It's Present Time

Tawny Weber
EDITED TO POST WINNER: Laney4, your name was drawn as the winner of an autographed copy of SEX, LIES AND MISTLETOE. If you'll email me with your shipping info, I'll get that right out to you :-) Congratulations, and thank you to everyone for sharing your best and worst gifts with me!

In my latest Harlequin Blaze release, SEX, LIES AND MISTLETOE, patriarch Tobias Black sees the homecoming of his oldest son as the best Christmas gift he could have. Now, he’s a wily kind of guy, so he did arrange Caleb’s homecoming himself. But as usual, no matter how carefully we plan, sometimes gifts don’t turn out quite the way we hope. For Tobias, it turns out that his son is quite possibly there to arrest him. Now that would quickly shift the gift of having Caleb back in his life from his best to his worst list. Now Pandora? She’s having such a wonderful holiday season, she’s afraid to jinx it by asking Santa for anything else. But when the sexiest, most intense bad boy she’s ever seen walks into her store, she figures the best gifts are the ones that come as a surprise.

So this got me thinking. For the most part, my husband is wonderful at choosing gifts. Except for that sweater he gave me the first year we were married. It’s blue. It’s clunky. It’s decorated with snowflakes. It’s... Well, let’s just call it unfortunate. Or maybe that’s what we should call me the couple of times I wore it. Isn’t that the sweet thing about those first years of marriage? We wear the ugliest things out of loving obligation. If he gave me that sweater now, I’d be asking for the exchange receipt. And knowing my husband, he’d laugh and hand it over. I think that’s just one more reason to love the guy!

And speaking of exchanges... Over the years I’ve been to a lot of holiday parties that include gift exchanges. You know the ones, everyone brings a themed gift or something within a certain price limit. Often, the gifts are thoughtful and welcome. And then there are the ones that aren’t. Not thoughtful, and definitely not welcome. And the thing is, these exchanges are usually optional. So knowing how cringe-worthy the gifts might be, you’d think I’d opt out. But no, I’m a glutton for pressies. I love ‘em. Even the questionable ones. :-D

Best gift exchange pressies:
• A box of Sees chocolates
• Santa Claus is Coming to Town dvd
• Hand painted ornaments

Worst gift exchange pressies:
• A small box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans (exchange $ limit: $20)
• Holiday themed cheese spreaders, used and poorly washed
• A cracked compact mirror (who gets the bad luck on that?)

In the end of SEX, LIES AND MISTLETOE, Pandora definitely ended up with a gift she never wants to exchange. Love, holiday style, with that sexy bad boy is the best thing Santa—or Tobias—has ever brought her. And I think Tobias decided that having Caleb home was a pretty great gift. So great that he went right to work on his New Year’s gift... Bringing his daughter Maya home, too.

So how about you? What are your best and worst holiday exchange gifts? Tell me about them in the comments section to be added to a drawing for an autographed copy of SEX, LIES AND MISTLETOE!

Tawny Weber has been writing sassy, sexy stories for Harlequin Blaze since her first book hit the shelves in 2007. When not obsessing over deadlines, she’s shopping for cute shoes, scrapbooking or hanging out on Facebook and Twitter. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com

In December of 2011 Tawny launched her Undercover Ops series with SEX, LIES AND MISTLETOE. The second book in the series, SEX, LIES & MIDNIGHT is on shelves in January 2012, quickly followed in February by SEX, LIES & VALENTINES. Be sure to follow Tawny on her Holiday Survival Tour as she celebrates these three books with contests, giveaways and lots of fun. You can read the first chapter of SEX, LIES & MISTLETOE on her website, all you have to do is join the Reader LoveFest!