It’s my day for the Historical Holiday Advent Calendar Giveaway and I’m giving away an autographed copy of THE LOTUS PALACE, which has been nominated for an RT Award for Best Historical Adventure, and a keepsake book locket. (The winner can opt for a digital copy of the book if they so prefer.)
Isn’t that a festive red cover?
Multiple ways to enter on the Rafflecopter widget below. Must enter valid e-mail to win as I will contact you for information to send you your prize.
Also remember to visit the other entries for more chances to win both the daily prizes and the Kindle Fire grand prize. The Grand Prize Drawing will be on December 23.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 00:47:03
I love reading about Ancient China. Your story makes it easy for me to understand about the politic and the social life during this period instead of me memorizing names, dates, and events. Thanks for the advent calendar giveaway contest.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 03:26:46
My most memorable Christmas gift is this yrs. My sister & her family will be here for Christmas. It will be the 1st time in 15yrs that my whole family has been together for Christmas. I couldnt ask for a better gift!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 04:11:14
Most memorable gift was when I was 9 and I got a red satin jacket. I loved that thing! Thanks for the cool contest.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 05:27:20
most memorable gift was the one my nephew gave me when he was 3 yrs old he found rocks and gave me his mum and grandmother a rock all from the diamonds are forever commercial where it was telling them a rock this special is a girls best friend
Dec 16, 2013 @ 05:36:00
I think this year’s Christmas gift promises to be memorable. My parents have been hinting quite heavily that I will be receiving a KitchenAide stand mixer. (I’ve been using a hand mixer, which I got as a wedding present 8 years ago.)
Thank you for the giveaway!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 06:11:34
Lovely giveaway, Jeannie–Happy Holidays : )
Most memorable gift: I wanted a pair of black, high-heeled suede boots, but my grandfather said I should wear something more practical. He passed away a couple of weeks before Christmas, and I later found the box with the boots I wanted hidden under his bed. I still have the boots and the box.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 06:17:06
My sister-in-law always let my nephews choose a gift for me. One year they chose a crystal in a gold cage pendant. I still get comments and compliments every time I wear it.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 06:47:25
Thank you all for visiting. Reading about these lovely gifts has been a great way to start the morning. Warm holiday wishes to all and good luck!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 07:22:12
The most memorable gift I ever received was a photo album created by my mother-in-law that had several pictures of family members in it, including some that have since passed on. I treasure it. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas, Jeannie!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 07:51:52
Thanks for great stories, love the cover!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 07:55:20
Most memorable gift was and still is a most favourite, find the treasures book, with small little doors and windows that open and behind them are different presents or trinkets hidden. I love it, it is about mythology and it is full of coins and small statues and toy weapons and one beautiful painted in gold feather.
Wish you all the best and Happy Holidays and one loaded Santa to pass by 🙂
Best regards,
Monica
Dec 16, 2013 @ 07:59:03
Monica – I want to find that book. That would be a wonderful gift!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 08:16:25
A microwave oven. I got in 1990 for college and I still use it today.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 08:31:52
Best present ever. My daughter was born on my birthday 23 years ago.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 08:35:57
My most memorable gift for Christmas was my engagement ring in 2004. 🙂
Dec 16, 2013 @ 08:50:46
My best one so far was the sony reader when it first came out. I much prefer the iPad now. Can’t wait to learn more about the Tang culture.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 08:51:42
My best one so far was the sony reader when it first came out. I much prefer the iPad now. Can’t wait to learn more about the Tang culture. Happy Holidays.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 09:00:59
The most memorable Christmas present I ever got was 17 years ago when I had just finished my radiation therapy for breast cancer. I have, thankfully, been cancer-free since then. I pray I remain so.
Merry Christmas to all!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 09:07:08
My most memorable gift I have received is a cup in the shape of a camera lens. My son gave this to me for Chanukah this year. The box and the cup are so true that I couldn’t stop laughing! My son goes out shooting with me and has for many years. We share time together. That’s the best gift of all.
Happy holidays!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 09:10:29
These gifts are bringing tears to my eyes. How wonderful!
I wouldn’t count this as the best gift ever — but recent and pretty high up there. I got to meet Amy Tan for the first time on my birthday this year. I teared up as I told her how much her books put to words so many things I found hard to express about myself and my relationship with my mother. And then I fled before I could blubber any more!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 09:20:05
The best gift I ever got was a photo album of pictures of my parents taken when they were first married.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 09:51:51
Jeannie, I love your books! Thanks for the glimpse into ancient China. My best gift is always having my family celebrate with me as we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus
Dec 16, 2013 @ 10:40:26
I hope I win – the book looks great!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 10:43:49
a coat
Dec 16, 2013 @ 10:52:06
My son was born in December so I consider him my best Christmas present ever.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 11:23:37
Naturally I’m entering, if only for a chance to bump it up higher on my TBR list. 😉
Dec 16, 2013 @ 11:46:12
Happy Holidays!
My best present was a 5 speed Schwinn bicycle. I still have it. My children used it too.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 12:12:20
My best gift is going to be this Christmas. My husband has finally ordered the longed for bookcases that I want to display all of my beautiful books.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 12:55:49
My most memorable gift for Christmas was a Butterfly necklace from my daughter.Happy holidays!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 13:17:03
I have had several, however, this is the one I continue to enjoy. My sons redid my extra bedroom to make it into a computer office with a desk along one wall and book shelves along another. yeah it is my “man cave”
Dec 16, 2013 @ 13:24:51
Well, this isn’t the best gift I ever received, but it is the most memorable. My brother-in-law gave us a gun for our wedding. We are not hunters or gun users in any way. I still haven’t forgiven him (for that and many other things).
Dec 16, 2013 @ 13:31:38
My most memorable gift,hmm, hard to choose just one. I guess I’d have to say it was the year I got my first, brand-new, big-girl Schwinn bicycle for my 11th birthday.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 13:40:37
My most memorable gift was the champagne diamond ring my hubby got me two years ago. He asked me if I wanted some champers and I said no as I thought he meant the drink. Then he pulled out the box and showed me the ring. He’s very clever. He’s a keeper! 🙂
Dec 16, 2013 @ 13:58:51
My most memorable gift was a birthday gift. My very precocious six-year-old son who had been regularly attending church with me and his sister announced that he wanted to get saved. I had never pushed him on this, and because of his youth I had him talk to people from the church who after talking to him for awhile decided that he was both sincere and (more importantly) understood what he was talking about. So on the Saturday before Easter Sunday 2009 my son got saved, and the very next day on Easter Sunday he was baptized,…
which also happened to be my 49th birthday.
As he has continued to regularly attend church he has grown in faith and knowledge. He doesn’t know more about it than I do (yet), but he knows more about it than I did at his age.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 14:24:18
My first Christmas away from home I was in the Philippines with the Peace Corps. Both my parents came from large families and we got together with them all on Christmas. In addition to missing my family, the holiday was celebrated much differently from I was used to. Not bad, just different without the big family gatherings. My grandmother made a Sugar Cream Pie (which is pretty much like fudge) and mailed it to me from Northern NY State. It got to me a few days before Christmas in unbelievably good condition. I spent most of Christmas Day in my bedroom eating pie. It never tasted so good. She was a very special person and I loved her even more for remembering how much I liked it. It was the bright spot of my Christmas. It brought me closer to home and was the only gift I received that year.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 14:30:45
My Labrador puppy Bobby – the gift that keeps on giving
Dec 16, 2013 @ 15:37:34
My most memorable gift was the first Christmas after I was married my MIL invited me to make her family’s secret recipe Christmas cookies and fruit cake with her. My mom had passed away the year before I married and that made this acceptance by my MIL that much sweeter.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 15:56:21
Haven’t had the pleasure of reading your books. Hope to win this one.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 16:03:28
One of my best memories is our wedding 49 years ago on Dec 26th. Both of our families were there. The church was decorated for Christmas and it was beautiful.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 16:47:00
I have to say as a child it was when I got my first pet, a cat name Tiger. He was a wild barn cat and I never thought I would get a pet since my parents weren’t happy about it but they got him for me anyway – big surprise.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 16:54:40
My mom gave me my grandma’s best watch for Christmas. My grandma had passed about 20 years before hand but my mom wanted to remind me about the great things the women in our family had done.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 17:04:09
I think the best gift I ever got was a mothers ring and it had my stone along with my husbands and sons.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 17:05:55
Sorry I will be entering the raffelcopter under the name of Virginia.
lead AT hotsheet DOT com
Dec 16, 2013 @ 17:30:19
This is my 3rd try to get a comment posted. Sorry.
I remember several gifts in my 67 years — don’t know that any one stands out as memorable over another. I received a baby doll from Santa either my 1st or 2nd year of college. Even after my sister and I knew there was really no Santa, there’d be unwrapped gifts under the tree for us on Christmas morning, and filled stockings. The year I got the baby doll was the last tho, except the next year, my sis & I did Santa for our parents!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 17:49:39
The most memorable gift is a string of pearls my husband gave me when we were dating. I wore them on our wedding day, my sister wore them on her wedding day and our daughter wore them in her college graduation portrait.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 18:04:44
Thank you once again for these fun, wonderful and touching stories. They gave me a smile and even made me a bit teary. They also made me remember some of my favorite gifts — like catslady, I always wanted a cat and one day after kindergarten Mum showed up to pick me up with a cat in the backseat!
I named her Fluffy. Creative, no?
Dec 16, 2013 @ 18:05:06
I love crystals and once received a crystal wand.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 18:26:20
My most memorable was Christmas of 1981. My then boyfriend gave me a Lenox Christmas plate that was the first in a series of thirteen (one for each of the thirteen colonies). Think he was trying to tell me something? He proposed a week later. We celebrated our 30th anniversary this year.
And yes, I DID get all thirteen plates in the series!
Dec 16, 2013 @ 18:47:57
Does my nephew count as a present?
The cover of THE LOTUS PALACE is very pretty and seasonal.
Dec 16, 2013 @ 18:48:15
My most memorable Christmas gift was a pair of winter gloves from my BF’s mother. I was confused at the grin on her face over a pair of gloves until I tried to put them on. There was money rolled up into each finger. Simple but funny and well thought out for some great memories.