Announcements

Our little town of Hollyberry is really coming to life! Here are the latest developments:

The Sounds of Christmas:

This is a joyous season and that really comes through in the sounds that fill our town. There are the laughter and squeals of children at play and merry exchange of greetings from the adults. Carolers can be found strolling the streets and pausing in the town square to serenade the townsfolk. And the sound of bells – from the tinkle of shop bells, to the jangle of harness bells, to the peel of church bells – are everywhere. And if one passes by the open church door they can hear the sounds of the choir practice for the upcoming cantata.

A Catastrophe!

It’s two days before our Christmas Eve festival and a terrible blizzard has struck. The roads are impassable, not only because of the snow but of fallen trees and limbs, so those in outlying farms can’t make it into town. And even those in town will have trouble getting around with all the snow. And, oh no, the roof on the schoolhouse, where the meal was going to be served, has sprung several leaks, not only rendering it unusable but damaging most of the decorations for the program that were stored there.

Again you folks didn’t disappoint! There were so many wonderful, evocative ideas it was difficult to narrow it down. But here is what we settled on.

How Main Street is decorated;

The storefronts are festooned with fresh greenery and red holly berries. The doors sport festive wreaths with holly sprigs liberally included. The Lamp posts are wrapped in red ribbon and topped with big red bows. The shop windows are displaying Christmas themed goods designed to delight and  tempt shoppers. There’s a Christmas tree in the town square that has been decorated by the townsfolk with handmade ornaments. And next to is is a wooden nativity.

Our Big Event:

There is a festival on Christmas Eve. It kicks off with a parade in the morning. Then there’s a community luncheon, followed by a children’s program consisting of songs and a nativity play. There are games and gift exchanges throughout the afternoon. That evening there is a Christmas Eve service at the church where the choir puts on a special cantata.

Now let’s see what happens next…

Week 1 of Cowboys and Mistletoe is behind us – I hope you all had as much fun participating as we had putting it all together! And if you got busy and didn’t get the chance to check out all the posts, don’t worry, you still have time. We’re including all the comments left up through early Saturday the 13th (we’ll need some time to pull everything together in order to announce our winners on Sunday the 14^th)

Tomorrow we’re switching gears and moving on to Week 2 of our Cowboys & Mistletoe celebration.  There are 8 of us with new Christmas releases we are eager to share with you – so there will be 2 posts each day Monday 12/08-Thursday 12/11.

And of course, we want to have some fun while we do it. We’ll be playing a new game we’re calling “The Great Western Christmas Celebration”. The way it works is as follows:

Using a series of 8 questions, together we’ll write a VERY high-level story summary that will be only 8 or so lines long. There will be two questions a day, one to go with each of the 8 posts, and we’ll select answers and post them first thing the next morning, since some of these build on each other. It is our hope that you will really use your imaginations and have fun with this.

And to add to the fun, a $10 Amazon gift card will be randomly awarded to one respondent on each post (for a total of 8 winners!!). So be sure to stop by every day and join in the fun!

And don’t forget, in addition to the other prizes we’re offering,
all entries will also be eligible for our oh-so-beautiful Grand Prize – a gorgeous quilt hand made by our very own Jo-Ann Roberts

NOTE: ALL winners will be announced on Sunday 12/14.