12 Pearls of Christmas: Day 0

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Pearl Girls™ 12 Pearls of Christmas blogging series!

We've gathered several of today's most beloved authors to share their Christmas "Pearls of Wisdom"! Please follow along beginning tomorrow (Wednesday the 14th) through Christmas day as Tricia Goyer, Suzanne Woods Fisher, Rachel Hauck, Sandy Ralya, Sibella Giorello, Susan May Warren and more, share their heartfelt stories of how God has touched their life during this most wonderful time of the year.

If you'd like to share the 12 Pearls of Christmas with your blog readers too, just email Christen and she'll send you the series.

AND of course there is a giveaway! Beginning tomorrow you and all your friends can enter to win a PEARL NECKLACE and EARRINGS valued at $450! The winner will be announced on New Year's Day! Pearls - a tangible reminder of God's grace to us all.

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Just a quick note before the series begins on the 14th ...

As I write this, I imagine that we are sitting at my kitchen table and chatting over a cup of coffee while familiar Christmas carols celebrate the Season. My twelve year old Chihuahua, Pongo, barks for a pinch of pound cake while my Shih Tzu, Lilly, patiently sits by the chair and waits for a crumb to fall.

My name is not Martha Stewart, and I will never receive a neighborhood beautification award. Just look at my front stoop. Yes, my never-had-time-to-carve-the-pumpkin-that-now-suffers-from-frostbite slouches next to the front door which is decorated with a Christmas wreath. I plan to roll this large orange ornament to the garbage pile tomorrow. For now, however, I will pretend that my front stoop is a contemplative modern art exhibit capturing the essence of contrast.

Actually, I love the concept of juxtaposition – placing things together that don’t seem to belong together, yet somehow ultimately make sense being paired. A personal example for me this season is the phrase: “comfort and joy.” Having just completed my manuscript for New Hope Publishers about the aftermath of grief, I fully understand the contrast of those two words. How can comfort bring joy? How can one find joy in loss?

Perhaps, dear reader, you have experienced loss this year – loss of a loved one, loss of friendship, loss of health,  loss of financial security, loss of trust, loss of love, or loss of direction. Even with the best intent, words of encouragement shared by others can somehow seem insufficient to address an inconsolable loss.  A spoken word cannot fully restore joy to a broken heart; however the Word can. And that’s the bottom line message of Christmas! God gave us the most amazing gift: His Son -  the Word of God, the Holy Comforter.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

You are not alone this Christmas, dear friend. Juxtaposed to the unexpected grit in life is the gift of God’s grace wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. This year I purposely placed a pearl in the Nativity scene as a metaphoric reminder. When we place our grit into the hands of the Lord, His grace transforms our pain into a pearl.



 “Joy to the world!”  



Thank you so very much for sharing the JOY of the Season with us this year.

God Bless,
Margaret
@mcsweeny

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Margaret McSweeney lives with her husband, David and two teenage daughters in the Chicago suburbs. She is the founder and director of Pearl Girls. For more information please visit www.pearlgirls.info. Margaret is fast at work on several fiction manuscripts. Her book Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace was written to help fund the Pearl Girl Charities. She is also the host of weekly radio show, Kitchen Chat. Connect with Margaret on Facebook or Twitter.

Bookshelf Monday :: 24

I've been posting a lot of reading nooks and crannies lately. I thought I'd post this one because I find it amusing. I honestly think my claustrophobic tendencies would kick into high gear if I closed the doors while sitting in it, but since it's hard to find a quick reading place without my toddler running by to bop/yank/pull my book out of my hands... it might actually be worth it. :)

image courtesy of: bookshelf porn

Gift Card Giveaway: $10 Amazon gift card

Thanks to I am a Reader Not a Writer and Attack of the Book for hosting this Gift Card Giveaway Hop!

Let's keep spreading the holiday cheer with another giveaway! I'm giving away a $10 gift card to Amazon.com so that you can purchase a book of your choice to read.

Over 140 participating blogs are offering a book related giveaway and we are all linked up together so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. The hop runs from  Friday December 9th through Tuesday December 13th. This is a shorter hop so don't wait until the last minute to enter!

***MUST BE A FOLLOWER TO ENTER***
(To follow, scroll down up the left side bar to the top and click "follow")
If it does not show up, please refresh the page. GFC can be buggy. :(

Giveaway Details:
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Bookshelf Monday :: 23

What a wonderful little reading room! I wish I had another shot of the other side to get a full view of the room, but I love the idea of having a little space where one could escape to and just read the day away. Plus, don't you just love the splashes of red?

image courtesy of: kelly green interiors

Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... um sort of. In Southern California, we've had 80 degree weather and that makes it a little challenging at times to get into the holiday spirit. However, that hasn't stopped me from playing my Christmas music, watching Christmas movies, and reading Christmas stories. :)

In celebration of the beginning of the holiday season, I am giving away a book for the Book Lover's Holiday's Giveaway Hop. Thank you to I Am a Reader, not a Writer and Kit Lit Frenzy for hosting this giveaway!

Title: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle 

Author: Monique Roffey

Summary from Goodreads:

A beautifully written, unforgettable novel of a troubled marriage, set against the lush landscape and political turmoil of Trinidad

Monique Roffey's Orange Prize-shortlisted novel is a gripping portrait of postcolonialism that stands among great works by Caribbean writers like Jamaica Kincaid and Andrea Levy.

When George and Sabine Harwood arrive in Trinidad from England, George is immediately seduced by the beguiling island, while Sabine feels isolated, heat-fatigued, and ill-at-ease. As they adapt to new circumstances, their marriage endures for better or worse, despite growing political unrest and racial tensions that affect their daily lives. But when George finds a cache of letters that Sabine has hidden from him, the discovery sets off a devastating series of consequences as other secrets begin to emerge.

Title: Winter Bloom
Author:  Tara Heavey

Summary from Goodreads:

There would be tunnels of roses, beds of strawberries, fountains of overflowing herbs. And there might even be love. . . . In the heart of bustling modern Dublin is a littered, overgrown garden of tangled weeds and a stagnant, hidden pond. Belonging to an iron-willed elderly lady named Mrs. Prendergast, who is rumored to have murdered and buried her husband there, the garden draws Eva Madigan, a young mother struggling to move on from the pain of her past. Eva is joined by Emily, a beautiful but withdrawn college dropout; Uri, an old-world immigrant; Seth, his all-too-handsome son; and occasionally even Mrs. Prendergast herself. But what drives Eva to transform the neglected urban wilderness? What makes the others want to help her? Even as Mrs. Prendergast puts the land up for sale, the thorny lives of all the gardeners are revealed and slowly start to untangle. Overgrown secrets are dug up and shared. Choices are made; a little pruning is in order. Now Eva is about to discover that every garden is a story of growth toward a final harvest. . . .

Title: What We Have

Author: Amy Boesky

Summary from Goodreads:

The stirring true story of a woman who chose fearlessness in the face of a fatal family legacy and discovered the pleasure of living each moment to its fullest

At thirty-two, Amy Boesky thought she had it all figured out: a wonderful new man in her life, a great job, and the (nearly) perfect home. For once, she was almost able to shake the terrible fear that had gripped her for as long as she could remember. Women in her family had always died young-from cancer-and she and her sisters had grown up in time's shadow. It colored every choice they made and was beginning to come to a head now that each of them approached thirty-five-the deadline their doctors prescribed for having preventive surgery with the hope they could thwart their family's medical curse. But Amy didn't want to dwell on that now. She wanted to plan for a new baby, live her life. And with the appreciation for life's smallest pleasures, she did just that. In What We Have, Amy shares a deeply transformative year in her family's life and invites readers to join in their joy, laughter, and grief.

In a true story as compelling as the best in women's fiction, written with the sagacity of Joan Didion and the elegance of Amy Bloom, Amy Boesky's journey celebrates the promise of a full life, even in the face of uncertainty.

Over 300 participating blogs are offering a book related giveaway and we are all linked up together so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. The hop runs from Thurs. Dec 2nd through Tues. Dec 6th. This is shorter than the last hop so don't wait until the last minute to enter!

***MUST LIKE FACEBOOK PAGE TO ENTER***

Giveaway Details:

To enter giveaway, please "like" my facebook page when filling out the RaffleCopter.

Comments are for feedback, questions and sweet nothings only. ;)