A Florida Christmas by Carol Light

In 1989 my parents and I drove from Indianapolis to Naples, Florida, where my sister and her family had moved six months earlier. We’d always spent Christmases together, so we were willing to make the long drive to celebrate with the four of them, including my nephew and niece, ages four and one. We couldn’t wait to see the little ones wide-eyed with wonder at the tree, the lights, and Santa. Besides, Indiana was experiencing a bone-chilling cold that winter. Escaping to the Sunshine State was practically a matter of self-preservation.

The day we headed south, the actual temperature was minus forty degrees. People stopped at gas stations and filled up without turning off their engines, breath escaped from scarf-covered mouths in clouds of frost, and cold burrowed quickly through woolen coats and gloves. We spent the night in Chattanooga, which wasn’t much warmer than Indy. I dashed from the heated car to our room, glad to be off the road.

The next morning we soon discovered we weren’t the only northerners headed south to soak up Florida’s famous sunshine. Traffic grew heavier as we drove through Georgia, but we finally made it across the Florida border. And that’s when everything stopped.

The interstate was jammed with cars, and the bumper-to-bumper traffic soon slowed to an almost complete standstill. It had snowed. We guessed southerners had no clue about driving on icy roads. There must have been an accident ahead. All we could do was wonder as we crept along inches at a time.

It took us eight hours to drive twenty miles. Finally, we saw a sign promising an exit in one mile. We had to get off the road, if we could ever reach that ramp. Although we’d brought snacks, we needed restrooms and a place to spend the night.

When we finally turned off I-75, we found the town of Wellborn, Florida. It was past normal dinner time, but a café was still open and serving what little food they had left. When we told them we’d been on the interstate, they were shocked. I-75 had been closed for hours, they told us. They had no clue how much traffic was still out there, possibly stuck for the night. Unfortunately, all of the local motels were full, and the town’s water supply had been exhausted. They kindly directed us to a church that might have room for us.

My mother in front of the church where we spent the night. 

Still wearing my coat, I slept on the floor that night, and my parents stretched out on pews. We had plenty of company with others who had taken that exit, too. Every pew was filled, and it wasn’t even Sunday.

The next morning, Christmas Eve, we headed out early, taking a back road south. Surprisingly, there was no traffic at all. In Ocala, we stopped for breakfast. The restaurant’s restrooms were akin to a Christmas miracle at that point. My mother and I washed our faces and felt more human. We found a pay phone and called my sister, as none of us had cell phones then. She’d expected us to arrive the previous day and was relieved to hear that we were okay.

I didn’t unwind my scarf or shed my coat for several more hours until we were close to Naples. It was finally warmer—my sweater was enough—but still chilly for south Florida. My sister had been cooking between rolling power blackouts due to the high demand for electricity that day, but she managed to prepare a Christmas feast. By the end of the week, temperatures were back in the eighties, and we enjoyed time on the beach together before driving home.

That summer my parents moved to Florida, and I followed two months later. No long Christmas drives or bunking on church pews in our future! Sparkling white lights wrapped around palm tree trunks may not be your cup of wassail, but personally, I prefer wearing flip flops to boots in December.

I’ll never forget my first Florida Christmas or the kind people in Wellborn, who took in dozens of weary travelers on a cold December night and gave them food and shelter. Sounds a lot like another Christmas story you might have heard, doesn’t it?

Warm wishes for happy holidays to all! May your new year be full of wonderful books to read and good friends to share them with.

Carol Light loves reading and writing mysteries about ordinary people caught up in unexpected circumstances. Her Cluttered Crime series features amateur sleuth Crystal Ward, a professional organizer in Chicago who loves helping her clients declutter their homes and has a knack for solving crimes, much to her husband’s dismay. Rick Ward, a former homicide detective partially paralyzed in a work-related shooting, is protective of his family and unsure if his wife’s career is safe. Like many marriages, theirs is an ongoing negotiation between two people with different perspectives who nonetheless love each other.

Carol grew up in the Midwest and now lives in Florida. She enjoys reading, cooking, traveling, and spending time with friends and family. This time of year, she you might find her enjoying a Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe-Joe (don’t ask her to share), a strong cup of English Breakfast tea, and a good book. Her third Cluttered Crime mystery, Killer Close to Home, will be available January 11, 2024.

Website:           https://www.carollightauthor.com/

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BookBub:        https://www.bookbub.com/authors/carol-light

Goodreads:      https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7356900.Carol_Light

Here are two books from my Cluttered Crime mystery series to add to your 2024 reading list:

 Room for Suspicion

Book #1 in the Cluttered Crime Mystery Series

It’s going to take more than carefully labeled boxes to sort through the clues of this homicide… 

Professional organizer Crystal Ward knows she can make a success of her new business, Organizing Chicago. The extra income would allow her to renovate her own home, full of more cluttered spaces than she’d ever admit to her clients. But her life wasn’t always this disorganized. Five years ago her husband, Rick, a Chicago police detective, was shot while chasing a suspect. Now a paraplegic, he’s wary of her going into strangers’ homes…and for good reason.

When Crys discovers a dead man in a client’s living room, she refuses to accept that the murder is an open-and-shut case of domestic violence. If she can untangle this mess, she can prove her client’s innocence and ease Rick’s fears.

But the only witness to the murder is hospitalized in a catatonic state. And the lead detective is Rick’s former partner, the man Crys blames for his paralysis. Crys is on her own to save her client from jail and stop a murderer intent on tidying up loose ends.

Deadlier Than Fiction

Book #2 in the Cluttered Crime Mystery Series

Can she get the right read on this situation before someone ruins the ending?

Professional organizer Crystal Ward is at a crossroads with her business, Organizing Chicago. Her husband, Rick, isn’t on board with online advertising, and their friends and family are running out of referrals. And now her client’s husband is outraged to learn that Crys donated novels he had promised to his brother. Crys’s only hope of salvaging the situation is to recover the titles.

But she shouldn’t have judged those books by their covers. The secret they contain is valuable, and she’s not the only one trying to find them. What’s more, she’s now hiding a secret of her own. She’d promised Rick, a former homicide detective, that she’d avoid sketchy situations that could land her in danger. Her best move? To team up with a retired detective, who suddenly has his own agenda.

With danger mounting, she must use all of her sleuthing skills to sort out friend from foe and fact from fiction before a killer can write her own final chapter.

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Carol-Light/author/B0C8B56JPX?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Carol Light"?Ntk=P_key_Contributor_List&Ns=P_Sales_Rank&Ntx=mode+matchall

Also available on Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, and Amazon Kindle UK.

Carol Light