USA Today

There was a nice mention of THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE KILLER in USA Today, along with several other Christmas-themed mysteries. You can find it on-line here.

Home Sweet Home

We moved into the new house December 6th.

We have officially moved into the new house. It's finished other than a few little things I'm doing. I am very thankful to our builders, Larry and Karen Mackey at Prestige Builders in Azle. I would gladly work with them again. They were total pros and didn't charge an arm and a leg. The photos I have aren't the greatest but welcome to our home.

This is our entry where you can see the stained cement shining. I need to add another layer of sealer, but it's pretty as is. The ceiling is ten feet and there's a nice coat closet to the left.

This is our living area. The furniture is thanks to our youngest daughter and the television was bought by our oldest. We have great kids. The rug was a remnant from Brumbaugh's, where my brother works, and they gave us a wonderful deal on all our carpet. A gentleman there bound two of our remnants from our daughters' bedrooms for area rugs. The fire hasn't been lit in the fireplace yet, but it's pretty cold tonight . . .
This is my dining nook. As you can see I do love big windows. The little dog is the one James carried around when the house burned down. He's adjusting to the new house pretty well.
Larry did a wonderful job finding guys to build my cabinets and counter tops. The cabinet builder retired after building ours which is a major shame. He did a great job.
I have a nice pantry to the right, just past the refrigerator. I love this kitchen. And again it has a nice big window.

This is the master bedroom. I love the step up two tone ceiling. I haven't decided on curtains for this room yet, so I just stuck paper blinds up. Who knew they made paper blinds. They're very quick and easy to install.

This is James hard at work upstairs. I just finished the floor this morning. Larry had a guy who would have done it but I wanted to do something in this house and I knew James wouldn't care if it wasn't perfect. Now I need to go back to Lowes and buy more boards for shelves . . .

I would like to thank everyone who helped us get into this new home.

Gift basket giveaway winner was Janet Chambers and the runner up who will receive a signed copy of Frankly My Dear, I'm Dead, was Mary Cannon. Congratulations.

Basket Give Away

Email me at livia@flash.net to put your name in for a chance to win the above basket. All I need is your name. I'll email the winner for their address. The basket contains a signed copy of my book The Christmas Cookie Killer, a signed bookmark, a mug with the cover of the book, a tin of snowflake cookie cutters, red and white snowflake pot holders, Dark hot chocolate mix, biscotti cookies, two small boxes of chocolates, and a stuffed snowman. The drawing will be December 7th. Good Luck!

House Snafu

We’ve run into a slight snafu on the house. The guys who did the sheetrock work put down cardboard to cover the stained floors. They taped it down with cheap masking tape. The tape does not want to come up. It’s around the edges with baseboard over it but not touching. There’s little room to work, and anything that will get the tape to release also ruins the stain. James and I took up all the cardboard last weekend, but we’ve had no luck with the tape. I took up a little in the bathrooms so the plumber could install things, but I had to use my pocket knife and bloodied my knuckles just clearing a small area. I tried goof-off on a small area and it discolored the stain. I'm not sure what we're going to do.

Bookmarks

If you would like a signed bookmark for The Christmas Cookie Killer, and or Frankly My Dear, I'm Dead, please send a self addressed stamped envelope to

Livia J. Washburn

P.O. Box 931

Azle, Texas 76098

The Fireplace

This is Gerald. He's doing our rock work. He finished outside and the fireplace should be done tomorrow. Just in time, too. It's starting to get cooler. It took 19 tons of stone and he lifted every stone.

I never dreamed we'd have a fireplace after losing the last house to fire. Of course we are a lot more careful with fire than the guy that caused our house to burn down. While just burning brush, I dug a hole four feet deep, including a foot and a half through gravel, with the tractor. I watched the fire until it had burned down and then buried it. I don't know if I'll ever be comfortable around fire again.

The old house had a gas stove and heater so we always had heat when the electricity went out. We decided to get the fireplace because the new house is all electric. When that next ice storm comes through this part of Texas and takes down half the power lines we'll still have heat.