REPACKAGING

Ok, no more reflection. First it was reflection as I went through the year...and cleaned out my studio with its old memorabilia, but today was purging time. Time to throw out the old so that there is room for the feeling of Aaaahhh! that this time of year is supposed to bring. I threw out over 30 oil paintings today, and it felt good. I through out slips of paper with story ideas...something I tell people never to do. But I have a little more confidence that they will come back in some other form if they are important.
The paintings I threw out were not wasted. They led to something better, and now it's time to let them go. Who knows, someone at the recycling center may have that aaaahhh! feeling when they find them. But if I don't have it anymore, they just take up space....and they don't just take up space in the studio and shop, they take up brain space and they use energy. They keep you looking backward, unless they are that unusual idea that you are glad you rediscovered and now are thinking of packaging differently.
Speaking of packaging... about ten or twelve years ago my family started packaging Christmas and other holidays in a different form. My kids and I joined other soccer players in the county and had a Turkey Bowl at Thanksgiving, a Christmas Bowl, a New Year's Day get-yourself-out-of-bed game, and an Easter Game. People have had to pull out at different times. They are pregnant, like my daughter...they are out of town, they have injuries, etc. After the last knee surgery I can't play, but I still go...to watch my kids and their spouses and significant others. It is a tradition as important as sitting around the table. And afterwards, just before each family goes to their own homes for holiday dinners, we join at the bar for a beer. We toast each other, catch up on news, and know that we will see each other again at the next holiday.
This year, one of our players, a coach at a local high school, died scuba diving, and on Christmas Day we will toast him, his wife, and his love of life.
So what does that have to do with this time of year? Today a friend and I were talking about what Christmas used to mean to us. We agreed that it was the magic.... not knowing what would happen but having some traditions to look forward to.
So here is my question, now that you have made space for this time of year. What is the magic you remember from your past that you hope to find again, and what are some of the changes in tradition that you have made in the last few years? How are you repackaging things this year?

And to those of you who are writers, did I tell you that I have had to get rid of some old ideas in a new manuscript? I was hanging on to them because they were part of the original idea. Out with the old, let them develop into something new...something that comes in a wonderful new package.