News Flash: The lucky winners are Janet Spaeth, Sara Hyman, and Mary Sylvester. Congratulations, and please check your email, ladies!
Edith/Maddie, just back to north of Boston from Cape Cod. I worked really hard writing during my solo retreat, but I also soaked up the sounds, smells, and tastes of the Cape – and took notes, of course, because the next Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery (#6) will be set during May.
Now I’m so excited to present not one but two new covers! Yes, I have a double book release in late September, a true embarrassment of riches . Let’s start with Murder in a Cape Cottage, Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries #4.
Isn’t it pretty? Here’s the blurb: ʼTis the day after Christmas, following a wicked-busy time of year for Mac’s bike shop. It’s just as well her Cozy Capers Book Group’s new pick is a nerve-soothing coloring book mystery, especially when she has last-minute wedding planning to do. But all pre-wedding jitters fade into the background when Mac and her fiancé, Tim, begin a cottage renovation project and open up a wall to find a skeleton—sitting on a stool, dressed in an old-fashioned bridal gown.
As Mac delves into the decades-old mystery with the help of librarian Flo and her book group, she discovers a story of star-crossed lovers and feuding families worthy of the bard himself. Yet this tale has a modern-day villain still lurking in Mac’s quaint seaside town, ready to make this a murderous New Year’s Eve . . .
Yes, a skeleton in the wall! I’ve always wanted to write a book featuring that kind of decades-old victim and all the mystery surrounding who she was. This story also features a ticking clock. Mac has five days to solve the murder before her New Year’s Eve wedding. Murder in a Cape Cottage releases September 27 and is available for preorder wherever books are sold. Just a reminder – my publisher looks closely at preorders, as one factor to determine if the series should continue. I’d appreciate your preorder if you can swing it.
In addition to Murder in a Cape Cottage, I have “Scarfed Down,” a Country Store Mysteries novella in Christmas Scarf Murder. Including novellas by Carlene O’Connor and Peggy Ehrhart along with mine, the collection also releases on September 27. It has a great cover, too.
Here’s the blurb for my story:
It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas at Pans ‘N Pancakes, as twelve days of menu specials dazzle hungry locals. But the festivities go cold the instant a diner dies while knitting a brilliant green scarf. With Aunt Adele tied into a murder investigation, it’s all on Robbie Jordan to find out who’s really been naughty or nice in South Lick, Indiana.
And I happen to have a stack of advance copies of the collection burning up space in my office.
So, readers: What’s your favorite holiday dish, sweet or savory? What about a holiday garment you haul out every year that you might not wear at any other time? I’ll pick three (sorry, US only) to receive a copy of the collection.
The Wickeds 
Love both covers and I can’t wait to read about Mac’s wedding. No holiday garment and baked macaroni and cheese if my favorite holiday dish.
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Yum, Dru!
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Beautiful covers! My favorite holiday dish is my Nana’s. Stuffed dates but no holiday clothing!
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My mom used to make dates stuffed with walnuts and rolled in powdered sugar!
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It is not Christmas without roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
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I’m getting hungry…
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For when I zoom with my granddaughters for Christmas morning I wear my red fleece top with my lighted necklace and other goofy jewelry plus my treasured pin of my grandmother’s of a reindeer.
I love both covers and am looking forward to reading both books.
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Love the outfit!
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Congratulations on both upcoming books in September, Maddie/Edith. Both covers look great but that description of a skeleton wearing a bridal gown gave me shivers…creepy!
My fave Christmas holiday dish is sausage-bread stuffing in the turkey (my late mom’s recipe). I also bake almond stollen to give out as holiday gifts.
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Maybe I’ll visit my sister at Christmas some year and beg a piece of your stollen!
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My favorite holiday dish is my sister’s stuffed mushrooms.
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Delish.
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I have a christmas sweatshirt I wear during the season. No favorite dish.
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Fun!
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I can’t wait to read both.
My favorite dish is my Grandma in Law’s cranberry relish. I took over making it for her and I’ve been doing it now foe 30 years!
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Thank you, Luann.
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Congratulations on two beautiful covers!
Persimmon pudding! As a former Hoosier, this regional treat continues to be the dessert of choice for my family. Finding “real” persimmons in New England is a significant challenge, but the result is well worth the effort.
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Ooh – send me the recipe and I can use it in a Country Store book! (edith@edithmaxwell.com)
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It’s on its way to you.
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I have a Stewart Royal Tartan plaid shirt that I wear during the holiday season.
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Nice, Brenda. My sons have Maxwell tartan ties – it’s red and green, so perfect for the holidays. I need to make myself a vest!
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Beautiful covers! I look forward to my mother in law’s stuffing–only made for holidays.
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Sounds yummy.
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Yay for the cover reveals. Both of them look great and of course I’m awaiting the on-sale date for Mac’s next adventure. Also, I can’t wait to read “Scarfed Down” as you know!
It’s not particularly associated with the holiday season but rather a “regular” dish that my aunt made for the extended family Christmas Eve gathering. It’s a chicken dish with mushrooms. I’m not a mushroom fan but the way it is made, it is just so good! I have the recipe but since I don’t cook, I haven’t made it. I haven’t had it but once since the gathering ended 6 years ago.
I don’t have any articles of clothing that I wear for the holidays either. But I do wait until December 1st to play the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas CDs and not before.
No need to enter me for the giveaway obviously but I figured I’d add my two cents here today.
And it was so great to see you yesterday Edith!
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Great to see you, too, Jay. You can’t go wrong with chicken and mushrooms!
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Both covers are wonderful! I can not wait for Mac’s wedding!
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I hope you love it, Shawn.
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My favorite holiday food to make is peanut butter blossoms cookies, my family looks for those every Christmas. My mother-in-law bought me this red knit vest with ornament designs and furry white tassels on it one Christmas and I honestly tried to wear it for a couple years…then some magical Christmas elf snuck it off to a Goodwill pile (tee hee). So now I just find some sweater to wear, nothing fancy.
Love your covers, especially the winter ocean one!
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Those cookies sound great.
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Great covers as always! No particular garment for the holidays, but the dressing I make is everyone’s favorite. It was the one my mom made, and her mother. My youngest has a fit if I say I may not cook Thanksgiving dinner this year! lol
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I always make my mom’s dressing, too.
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My favorite holiday dish is most definitely sweet. Sweets at Christmas remind me of the hours my Mom spent making all the different kinds of candy (all delicious). Then we would make up boxes putting some of each kind in them to be presented to close friends, neighbors, elderly or shut-ins and any one Mom appreciated through the year like pastor, doctors, and receptionists. Part of my job was the decorate the boxes. Then we would delivery our holiday good cheer packages often staying for a short visit. It was a labor of love and one I have tried to carry one. One sweet Mom made for Christmas only was her Fresh Grated Coconut Cake. Not only was it a holiday treat that we all looked forward to, it was both beautiful and delicious.
Through the years (and getting lazy) the recipe got adapted to make it easier to make meaning we can have it more often thought the year. It’s now the Three Day Coconut Cake and yes you have to make it three days a head of time before you eat it. That leaves you time closer to a holiday or company coming to do the zillion other things that need done. It’s made with a cake mix as the base and you use fresh frozen coconut instead of having to grate it yourself. Although a knock off of Mom’s, I never make it that it doesn’t make me think of Mom fabulous made from scratch cake.
Each holiday has something special that I haul out of storage as a remembrance to the past. What would Christmas be without my Christmas sweaters and the nativity set Mom used? Thanksgiving means setting out the Precious Moment Thanksgiving dinner table set that has the little dog holding his bowl begging for a handout. Easter is the ceramic basket and eggs set I made for Mom that she treasured for so many years. And the list goes on and on. Sometimes these special things evoke memories and that makes them special. Then other times I see something new that I love or it reminds me of the past and I add them to my collection. Years from now they may become olf memories and if not, I’ll pass them on to someone else.
Can’t wait for the release of BOTH books! Greatly appreciate the chance to win a copy of “Christmas Scarf Murder”. Three amazing authors whose books I enjoy reading. It will be fun to read each novella and see how they tie together like the scarf around the neck – both different but compliment each other so well. Shared and hoping to be one of the fortunate ones selected.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
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You have lovely traditions to draw on, Kay.
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I have pre-ordered the new Cozy Capers Book Club book! Since I’ve learned how much pre-orders mean to authors, I try to pre-order many of my new reads! For holiday fare, I made a traditional English Christmas Cake- recipe by Mary Berry- which is NOTHING like the stodgy fruitcake that is the butt of so many jokes. My cake is full of fruit and spice and absolutely delicious. My husband’s grandmother in England used to make it every year, and I took up the tradition when we started staying in the states for the holidays.
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Thank you, Shanna! Preorders are so important.
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I love grapenut pudding any time. But usually only make it during holidays.
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I’ve never had that.
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The absurd holiday sweater without a doubt. I have friends that have great ones, but I have never been able to bring my self to spend the money on something I would wear once a year in a good year.
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I got my loud Christmas vest at a thrift store!
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Great covers, Edith. For holiday dishes, at Thanksgiving I do a mushroom/sausage dressing that is very popular. As for clothing, I have a silky red blouse with shiny buttons that generally only appears at Christmas.
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Thanks, Liz. I used to have a red blouse. Now I have a red sweater I save for winter events.
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We always do grandma’s green beans with bacon and eggs for holidays. And I love making candy around Christmas. I don’t do any the rest of the year, I suppose because it’s too hot to stand over the stove in summer and some things, like divinity, don’t work well in the humidity.
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Agree about candy, Alicia.
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Congratulations on the new books! I love turkey. I have several Christmas sweatshirts from my old teaching days that I just love.
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Thanks!
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Congratulations on the new books! I love my mom’s stuffing/dressing recipe. It’s the best and now I’m hungry for it!
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I love my mom’s stuffing, too, Sherry. And thank you!
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I really like stuffing/dressing. I always get out my Christmas t shirts when the time is right.
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Perfect.
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My favorite holiday dish is a family Christmas cookie recipe called Bremer Brot – somewhat gingerbread-like, but different. And I have a Christmasy top featuring flamingos in Santa hats
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What a fun top!
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I just love the Murder in a Cape Cottage cover. The cottage looks so cozy and inviting. The plot sounds fantastic! I cannot imagine finding a skeleton in a wall but what a mystery to solve! I love snowmen so I usually wear a Snowman sweater for Christmas. One of my favorite holiday only recipes is my grandmother’s Date Nut Pinwheel cookies. They are a bit fussy to make but so delicious.
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I hope you love the book, Sue.
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CONGRATULATIONS & ADULATIONS Maddie!!! Yipeee…Not one, but TWO new books to delight in! The covers are so enticing, and your descriptions make me want to read them right now! I am especially hooked when I see “Christmas” and “Murder”…I so enjoyed CHRISTMAS COCOA MURDER, so I am prepared to be thrilled with your new novella! All the best to you, and may you continue to be showered with brilliant ideas, and blessed with new book contracts!!! luis at ole dot travel
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Got so excited that I forgot to answer your questions…if this was a TV show, I would have gotten an “X”…:-) My favorite Christmas ‘goodies’ are my wife’s “Pecan Tassies”…they are just like mini pecan pies…Yum…I can taste them now…and as far as attire…I have a bin full of Christmas PJ’s, socks, hats (with and without lights) and sweaters…one with blinking lights…why not go all out? There is no such thing as an “Ugly Sweater”. Thank you!
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Thanks so much, Luis.
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I enjoy “dressing” for holidays but I have no particular favorite holiday apparel. No clear holiday favorite food here, either. I just enjoy the seasons for what they represent and the opportunity to be with family and friends.
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THe “family-and-friends” part is the best.
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I love potato salad..No special garment
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I love it too!
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Edith, the covers are fantastic! Congratulations on your new releases.
Okay, December holidays for us mean a lot of potato latkes and other fried dishes (because the oil in the Temple lasted 8 days;-) Lots of friends go for donuts but give me latkes, any day!
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I am so lucky to have a Jewish daughter-in-law!
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Congratulations on the two upcoming releases. I can’t wait for Mac and Tim’s wedding! I love Sweet potato pie. I also love to make German Springerle cookies. At a Kristkindl Market one year I bought a Christmas jumper that I wear over a turtle neck shirt every Christmas.
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Those cookies sound yummy.
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Love both covers, Edith! Congratulations in advance!
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Thank you!
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During Thanksgiving we have turkey and ham and all the trimmings, on Christmas we take it easier with sandwiches, salads and desserts. In regard to clothing, I was looking at some pictures and I was wearing the same sweater year after year on Christmas, if it wasn’t for the different hair colors and styles, I wouldn’t have known it was different years.
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Ha! I have a Christmas knit vest I wear every year.
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I like the whole berry cranberry sauce. And, of course, pumpkin pie.
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Both favorites of mine
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Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. A bedazzled t-shirt has to be worn even if I am camping in the woods. My favorite desert of all time is chocolate cream pie.
Both the covers are lovely. Congratulations
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The pie sounds fabulous.
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My favorite would be pumpkin pie, and proof of an aunt’s love would be the time my little niece asked for “brown pie” and I gave her the piece I had my bag (too full from airplane dinner to eat dessert). No greater love . . . ?
I’m gatting worried about the fate of knitters in your books . .. but I still have hats to finish for babies on the way, grandchildren of that niece, in fact. ❤
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Yes, I think I’ve had more than one knitting-related death, Mary. That’s it!
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Every holiday has a special food! On Thanksgiving my sister cooks, she always makes our mother’s lime jello mold, which means that Mom is still with us in some way. Chanukah means crispy latkes and there’s nothing like Christmas cookies, including Grandma’s pinwheel cookies. I do have Christmas & Chanukah tee shirts, but I especially love to take out the Christmas earrings for the season!
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I Have Christmas earrings, too.
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Two great covers, Edith! Though with spring having at best a tenuous hold here in coastal Maine, they don’t make me long for winter–yet!
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I hear ya, Barb! Maybe in August…
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Preordered! I love the cover. I want to move in. Right now. Well, except for the skeleton thing, I’ll let Mac and Tim take care of that.
Two holiday dishes for me. The first represents the nearly 40 years I spent in the South. I make ambrosia for every holiday – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter! Yum. In homage to my mom, I also make a broccoli cheese casserole for the same holidays. Any child of the 50s will recognize this – broccoli and condensed cheddar cheese soup. I considered modernizing it, but heck – holidays are all about tradition! One dish I wish I could make (also a nod to my mom) Jell-o carrot mold. I loved it, but I simply cannot get the timing right to add the carrots.
I trot out the wool vest my husband gave me at our first Christmas together – yes, we were living in Miami, but it was Christmas – it has ornament buttons and is scratchy as can be. I think it will last forever!
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Thanks for the preorder, Kait!
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Flannel Christmas nightshirts! I just ordered another one (yay, sales!) so I can sleep warmly. We also have a family ugly holiday sweater that migrates to whoever needs it. Food is always my family recipe for chicken and dumplings: takes two days to make but soooooo worth it!
I’m excited for both of these books!
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Love me a nightshirt in the winter!
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Both are nice looking covers.
I love the sweet potato and apples dish my parents make. Definitely on the sweet side. We’ve often said you could use it for a pie filling. And it’s even better the next day cold. Not that I don’t eat plenty of it when it is hot. (No need to enter me in the giveaway.)
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I bet that is great, Mark.
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I don’t have a particular holiday recipe but I generally only bake during the holidays. Tiramisu and biscotti are my favorites. I have some really soft holiday print dresses I wear with leggings that I LOVE!
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Those sound fun.
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Love the new covers! Can’t wait to read them!
I only make peanut brittle at Christmas, so it’s one of my favorites along with pecan pie. I have a couple holiday sweaters that come out for Christmas. Thanks for a chance!
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My mom loved Sees peanut brittle – and I do, too.
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I love both covers!! I can’t wait to read them, I love Christmas themed books!! I have a Grinch t shirt that I wear only at Christmas time!!
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Thanks, Amy!
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Love both covers, Edith. Will definitely pre-order the Cape mystery. Favorite dish I only do at Christmas is a very simple corn pudding. I got the recipe from my wonderful mother-in-law. And I have a couple of Christmasy tops that will keep forever since I wear each of them once a year!
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Thanks, Ginny. Those tops sound fun!
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I have a recipe for Swedish Christmas bread (with cardamom) that I make only at Christmas. I also have several Christmas themed shirts that I only wear after Thanksgiving and before December 26th. Thanks so much for the giveaway!
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I love the sound of that bread.
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Love both covers! Looking forward to reading both books. I especially like the Skelton in a closet storyline, the wedding dress adds some extra mystery. My favorite holiday dish is the pork schnitzel my Sister makes for the holidays. No special holiday outfit.
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Thanks, Dianne. I did my best!
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Beautiful covers!!! Always excited to See new Christmas cozies!! Love this series!
I love the sweets . Sugar cookies and peanut butter fudge! Thank you for your wonderful Giveaway.🥰
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I could use a piece of that fudge right now!
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Peanut Butter Fudge and Buckeyes
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Yummy.
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Such great covers for both books! Holiday traditions abound, Thanksgiving means Mom’s stuffing, which always goes fast. Christmas is the only time my sister makes her delicious apricot cookies and I wear my Santa scarf. Takes two people to make those cookies, so it’s always a fun afternoon.
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With a Santa scarf, you’re a natural for this collection.
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