Friday, December 14, 2012

Welcome Guest Author - Karen Michelle Nutt


Holidays at the Nutt House
By Karen Michelle Nutt

A Glimpse of Christmas Past…

My eldest, Kendra was almost three when the Disney’s Little Mermaid premiered. She loved everything to do with Ariel. For Christmas, Santa brought her all the collector characters. (They were the hard plastic statues.) She was so excited and named off each of the characters as she pulled them out of her stocking. In a cute little voice that only a three year old could have, she said: This is Ariel. And this is Sebastian. Ooh and this is Flounder.” She pulled out King Triton next and we ask her who he was. “He’s…he’s…he’s my father.” We couldn’t help but chuckle. Not only did she love Ariel, she thought she was Ariel. lol

Now she’s twenty-five with a degree in massage therapy and working at a salon. She is also writing a novel. She joined in on NaNo this year. What is her story about? Yep, you guessed it: Mermaids.

Katrina is the middle child who loves the movies---anything from the classics to the blockbusters of today. She couldn’t get enough of Lord of the Rings and of course the dashing Legolas was her favorite. I’d find binders with his name scrawled all over it. She’d tack pictures from magazines of him on her walls. Then there was Twilight and she had to have a stocking with Edward Cullen. (She still has it, too.) lol Though her original stocking hangs from the fireplace now.

She’s currently is creating videos and also joined NaNo this year. Her love of fantasy and the paranormal has helped her to create a fascinating story surrounding the Irish werewolf legend.

Vincent is my baby. Though he’s eighteen now and built like a football player. As a child he was the reason safety latches and plug coves were invented. If this kid could put a new toy into the light socket, he would.

When he was too quiet, I knew he was up to no good. I’d ask him, “What are you doing?” and he would respond with, “Something.” And you could bet it was something I wasn’t going to like. One Christmas Santa brought a playhouse for Katrina and Vincent. It was a big plastic one that Santa assembled in the house. One day Vincent was in there by himself, but was awfully quiet. I had to investigate. I opened the window and peek in. “What are you doing?” I asked. He immediately hid something behind his back. “Hand it over,” I told him. And he slowly reveals the item. I almost fell over. It was a kitchen knife. This wasn’t just any knife. It was a large knife that might as well have been a sword. I’m freaking out, but managed to relieve him of the knife without panicking him. I asked him what he thought he was going to do with the knife. He said, “I wanted to cut open a package.”

We had a little talk why he should not use a knife. Locks were immediately placed on the kitchen drawers. I have to say, he was too short to even see into this drawer. He must have just felt around until his little hand clasped the handle.

Today, Vincent is attending the Arts Institute for video design where the only swords he handles are part of the game he’s created. He also works part time with an electrician—so his fascination with light sockets hasn’t quite worn off.

Christmas Present…

The weather is usually comfortable in Southern California and we can enjoy the outdoors. Sometime during the Holiday we like to visit the happiest place on earth: Disneyland! The decorations, the music and the smiling faces always puts everyone in the holiday mood for fun.

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of the Nutt House during the holidays. Since it is a time for giving, I’d like to offer one person a chance to win a PDF copy of one of my books. Winner’s choice!

What do you have to do? I’d love to hear about one of your Christmas Shenanigans, cute story or what you like to do around the holidays. Please remember to leave your email so I may contact you if you should win.

Stephanie,
Thank you so much for having me on your lovely blog.
To Everyone: Merry Christmas!! Happy Holidays! And let’s hope the New Year brings us joy!!

About the Author: Whether your reading fancy is paranormal, historical or time travel, all her stories capture the rich array of emotions that accompany the most fabulous human phenomena—falling in love.
Visit the author at: http://www.kmnbooks.com
Stop by her blog for Monday interviews, chats and contests at:

18 comments:

  1. Steph,

    Thanks so much for having me here today! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi well i can say one year mom said that we were going ot get coal ans she went and bought it and put it in the stocking and then my brother all younger than me there was up to 5 chunk of coa; and then she took the stuff and put it behind the couch with our stuff in it each has she box of stuff so he stomp up satirs and ask my mom what the hell is this and my dad just laugh he was about 7

    ReplyDelete
  3. Karen, thanks so much for visiting. I always enjoy having you over. :)

    Believe it or not, when Brent, my husband, and I were stationed in Europe in the early 1990's, we visiting East Germany and saw a large deposit of coal in front of the houses. So picked up a piece of coal. That coal makes into one of our stockings each year - whoever can remember where it is in the house first!

    Smiles
    Steph

    ReplyDelete
  4. Karen--I loved hearing about your children--now grown. Our son and DIL put drawer locks on the those with knives--three little boys close in age could wreak a lot of havoc. However, if I was there and was cooking something for them, I could not figure out the drawer lock. So the little guys would vie for the treat of showing grandmother--by demonstrating--how to unlock and open the drawer. Merry Christmas to you and all your lovely family.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Desi,
    The threat of coal in the stocking--and then receiving it. Too funny!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Steph-- a cute tradition. love it. Is it the same piece of coal you picked up in the 90s?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Karen, it is. That's what makes the lump of coal in the stocking special at our house. We picked it out with love. lol!
      Smiles
      Steph

      Delete
  7. Celia,

    I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I chuckled when you wrote about the children helping you unlock the child locks. Those little guys are smart. lol Vincent was my escape artist, too. There wasn't a door he couldn't figure out how to unlock. We had to put 'beepers' on the doors to alert us of his possible escape. lol

    Now he has a car and we still have to figure out where he's escaped to. lol Thanks goodness for cell phones.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Aren't children fun and they are all so different. My three girls love the stockings. I could put junk in them and this is what they really liked the best. lol

    Escape artist- my youngest is like that. I had to hunt her down, too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I would of had a heart attack with the knife. LOL. My son has ADHD and he used to try to lick the plug ins. And he was fast too. He's grown now so much more calm. LOL. When my kids were little we would always cut our own tree after Thanksgiving. We would make a day off it. Was more fun when it snowed. The trees were so pretty. Thanks for the giveaway.
    Sue B
    katsrus(at)gmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cathy,

    My children all different, too. Sometimes it's difficult to believe they were raised by the same parents. lol

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sue,
    Believe me, I almost did. I'm sure those gray hairs I see are from him. lol

    ReplyDelete
  12. I loved your blog and your reference to "the Nutt house."
    I can relate to Vincent, your creative and adventurous baby. My sister and I once had a puppy dog lamp. It's tail turned it on and off. At the ages of 4 and 5, we thought it would be interesting to see what made the bulb light up. We screwed out the bulb and each of us stuck our finger in the light socket and pulled the doggy tail down. I imagine God was looking out for us that day. I remember the jolt of electricity, but I'm still alive. It's not exactly a Christmas story, but at least it relates.
    Great blog.
    starcriter at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Karen, I enjoyed reading about your family, especially the little holy terror. Reminded me of Hammie in the comic strips.
    Many of my culinary disasters have occured at Christmas. One year I baked my grandmother's Algamation cake,that had so many ingredients (all kinds of spices, jam, coconut, nuts, etc.) that I forgot to add the flour. Needless to say, it was a bit like plastic and a total loss. Merry Christmas to all.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ooops, that is Amalgamation Cake. I can't even spell it, much less make it!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Linda,

    If I can't spell it, I'm sure not going to attempt to make it. lol

    Thanks so much for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sarah,

    All the terror we caused our parents. lol
    My father was an electrician and he had all kinds of gadgets. I was about six or seven when my sister had taken an item from my father's tool box and of course being the eldest, I decided to check it out and took it away from her.

    It fit nicely into a socket and was promptly electrocuted. I couldn't let go of the item and I tried to release my hand with my other hand. Of course now I'm really stuck and my whole body is shaking. I tell my sister to go for help, but she just sits there and cries, saying she's too scared.

    Luckily for me my parents checked on us and my dad used a blanket or clothing of some sort to pull me away. It was so scary and to this day it is vivid in my mind. Needless to say, I never touched my fathers things again and I lived to tell this tale.

    ReplyDelete
  17. And the winner is... Desitheblonde.Thanks everyone for coming by. Steph, thanks for having me here.

    Merry Christmas!!

    ReplyDelete