Gifts - Posted for Patricia Potter

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL . . .Only three days left until Christmas and so much to do.Especially since I’m planning an escape two days later.So not only do I have all those last minute Yule details that somehow had escaped notice or time in the past several weeks, I also have great decisions to make. Like what to wear on my adventure.I’m giving myself a birthday present! My birthday is January 1st, and I’ve always had mixed feelings about that. I love the idea of celebrating a new year and my birthday at the same time, but it is also very inconvenient for most people. It has often gone, well, almost unnoticed, or celebrated at Christmas, or . . . just plain lost in post Christmas trauma.I also have to say that part of me never grew up. I love a parade. I have never missed a televised Thanksgiving Parade or the parade of all parades – the Rose Parade. Other than small community parades I have never been to one in person.I’m going this year! I’m going to watch them put the flowers on the float. I’m going to revel in the floats and the music and the crowds. I am going to have a glorious birthday.I probably never would have done it had it not been for a secondary character in my last romantic suspense – "Tempting The Devil." Mrs. Jeffers was an elderly neighbor to my heroine and, though in the eighties, she had made a list of everything she wanted to do in this life. She had accomplished quite a few of the items on her list, including in the book being interviewed by an FBI agent. She had every intention of fulfilling each one, including parachuting from an airplane.She was one of those characters who just took on a life of her own. I dearly loved her. In fact, she prompted me to make my own list. Going to the annual Rose Bowl Parade headed the list.Then came a flier a month later. Almost like a sign. My bank was sponsoring a trip to the Rose Bowl Parade. How did they know it was the only trip I couldn’t resist?Indecision weighed on me for a month. Didn’t have the time. Didn’t have the money. Shouldn’t leave my mother for five days, especially for a non-business activity. And my dogs? What to do with them?But my eyes kept going back to that list. It was time I started implementing it.And it WAS my birthday.So I swallowed hard and signed up, and suddenly everything else fell into place. I received an unexpected check for a foreign sale, just the amount needed for the trip. My niece who loves animals even more than myself – if that’s possible – would be home from college and was delighted at the prospect of house sitting for my three dogs. She also loves books, and at my house she has both in abundance. She, and the dogs, do well together.But clothes? What do you wear to a parade? In Southern California?Suz? Lynn?In the meantime, I’m counting my other blessings this year. Foremost among them are my friends, including the Broads who blog here with me. I’ve long believed that the greatest gift in writing is the friends we make in this community, be they other writers or dedicated readers. There’s something about sharing this crazy roller coaster life of fantastic highs and hell- deep lows that creates strong relationships. Rejection is always there, whether it’s an idea squashed by an editor, a bad review, a terrible sell-through, etc. No one understands it like another writer, and I treasure the friendships I’ve made over the past twenty years.So Broads and writers and readers, I thank you for the joy and support and friendship. It’s the greatest Christmas present I could ever have.Have a wonderful holiday, all!!!!!

Pat Potter