Tis The Season...

Does anyone remember what it's the season for? If my kids add one more outrageously expensive gift to their Christmas lists, I think I might have to boycott the holiday all together. No... I won't do that, but I am ready for them to start thinking about what it's really all about. Regardless of religious affiliation, I think this time of year is about family. Whatever holiday you celebrate, I'd venture to guess that it has something to do with spending time with loved ones. So, this week, I want to share some of my favorite holiday memories. None of which have anything to do with presents received. I'm going to start off with something that was a tradition for my family when I was growing up. Every Christmas Eve (if we weren't traveling to Grandma's house), my mom would cook up a big batch of beef stew and an enormous pan of monkey bread. (Hey now, I never said my favorite memories wouldn't involve food.) As a family, we shared many meals throughout the year, but this meal seemed special for some reason. No one fought or argued. No one was in a hurry to get to a practice or a meeting or whatever else we were involved in. It was just us with all the time in the world. Lately, I've heard a lot of buzz about the added stress the holidays bring. Thinking back to when I was a child, it was the opposite. Things seemed to slow down for my family. I want it to be that way as an adult. So, this holiday season, I think I'll try to slow down and remember that life is so much sweeter (with or without monkey bread) when I'm not in a hurry to get somewhere else. Same kind of goes for this thing called writing. When we're always trying to get the next best thing, whether it be finishing the next novel, signing with an agent, selling to a publisher, hitting the Bestsellers list, etc., we fail to truly enjoy the craft of writing. What about you? Do you have any slow-mo holiday memories to share? If so, please do.