Hello Internet!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and are enjoying the Holiday Season. No matter what Winter-based Holiday you are celebrating this season, I hope it’s a good one full of joy and love. Christmas is basically consuming everything from commercials and Christmas movies on TV, Christmas music on the radio, and Christmas decorations on every street corner. It’s truly a time of celebration. Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that last month we had another record breaking month for the website thanks to all of you wonderful people. Due to all the love and support all the readers sent my way, we reached a new milestone in terms of both visitors and views. I wasn’t expecting it, but we are continuing to grow the community here on the Blog and I keep seeing more and more growth. Thank you again for making that happen! No matter if you are a new reader or someone who has been reading since the beginning, I appreciate you reading the stuff I publish. Speaking of which, let me talk about what I published here on the website this past week. Last Sunday, I published a Weekly Blog talking about Christmas Movies, both the ones I love and the ones I don’t like. Go ahead and give it a read if you want to get into the Christmas spirit. On Wednesday, I published a Poem titled “Wishing For Christmas Past.” The holiday season can sometimes be the hardest time because it reminds us of the people that are no longer with us. This Poem tries to capture this sentiment. If you are missing someone this holiday season, know that you are not alone. On Friday, I published a Piece based on Dungeons and Dragons which follows my group of adventurers in my own home-brewed world. This week’s chapter was is titled “New Dawn On The Horizon.” The group of adventurers find themselves recovering from the battle against the Goblins and Hobgoblins on Vern Road as well as within a day’s journey to Xylon. It looks like the group is almost to their destination, but things are bubbling up from below the surface. Go ahead and give that a read if you haven’t already. Finally, on Saturday, I published the fifteenth chapter to my Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver Fanfiction titled Pokémon HGSS#15: The Steel-Clad Gym Leader. Jonathan returns to Olivine City with the Secret Potion in hand in order to heal Amphy and get the Glittering Lighthouse up and running. After that Jonathan and Jasmine face off in a Gym Battle.
Sorry that was long, but I had to a lot to talk about and I want to make sure 1) All of you know how great you are and how appreciative I am that you read my stuff and 2) Everyone is aware of the stuff I published during the week. Pieces usually do really well the day they are published, but then the viewership drops off as new stuff gets published. These Weekly Blogs are a good way to keep people informed on what gets published during the week and allows people for a good place to start if they are new to the website. It’s especially important because some of these are series that people might want to start from the beginning. Now it’s time to jump into some Christmas themed content!
With each and every day, it becomes more and more like Christmas. Like I mentioned, there are Christmas carols on the radio and Christmas movies on TV. Not only that but there have been a series of snow flurries where I live which truly makes it feel like December. Not only that but this week my family and I started to put up Christmas decorations around the house. We spent the week putting up our Christmas Tree, hanging lights, and putting ornaments on the tree. The tree does not look like the picture perfect scene up in the header photo above, but it is nice and cozy. It’s a tree full of ornaments that we’ve collected over the years from past Christmases and stuff handed down through the generations. We have classic Christmas Ball ornaments. We have snowflakes. We have angels. We have Santa Claus. And then we also have things that relate to me and my family members. In my family we get an unique ornament every year which is a part of a Hallmark Series. My older brother gets train ornaments, my younger brother gets car ornaments, and I get plane ornaments. It has nothing to do with the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Instead it has to do with stuff we were into when we were kids. I guess I was really into planes. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly into planes now, but if I did have the ability to choose a super power, I’d pick flight. I’m afraid of heights, but I’m not really afraid of heights. I’m afraid of falling to my death, and flight would take care of that.
Anyway, we were talking about Christmas. Right. I have to say that the moment that I get to decorate the house with Christmas decorations while listening to Christmas music makes it really feel like a Christmas movie or a Hallmark movie or both. It just fills me with the Christmas spirit and I love it so much! I remember that my Sophomore year in College, my roommates and I were all super stressed around this time because the semester was coming to an end and finals were on the horizon. During that moment we all needed a major break from studying and final papers and decided we needed to get into the Christmas spirit. My one roommate put on some classic Christmas music on his record player and we decided to build a fireplace out of construction paper. It kind of started as a joke, but before long we went to the student resource center, got some sheets of construction paper, and made a brick fireplace with a mantle which we hung on the wall. Then all of made paper stockings and cut out ornaments to hang up around the dorm. We colored in Christmas-themed coloring pages and hung those up as well. It was a process we worked on several days between working on class projects, final papers, and studying for finals and by the end of it, our dorm room was colorful and festive. It was also a major stress reliever that we needed as finals got sooner and it gave us a chance to work together on a creative project and bring us together. The moments where we laughed and joked together while building this fireplace out of paper are some of my favorite college memories and favorite Christmas memories.
Decorating just fills me with so much joy and happiness and that’s what the season is supposed to be all about. The Christmas season can sometimes be a stressful time full of commercialism and dread, but its these moments where you get to hang up lights or hang ornaments on the Christmas Tree where these things melt away. It’s super cliche to say this, but these moments truly warm my heart and remind me of why I love Christmas. Its these moments that I chose to focus on instead of all those stressful events that may occur around the holiday seasons. The decorations, the lights, the cookies, the carols, the TV movies, the friends, the family, and the food. All of that comes together around the season and that’s what I think about when I think of Christmas.
Thank you for reading this Weekly Blog. I really hope you enjoyed it. I love talking about Christmas and all of the stories and traditions behind it. If you really liked it, feel free to give it a like or leave a comment down below. You can share your Christmas stories down below or your favorite thing about the holiday season. I’d love to hear about the things you tend to focus on and your favorite Christmas decorations. If you are new here or if you just have some down time this Holiday season, I suggest spending some time reading the other stuff on the website. There are Weekly Blogs, Poems, Writing Prompt Pieces, and Fanfiction being published on a weekly basis here on the website, and there are over 300 pieces in total. If you don’t know where to start, I’d suggest the pieces I mentioned before which were published this week or just spend a moment on the website. I really appreciate all the love and support from readers old and new, especially this week where we had one of our biggest days in term of viewership. I was worried about December, but all the readers keep showing me love and I love you all for it.
Thank you again for all the support and I hope you have a wonderful week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Lowes
https://www.lowes.com/projects/other-activities/decorate-christmas-tree/project
Allen The Writer 