treyhawk

Sam sat back in his office chair and stared at the stacks of papers sitting on his desk. The papers represented both good and bad news. Two new contracts for miracle production and a renewal of miraculum mining in Greenland were the good news. The latest international wartime reports were the bad news. The company needed to up their production of wartime miracles by at least 20 percent before Christmas Day. Peace on Earth remained a pipe dream. He shook his head and sighed as he reached for a pen.
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As the sound of jingle bells rang through the reception area of Miracle Makers, Sam smiled. The company’s most important customer had just arrived. After saving the document he was editing, he shut off his tablet and stashed it in the bottom drawer of the receptionist desk. He stood up, straightened the wrinkles out of his suit jacket, and then headed for the front doors.
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This was my Christmas story for 2023.

It was just after 8:00 PM Christmas Eve in Old Town, and it was a balmy 67 degrees. The local meteorologist said it was the warmest Christmas Eve on record, topping the previous high by five degrees, but no one seem worried about climate change. Everyone just wanted to take advantage of the nice weather.

Older couples dressed in business suits and black cocktail dresses intermingled with teenage girls dressed in colorful Nike jackets and cutoff denim shorts. A mother walked by with her young daughter, the red and green lights in the girl’s left sneaker flashing with every step. There were no cars allowed in the cobblestone streets and alleys of Old Town, but that did not stop several speeding bicyclists making Uber food deliveries. Despite the bicyclists swerving around them, everyone seemed to be in a festive mood.
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This was my Christmas story for 2022.

Jason glanced over at the Bundt cake cooling on the wire rack. The smell of cinnamon, cloves, and other spices took him back in time, standing in his Mother’s kitchen while she cooked and baked the Christmas dinner. All it needed now was the icing. He placed a small saucepan on the stove and set the burner on low heat. He then unwrapped a stick of butter and dropped into the pot. As it began to melt, he stirred in a cup of brown sugar.

A light chime pinged from the Amazon Echo sitting atop the breakfast bar separating his kitchen and dining room. “Jason,” intoned Alexa, “you have a call from your sister Angela. Do you accept?"

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“Whatcha writing, Dad?”

“I’m writing a Christmas story to send to your grandparents. They wrote me a story every Christmas while I was growing up, and I thought it might be fun to write one for them.”
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This is my Christmas tale for 2020.

Scott walked into the familiar clearing amidst the thicket of oak and pine trees. He pulled his smartphone out of the right pocket of his winter coat. It was three minutes before midnight on Christmas eve. He exhaled a sigh of relief, his warm breath misting in the cold December air. Unshouldering his backpack, he placed it on the ground and waited.

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Here is my Christmas tale for 2019.

“Hey you! Want some dinner?”

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Here is the Christmas story I wrote in 2012, which was the prequel for this year's Christmas story.

A ragged cheer arose from most of the passengers as the Airbus jet landed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Chuck just shook his head and smiled. A blizzard in the Midwest had turned what was originally a three-hour flight from Denver into a ten-hour adventure, including an unexpected detour and landing in San Antonio. He was home, though, and that was all that mattered.

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I will likely be looking at switching over to DreamWidth.

On a sad note this Christmas Eve, the Zip Zap Zop Games store at the Eastport Plaza Shopping Center in southeast Portland will shut its doors for good at midnight tonight. The only locally-owned video game store in the Portland area, David Anders opened the store in 1987, and it quickly became the place to buy games for your Nintendo Entertainment Center and Atari 7800 consoles. The store thrived for most of its thirty-one year existence, but Mr. Anders found that he could no longer compete against the likes of Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Valve’s Steam online store. Fret not, video game fans, because a GameStop will open up in the same location at the start of 2019. Those of you still looking for video games as Christmas gifts, better get over there as quick as you can!

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