The Weary World Rejoices!

Hello, Everybody!

Hope you had a very Happy Christmas! It was a very merry Christmas in my corner of the book world! Let's keep the love and merriment going this last week of 2016.

Whatever your Christmas weekend was like, don't forget to remember the God has already given us the best gift we will ever receive: eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ! May this love fill you with hope and believe in the future God has for you.

Let your actions and words be love-filled. Remember to think about the people around you who may need an extra cheery "Hello!" or who may be dealing with the loss of a loved one! Just spread love.

My sweet Merry had plenty of cuddles all Christmas

The Falcons won their division title on Christmas Eve. Go Falcons!

With a mug of homemade hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows, you can't go wrong.

Whatever the next day, year brings, don't stop believing in God, in yourself, in your dreams, in the magic of life.

#believe
Caitlin A.

'Tis the Season

Hello, Everybody!

Sprinkle and kiss embellished sugar cookies

I am taking a few minutes break from baking Christmas cookies right now. My sister and I are hosting a Christmas cookie exchange party this evening. The punch ingredients are awaiting their mixing and the bourbon chicken is marinating! I want to take this "baking break" to reflect on the Christmas celebrations.

Embrace Your Pace

Are you are finding yourself bogged down with Christmas parties, responsibilities, gift-giving pressures, or time management stress that the month of December can bring? I am not selling you Vitameatavegemin (I'll leave that to Lucy),  but I do understand there are end of the year goals to meet, LOTS of people to visit before the year runs out, and have a cheery smile on your face all at at the same time. We can all get carried away with the tide of busyness during Christmas time. Then, there are those friends of ours who have nobody to visit with or to celebrate the wonderful Gift that we celebrate with. Whether you are the person finding themselves way too busy to keep up with life or if you are the person wanting a busier life, EMBRACE where you are and how fast life is moving quickly or slowly around you. 

Be grateful for the busy schedule. Each responsibility and event is serving a purpose in your life. Be grateful for the slow pace that you are living life. Spend your time really being there for those who are around you.

Never Too Old 

It is so important to not forget the magic of Christmas! There is the magic of Santa, the elves, the snowy days {so, maybe not much snow around this year, but in general ;) }. I am talking about the MOST important magical part of Christmas that I celebrate: Jesus' birth. The newborn who would save the world from eternal agony. The history of this baby is incredible. Find a Bible and read Luke 2:1-21, the story of Jesus' birth, and tell me it is not magical! I just want to remind you that nobody is too old to believe in magic, especially the spiritual kind!

A Christmas wish for you!

My Christmas wish for you all reading this:

Enjoy your Christmas whatever your circumstances. Create moments. Embrace those moments. Count every tiny blessing. Be a blessing to someone else. Don't forget to believe in the magic that surrounds you. May the peace that Jesus' birth brings film your hearts!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!!

Believe.

Caitlin

Proprietor & Publisherwww.PurpleButterflyPages.com

Stepping Away with Lack of Words

Hello, Everyone!

I hope you had a memorable Thanksgiving holiday. I spent time with my family (SURPRISE) and celebrated a couple of birthdays. We celebrated my youngest brother's birthday by spending the day with our cousins playing billiards and eating cake pops! Three days earlier, we celebrated my baby sister's birthday with a Yellow Submarine themed party. I have <ALOT of  fun being an older sister to say the least! The first week of December brought my mother's birthday. Yes, Purple Butterfly Publications' featured author, Stephanie Townsend Ayers, had a fantastic birthday with gifts, family game time, movies, and a meal at her favorite restaurant, Michaelee's, in Blairsville, Georgia. If you are looking for your next vacation destination with delicious Italian cuisine and delicate desserts, consider this place!

A rainbow over Young Harris, Georgia Thanksgiving week

Stepping away...

During this valuable family time, I took time away from my professional Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts. Good timing for me to take a break for two main reasons. The first reason being that it is important to take time a way from social media. Stepping away during the last part of November and early December is what I did. Stepping away from certain work tasks for a brief time-out helped me to disconnect and reconnect by not sharing so much of what I'm thinking and doing throughout the day. Please, don't misunderstand, I love social media and believe in its many positive purposes (more details for a later blog)! The second reason stepping away from social media at this particular time was because there were days during this "break" that I would not have known what to say anyway. When the news broke that Mark Richt, one of my favorite head coaches in college football, had been fired, I had no words. Being "offline" was for the best at that time!

Dawg Country

Coach Richt at the
2014 Belk Bowl where Bulldogs won against Cardinals in
Bank of America stadium Charlotte, NC

If you are not a fan of college football, keep scrolling to learn of PBP's Christmas specials!! Most of you know that I am a college football fan and that my two favorite teams are the UGA Bulldogs and the ECU Pirates. This has not been a good week to be a fan of either! Like I already mentioned, when I heard of Coach Richt's firing at UGA and then hiring by Miami, I wouldn't have even had the characters to tweet. As a Bulldog fan of nearly fourteen years, Mark Richt was the only coach that I had known. Once I was a fan, I never stopped being a fan. It would have been easy to be an on and off again type fan. Now, I understand that the university wanted more SEC titles and more championships than we had been winning, so the firing was not a huge shock. The upset was the way in which the head coach was fired. You beat an in-state rival and the next day you are fired without the chance of coaching at the Bowl game (which we are headed to because we had a decent season)?! Before Bulldog Country had time to celebrate Richt's legacy at the University of Georgia, BOOM he was out of here and starting all over in Miami. Not even a last win-it-for-the-coach type bowl game. I felt like Mark Richt was forgotten overnight and was a distant memory the next day in the minds of the UGA athletic division staff. Isn't it funny how one minute you are on top with people you thought were friends and within a few hours you are out the door and those "friends" are the ones shooing you on your way? I am glad I was not on Twitter to read the outraged tweets from other fans! Anyway, I just have to say thanks to Coach Richt for the good times, the memories, and the coaching legacy he left with the players! I am still a Bulldog fan, but will need to adjust. So, as the week went on and the weekend was getting started, I learned of more college football heartache.

Pirate Nation

My dad, twin, and I attended
ECU's Oct 2014 historic victory over UNC.
The "Purple Haze Sunset" was epic!

The news broke that another one of my favorite head coaches in college football, Ruffin McNeil, had been fired. It still does not seem realistic. I was genuinely shocked when I found out. My dad read it on..Twitter...and told me (again, glad I was offline)! While facing many obstacles, Coach Ruff did not have a winning season this year. However, he did make some momentous turnarounds in the ECU Pirates football department in the five years that he was head coach. I am not going to list his accomplishments. They are known! The upsetting part to this football fan, is the manner in which Coach Ruff was "relieved of his duties". He was immediately terminated. The AD enraged fans even more when he failed to provide a sensible reason to the decision. This coach, much like Mark Richt,  meant just as much to the Pirate players, fans, and community away from the sidelines as he did on the sidelines! The termination of this man's job should have been handled more honorably than with the disrespect that it was handled. The man did not even have time to meet with his players before the  termination news was announced nationwide! The fans, players, and coaches were disrespected by the way this firing was done. 

"I understand college football is a money making business. Sometimes the money makers forget to understand that without the games, players, coaches, and fans there would be no money in their pockets." -Caitlin Ayers

Moving On

I could say more about this college football drama, but I will stop here. After all, it is time to get back to work in the world of books!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Christmas specials are happening at Purple Butterfly Pages! You are the first to know! Mark these next few dates on your calendar: December 16, 22, & 29. These December days will be your chance to download Their Inheritance ebook for FREE!
Suitable for each gender, Their Inheritance by Stephanie Townsend Ayers is an inspirational Christian historical-fiction ebook. Read it yourself and gift it to your favorite reader friends (by favorite I mean all).

*Leave comments below. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the college football drama and your most recent Thanksgiving holiday memories!

Believe.

Caitlin Ayers, Proprietor & Publisher
www.PurpleButterflyPages.com

Christmas Celebration: Parade Memories

Hello everybody!

December has proved to be a diligent week so far. Earlier this month, I excitedly announced that my business was going to have a float in my town's parade! A lot of thought, creativity, and preparation has gone into the making of the Christmas parade float.

The Toccoa Christmas Parade has been an event that my family attends each year and we always talked about participating, but we never did. My sister owns a baking/catering business, Dazzling Sweet Treats. My parents have recently started an estate auction company, Remember When Estate Auctions LLC. This fall, an email describing the 2014 parade information and application was sent out to all local Chamber of Commerce members. After reading through the rules and information, I determined that this year was the year for us to be a bigger part of our town's Christmas festivities; and not just as local citizens celebrating Christmas, but as local businesses who want to share a special Christmas message.

This year's parade theme is 'Christmas Miracle'. There are many miracle's surrounding Christ's birth. My first thought after reading the theme info, was a child's first Christmas with their forever family! Foster care and adoption is very familiar to me and my family. My parents were house parents at a children's home in the early '90s and my family served as a foster home for many babies and young children in the early 2000s. A few of those young children and babies became my brothers and sisters! Not my "adopted siblings" but my siblings. Christmas has always been a special festive time to me, but one Christmas I will never forget: when a little red headed seven-year-old foster child spent her first Christmas with her soon-to-be forever family. I had met "Red" when she spent Thanksgiving with my family one year. No other home was open for her to spend the holiday with. At seven-years-old she had been through many foster homes already and was legally waiting to be adopted. With prayer and love, my family decided that "Red" was supposed to be a part of our family. So, she spent Christmas holiday with us instead of her current foster family. Her reaction to Christmas Eve and Christmas morning were unforgettable. She had so many questions and had no idea what it was like to feel such love. The next summer, she officially became my younger sister! It is nothing short of a miracle when God puts a family into the life of a broken child; or a child into the life of a loving family. So, there is a doubtless personal meaning for our float theme choice!

“There are no unwanted children, just unfound families.”
The National Adoption Center

I presented my idea of our float theme to be centered around a child's first Christmas with their forever family. We did a bit of brainstorming to tie it to the parade's theme. We discovered that there was an adoption story right int the middle of the Christmas Story. Joseph took Jesus to raise, and love and care for even though the Child was not biologically his. I encourage you to listen to "Raise Him Up" sung by Randy Travis. This is the PERFECT song for our float's theme! I will be posting photos from the parade later this month in the "recap" blog.

I also encourage you to be accepting, loving, and understanding of any adoption miracles happening in your life!

Make it a peaceful and joyful December.

Caitlin Ayers, Publisher
Purple Butterfly Publications

**Visit downtown Toccoa Georgia on Saturday, December 6th. The parade starts at 4PM. Come early to visit the local shops and even some brand new businesses; and share in the celebration of the Christ's birth!**