Shortly thereafter, the guests started to arrive. Nick took coats while Noelle drew their friends in to enjoy the refreshments and the decorations (not necessarily in that order). Soon the house was filled with laughter, the clink of glasses, and exclamations of...

On December 19th, Noelle was aglow with excitement as she and Nick dressed for the party. While Nick stuffed himself into his tuxedo and wrestled with his collar studs, Noelle wrestled with her Spanx and stuffed herself into her new, emerald green sequined party...

Nick turned back to the tree. It looked like it had been out drinking. The ornaments that had managed to stay on hung crazily, while others littered the florr. Bedraggled garland swayed from the tips of branches. Entire lengths of it sagged to the floor. With a sigh,...

On Christmas Eve three years before, Noelle had found a tiny kitten huddled against the back door, shivering, bedraggled, and mewing piteously. Noelle scooped up the kitten and cuddled it to her cheek. Nick sneezed. "Ooh, look, Nicky," she said. "Isn't he cute? Poor...

Nick Sinclair began to seriously consider murdering his wife while he was decorating the seventeenth Christmas tree. It was not the seventeenth because he had been decorating the family Christmas tree for seventeen years. No, it was Number Seventeen (according to the...

Thank you to everyone who took the time to visit this blog and read I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! Your comments were encouraging and I was happy to make so many of you laugh. If you've read my Home and About pages, you may be wondering how a "nice lady who knits" came...

George Leroy froze. He didn't dare move and hardly dared to breathe for fear of getting caught. He steadied himself by working out how he would make his escape once the warden left his office. He lay in the darkness looking down at the bald spot on the top of the...

"I'm not sure I understand, Mr. Marlin. I thought you'd be happy. If you're worried about losing the case, we can still plead "No Contest." "No," George Leroy answered automatically, his mind elsewhere. "I'll just have to think of something else, that's all." "Think...

The week before Halloween, Sunny and Junior sat on the stool together. George Leroy could hardly understand them, they were so excited about their costumes. Their mother had found directions in a library book to make costumes out of boxes, paper bags, and paint....

Junior's team won the play-offs, even though Junior missed every ball that came his way. Sunny settled into school quickly. Marlene settled in quickly, too. One of the baseball moms suggested she apply for the library aide job at the kids' school and she was hired....