I know many people bemoan the work that goes into hosting or visiting family at the holidays, but I am not one of them, except in one respect. First, about my family holidays.
I have a relatively small family. Jack and I have no kids, and neither does his brother. My mom and her twin sister have no other siblings, and my aunt had just two children while Mom had only me. My two cousins live in Texas and Ethiopia. Even when they both lived here in the States, we rarely saw each other, as my dad was in the Navy and my uncle was in the Air Force, neither stationed near the other throughout their careers. Jack’s parents are gone now, so our immediate family consists of my mom and aunt, and Jack’s brother and wife—six of us. Unfortunately, none of us lives close to the others.
Years ago, Jack’s brother and sister-in-law lived in Richmond, Virginia, and we lived fifty miles away, three doors down from his parents. In those days, we rotated holidays, Thanksgiving at one house, Christmas at another, each bringing dishes to relieve the pressure. At that time, my mom and aunt lived in Dallas, Texas. Every other year, Jack and I used our Christmas break from the school where we worked and Jack’s parents’ camper to make the trek to Dallas in order to spend the holidays with The Twins and my aunt’s children. I say all this to better explain my pros and cons of family holidays.
- PRO: Being with family—when you act like family—is
wonderful! I understand how that might not be so if there is too much selfishness and too little care evident. That is if folks don’t get together to share the joys of the season and instead make it obvious that the day is about them and not everyone else. Believe me, I have been at family events where there is too much drinking or arguments spring up or one person is expected to do all the work. No fun. Not like family. If this is your situation, you might have to work harder at enjoying the holiday, but it can still be done. - PRO: You know that being with family is wonderful the most, when you can no longer be with family. Our Aussie friend, Jan, almost never gets to share holidays with her newly-minted American daughter because Jeanette lives here in the States and Jan is in New South Wales, Australia. My mom and aunt, and brother- and sister-in-law are all too far away for us to see each other often, much less at the holidays. And Jack’s parents, two of the most wonderful people ever, have been dead for many years. I would give a lot for all of us to share a holiday together again!
- PRO: Being with loved ones, especially at holiday time, gives us a chance to catch up with the news, with how
large the kids have grown, with how each of us is getting more frail in our own ways or stronger. It gives us a chance to laugh with one another and maybe to cry, while sharing the load of what makes us cry. It provides a chance for photos with sparkly backgrounds, that we can examine later and smile over. - CON: Travel is so often a mess. Nothing puts the strain on a holiday like canceled flights, bad weather, and
snarled traffic. This is the number one reason why no one in our family gets together on holidays—it’s too darn much trouble.
I miss our family holidays horribly, and more so the older I get. I remember the rolls that were forgotten on the counter, the dishes for dinner that didn’t turn out as we’d hoped and the ones that were great successes. I remember opening gifts after a sweet roll and coffee, and sharing with everyone what we received. I remember sitting and chatting with Mom after the dishes were done, and the sounds of football coming from the other room. And I remember most the laughter and love we shared.
As we go into the holiday season, my your holidays be filled with love and laughter, too!
Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.
Dee
Mystic Desire: A collection of supernatural tales sure to keep you up at night, peering into the shadows! Or just wide awake, reading.
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers
I’m not quite a Luddite, but close to it. I wasn’t always this way. Time was, I was considered a leader in computer and Internet usage. I posted on Yahoo groups with the best of them to promote my books, and could make Outlook, Word and Excel sing. Then I took a break.
would be spending even more time at the keyboard. And that doesn’t include blogging or managing a newsletter. By the time I create blog posts, both for those appearing on the Nomad Authors blog and for when I appear on the blog sites of others, I’m pooped.
I’ve always considered myself a pretty fast writer—when I write. I mean, I could eat lunch at work and still knock out a thousand words. I have written a 90K word book in a month. But the one year I tried NANOWRIMO, I choked. Couldn’t write 300 words in a day. Couldn’t get through a chapter in a week. Couldn’t… Well, couldn’t finish NANOWRIMO.
NANOWRIMO, but I did not. The discipline that NANOWRIMO gives you is a good thing, but when faced with it I turned out to be the biggest wuss ever. It’s not for me, I’m afraid. But for those who thrive under the NANOWRIMO pressure, more power to you! Enjoy the month. I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines.
The Patchwork Man
The Wild One
Janet Lane Walters has been published for fifty years. Not in a continuous stream as she returned to work as a nurse to help when children reached college age. She lives in the scenic Hudson River valley. She writes romances, contemporary, historical, paranormal and fantasy. She also has a cluster of cozy mysteries, and a suspense. Among her writings are also poetry and short stories and non-fiction. She worked as a ghost writer for a few years. She is an award winning author and her non-fiction book Becoming Your Own Critique Partner written with Jane Toombs won an EPIC Award.
Just Another Scarecrow Love Story
Harmonious Haunt
Author Bios:
When I first saw the topic for the week, writing rituals, I had to stop and think. I don’t have any writing rituals. I know that writing a book takes work—it’s not magic (darn it!). But I have trouble thinking of it as a job to do every day. I’ve let my dreams fizzle without intending to. Anyway, because I have no writing rituals of my own, I looked up the topic and found this great article in a 2015 
writing matter and then I back off. Jennifer asks in this point, if you were a bestselling author, would you put your writing “off all the time or would you site down every day and write?” Wow. I really want to follow through on this point!