Guess what? It’s December! Do you know how I know?

It’s time for Susanna Leonard Hill’s Annual Holiday Writing Contest! YAY!

And this is the fifth year I have participated! Sorry for all the exclamation marks…but it’s one of my favorite writing challenges.

Here are some of the basic rules from Susanna website: the contest is open to everyone and there is still time to enter—deadline is Friday, December 11.  Write a children’s story (children here defined as approximately age 12 and under) beginning with any version of “Rocking around the Christmas tree at the Christmas party hop.”  You may use that actual opening, or you may change it to any similar version “[Verb of your choice]ing [any preposition you choose] the [any item you choose] [any preposition you choose] the [venue of your choice].”  For example, “Surfing along the wind-whipped waves at the Yuletide barbeque,” or “Wandering through the pine-sweet woods at the cut-your-own tree farm,” or “Quarreling in the checkout line at the local Toys R Us,” or “Waltzing among the candy canes at the Holiday Bazaar”….   You get the idea, I’m sure 🙂 And the maximum word count is 350. There are PRIZES galore! For more information: http://susannahill.blogspot.com/2015/11/monday-munchdayan-exciting-announcement.html

Those of you who know me know I love to write in rhyme. Here’s my entry—I hope you like it!

The Christmas Seed (341 words)

Circling round the planet Mars on their space craft RV-3,

the children begged and pleaded for a real live Christmas tree.

“There is no way,” cried Maw and Paw, “for that to come about.”

So Sue and Lou and Baby Boo would have to do without.

No Christmas tree? That cannot be…they vowed to find a way.

Sue climbed up high and searched the sky, but only saw a sleigh.

And Lou got tangled in the lights while looking in a drawer.

And Baby Boo picked up a seed as he crawled on the floor.

“Take that away,” cried Maw and Paw, “that’s not for Boo to eat”

But Boo skedaddled like a flash to the ejection seat.

Maw screamed! Lou tripped! Sue scrambled down! Paw reached to

save his kid.

They heard a BOOM! It shook the room! The spaceship blew its lid!

They watched as Boo flew through the air; it was a fearful sight.

This wasn’t quite the way they’d planned to spend this Christmas

night.

And Maw, she moaned, and Paw, he groaned, and Sue and Lou,

they cried.

But then they heard a HO! HO! HO! and Santa slid inside.

He opened up his big red sack – plucked out a doll for Sue,

a watch for Paw, a book for Maw, a bat and ball for Lou.

But Maw and Paw, their faces drooped, and Sue and Lou, they

frowned,

until they heard, deep in the sack, a most familiar sound.

Then Santa reached way down inside and pulled out Baby Boo.

“I saved the best for last,” he said. “This one’s for all of you!”

And scrambling up onto his sleigh, he pointed straight at Mars

The seed Boo found had grown into a Christmas tree with stars.

And Santa’s booming voice rang out as he rode out of sight,

“May peace and love and joy be yours on this and every night.”

So if you get a telescope, please aim the lens towards Mars,

and you might see Boo’s Christmas tree, adorned with twinkling

stars.

I hope you get a chance to visit the other contest submissions…they are sure to be fantastic!

And before I forget, a couple of weeks ago, I was part of a book blog tour for Margret Peot’s new picture book,  Crow Made a Friend. I promised there would be a GIVEAWAY of a copy of this precious story. And the winner is….

LESLIE GOODMAN

Congrats, Leslie!

I will get in touch with you for your address so they can ship the book to you.

Have a wonderful week—pass along a smile, give someone a hug, and be kind to yourself.