Marisa de los Santos shares some holiday favorites and her latest novel!

**Giveaway is now closed**

There have been many positive reviews and buzz since "Falling Together," by New York Times bestselling author Marisa de los Santos, was released this past October. (We can totally understand why...check out Gail Allison's review right here!) We are very excited she's here today with us to share some of her holiday favorites. Marisa was born in Baltimore and grew up in Virginia. She went to school at the University of Virginia, Sarah Lawrence and The University of Houston, where she studied poetry and published a poetry collection called "From the Bones Out." One of her favorite hobbies is attending the ballet and taking ballet classes. Her two other novels are "Love Walked In" and "Belong to Me." She lives in Wilmington, Delaware with her husband, and two children, Charles and Annabel.

Thanks to HarperCollins, we have one copy of "Falling Together" to give away to a lucky reader in the US.

You can visit Marisa at Harper Collins and on Facebook.

Author photo credit: Tisa Della-Volpe

What is your favorite holiday recipe?
I am a fool for stuffing! I sort of fly by the seat of my pants when I make it, so it’s a little different every time, but it always involves sausage, mushrooms, chopped Granny Smith apples, fresh herbs, and onions sautéed in ungodly amounts of butter. I go easy on the sage because I don’t like the way it can elbow out all the other flavors. I like cubed breadcrumbs best because my family likes a toothy stuffing, not a mushy one. And I always use lots of turkey drippings, along with a couple of eggs and some chicken stock to sort of glue it all together. I put some in the turkey and bake some in a pan in the oven. It’s not particularly gourmet but it is so delicious.

What is your favorite childhood holiday memory?

I can’t think of my childhood Christmases without calling up the taste of onion dip, the sound of billiard balls hitting each other, and the backseat of my parent’s car. We would go to my Aunt Kitty and Uncle Perry’s house in Maryland, a couple of hours away. The place was always full of people. We’d all eat dinner in their dining room and at tables set up in their living room, but we’d spend the rest of the time in their big finished basement, playing pool (I loved chalking the pool cues) and eating things like Ruffles potato chips, onion dip, cheese straws, and honey-roasted peanuts. I felt so at home in that basement with the woodstove going and everyone talking and talking, but I may have loved the ride home best of all: my parents quiet conversation, Christmas carols on the radio, the starry dark and cold out the window, and my sister and me in the backseat, half-asleep, perfectly together, perfectly safe, heading home.

How are the holidays celebrated in your family?

My sister and her husband and their two kids usually come to our house, and, honestly, there’s never any of that famous holiday family stress. We all just like each other too much. We spend a very happy, very boisterous, very informal holiday. We open presents in our pajamas with Christmas carols playing. After that, we just sort of do things as we feel like doing them: breakfast, showers, table-setting, cooking, cleaning up. The kids play with their toys. We eat whenever everything’s ready. Usually there’s a football game on at some point. Sometimes, we dress for dinner, sometimes not. If a dish doesn’t turn out, no one really cares. Often, we’ll take a walk after dinner. Occasionally, I wish we were a little more formal, but easy-peasy, slightly chaotic, and jolly just seems to be what suits us.

What is your favorite holiday themed movie?

It’s a Wonderful Life, without question. I am a breathless Capra fan, and I start putting that movie in the DVD player beginning around Thanksgiving. It just sort of plays in the background all holiday season, a kind of cinematic wallpaper. I don’t understand how anyone could find it sappy, although I’ve heard this criticism more than once. I think it’s brave and true and funny. I have never—not once—failed to cry when Harry Bailey shows up at the end and makes the toast to his big brother George, “the richest man in town.” I’m getting choked up just thinking about it!

What is the best gift you ever gave or received?

When I was a gymnastics-obsessed ten-year-old, my grandfather made me a balance beam. It was a low beam, about a foot off the ground, padded with foam and covered with a piece of carpet. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I was in love with it. I practiced on it as soon as I woke up in the morning, would drag it out the screen doors into the yard on nice days and do beam routines in the yard. During the school day, I was a small, bookworm-ish, nerdy girl in glasses. But on that beam, I was Nadia Comaneci: perfect. I can’t remember if I ever told my grandfather how much that beam meant to me. I hope so!

Thanks to Marisa for answering our holiday questions and to HarperCollins for sharing Marisa's latest novel with a lucky reader!

How to win "Falling Together":
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US only. Giveaway ends December 18th at midnight EST.