My Favorite Romantic Post – Dec 2011 – Feb 2012

Shannon here: Drumroll. I loved Rose McCauley’s tale of snow stomping and one-upmanship in trying to out romance each other. Hope you enjoy seeing it again also. Comment for a chance to win my latest release, Rodeo Ashes. I’ll mail it out to one lucky winner as soon as I get my copies. Should be soon. Deadline: Sept 8th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Rose:

Real Life Romance after over 40 years! By Rose Allen McCauley 
A few years ago on the snow-covered hillside outside our farmhouse kitchen window, my husband stamped out a big 50-foot heart with the letters C+R in the middle. I hadn’t noticed it all day, so he suggested we take a walk (another romantic thing we like to do, especially if holding hands!) I still didn’t notice the heart the first time we walked past it. A neighbor stopped and asked us if we had noticed someone making tracks in our field. He said he tried to read the message and thought it was someone’s initials. That’s when I finally realized what my husband had stamped out!
The love letter in the soil was even more noticeable a couple days later when the snow began to melt. Then the green grass showed through where he had stamped, and the white heart and letters outlined in green were very visible to me and everyone else who drove by.
The next year for Valentine’s Day I thought I would top him, and I stuck press-on-glow-in-the-dark stars on our bedroom ceiling in the shape of a heart with ILY in the center.
But, he was not to be outdone! That year he took a bucket of red paint and climbed up on one of our barn roofs and painted a big red heart with C+R in it. It’s still there and so was the heart of stars in our bedroom until we had to repaint the ceiling this past year. Whoever said “love is for the young” didn’t know my husband—my very own knight in coveralls, still after 43 years!
About the book: Surprised by Life—and Love—at Christmas
Four letters are mailed from Monticello, a small antebellum town in Georgia. Sisters once, now heirs to a historic plantation, each young woman must come to terms with the circumstances of her birth. . . .
When she learns in a letter she’s adopted, Holly feels betrayed by her parents—and she books a flight out of Missouri immediately. Will she ever be able to love again? 
Raised in a wealthy, loveless home, Carol rushes to Monticello from college in Atlanta when she receives her letter. She’s searching for family, but finds instead a boy she once mistreated. Will he remember her? . . .forgive her? 
In one year, Starr has lost her parents, boyfriend, and job, so she’s sure her letter is more bad news. When the attorney flies to California to offer proof, Starr takes a second look—at the message and the man. 
Noelle always knew she was adopted—and she’s always loved the foreman on her father’s Texas ranch too. But he’s so distant. . .perhaps a trip to Georgia is the break in life she needs. 
Will the sisters receive a traditional Christmas gift. . .of love? 
About Rose: Rose has been writing for over ten years and has been published in several non-fiction anthologies and devotionals. She is happy for this to be her first fiction anthology because Christmas books are her favorites. A retired schoolteacher who has been happily married to her college sweetheart for 43 years, she is also mother to three grown children and their spouses and grandmother to three lovely, lively kids with one more on the way! You can reach her through her website www.rosemccauley.com or blogsite at www.rosemccauley.blogspot.com.
Come back August 31st for the top ten countdown from Dec 2011 – Feb 2012!