About The Great Christmas Bowl:
Marianne Wallace is focused on two things this holiday season: planning the greatest family Christmas ever and cheering on her youngest son’s team in their bid for the state championship.
Disaster strikes when the team loses their mascot-the Trout. Is it going too far to ask her to don the costume? So what if her husband has also volunteered her to organize the church Christmas tea.
When football playoffs start ramping up, the Christmas tea starts falling apart. Then, one by one her children tell her they can’t come home for Christmas.
As life starts to unravel, will Marianne remember the true meaning of the holidays?
My take:
As an Aussie, I don’t know much about American Football, but I know plenty about family expectations, Christmas traditions and mother guilt! As a result I giggled and sympathised my way through this story of one mum’s desperate attempt to keep her son happy and bring the family back home at Christmas. Susan’s book is a little gem, overflowing with small town community – the good and the bad – a reminder of God’s grace and the things that are truly important as we celebrate Christmas.
About Susan:
Susan May Warren is the RITA award-winning author of twenty-four novels with Tyndale, Barbour and Steeple Hill. A four-time Christy award finalist, a two
-time RITA Finalist, she’s also a multi-winner of the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Book of the Year. Her larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!. She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice. Susan makes her home in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!) A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at: www.susanmaywarren.com
The Great Christmas Bowl website
The website features a note from the author, fun updates from Big Lake Gazette, info on how to host your own Great Christmas Bowl Tea to benefit a local ministry or charity and a fun Recipe Exchange contest!
CONTEST: Be a part of the Great Christmas Bowl recipe exchange!
Susan loves getting recipes from friends, and sharing the delicious cookies, soups, breads and other fun fixings that go with celebrating the Christmas season. More than that, she loves the crazy stories about favorite Christmases – serious, touching, funny…whatever. Find the recipe contest here
Will you share your story and recipe with Susan and the readers of the Great Christmas Bowl? She will post your story and recipe on the FRONT PAGE of the Great Christmas Bowl website, and send you a link when it goes up so you can tell all your friends. Then, at the Great Christmas Bowl party (December 5th, 10am, online! Details TBA) she’ll make the entire cookbook available for download!
For every recipe/story you submit (up to 3), you will be entered in a drawing to receive one of SMW’s collections (Noble Legacy, Team Hope, Heirs of Anton, Deep Haven Series, Josey series, or THE ADVANCED COPY of Sons of Thunder – Susie’s brand new epic World War 2 novel, due out in January 2010!)
Go – run, get your recipe, then come back here and click on the link below to share your Christmas memories!
Blog Tour Schedule here!
Relz Reviewz Extras
Visit Susan’s website
Aussie Giveaway
To enter:~
1. You must have an Aussie mailing address
2. Post a comment by Sunday 4th October, 2009 telling me your favourite family Christmas tradition
September 29, 2009 at 11:36 am
This is a hard question as last year mum ended up full time in a nursing home and for several years hasn't wanted anything to do with christmas. But one of the traditions we have had in the past is making biscuits and slices to give out to neighbours and others who have helped us out in the past year. One other is we always have bacon for breakfast Christmas morning.
September 29, 2009 at 12:31 pm
We always have either lunch or tea together as a family with my grandma, parents and sister, brother in law and nieces which we all treasure.
September 30, 2009 at 1:43 am
I've got lots and lots of favourite family Christmas traditions! (I'm a REAL Christmas person) But let's say our newest one. Since my daughter married, moved out and has a son of her own, we now get-together for a Christmas Eve breakfast at our house, me, my husband, our children, son-in-law & grandson (and in the future all new son-in-laws and/or daughter-in-laws as well as other grandchildren we might still be blessed with). I love it!!! Please enter me in, would love to win a Christmas book!
AUS
October 2, 2009 at 5:09 am
I love that we all wake up to a christmas stocking (which often consists of a chocolate breakfast!) then head off to church to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas. After we get home we share presents,food and fun with the family.
October 2, 2009 at 8:40 am
When I was growing up, we'd go to my (paternal) aunt and uncle's place for Christmas Day lunch. Boxing Day would be spent at my maternal grandmother's place. On both days lunch would segue to dinner and Boxing Day would see us alternately watching the Boxing Day test or trying to find a cooling breeze outside.
October 2, 2009 at 10:13 pm
One of my favourite traditions for Christmas is every year on Christmas Eve my father go's to the fish market and buys fresh prawns and on Christmas morning we peel them and eat them all sitting round the table together. Fun and yum.