Writing Prod - Extreme Holiday 2

            All month long I have been posting each day about those things for which I am grateful. One of them happens to be Mondays and the Writing Prods that I work on for this blog. For me it is a celebration of creativity where my mind runs wild with possibilities before the logical me has to trim it all down to make a good and reasonable story.

            Since this is a holiday week (in the U. S.) I decided to use an appropriate prompt that I call . . . Holiday Extreme. Select a holiday and then take the celebrations surrounding it to an extreme. Now think of a story about how it got that way and what the hero needs to do to change things back to the way they were.

            Then again, if you like your holidays on the extreme side then the protagonist can work on making it even more extreme or even just surviving it. How extreme the holiday becomes in your story is up to you. Jingle All the Way falls into this category with a story that isn’t too extreme – as long as you don’t consider Arnie fighting a warehouse full of crooked Santas too outside the norm.

            Since Thanksgiving has seized control of my thoughts, this week’s example will be wrapped in turkey goodness and surrounded by mounds of mashed potatoes and gravy. Sorry, my mind sort of drifted there. Without further ado I give you:

 

 

            Thanks a Lot

            At its best, Marci hated Thanksgiving. People invited relatives they didn’t talk to the rest of the year to come over and stuff their mouths with turkey and stuffing all the while they fought over events that happened years before she was born. What made it bearable was that it only lasted a couple of hours. The joyous declarations of thanks were another matter altogether. Marci’s family bombarded her with greeting card sentiments all month long.

            And then it happened. Mom announced that the family had been selected to participate in Thanks A Lot; the holiday reality show that pitted families together to prove which of them were truly the most thankful family in the nation. Not only would the family take the normally shallow sentiments to new levels of sickening sweetness, but the entire nation would be tuned-in to see it.

            Marci had to find a way to survive a whole month of holiday madness and keep herself looking cool in front of the national audience.