December Writing Challenges Days 20 - 25

How was your holiday? Or are you still celebrating? How's it going? I hope you're enjoying the holiday season and getting lots of rest, laughter and the warmth that comes from friends and family who care about you. I'm writing this before Christmas, but I'll update you on my holiday in January as we'll be very busy from now until then.
On with the challenges!

#AuthorsChallenge2019Plus Days 20 - 25

These were the prompts:

• Day 20 - Loop Friday - OOOOOOOOOOOOOO How do you like my series of loops? I thought I posted a photo for this in my stories but now I can't find it so...maybe I didn't?
  
• Day 21 - Best Christmas Tree - Was that a competition? Seriously? Or are we being asked to describe our ideal Christmas Tree? I'll take option two, please. ;) My ideal Christmas tree would be a Frasier Fir and decorated with ornaments which house the memories of a lifetime. There would be special, shiny ornaments within the mix, and no tree is really complete without tinsel...but I think I'm the only one who appreciates tinsel in my household. XD
• Day 22 - Nostalgic Decoration - Oh, my goodness! My mom and dad instilled an insidious (yes, insidious) amount of nostalgia in me, either by way of collecting items or by way of collecting experiences. My dad is the item collector. My mom, the experience collector. So we have gathered a rather eclectic mix of movies, TV shows, and music, and I can be a bit of a pack-rat when it comes to items which spark memories. This is a couple of my favorite ornaments from my childhood. The red one almost always ends up on the tree. The blue and white one always has pride of place. These two were made so many years ago in Sunday school and I do treasure them. We have such a little tree and add more ornaments to our collection every year. It's one of my intentions that my children have ornaments when they move out to their own places. Kinda frivolous, I know, but Christmas isn't much fun without the decor.
  
• Day 23 - Join the January Challenge - I think I'm going to stop doing these. They don't seem to be much fun to me anymore, especially with Loop Fridays taking precedence over an actual writing prompt. To be fair, they do ask you to answer a question...but I just don't find Loop Fridays to be something I'm interested in at all. However, if you've never done one of these, then I highly recommend it to you.
  
• Day 24 - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas - And all through the house, not a creature was stirring except for the crickets and other night critters because this is Louisiana. XD The children were nestled snug in their beds while visions of friends and feasting danced in their heads. Their stockings were hung on the bookcase with care, knowing they'd be filled, but not bursting, with care. When out on the lawn there arose such a ruckus, mom and dad groaned at the cats fighting for justice. All settled down soon and things went back to normal, in the hope sleep would claim them til the sun shone at dawning. In the still of the night, time ticked away on the clock. The hours sped by until we woke with a shock. Christmas is here! rang the thought in our minds. Friends and family gathered round for a jolly good time. We ate and we drank till our hearts were as full as the stockings, now empty, had been hours ago. But the time finally came when those gathered stood ready to depart, Merry Christmas to all! And with all goes my heart. (I wrote this on the fly. Don't judge me. ;D) I didn't post anything this day because it was hectic but we did attend a candlelight service at our church.
  
• Day 25 - My Greatest Gift - Having family together in my home is actually the greatest gift I could get on Christmas. I'm not the best hostess. I'm too scattered for that. But I love having my family and friends gathered in my home, cheerfully eating and visiting together. Leave that conflict and tension at the door, though. We don't want any of that here! LOL
  

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#1WordPromptChallenge Days 20 - 26

Here are the prompts:

• Day 20 - Cool - No post for this prompt. :(
  
• Day 21 - Burn - I love lighting up our firepit. We hosted a little Christmas shindig for our friends and family and at the end, the fire finally took. (We've had enough rain to making lighting the wood difficult.) After everyone left, I caught this photo of the cheery, but lonely fire pit. Anyone else enjoy watching the fire pixies dance?
  
• Day 22 - Tie - These are some little handmade ornaments I put together for some of the people who showed up to our shindig. I didn't tie the ribbons on them on the 22nd, but they fit the prompt so...
  
• Day 23 - Loose - I made several of the Christmas gifts we gave out this year. This is the hood for a tunic I made for our oldest daughter. I was so worried about getting it done in time. My machine wasn't sewing as it should but I fixed the problem and finished tying up the loose threads. :)
  
• Day 24 - Connect - I love connecting with family and friends. We love to sing. Those in my family who don't sing love to listen or play instruments. So when my family gets together, it's almost always music that connects us.
  
• Day 25 - Separate - I never pass up an opportunity to snap photos of our guys in kilts. From left to right are my oldest son, my husband, and my oldest daughter's boyfriend. So what separates the men from the boys? I'm not entirely certain, but I bet there's a kilt involved. XD
  

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This week and next week's posts will be somewhat generic, simply because I have to prep them in advance and I may not have time to alter them before they go out. So please bear with me if some of the challenge prompt photos are missing. I'll try to update if that becomes the case so if you'd like to see them, keep checking back.
Thank you so much for reading and supporting me through 2019. I hope as we turn into a new decade, you'll join me once again.