Rohvannyn Shaw's Blog: The Pencil and Quill - Posts Tagged "holiday-writing"

Odd, how the holidays can creep up on you sometimes, in a good way.

I'm in the process of putting together an anthology right now, made of holiday stories. A little background: since I started living far away from my parents, we've had a tradition. My mom will write a story, I will illustrate it, my dad will bind it, and we'll send it out to friends and family. This year I realized "I can put those old stories together, put some new illustrations in there with the better old ones, bind that puppy, and have it ready for December!"

So I'm in the middle of that. It's made me remember what's most important about the holidays - which is giving, enjoying time with loved ones, and having fun. This year I'm in a little more stable position so I think I might actually decorate, just a bit. A few strings of lights, maybe some holiday baking. I'll still firmly ignore all the crap in the stores and the holiday programming. I'll have my holiday, on my terms.

Today something happened that reminded me, still more, of what I love about this season - the generosity. There was a random turkey drawing at work, and one of the people who won it was nearly out of food and wouldn't have had anything to eat for Thanksgiving otherwise. I was so happy when I saw him win. If I could have picked one person it would have been him.

So along with the story tradition, I'm going to rekindle an old one - a variation of the Grand Sneak Over. Though we were poor when I was young, often my parents and I would sneak over to a family and leave some kind of goodies on their doorstep, then run.

This year I'm going to give the older fellow at work a box. I'll find a way to sneak it to his desk, and I'll put things in it he can have as a diabetic. Maybe some nice apples, a small summer sausage, and some good quality cheese. I want to pay it forward.

Then I'll probably be a mercenary so and so and turn it into a holiday story for a future anthology.