Status:revisions
I'm looking forward to being with our daughters and their families on Christmas day. And the best part we will all be at my oldest daughter's house so I only have to take time this week to make the goodies we'll take. The presents are wrapped, and she'll have to clean her house! LOL
I'm going to piggy back off of Alice's Saturday Checkin post.
What scent, sound, tactile, and taste do you associate with Christmas?
For me it's the tang of evergreen when you drag the tree in the house and it brushes the doorway, furniture, and drops needles on the floor that get stomped on and crushed, making the scent even more vibrant. The sound of ripping gift wrap, squeals and shouts of the kids as they unwrap gifts they've been dreaming of since November. The weight and solidness of my grandmother's rolling pin as I roll out the sugar cookies and gingerbread men. Candy canes and peppermint ice cream are my Christmas indulgences. The sugary, minty combination on my tongue takes me back to childhood Christmases. My mom always had candy canes hanging on the tree and we(she and I) would have one a day and by Christmas morning there were very few left on the tree.
Now take one of your characters either past or present and have them walk into a house or room and experience those four senses.
I'll add my character later today.
5 comments:
“Merry Christmas!” Heath said, swinging the door wide. Frozen fingers of air lanced through the heat of the entryway, icy scent stinging his nose. Piper rushed inside as he shut the door behind her.
“Brr! It’s cold out there!” She stamped her feet, snow powdering the floor as she slipped her boots off.
“Tell me about it. We’ve had the fireplace going all day.” He helped her slip out of the long, red woolen coat and hung it up. She was wearing a dark green satin dress with a wide red ribbon tied around the waist. Her dark hair spilled in molasses ringlets down her back.
“Wow, Piper. You look like Christmas,” he said lamely, a flush creeping up his neck.
She twirled for him as she stepped into the kitchen, full skirts billowing at the knee. “Isn’t it adorable? Daddy got it for me and let me have it early so I could wear it tonight.” She grinned hugely.
“It’s really nice,” he agreed.
“Ooh! Look how beautiful it is in here! Like a magical Christmas-land or something.” Piper gazed at the decorations, passing through the rooms. Heath watched her close her eyes and inhale, smiling. He smiled, too.
“Mom went all out with the house, decking the halls with boughs and holly. The whole “tra-la-la-la-la” thing.” He stuck his hands in his pockets.
“She’s amazing. And she cooked everything, too, didn’t she?”
Heath nodded.
Piper whistled. “Over-achiever. She’s one of Santa’s elves,” she mused.
“That was never doubted,” Heath laughed. “Come here.” He took her hand. They entered the living room, where a fire popped in the hearth and an elegant tree glowed.
Heath felt the heat wash over his skin as they stood close. Piper’s eyes danced in the firelight, her body bathed in a golden hue. She really did look like Christmas.
Heath had grown up with gorgeous, flamboyant Christmases, full of his mother’s friends. She tried so hard to make everything perfect for him, and it always was, but his dad’s absence never could be truly filled; it wasn’t a glass with eggnog. But now, in this moment, with the fire and sharp pine smell mingling with fresh hot chocolate sitting on the coffee table, the hole was gone.
He looked again at Piper extending slender fingers to the blaze, lips curled in a content smile. She still held his hand, and gave it a squeeze, gazing up into his eyes. And he felt home. He felt peace. He felt complete.
He felt Christmas.
Hey, Paty! My characters can't have Christmas until I survive this week.
So I'll offer this example: the dry taste of panic in my mouth when I wonder if I've misplaced a present for someone on my Christmas list, I'm a hundred miles from home, and all the stores are closed?
Probably not the positive experience you had intended, but one I seem have at least momentarily every year when I deliver gifts to my parents for all my brothers, sister, nieces and nephews.
Hope you have a wonderful time at your daughter's!
P.S. I love the picture of Tink in the Santa hat. :)
Katie, that is a wonderful example and scene! Nicely done. I didn't get back to add my character. I'll see what I can do today.
Genene, Yikes! That's not a good sense of Christmas at all! LOL Thanks, it took a couple of treats to get Tink to cooperate for the picture! LOL
Katie- I love what you've written for your Christmas scene and your enthusiasm for writing. And of course I love the name of your heroine. LOL
Paty- Have a great time at your daughter's house and I hope you get to take a break!
You asked..."What scent, sound, tactile, and taste do you associate with Christmas?"
1. Listening to Bing Crosby's White Christmas album along with all the other oldies and some modern Christmas music. I sometimes listen to it even before Thanksgiving! LOL
2. Baking Day- This is something I do with my Mother-in-Law, Sister-in-Law, and now my Katie, every year. The house is filled with the smell of chocolate and spices.
3. Christmas Eve dinner at my in-laws is what tastes great. We eat tons of different finger foods and shrimp cocktails, goodies, too many things to mention.
4. The smell of the tree when we go cut it out of Papa's special Christmas trees he grows, cuts, and replaces each year. He's constantly got a myriad of trees growing at different stages for the family to use for Christmas. It's awesome and I don't have to feel like we're wasting a tree since he continuously plants new ones. :)
5. Big, fat candy canes from Bi-Mart. LOL
6. A box of Sees Candy.
7. A strange present from one of my very good friends from church who just doesn't get me or how to buy presents for me, but I love her anyway and I respect the offering from her heart each Christmas and birthday. LOLOLOL *hope that didn't sound like I'm ungrateful, cause I'm not, it's just that she gets me the weirdest things and I don't know where that comes from, it's so funny!*
8. Sugar cookies that taste icky. I would love to have good ones, but they just don't seem to turn out for me. I'm just not a good cookie baker.
9. Cruising Keizer's great Christmas lights every year.
10. Constant vacuuming up of pine needles in the entryway. LOL
I'm not going to write a scene for my characters because I don't have time. :)
Merry Christmas!!
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