everyone went to mass on Christmas Eve, then gathered at their grandparents’ house, ate hotdogs and potato salad, and opened gifts (insert the screeching sound of a car coming to a halt here). This was the ritual that happened annually and that my siblings and I longed for each year. Hotdogs and potato salad!?
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At “Florida’s 55-Plus Beautiful Bird Recreational Vehicle Park,” snowbirds and seniors from all around have retired in the sunny climate where Christmas doesn’t include shoveling snow or the lack of accessible hospitals.
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‘Tis the season to give. If you have a foodie in your life who you hope to delight, you’re likely trying to find the perfect gift. It may seem like an overwhelming challenge with all the options available today.
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It’s Owl Fest 2019 in Caerphilly, Virginia, and for once Meg Langslow’s home is not the center of her grandfather’s well-intentioned chaos. Instead, J. Montgomery Blake has selected the Caerphilly Inn for the Blake Foundation’s December Owl conference of professors, scientists, and many unapproved owls.
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This week we have reviews and giveaways of a bunch of Christmas mysteries to fill your Christmas stocking-Christmas Cocoa Murder by Carlene O’Connor, Maddie Day, Alex Erickson, Have Yourself a Beary Little Murder: Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear Mystery by Meg Macy, Marry Christmas Murder: Wedding Planner Mystery by Stephanie Blackmore, Christmas Cow Bells: A Buttermilk Creek Mystery by Mollie Cox Bryan, Silent Knit, Deadly Knit: A Knit & Nibble Mystery by Peggy Ehrhart, A Merry Murder by Kate Kingsbury, and a bonus giveaway of Read and Gone by Allison Brook which we reviewed in 2018
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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and no one in the Central Valley is better or more qualified to bring much-needed holiday cheer than the man, the myth, the legend: Nate Butler! He’ll be hosting the 27th Annual Mmm-Mmm Christmas: The Island of Misfit Toys Edition at Fulton 55 on December 13.
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Welcome to the twinkling Christmas magic of Clovis’ Candy Cane Lane. The Holiday Spirit is readily apparent as visitors make that first turn onto Peach Avenue, just north of Alluvial and enter onto Athens Avenue for a treat you will never forget. Don’t be surprised to see that the street signs turn from brown to festive red inside this winter wonderland that includes about six dazzling blocks of shimmering lights, inflatables, and Christmas Cheer.
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