We've been asking you to submit your favorite Christmas memories and heartwarming James Avery Christmas stories to spread the warmth and joy of the holidays with James Avery Artisan Jewelry and KVKI and you've delivered!

Each weekday through Friday, December 21, 2018, during the 12pm hour with Bristol, we'll read one of your stories and the person who submitted it will receive a $50 gift card to James Avery Artisan Jewelry. At the end of each week, we'll put all five stories to a vote and the winner will receive an additional $250 James Avery Artisan Jewelry gift card! James Avery Artisan Jewelry can be found locally in the Shoppes at Bellemeade on Youree Drive in Shreveport and the Dillard’s at Pierre Bossier Mall and Mall St. Vincent and online at JamesAvery.com.

Today's winner is Barbara Pourteau. Congrats Barbara! We hope you love your new treasured piece of jewelry from James Avery Artisan Jewelry! Here's what Barbara had to say:

It’s a most wonderful time of the year! I have many great Christmas memories of Christmases spent with my grandma and grandpa Covault and that whole big family. On Christmas Day the whole family would gather. The house would be filled with voices of the young and old and the smell of ham and all the trimmings. One year there were baked beans that had sloshed out of the dish and onto the floor of the car on the way to the gathering but were scooped back into the dish. After all, the 19 grand kids would never know the difference! Then there was the year that an uncle ate all the frosting off the cake just to make the kids laugh. Another year, that same uncle rode a pony into the kitchen hollering “Merry Christmas.” As we grandchildren got older and doubted that the fat man in red with a white beard was really Santa, we’d bombard him with snowballs as he made his way to the house.
The years rolled on. Grandma passed away. The grand kids grew up and had children of their own. But every year we would still go to grandpa‘s house. Every year Santa still came. When my niece Shelly was about six we all still gathered at grandpa‘s house. It was a big drafty old farmhouse. With all the people and all the cooking going on in the house, the windows would steam up. All the children would be excited in anticipation of Santa's arrival. Santa’s German Shepherd had followed him to the house. When Santa walked through the door his dog came to the outside of the big picture window. He put his nose to the only clear spot on the window. Shelly glanced at the window just in time to see him. In a whisper of awe and wonder she said, “ It’s Rudolph!” And with that, he was gone.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Memories of Christmas past, making memories of Christmas present, and looking forward to Christmas future.

Thank you Barbara for sharing your memories! If you'd like to share yours or to find out more, click here!

See complete KVKI contest rules here. 

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