Today I wrapped presents pretty much all day. I still have some presents that haven't shipped, and a few inches of stockings left to stuff. I adore wrapping gifts. It's actually always been my favourite part of the holiday - which, let's be fair, should have been a giant clue that perhaps there was some sugar-plum to my fairy way back before I ever came out. Or, y'know, hit puberty.

The joy of Christmas day for me is in the handing out of presents to my husband and our family and watching people laugh and smile, sharing dinner as a group - usually Indian take-away, so no one has to cook - and then maybe some reading or a movie, and an early night since I have to be at the store by 7:00 am the next day.

Chapter the Tenth (Or, Presently, the Presence of Presents Present Themselves...)

Keelie and her makeshift gang of friends-as-family have Christmas morning (which doubles as a Happy Birthday for Ivy) and we see some of the fallout of the arrival of the unexpected from the previous chapter, as well as some of the love blooming among some of the Coventry crowd. Also, Keelie gets a gift that keeps on giving at this Christmas party, and let me tell you, I love this sub-plot. Something you can count on loving with all of Becky Cochrane's romances is a heroine who is not without a life's path of her own. Keelie is not someone who has nothing to offer the world beyond being a girlfriend, and that's pretty damn fantastic, frankly.

This marks the half-way point - and some pretty major turning points - in A Coventry Christmas. By this point in my first reading of the book, I was so solidly hooked I tore through the rest.

As it is, I'm totally resisting the urge to keep going right now.

Coveted Coventry Moments