Wednesday's Words on a Friday

 

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words.

This month the words/prompts are supplied by Elephant's Child and can be found here

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. celebration 

2. birth 

3. bells 

4. majesty 

5. small 

6. forgotten 

and/or: 

1. bay 

2. half 

3. hope 

4. sister 

5. book 

6. hunt 

and a special word in honour of Jo: Dragon

Here is my story:

Down by the dock of the bay, the town's children gazed with awe at the majesty of the Christmas Tree as it slowly passed by, safely secured to the largest barge available.  There had been no half measures this year, the council elders had decided a bigger, fancier celebration was needed, to take people's minds off the troubles the year had brought so far, even if just for a few days. There had been a hunt through many attics to find the many dozens of baubles needed for the tree and attaching them had been no small feat, with stepladders for the middle branches and scaffolding used to reach the highest branches. 

Sister Hope, who ran the childcare center had provided the large twinkling star that sat on top of the tree. As the children ooohed and aaahed, their letters to Santa were being read by the gift committee and being double-checked to make sure no child would be forgotten. Each name and the assigned gift was written in a note book, then ticked off as each gift was wrapped and labelled. 

Times had been hard with so many out of work because of closures and isolations for months on end, the town council had scrapped the budget and spent the money instead on Christmas. The town was small enough to handle being a few dollars short for the next half-year, instead using the money for a food basket for each household that couldn't afford to buy Christmas treats such as ham, and a supply of basic food items were included too.

With only one letter to Santa left, Gloria read it out loud: "Daniel has asked Santa for a Dragon this year. Has anyone been able to find one?" Most people shook their heads, no, not a dragon to be found in any store. Joel spoke up saying he had a dragon at home, an articulated toy that his Japanese grandfather had sent to him when he was a boy, to celebrate his year of the dragon birthday. With no children or grandchildren of his own, Joel said that he would be happy to pass on the dragon toy to Daniel. He rushed home to get it and it was wrapped in Christmas paper and labelled soon after. 

The children had walked along the edge of the dock, following the barge with its tree, to the far edge where it would be moored. It was dusk and the children were collected by their parents, to go home and eat their dinners and hopefully go to sleep early, so the final stages could be put in place. Gifts would be arranged under the tree and a Santa throne placed next to it, so the children could sit around receiving gifts from Santa as the church bells rang out and the church choir sang the songs of Christmas to celebrate the birth of the Holy Child. 

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Merry Christmas everyone!!