CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA: Marion Lennox

Mistletoe Madness with Marion Lennox

 

What are your plans for Christmas 2014?
Family.  No, make that Family!   Mangos for breakfast and my daughter’s home baked croissants.  Margaritas while we tackle  stockings.  Then beach.  Lunch of crayfish, fresh podded peas with mint, prawns, scallops, little red sausages (!!!) mango trifle, margaritas.  More (very careful) beach.   More margaritas.  Rolling home to turkey, baby spuds with butter and mint, more fresh peas (tip – keep hyped kids happy – pod more peas!) pudding with flames and brandy sauce, more brandy sauce.   Possibly more margaritas.  If there’s anything after that I can’t remember.

 

Tell us about a usual Christmas in your home?
I think I just have.  We organise at least one silly gift.  Last year it was inflatable sharks and nemo fish, four feet long, remote controlled, just the thing to give you a wee start as you focus on trying to shell your prawns and balance your margarita. In among the chaos we try to get to the beach for a swim.  We float on a wave and give thanks for our family and for our year and for the sun on our faces.  And for the margarites to come 🙂

 

Any gift in particular that you’d love to see wrapped under the tree?
A rental contract for a big family house (with pool) in far north Queensland for the whole of August.   Okay, it’s fantasy, the logistics are crazy but we live pretty darn close to Antarctica and oooh wouldn’t it be lovely. A solution for my latest saggy middle?

 

Tell us, what is the one dish that gets served every single year? Is there a story behind this?
Little red sausages (???)   Christmas here is so big and has so many dietary requirements  that early on we decided to provide turkey and pudding and everyone else should bring their favourite dish.  Negotiations take place before Christmas for stove/oven time.  It’s a great system.  Only problem was that the first year of The System Bryce, aged six, arrived clutching one packet of little red sausages (negotiation – one small gas ring, ten minutes)   We helped him cook, only to watch in dismay as every great uncle, every teenager, even yours truly, thought yum….   We had to dive to save three for Bryce.  Now Bryce’s little red sausages get pride of place  (Big gas ring) and we don’t just buy one packet. Bryce is now 26 we all still love them.

 

Essentials for an Aussie Christmas…
Beach.  Crayfish.  Sunblock.  Oh, and did I mention little red sausages?

Your best Silly Season survival tip?
Berocca.

 

What will you be reading this Christmas?
Oooh, am hoping to get Trish Morey’s Stone Castles – preordered, it should arrive any day but it’s getting so close now that I might even have the discipline to wrap it and pop it under the tree.

 

What have been your big achievements in 2014?
Reaching a hundred books published.  Whew!   Also hauling my husband away from full time work and moving to live permanently at the beach 🙂

 

What are your plans/goals for 2015?
More of the same.  From where I’m sitting, life’s pretty much excellent.

 

 

Christmas Where They Belong
Marion Lennox

A love worth fighting for…

Julie and Rob McDowell couldn’t imagine life without each other. Until a tragic accident tore their family—and their marriage—apart.

For four years they’ve been living separate empty lives. Yet when news breaks of a bushfire heading straight for the Blue Mountains both are compelled to return and protect their past.

But now they’re stranded together for Christmas! And suddenly Rob is determined to prove to Julie that there’s something else worth fighting for: their future…

Harlequin

 

 

Keen to keep the Christmas fun going?

Come over and try your luck at cracking an AusRomToday cracker. There’s books, book packs, Amazon gift cards, and heaps of other fun Christmassy prizes to win!