Will I ever forget the blizzard of 22? We were stuck home like so many others. But since we knew it was coming, we’d prepared. We’d canceled plans to visit family on Christmas and made sure we were well-stocked with food and necessities. But no more than an hour into the blizzard and we’d lost power. This wasn’t looking good. We hadn’t filled the water buckets yet. Our usual debate about getting a generator ensued.
Without power, we stayed by the fire most of the day. What better time to do some reading! I have the most comfortable reading chair right next to the fire. That, a cat and my blanket and I was all set for a Hygge Christmas. I took the forced digital disconnection to catch-up on some reading on writing. I re-read most of Robert McKee’s, Story. And I skimmed through, Story Genius, by Lisa Cron, which I’d previously read. And also caught up a bit on, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, by Jessica Brody.
Read more: Ghosts of Christmas’ Past
These last few Christmases have been quiet affairs with COVID and my kids getting older. My mother passed before last Christmas and now there is a strangeness in knowing my own childhood family is gone. To say I was visited by the ghosts of Christmas past would be an understatement. But I was also busy making more memories for later. My daughters were both home and at eighteen and twenty, I relished this time of just us together never knowing how long it might last.
For those of us that don’t have to work through Christmas, it has always been a time to pause from the day-to-day world, to reconnect with friends and family, or even just ourselves. To perhaps remember what life is truly about. This year, I was able to take more time off than usual after some very busy years. My kids are busy with their own things which leaves me more time for writing. And with nowhere to go, and no way to get there, this is always my most productive time of year.
I had an opportunity this fall to do a Scrivener Workshop with Gwen Hernandez and am looking forward to getting the latest edition. You see, I’m preparing to write my next novel, for which I’ve promised myself a new computer. The one I’m writing this blog on is circa 2013. I think it’s time. I’d like a battery that lasts longer than an hour. And now I’m old enough to buy my own Christmas presents.
I’m excited to begin the new novel with so many great tools in hand. I spent so much time “fixing’ my last novel because I didn’t have the structure in place. I had to deconstruct and reconstruct that novel more times than I can count. This one will be a different story. (No pun intended!) And I’ll have more time now that my kids are mostly looking after themselves.
I cherish those memories of the past, of my childhood family and then with my own young kids. Christmases are quieter now and less rushed, but now I have more time for me. Times change, life changes, we change. When I look back, each Christmas has been special in different ways. I don’t remember them all any more, but I remember the feeling of being loved, of being together. And now that we are no longer together that feeling lives on inside me.
Though we were storm-stayed, the time spent playing euchre and scrabble with my daughters was a wonderful gift. I may not always remember the Blizzard of 22, but I’ll remember the feeling of sitting by the fire with my husband and my girls. I’m not so sure we should get that generator.
Have a Happy New Year and may you reach your writing goals for 2023!
