This week we welcome Lena Nelson Dooley to Author Memories.
Award-winning author, Lena Nelson Dooley, has more than 675,000 books in print. She recently received the Will Rogers Medallion award for western fiction. She has been awarded three Carol Award silver pins and received the ACFW Mentor of the Year award. Helping other authors become published really floats her boat. And she loves chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Travel is always on her horizon. Cruising, Galveston, the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, Mexico. One day it will be Hawaii and Australia, but probably not at the same time. The high point of her day is receiving feedback from her readers, especially her fans.
A "Gift of the Magi" Christmas
by Lena Nelson Dooley
Do you remember the short story “The Gift of the Magi”? I always loved that story.
Early in our marriage, James and I had a similar, but different, Christmas event. We had two preschoolers, and money was tight.
Early in our marriage, James and I had a similar, but different, Christmas event. We had two preschoolers, and money was tight.
Lena took this photo the year after this memory took place.
Before we married, my husband had built several things in woodworking class. We had an end table/bookcase in our home that he had made. The workmanship was awesome.
So that year, I decided Christmas was going to be special for the man I loved. The best husband and father I knew. For about six months, I saved every penny I could from the grocery money and hid it away. A friend of ours worked in the power tool department of Sears. He helped me purchase James a saber saw at a price I could afford. I wrapped it and hid it away.
Then on Christmas Eve, after our children had opened all their packages and were either playing with them or the boxes they arrived in, I pulled out the package. I returned to the den to discover my sweetheart holding a rather large package for me. He had saved every penny he could for an equal amount of time.
While I was in college, I put together a collection of LP record albums. (For those of you who are too young to understand, they were how the music came before CDs.) Without any way to play them, they were taking up space.
James thrust the package toward me. I opened it while he watched every move, waiting for my reaction to the HiFi set he'd purchased for me. Then he opened my present to him, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him, waiting for the moment when he would realize what I’d done. Each of us received a double blessing that year—a wonderful and useful present as well as the satisfaction of being able to bless our spouses.
We spent many an hour listening to music on that HiFi, complete with AM/FM radio, twin speakers, and a turntable. And on Christmas day, James used the saber saw and his hand tools to build our daughters a shelf unit where they could store their toys.
Sometimes, the best gifts are the ones you receive. Other times, they are the ones you give. That year the gifts were both of those things.
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GIVEAWAY!
Leave a comment with a valid email address
by midnight, Dec 18th
to be entered to win a copy of Lena's giveaway,
Christmas Love at Lake Tahoe
Note: Maggie's Journey is NOT the giveaway.
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GIVEAWAY!
Leave a comment with a valid email address
by midnight, Dec 18th
to be entered to win a copy of Lena's giveaway,
Christmas Love at Lake Tahoe
Note: Maggie's Journey is NOT the giveaway.
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Maggie's Journey, In stores now
Realms - a Charisma House Company
Please note - Maggie's Journey is NOT the giveaway. See giveaway above in red.
A girl who’s been lied to her whole life…
Near her eighteenth birthday, Margaret Lenora Caine finds a chest hidden in the attic containing proof that she was adopted. The daughter of wealthy merchants in Seattle, she feels betrayed both by her real parents and by the ones who raised her. Maggie desires a place where she belongs. But her mother’s constant criticism and reminders that she doesn't fit the mold of a young woman of their social standing have already created tension in their home. With the discovery of the family secret, all sense of her identity is lost. When Maggie asks to visit her grandmother in Arkansas, her father agrees on the condition that she take her Aunt Georgia as a chaperone and his young partner, Charles Stanton, as protection on the journey. Will she discover who she really is and, more importantly, what truly matters most in life?
Maggie's Journey is Book 1 in the McKenna's Daughters Series
For more info about Lena's books, info for book clubs, recipes,
and Gate Beautiful Blog Talk Radio, check her website:
www.lenanelsondooley.com
Lena participates in the following blogs:
A Christian Writer's World - http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com/
Bustles and Spurs - http://www.bustlesandspurs.com/
Just the Write Charisma - http://justthewritecharisma.blogspot.com/
For more info about Lena's books, info for book clubs, recipes,
and Gate Beautiful Blog Talk Radio, check her website:
www.lenanelsondooley.com
Lena participates in the following blogs:
A Christian Writer's World - http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com/
Bustles and Spurs - http://www.bustlesandspurs.com/
Just the Write Charisma - http://justthewritecharisma.blogspot.com/
