Final Day of the Holiday Party--Revel in the Bling!!

I'm loving all the support and wishing and dreaming in the comments. Keeps me going as I push through another ten pages of the Legally Yours draft today (one final excerpt below--hope you enjoy).

You're all amazing. Special. Brilliant, shining lights. We come from light. From belonging to something unbelievably beautiful. And we spend our entire lives working our way back to it. Mushy enough for you? Well, I believe it. Whatever your beliefs are, know that you're part of my light.

And Christmas is the perfect time of year to celebrate the light in our lives.

Light--bling--is all around in December. Everywhere you look. A gift for the eyes. And each time you look at it this year, I want you to think about the gifts inside of you. The party you bring to me and everyone you care about, just by showing up ;o)

You're perfect to all of us, just the way you are. See that when you gaze at the bling on every streetcorner and in your own home. See the light you bring to this world, cherish it and never let it go out.

Question of the day: what's your favorite Christmas decoration? Either a public one, like the tree in Rockerfeller Center, or one you parents or grandparents had, or one you've found and put out each season. One you gave your child, that you hope he remembers came from you one day when he's hanging it on his own tree.

And while you're enteraining us with your all your shiny, Christmas fancy, we need winners for yesterday's prizes!!

And they are:

Pat--the Guess tweed bag will be under your tree this Christmas ;o)

and

Toni--I have a $5 Border's gift certificate with your name on it!!


A few more prizes for our final day--the hobo bag everyone loved. And to another friend, I'll send a complete set of my "Daughter" series (The Unknown Daughter, The Runaway Daughter, and The Perfect Daughter), as soon as I receive my author copies of The Perfect Daughter. And one more Borders gift certificate will go to a final winner.

Wish I had something for everyone!!

Leave a comment between now and tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. I'll draw our final random winners and post them tomorrow night.

Thanks for making it a fabulous Holiday bash!!

Oh, and almost forgot the final excerpt from Legally Yours:

**************

"What was that?" Kate's ex-husband, neurosurgeon Bob Livingston, asked.

He was intentionally blocking her view of the lawyer's retreating back, instinctively shielding her the way he'd wanted to in their marriage. The way she'd always refused to let him. Robert had always wanted to be more to her than she could handle. To save her from things they'd barely even talked about.

It wasn't in her nature to be saved, and it wasn't in his to back off when someone needed help.

Thank God.

For the first time, as she peered around her ex to watch Stephen Creighton enter the elevator at the end of the hall, she was thankful for his coddling. Because there had been something in the lawyer's eyes, in his voice, that made her want to doubt what her own eyes were telling her. To believe that an abused little boy belonged with the man who'd most likely hurt him.

"That was nothing."

"You okay?" Robert rubbed a hand down the same place Creighton had her arm. His other hand held Creighton's card. "Who--"

"A lawyer for some legal aid center." She glanced back toward Dillon's closed door. "He's representing Manny Digarro."

"The father of the banged up little boy from the shelter?"

"Yeah. The police were notified by the ER attending, and we're running more tests to try and figure out exactly what's wrong. But he's banged up pretty badly, from more than a fall down the stairs, and there are too many signs of neglect to ignore."

"Then you're doing the right thing."

"Yeah."

Handsome lawyers with earnest expressions didn't change the truth. X-rays and broken bones didn't lie, no matter how much Dillon seemed to miss his father. And the truth was something Kate had promised herself to never rationalize away again, even when she wanted to believe some one else's promises more than what she saw with her own two eyes.

She took Creighton's business card from her ex, tore it in half and smiled. And she kept smiling, reassuring herself and Robert that she'd already put out of her mind how gentle the lawyer had been with her vulnerable patient. How honest his assurances had sounded.

But a smile didn't change the fact that she'd glanced at the address on the card as she ripped it in two. Or that she'd committed the name of Creighton's legal aid center to memory.

Damn easy-going Southern men. Their smiles could make you like their lies better than the truth.