Top Ten Thursday - Holiday Story

Photo by Leo Cardelli from Pexels, Graphics from pngtree.com

Welcome to Top Ten Thursday!

Today I'd like us to write a Holiday Story using the following ten words: 

1. Cards
2. Decoration
3. Elf
4. Jolly
5. List
6. Miracle
7. Rudolph
8. Snowflakes
9. Traffic
10. Wrapping paper

Do you feel inspired?

The fact that you're reading this story is nothing short of a miracle, and it has nothing to do with your ability to read, but it has everything to do with my letting it happen to procrastinate the h*** out of sitting down and waiting for inspiration to strike. How else was I gonna write a holiday story? 

My list of things to do is long, and the days are short. I can't count on hubby to be around much this time of year.

During the month of December, our office aka my husband, traditionally visits every key account client and brings a wooden box containing mandarines. Some vitamins for the season otherwise full of cookies and chocolate. The customers love both, the personal visit and the fruit.

2014 he needed emergency eye surgery, and it was up to me to do most of these visits, and while I loved doing it, it took away all my getting into the mood for Christmas time. 

Somehow over the years it got convenient to ask me to do some of those trips on my way to hockey practice, which is a nice idea in theory - however my trunk is only that spacious, and it's basically the hockey bag or the mandarine boxes, plus it's really unpredictable how long this is taking considering traffic and conversations. So I basically have to use my days off.

While out and about guess who bakes all the cookies, writes the Christmas cards, puts festive decoration up and uses pretty wrapping paper on the gifts. Right, nobody! Wait, what gifts??? 

I was doing a really nice job breathing and not getting stressed out, and I blogged about it. It's called stop and smell the gingerbread. I feel I need a dose of that!

Speaking of blog, I also managed to publish "Blog with Friends" in time, and the subject was Jolly which is convenient because I got to use the word here, but I haven't gotten around to visiting my friends' posts which is kind of the idea if you're doing Blog with Friends, right? 

I'm really glad that this year - for once - I pretty much mapped out my Elf on the Shelf ideas, so I only have to pick a note every night and place Cookie - that's her name. She's not just a traditional Elf that sits on the shelf, she asks Colin a question or teaches him some trivia every day. You can read about it here. 

One question will actually be about Santa's reindeer's names, and the answer will be Rudolph - but don't tell anyone!

Now while it's finally gotten cold around here, I'm talking below freezing point, we have yet to see snowflakes. I think it'd put my mind right into the Christmas spirit, so here's to hoping we're not going to have a green Christmas!

What's next?

Thursday, December 20 please send 10 Christmas Cards to people who have touched your life throughout this year. Even if you don't send actual cards, just create a post that includes a few words about these wonderful individuals. 
Here's the link to the Facebook event to sign up. 

Photo by George Dolgikh from Pexels

December 27 it's time to wrap up 2018. What ten highlights of the year will you put into your time capsule? Sign up here.

Photo by S A R A H ✗ S H A R P on Unsplash