Guest Post - Tracie Bannister's Cocker Spaniel - #CuteChristmas

December is a big month for my Cocker Spaniel, Reggie a.k.a. Sir Reginald. His birthday falls on the 13th (He’ll be turning 2 this year!), so that celebration rolls right into all of my family’s Christmas festivities. Last year when we took Reg to the pet store on his birthday to pick out a present, he chose a little dog wearing reindeer ears that played a lively chorus of “Jingle Bells” when it was squeezed. (Reggie likes nothing better than a toy that makes noise.) Although Jingles is looking a bit worse for the wear after having being gnawed on so much this past year, he still plays that jaunty holiday tune and Reggie never gets tired of hearing it!  

Reggie was too young to know what was going on his first Christmas, but he was a very enthusiastic participant last year. He was absolutely fascinated by us unwrapping gifts. The dog has a serious paper fetish, and he was so excited to see all the gift wrap, tissue paper, boxes, and bows that he could barely contain himself! He even started helping us tear the paper off our gifts. Normally, we clean up as we go on Christmas morning, but Reggie was having so much fun playing in the big piles of discarded gift wrap that we just let him go to town. 

Of course, since he’s a good boy (most of the time), Santa did bring Reggie a few gifts of his own, including a stocking full of squeakies and a reindeer chew toy. Actually, he ended up with two of those because he stole the one Santa brought for his brother, Victor. Fortunately, Victor didn’t mind. In fact, he seems to get a kick out of Reggie and his puppy shenanigans. 

The aroma of roasted turkey and all the fixins brought all three of my dogs to the dinner table last Christmas. (Yes, there’s a third Cocker at the Banister abode. Her name is Hallie, and she’s a rescue with special needs like Victor.) Reggie’s eyes got SO big when he saw the large bird we placed on the table. I was seated across from my mother, and it was comical how Reggie’s furry, little head kept popping up next to her elbow every few seconds. It looked like he was jumping on a pogo stick! We had to push our plates farther and farther away from the edge of the table, because we were worried he was going to flip over the good china on his head! 

This year, my big plans for Reggie’s Christmas include taking him to visit Santa. Naturally, he’ll need a snazzy holiday sweater for the occasion. I’m wondering if I should go with something classic like a candy cane print, or get funky with a hipster reindeer or elf design. Tell me which one you’d pick in the comments below.

Many thanks to Rachel for having me on her blog today. Wishing you and all your furry family members a very #CuteChristmas! 

You are very welcome Tracie, and its been a pleasure to meet Reggie in his big month. I hope you both a very Merry Christmas!

Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Manhattan upper-cruster Cecily Sinclair now uses that pricey utensil to dish up fancy French fare on her cooking show, Serving Romance. When there’s an executive shake-up at the network, she’s not worried. Not much anyway. Her show’s a hit after all. Why would the new CEO want to mess with success?

The driving force behind several buzzed-about networks, Devlin Hayes is considered to be a wunderkind in the television industry. Although his plans to rebrand CuisineTV and make Serving Romance more Millennial-friendly don’t thrill Cecily, her charming, blue-eyed boss is a hard man to say “no” to and she really wants to keep her job—even if that means sharing screen time with a loathsome blast from her past.   

Mercurial Italian chef Dante Marchetti a.k.a. “Il Duce” was once Cecily’s boss, and she has the PTSD to prove it. Now the owner of one of the hottest restaurants in town, Dante’s egomania knows no bounds and his constant attempts to provoke and upstage Cecily make her want to conk him on the head with a sauté pan. She thinks they’re toxic together, but viewers love their chemistry and clamor for more. 

As Cecily battles to maintain the integrity of her show, she finds herself scheming and manipulating right along with Dante and Devlin. Is she fighting a lost cause? Does she really belong on TV, or would her culinary talent be better served elsewhere? And could one of the men who makes Cecily’s blood boil ignite a passion in her for something other than food?

UNIVERSAL BUY LINK FOR MIXING IT UP

myBook.to/MixingItUp

AUTHOR BIO

An avid reader and writer, Tracie Banister has been scribbling stories since she was a child, most of them featuring feisty heroines with complicated love lives like her favorite fictional protagonist Scarlett O'Hara. Her work was first seen on the stage of her elementary school, where her 4th grade class performed an original holiday play she penned. (Like all good divas-in-the-making, she also starred in and tried to direct the production.)

Tracie’s dreams of authorial success were put on the backburner when she reached adulthood and discovered that she needed a "real" job in order to pay her bills. Her career as personal assistant to a local entrepreneur lasted for 12 years. When it ended, she decided to follow her bliss and dedicate herself to writing full-time. Mixing It Up is her fourth Chick Lit release, and in it Tracie finally got to live out her fantasy of being a Cordon Bleu-trained chef. 

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