Tuesday, December 28, 2010

9 muses musing - STORIES

Keeping Christmas Real Simple
Keeping Christmas Real Simple by suzie•q

Each year at Christmastime my father would read Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales aloud to us...

...There were the Useful Presents: engulfing mufflers of the old coach days, and mittens made for giant sloths; zebra scarfs of a substance like silky gum that could be tug-o'-warred down to the galoshes; blinding tam-o'-shanters like patchwork tea cozies and bunny-suited busbies and balaclavas for victims of head-shrinking tribes; from aunts who always wore wool next to the skin there were mustached and rasping vests that made you wonder why the aunts had any skin left at all; and once I had a little crocheted nose bag from an aunt now, alas, no longer whinnying with us. And pictureless books in which small boys, though warned with quotations not to, would skate on Farmer Giles' pond and did and drowned; and books that told me everything about the wasp, except why.
 
I miss my father so much, but I'm happy to have a special copy of A Child's Christmas in Wales that he gave to me, and which I read to my children.  And someday I'll pass a copy along to them, to read to their children.  And so on, and so on, down through the ages.  

Now, three days after Christmas, we're finally getting a chance to sit and appreciate our gifts, and among them are some wonderful books I can't wait to start reading.  Even though I'm a librarian and surrounded by books all day, there's nothing like a new book to get me all excited.  As Suzy Q says, "I enjoy reading because every time you pick up a book there's always the unknown discovery about what each story will reveal to the reader." 

Today I'm giving away a blank notebook made with handmade paper, and 4 colorful mechanical pencils to help you tell your own stories.

I look forward to seeing your submissions for the prompt: STORIES.  Please link your blog or flickr url in the link provided below.

Your creative holiday prompt for tomorrow is: TRADITION.

Until next year.

5 comments:

Kat Sloma said...

Beautiful post Lucy! I feel the same way about a new book.

Marty said...

Yea, I finally got to join in this morning! The word prompts are wonderful and I really enjoy seeing all the various ways it gets interpreted each day.

Holly { Soupatraveler } said...

i love this story lucy! what a wonderful reading tradition to pass on through the generations!

Joanna said...

I also love "A Child's Christmas in Wales." My best memory is seeing my son age 6 on stage, enraptured while listening to this being read. That's a very interesting photograph you've posted. Thanks for hosting this.
Joanna

Jan said...

Awesome post and I am just blown away with Suzy Q's shot! WOW! Love it so much.

Post a Comment

thank you for visiting. take a moment and say hi!