Ho Ho Ho Harlequin Holiday Extravaganza - A Tribute to my Dad - **Giveaway**

Welcome everyone to my annual holiday blog bash dedicated to all the wonderful Harlequin authors I review in RT Magazine. I'm doing things a little different this year instead of interviews I've asked each author who has a holiday tale coming out to write a guest post about a favorite Christmas tradition or memory. I'm starting things with a special memory of my own,  a tribute to my dad.
Enjoy the post and then enter for a chance to win a copy of Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber!

In October of 1995 the bank I was working for sold their branches and left town to go back to California, I wasn’t planning on taking the other bank’s offer of employment so I stayed until the bitter end. My dad loved going to Branson, and this was well before it became the vacation destination of today and his birthday was December 1^st. I suggested that I take him to Branson, just the two of us for a few days to celebrate both his birthday and my unemployment. And so began the best vacation of my life, where I wasn't a wife or a mother and all I had to do was have a good time. It was, in fact, the first vacation anyone ever asked me “what do you want to do today”.

When you first arrived in Branson in ‘99 there was only one road into and out of Branson and that was highway 76. After a while it became such a nightmare/joke that they actually sold souvenirs about it. We stayed at Roy Clark’s Lodge of the Ozarks, which was one of the first places in Branson that sold timeshares, and of course my dad had to have a membership so we had great accommodations and a wonderful indoor/outdoor pool.
The first night we celebrated his birthday by going to one of Branson’s iconic restaurants, Candlestick’s which tragically was lost to a freak tornado in 2012.

The weather was perfect for southern Missouri in early December with highs in the upper 50s which made going to all the outside touristy attractions like Silver Dollar City (which we ate our way from one end to the other) even more enjoyable. 

That night we saw Andy Williams perform in his Christmas show.

The rest of the days we leisurely toured the outlet malls and made our way to quaint downtown Branson where I got to shop in the famous Dick’s five and dime. 

My dad was the smartest man I knew and yet he never made it past the 10^th grade. He never trained to be a counselor, yet his was the first advice I sought out when I had a problem. He wasn’t a teacher and yet the most important life lessons I learned from him. He was an intimidating bear of a man and he’s the only man my husband ever said “sir” to, yet he was the kindest, gentlest person I knew. He was my daddy and I miss him today as much as ever.

I lost my dad tragically in a car accident in April of 2001. Whenever his birthday rolls around it’s this trip that I think of most and how much fun we had for those few precious days together.

My dad was an avid camper and loved his Airstream travel trailer; this is a picture from when my daughter and nieces decorated his gravestone with little lighted airstreams.

I hope that you and yours have a blessed and merry holiday season whatever holiday you celebrate and remember never put off telling someone you love them never miss an opportunity to spend time with someone you cherish because you never know what tomorrow will bring and life is too short to waste one minute.

Happy Holidays to your and yours!!!

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