The time it was nine ladies dancing

Ladies dancing could be interesting, but who wants that as a Christmas present?  It's so odd.  Anyhoo, here we are for day nine of the 12 Days of Christmas giveaway.

Today we have the ever so charming Kasie West on the blog, sharing an embarrassing Christmas story.  Let's welcome her, yes?

Ah, Christmas, the time of giving and family and laughter and food and Stacee asking me to share embarrassing stories. Okay, in her defense, she game me options, but of course I chose the "embarrassing story" option.

So back when I was 19 years old, I was madly in love with a boy. (This is how many of my personal stories start, by the way, from about the time I was 12 on) I had been dating him for a few months and like many 19 year old boys in my church, he decided to serve a mission. This meant for 2 years he'd be gone in South America. My poor little 19 year old heart was aching, but I was determined to wait for him. Yes, I was going to wait 2 years for a boy I hadn't even been dating for 5 months. I may have been a bit delusional, but I was in love!

He left in November, meaning his first Christmas away, I was going to be the best girlfriend ever. I would send him a present every day for 12 days. I was going to give him his own personal 12 days of Christmas. And don't get me wrong, this would've made me the best girlfriend ever. It was the execution that made me...well...fall short.

I gathered my gifts and packaged them. But! I thought. Wait. They each needed to have a little story with them. (This should've been when I discovered that I wanted to be a writer but it would take me ten more years to discover that.) So I began. Each package had a story with it that went something like this. (I don't remember exactly what each of them said and I'm sure they were actually even sillier than what I'm about to write. I wish I had copies of them now...no actually, it's probably better that I don't.)

          On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a tie.
          "A tie? That doesn't fit very well into the song, why would we give him a tie?"
          "Just be quiet, it's what he needs, we're giving him a tie and we're singing about it. Just go with it."
          "Fine, but if he asks me, I'll tell him that a tie wasn't my idea."

And on...and on...for each day of Christmas.  I don't know what I was trying to do with these stories. Show him I had multiple personalities? That I talked to myself?  That little elves were hidden in my room? I'm not sure but at the time I thought they were a good idea. The best most creative idea. I can't even think about it now without laughing and most of the time blushing at how ridiculous I was. But love makes you do weird/crazy/manic things. To give him credit, he was very sweet about the whole thing and said thank you and that he loved it. Ha. I can't imagine how his roommates must've teased him. Poor guy. Anyway, it's a good thing we didn't end up together. I mean, can you imagine how that story would've been told year after year. Plus he'd actually have the real stories to read aloud to my humiliation.

Ah, Christmas. Happy times. I love this time of year. I hope you all are enjoying the holidays and have many stories of Christmases past with which to mock people. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.

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Huge thanks to Kasie for taking the time!! Make sure you're following her on Twitter, liking her Facebook page, subscribing to her blog and adding all of her books on your GoodReads shelves.

And now for the giveaway!!

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

That's right.  Up for grabs is a paperback copy of The Distance Between Us. Rules for the giveaway are under "terms and conditions" on the Rafflecopter widget and this contest is international!

**Good Luck!!** 

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