A Writer Celebrates Christmas

I love the holidays and wish you all Seasons Greetings. I'm feeling particularly festive since I've almost concluded my writing contracts for December. I try my best not to contract anything so I can be "off" from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15 each year. Or as off as a self-employed person can ever be. That way I have plenty of time for decorating, cooking, parties, visitors, and a very personal writing project I do each year.

Eat, drink, and be merry.

Christmas is the time of year when I allow myself to cook, and eat, things I don't normally have in the house. Chief among these temptations is pralines.

Now if you're not from the South, you may not know about pralines. First, they're pronounced praw-leens, not pray-leens. Whatever you call it, a praline by any other name is still delicious, fattening, and irresistible. As long as it's made with butter, caramelized brown sugar, and tons of pecans. Oh, and that particular nut is pronounced puh-cahn. Not pee-cann. The latter is a vessel in which to collect urine.

"I can't imagine a world without pralines," cookbook author Nathalie Dupree wrote in Southern Memories. You just can't grow up in the south without learning how to make pralines, those yummy melt-in-your-mouth confections.

Holiday de-stressing ahead

During the holiday season, I slave more over a hot stove than a hot keyboard. I write The Reeves Review, my annual holiday newsletter complete with photographs, recapping the year for those relatives and friends I don't often see.

Put your art to work.

Since I'm a writer, I feel as if I should put my art to work. I also write either an essay or a short fiction piece to send. Last year I enclosed an article, The Twelve Days of Christmas: Christian Fact or Fiction along with the holiday letter.

If you are a writer or a craftsperson of any persuasion, have you created something original to go with your greeting cards or to send as a present? If not, consider doing it.

After all, nothing says “it’s the thought that counts” better than something created with one's own imagination and hands.