This is the first post of a fabulous Christmas blog hop you can follow for the next month. Thirty e-books to be gifted and a $150 gift card too!

I love the way the year winds up down under. School holidays, Christmas parties, family visits, and then the Christmas tree goes up and brightly wrapped presents pile up beneath it.
Long walks on the beach are taken as the weather warms up and the ocean entices for swimming.

It is coming up to that time of the year again...can you believe the festive season is upon us and we are already writing Christmas posts? 

 Australian readers will know exactly what I am thinking about when I imagine the heat of Christmas day, the cicadas chirping in the hot still air, and the welcome sound of the summer surf breaking on the beach. The beach on the left is where my featured book is set...Black Rock Beach.
I am blessed in that we live by the ocean, and it's like being on holidays all year round. But the Christmas break is special here in my town. Holidaymakers arrive, and the mood is happy. 

How do we spend Christmas day? We’ll get up very early, always ham and eggs for breakfast,  and then we do the Santa Claus presents with the grandchildren. It's a special one this year as we have a new baby grandson, Charlie.

Then we’ll go for a lovely walk on the beach (if it’s not too hot!) followed by a swim. We’ll come home to a cold lunch of fresh prawns, (shrimps for the US readers) oysters, and good old Aussie Pavlova and fruit!

We’ll lie around for the afternoon, relaxing and reading our new Christmas books, probably with chilled champagne close by.

What do you love to do best at Christmas?   Where do you spend the day?
Comment below to go in the draw for an e-copy of Diamond Sky.... the third book in the Porter Sisters series where another another Christmas day is celebrated at the end of the story.
The Porter Sisters

My featured Christmas book is Christmas with the Boss It is a feel good story that will leave you with a smile!

A couple of years ago a friend told me about a ghostly encounter she had in a house not far from where I live and it fired my imagination. I combined her experience with a Christmas visitor to the lovely Black Rock Beach beach down the hill from our house and Christmas with the Boss was born!
You can find ithere on Kindle, Nook, iTunes and Kobo

Now don't forget to increase your chance of winning, leave a comment below, and also enter via the rafflecopter below! If you tweet and share you get even more entries!
Winners of the e-books and the $150 gift card will be announced on Christmas Eve.
What a great present! What are you waiting for?

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You can follow the whole blog hop .....here:
​The next blog post in the Christmas hop will be live tomorrow, for another chance to comment and win:
​Here is Ann B Harrison's blog post and giveaway.
Christmas blog

Excerpt from Chapter Forty-one of Where the Murray River Runs by Darry Fraser
 
 
My baby. A rush of love surged in her chest, swelled her heart. She would love this little boy fiercely until the day she died and then into the hereafter.
She sniffed and let her hand trail off the cot. Checking that her aunt’s door was closed, she moved silently to her own room, its spartan furniture still alien and unwelcoming. Soon that would change because James would bring back other pieces, or order some more furniture to be delivered.
Under the pillow, she withdrew Mary’s two letters and laid the opened one aside. With a deep breath, she sat on her bed and held the unopened one between her palms. Would Mary tell her how to bring up her child? What name to call him? How she was to be remembered to him?
Linley slid a fingernail against the seal of the envelope. It opened easily, as if ready for her. She withdrew the only page inside and took a deep breath.
My dear Miss Seymour …