It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: While It Was Snowing (+ guest post)

today’s book: While It Was Snowing

Welcome to another post in my annual blog series spotlighting new and recently-released Christmas reads! (Over 50 this year – And I’m SO EXCITED about it!)

Christmas is only THREE DAYS away – and only one day left of the Christmas Reads Giveaway after today. I hope y’all have enjoyed this year’s book spotlights and guest posts! And we’re not quite done yet! So… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes and start your bookish Christmas list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

Today’s third book is a Restoring Heritage contemporary romance novella – plus author Tari Faris shares about her family’s Christmas elephant… say what? LOL

WHILE IT WAS SNOWING
SERIES: Restoring Heritage #2.5
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
PUBLISHER: Tari Faris
RELEASE DATE: November 1, 2020
PAGES: 180

Return to Heritage with this heart warming Christmas novella.

Had Danielle known that delivering a message would land her holding a bouquet of red roses and wearing the first dress of her life, she would not have volunteered.

Danielle Fair has been working at her dad’s mechanic shop since she could talk, and she loves fixing cars. To everyone at the garage, she’s just Dan, one of the guys, and that’s fine by her…after all, without sisters or a mother, Danielle is lost when it comes to girly stuff. However, when she is forced to embrace her inner girly girl at Nate and Olivia’s winter wedding, her makeover wakes up not just the attention of the guys she works with, but also the one man she has secretly loved for some time—her best friend, Gideon Mathews—Danielle is suddenly beset with way too much attention and struggles to figure out who she is underneath it all.

There were always two things Gideon Mathews could count on: his beloved Detroit Lions not making it to the playoffs and Dan Fair being his best friend. But when Dan—no, Danielle—shows up to his sister’s wedding dressed as, of all things, a girl—no, a very beautiful, breathtaking, heart-stopping girl—he isn’t sure what to do with his sudden rush of emotions. Of course, he’s always known she was a girl, but suddenly he can’t keep his eyes, or mind…or heart away from her. Only now every guy in town seems to have the same problem. Did he lose his chance with Danielle by missing what had been in front of him for so long? Or can he convince her to be his by Christmas?

It’s Miss Congeniality goes to a winter wedding in a Christmas Cinderella tale. From snowed-in to snowball fights, Christmas trees to Christmas dances, this story has everything you need for a perfect holiday read.

Fuzzy socks and hot cocoa not included but encouraged while you read.

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Also available to read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

The Christmas Elephant

 by Tari Faris, author of While It Was Snowing

I love Christmas traditions. Love them, love them, love them!!! For me, there is something about revisiting something familiar combined with the excitement of the present that adds to the joy. As if, for a few days each year, I get to sit in the sweet memories of yester-year while simultaneously living in the moment and making new memories.

What are my favorite traditions for Christmas? On my first attempt at this blog, I started writing about all of my favorites Christmas traditions and why I loved them. But then I realized in order to do all that, it would take more than a blog. So, I will narrow it down to just one. Possibly my favorite of favorites.

The Christmas Elephant.

Don’t get me wrong, we have many traditions that focus on the true meaning of Christmas. But I LOVE our Christmas Elephant for several reasons. First of all, it is unique to us. Other families may have a something similar, but the story of how our tradition started is definitely unique to us, and it’s the reason I love it so much. It was born out of a love I never saw coming.

Let us turn back the calendar to 1999. Last century! I had just met my husband four months before, and he’d flown out to spend the week between Christmas and New Years with my family. My sisters were both married, but we were still over a year away from the first grandchild in the family. This is important because I am pretty sure it was the first and last time we sat around as adults and did crafts. LOL

But we did do crafts. We made ornaments out of baked craft clay. My husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, made an elephant, rough but adorable. (I think I made a train)

Long story short, we broke up a few days later, before he returned to California. It was pretty much my fault and a story for another day. But he left heartbroken.

A key piece to this story is that I had my own little mini tree in my parents’ basement. That year, I was a little slow in taking it down—like the middle-of-March slow. And as I took it down, what did I find? The elephant hidden inside the branches in the back. But enough time had passed since the breakup, it was a sweet find.

And although I was sure our relationship would never work out for us, I packed it away, and for the next couple years I would tuck the elephant in the back of the tree and think of him. But like many things in life, I was wrong about our relationship. And after we were married in 2002, he reclaimed the job of hiding the elephant every year as we put up the tree.

After we added children, it took new life again as hiding the elephant became a family game of who could find it first. And now, it moves around the tree all season. We are always on the search for our moving Christmas elephant.

Is it really a surprise that I love Otis the hippo so much? I mean, I think I just love mysteriously-moving animals. 😉

So, that is my favorite of our family traditions. But what I love most about this tradition is that it is a consistent reminder of my husband’s love. A love that never gave up on me even when I was being difficult. A love that continues to pursue and love me more each year. And that love is only a poor shadow of the love God has for us.

What about you? Do you love holiday traditions? Do you have a unique one that is special to just your family?

Tari Faris loves romance and considers it a gift to get to write about it for a living. She released her debut novel, You Belong with Me in 2019 and a follow up novel Until I Met You in 2020. When she is not writing or working for My Book Therapy, she spends time with her amazing husband and kids. In her free time, she loves coffee, rockhounding with her husband and kids, and distracting herself from housework.

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Tari Faris is offering a signed, print copy of While It Was Snowing, a 3D printed snowflake ornament (like one mentioned in the final scene of the book) and $5 Starbucks Gift Card  to one of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read While It Was Snowing by Tari Faris? Do you have a unique tradition that is special to just your family?