Real-Life Romance: All the Stockings

What does your spouse do during the holidays that speaks to your heart? My friend, fellow author Jenny Carlisle tells us about something special her husband did for her. See if you think it's romantic like I do. ;)

In the language of Love, most of us have learned what reaches our hearts. Some react best to receiving gifts. Others melt when someone performs a service for them. Simple physical touch renews the romance for many couples. Spending quality time with your partner may be your magic formula.
 After nearly a half a century with the same man, I can confidently state that words (and deeds) of affirmation keep our home fires burning brightly.

​Anyone who seeks to understand what makes Jenny Sue McLeod Carlisle tick needs to know how important Christmas is to me. Some of my earliest memories involve the magic of Jesus’ birthday celebration. At our house, my divorced mom made sure our celebration was amazing. We always had a live Christmas tree, with ornaments that had been handed down for generations. The nativity scene from her childhood was at the center of our décor as well. Sister and I spent hours moving the pieces around and learning about the story of Jesus’s birth.
Our hometown in Southeast Kansas looked like it was cut straight off a Norman Rockwell Christmas calendar. Downtown, strands of lights spread completely across the streets, and the store windows were decorated beautifully. One window even held an elaborate train set that ran continually, even when the store was closed.
We stood in line in the cold to visit Santa in his “pop-up” village in the park, making sure to tell him that we would be at our Grandmother’s house two hours away on Christmas eve.
Mom married my stepdad the summer before my senior year in high school. I was excited to move to Arkansas and met my dreamboat husband at my new school.
While James and I were dating, the trip to visit my family in Kansas during the Christmas holiday was bittersweet. I realized that I missed this young man who had already captured my heart. I wanted him to share this important part of my life.
After we married, our Christmas celebrations were sometimes meager, but always full of our mutual love for tradition. We didn’t have much money to spend on each other, but enjoyed buying gifts for friends and family, always put up some sort of tree, and whatever decorations we could afford. Each of us had our own stocking, with at least one special surprise tucked in.  Christmas mornings with just the two of us was a special time.
As our family grew, we added stockings for each member. Nothing expensive or fancy was ever tucked inside, but fruit, candy and one or two special gifts were the perfect treat for Christmas morning. Disney themed models were replaced with custom-made counted cross-stitch for each of us. When our children found their own life partners, more stockings joined the fun.
Grandchildren added to the fun of Christmas but overloaded our mantle. My sweet hubby recognized the importance of my display. Though we rarely spent Christmas mornings together, displaying these treasures throughout the holiday season made my heart happy.
As always, my talented and creative man came up with a practical solution. He replaced the clunky and unreliable stocking hangers with two custom-made ladders, measured and painted to fit with the trim around our fireplace.
From our favorite seats in the living room, we now gaze on the one-of-a-kind Christmas stockings I have personalized for each of the sixteen members of the “Lizzle Crowd”. My husband’s understanding of my need to enjoy these decorations is one more way signal from him that he “gets” my somewhat silly love for the holiday season. His affirmation of me reminds me daily that God placed him in my path for a reason. That lonely transplant from Kansas feels extremely blessed to never be lonely again.
In my Christmas novella, my heroine is named Christmas Joy, because of her December 25th birthday. The holiday celebration has always been a huge part of her life, and the connection she makes during my story happens because a young man she meets immediately recognizes and affirms this. I hope you love Rejoicing with Joy, which is included in the novella collection, A Gift for All Time.
May the joy of Christmas continue throughout the year.

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A Gift for All Time

A Gift for All Time follows a carved nativity set that originated in Germany to a riverboat wreck in 1840s Arkansas, to Missouri during the Civil War, and back to the Arkansas River Valley in the 21st century.


At each stop, this simple symbol of the birth of our savior brings a message of  endurance, healing and everlasting love.


Jenny Carlisle’s novella Rejoicing with Joy wraps up the journey in a fictional town called Snowville. Here, a young college student is at her wits end as she fights to save a mostly forgotten place. A familiar face from Jenny’s Crossroads series arrives just in time to restore her Christmas spirit. Reminded of the love that was born in Bethlehem, they work together to revive the spirit of Joy that is so needed in today’s world.​

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Jenny McLeod Carlisle has been writing stories since she learned to hold a pencil.  Retired from almost 40 years in Human Resources for the State of Arkansas, she spent two years as a substitute teacher for 6th to 12th grade kids at the school she graduated from years earlier. She is a past president of the American Christian Fiction-Arkansas chapter.
A long-time columnist for Ouachita Life magazine, she collected some of those inspirational columns along with blogs created during the pandemic into two self-published books, “Turn, Turn, Turn”, and “To Everything a Season”. Scrivenings Press published her contemporary women’s fiction series beginning in 2022 with Hope Takes the Reins. Faith Moves Mountains released in 2023, and Love Never Fails in January of this year. Her novella Rejoicing with Joy is included in the Christmas collection, A Gift for All Time, co-authored with Ellen Erdel Withers and Tonya B. Ashley.
 She and her husband, James live in Benton, Arkansas where they worship with a very active congregation of the Church of Christ. Their family includes three married children and eight grandchildren.  Her writing is intended to inspire hope and encouragement for our daily journey. She loves meeting with readers both in person and virtually.
Follow her on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/jennycarlisleauthor
Twitter
(18) Jenny Carlisle (@jennycarlisle3) / Twitter
Website
Jenny McLeod Carlisle – Seeking, Waiting, Walking (jennycarlisle.com)
 
Purchase her books here:
Amazon.com : Jenny Carlisle
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