Countdown to the Holidays: Cut-throat Dreidel and the Holiday Stroll

The Holiday Stroll is always the first weekend in December. Even though it's currently Hanukkah, the Stroll is really all about Christmas.

At our meeting Thursday night, my Girl Scout troop did celebrate the second night of Hanukkah with the lighting of the candles, the Hebrew prayers read by one of my Scouts who is Jewish... and a rousing game of cut-throat dreidel. The girls had a blast.

And then it was time for the Stroll... and Christmas stuff.


The Pilgrim Church in Harwich Port allows the Girl Scout troops in town to set up tables to sell crafts and homemade items. It's a great location because one, it's indoors (!) and two, there's a steady stream of people coming through the Fellowship Hall to buy the hot dogs and chili that the church sells.

It's my 5th year working the Holiday Stroll with my daughter and the Girl Scouts. For the last 4 years, I've been working our craft table for the entire 3 hours. We usually make $100, and last night was no exception, despite the slow foot traffic.

The "exception" at our table was that I was also selling and signing copies of my book - a tentative foot into the waters of book signing events. I had signed up for a double-sized corner table to allow us extra space for this, but the configuration was changed by the church and this was our allotment.

You can see my book poster on the left-hand side of the table, amidst the crafts.

It was fun, talking to people about writing romance novels and signing copies of my book. One friend brought in the two copies she'd ordered online to have me sign them - one is a gift for her sister. Most of the books I sold last night were to people I know... but I live in this town, so I know a lot of people.

One woman I'd never seen before was staring at my poster as she ate her chili. She came across the room to grab one of my postcards to read the book blurb, and then came back with cash to buy a book and have me sign it.

Unfortunately... the box of books I ordered more than 2 weeks ago didn't arrive in time. I had ordered one box of books when I planned this signing, and then a second box when I confirmed the SHELF SPACE signing sponsored by A Book in the Hand, but those aren't here yet. So I split up the one box I do have and took half to last night's event.

I sold them all. WHAT a cool feeling. I only wish I'd had more. But for a first signing, it was heartening to receive such a great response.

Maybe the box of books will be at the post office today, in time for the next event.