Sunday Salon: Getting ready for the Virtual Advent Tour 2011

Last week Kailana from The Written World and I announced that the sign ups for 2011 Virtual Advent Tour are open! This is going to be the sixth year that Kailana and I have co-hosted the tour where we invite people to share their holiday memories, recipes, traditions etc with us all, even for those of you who don't celebrate Christmas (we would love to hear what you do for the holidays). We have a separate blog for sign ups, buttons, and the daily posts talking about where the stops will be! We hope that lots of you decide to sign up and join in on the fun this year. If you would like to have a look at some of the posts in previous years, you will be able to find some links here.

In case you missed the announcement, here are the gorgeous buttons that were created for us! Head over to the blog, grab a button, sign up. I can't wait to once again visit all the participants and see what everyone comes up with to share with us all!

Special thanks to Alex from Le Canape who designed these amazing buttons. Alex, is the same person who did my blog design. She is so talented!

You can also follow us on Twitter @VirtualAdvent


This year I am not having a specific date for people to visit my blog, but instead I will be posting something everyday, both here and at the Advent Tour blog and a couple of the quotes might find their way over to Historical Tapestry as well.  I have been preparing for this since May when I started collecting quotes about Christmas in particular. As soon as I saw a mention, I looked at it as a possible blog post. It is kind of surprising how few mentions there really are, but I think I have nearly enough.

I have actually read a few Christmas themed romances this year, which is kind of out of the ordinary for me, and I still have a couple left to read as well. When I look back at this year for my end of year wrap up, that is just going to be one of the ways in which my reading has been different this year. I have also read a lot more contemporary romances and also short stories mainly from the spec fic genre.

To be honest, I am not the biggest fan of Christmas. I watch other people talk about the fantastic time they have had since their childhood and their family traditions. It really wasn't the case for me, especially from the age of about 10 on when we moved away from my father's side of the family. My sister and I have worked at trying to make it a more special time, especially for the kids, but it does feel like an effort! The Advent Tour has become a huge part of my build up to Christmas each year, helping to get me just a little bit excited about the holidays, and I love reading about everyone's traditions, favourite food, music and films!

I hope that you enjoy all the posts that I put up! Next year, I plan to start from the beginning of the year so that I will hopefully have enough to cover the whole period of the tour!

Currently Reading

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World by John Baxter, Busted in Bollywood by Nicola Marsh.

Reading Next

Not sure. Maybe India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K Carr or Curse not the King by Evelyn Anthony. Then again, I listed these same books last week as reading next!