The 12 Authors of Christmas – Robin Caroll

Captain's Log, Supplemental

Continuing the 12 Authors of Christmas, here’s suspense author Robin Caroll!

View the tour, including Rachel Hauck and Tricia Goyer’s authors, here.

Tell us about your first Christmas memory?

I was about 6 years old, and I remember that I'd wanted this cowgirl outfit so bad. My mother was a single mom then, with 3 kids (scary how we become our parents in some areas, huh?) and so we only really got one "big" present. I remember waking up that morning and going into the living room with my mom and sisters--we weren't allowed to go without us all going at once (yet another mirror of my mother I've become!)--and seeing a Baby Beans doll, which I'd also wanted. I was excited and immediately picked up the doll and began playing. Imagine my shocked surprise when my present under the tree from my mom was the cowgirl outfit!

Growing up, did your family have Christmas traditions?

Tell us how you incorporated them into your family life. Or, how you created new ones. Wow, I think I touched on a couple of them in the previous question. For me and my husband's traditions with our daughters....Christmas Eve, we bake pies and cookies and goodies. That night. my husband and daughters make cookies for Santa, then he reads them "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (okay, he reads the cajun version, but it's funny). Afterwards, I read them the birth story of Jesus and we set the Jesus candle out to light first thing in the morning. On Christmas Day, my children receive 3 gifts from Santa--which they are told is parallel to the 3 wisemen bringing gifts to Jesus at his birth. We light the Jesus candle and offer a prayer. Then the madness begins. Presents are opened, and dinner is started. My parents drive up Christmas morning, so I cook the whole big shebang and we normally eat around 2. And 3. And 4.....hey, I'm all about the food! LOL

When do you put up your tree? Describe the decorating at your house.

We normally drag the tree and stuff out the first weekend in December. This year, we hope to get it up by the second weekend in December. Every year, my mother buys each of our girls a keepsake ornament. These are what we use to decorate our tree, and my husband and I only set up the tree and put on the lights. The actual ornament placement is totally up to the kids. Sometimes it's pretty lopsided, but the tree is for them anyway, and if they love it, so be it.

What is your favorite Christmas song or album? (Feel free here to talk about choirs or other musical things you participate in during Christmas.)

I'm a sucker for Christmas music and we normally have the satelite Christmas music channel on during the holidays. I love "I'll be Home for Christmas", but it makes me cry.

Relive your childhood Christmas mornings for us.

Pretty much similar to what I listed above for our Christmas mornings. The only difference is that as a child, I had to go to my grandparents for lunch. Now, we made it a rule that we don't leave our house on Christmas Day.

Tell us about your Christmas setting--do you have a white Christmas?

Sometimes. Just depends around here. LOL Four or five years ago, our Christmas was so white that we were snowed in for almost a week after Christmas!

Confession time. Shop on line or at the mall?

Online...are you insane?

Christmas grows more and more commercial every year. Setting the hustle and bustle aside, what does Christmas really mean to you?

To me, this is the time where I personally am hit with the enormity of what Jesus came and did for me. Praying my children understand this explanation as they grow up.

It's Christmas day… what's for dinner? Do you make cookies or other traditional foods?

We have turkey, ham, dressing, green bean casserole, corn casserole, sweet potato casserole, English peas, mac & cheese, rolls and for dessert, chocolate pie, pumpkin pie, and either pecan or black walnut pie. And of course, all the decorated cookies!

Tell us about your favorite Christmas memory.

Christmas 1990. I'd been married a little over a year and our first daughter had just been born at the end of November. As I held her in the dark and stared at the tree lit up, the impact of what God did almost knocked me over. He sent his SON to die for ME. Holding my baby, I just couldn't even begin to imagine the scenario. It's stuck with me ever since and every Christmas morning, when I look at my daughters, I'm still awed because I know I could never sacrifice one of my children. It's pretty humbling.

What are your plans for this season?

Um, prayerfully, the same as in previous years.

Any final thoughts on Christmas?

I just pray everyone have a most blessed holiday season.

Camy here: Thanks for sharing, Robin!

If you guys haven’t read Bayou Justice yet, it’s a perfect mix of suspense and romance for your holiday season. It received a Top Pick award from Romantic Times magazine, and it’s worth every star!

I don’t know about you, but I tend to read more during Christmas week. If that’s true for you, pick up Robin’s book—you won’t be disappointed.