A Centreville Christmas

Don’t get me wrong. I love receiving gifts, I just don’t need sweaters or scarves to be happy. Every day when I take Jake for a walk, I look around at our charming historic town and I feel gratitude. For where I am in life, and for where I live. I love it here. Five years ago, I never imagined I would have a loving husband, live in a historic town (something I always dreamed of), and having a novel for sale on Amazon. Truly, God has both surprised and blessed me.



So, I want to share with you a little of what I experience every day on my dog walks. The picture above is of two beautiful historic homes decorated for Christmas. Grace’s favorite is the one pictured below, which we refer to as “The Gargoyle House.” Aptly named for the little gargoyle who looks out over Chesterfield Ave. and is dressed differently each season. Over the summer, he had a fish in his mouth. When school started, a giant crayon; and he even sported a Halloween costume in October.



As I walk down Commerce St., Christmas hymns and carols fill the air, courtesy of The Centerville National Bank. Every business and shop in town has a Christmas display in their window, and the Christmas Parade shuts down the entire town.



Everyone who doesn’t have a part in it sets up along the streets to watch. If you aren’t home by 6:00, you can’t get home. And everyone who marches by in the parade calls out: “Merry Christmas!” Which I appreciate since this holiday’s purpose is to celebrate the coming of the Christ into the world.



It’s easy to get stressed out (and I am) about all of the shopping and wrapping to be done, and the cleaning of the house before the relatives arrive. And it’s easy to feel down about my sweet daughter being away from me the entire week of Christmas as she celebrates with her father in Florida. But I’m choosing instead to be grateful for the love of a God who sent his Son to be my savior and who is at work in my life daily to reshape my character and make me more like him.



Our first Christmas in our new home will be special to us. We celebrated with Grace before she left, and we had a wonderful day together. And this is Jake’s first Christmas. He’s a little confused by the presence of a tree in the living room and can’t keep himself from eating it. But even if my tree has no ornaments, and the entire lower half has been literally ripped limb from limb, I’m going to cherish these days and thank God for the gifts he’s given me!

Now What?

So, the truth is I’m not good at blogging. Or talking about myself, or even about my book. I’m not a good salesperson. And I’m not that great with using technology. Basically, I don’t possess any of the skills that would be helpful in building a successful writing career in today’s world. This is what I’m good at: sitting at the computer with my cat and a cup of hot chai tea (with a secret bag of Mint M&M’s hidden in the desk drawer) and writing a story.

But every step of this journey has pushed me out of my comfort zone—which is the place where we can really grow. So it’s time for me to be uncomfortable and figure out how to get this done.

I’ve been blessed by amazing friends and family who’ve bought my novel and shared it with their friends. Hopefully I’ll see more reviews on Amazon and Good Reads as time passes and free time is reintroduced to everyone’s schedules after the holidays. Personally, I won’t be able to exert any real energy into my new writing career until the second week of January.

I’m just thankful that God already knew my limitations when he called me to write. I will give it all I have, and I’ll allow myself to sweat and stammer at book signings when I’d really rather be in my office writing. But as I was recently reminded, my job is to be obedient and leave the results to God.

So I’m going to try to relax and enjoy this part of my own story as I step into the role of author. But when you’re an uptight perfectionist who’s always imperfect, it’s tough to relax.