NaNoWriMo- The Beginning

When I started NaNoWriMo I had no idea what I going to write about. I really didn't have an outline of my story until I started writing it. As a matter of fact the part I am sharing now I added after a dream I had last night. So here it is a small excerpt from my story. It is certainly still very much a work in progress...

-The fire crackled bright orange throwing little bits of itself out and into the crisp autumn air. The slight breeze in the air would grab the little bits and twist them up glowing into the autumn night. It was cold once you stepped away from the fire, but huddled close with the ones I loved most I had never felt warmer. It was still unbelievable to me after all these years that this was my family; that I got this lucky. Seated around the fire were the people that meant the most to me in the world; the people I call family.

"Grama," the littlest of voices jarred my attention back to the present, "can you tell us a story?" The grandkids loved when we would sit around and I would tell them both stories ranging from fairy tales to science fiction. We would all take a turn telling bits of the stories and letting our imaginations run with our own novels. We would add sound effects and sometimes we would dress up and play the parts of our characters. I loved nothing more than to drift off to a fantasy land with the kids and they loved nothing more than using their imaginations to create things all of their own.

Our youngest granddaughter Rebecca was seated across from us sipping on her hot chocolate. The heat from the cup was steaming off of the top of it and she was blowing it away in small puffs. She looked just like her mother. She had blonde curls tumbling around her face with bright red rosy cheeks. She was bundled up in a big winter coat and wore a old ball cap to protect her from the chill in the air. I tried to think of my most favorite stories to tell, and as I stared out around at my family all huddled tightly together sitting around the campfire I knew that the best story and only story to tell was the story of all of us.

"Becca, would you like to hear a love story?" Her little green eyes lit up. She smiled big showing her missing teeth and looked up to her Aunt Alexa who was sitting directly behind her twining her hair around her finger.

"Like a story about Cinderella and Prince Charming?" She was very into princesses and princes these days. "Will there be horses and will the good guys win?’

I scanned my family sitting there. My husband was sitting next to me pressed tightly along my side still holding tight onto my arm, and brushing his finger back and forth ever so lightly. After all these years he was still by my side. He knew the story I was about to tell just by looking deep into my eyes. He knew it was the story of us.

I squeezed my eyes tight as I always did when I wanted to think back and picture things in my mind. First I pictured my entire family as it was right now. Sitting close around the campfire with my husband who I had the pleasure to grow old and grey with, both of my children and my two precious grandbabies. Ours wasn’t your typical love story. We didn’t get here how most families did. Our route of travel to end up together around this campfire was one full of diversions, roads blocks, hills and valleys. We made it though. We made it to place where I can sit around a campfire with my family and tell the story of how we all made it to this place. The story of our family and a story I hope that my Grandbabies will pass along to their families someday. It was the most important story that they would ever here.

I opened my eyes and scanned my family all sitting closely together. "Becca I have a better story than one of princes and princesses. This is a tale of how we all got here. How we all wound up as family sitting around this fire tonight..."

I pressed my eyes tightly shut again and the next thing I pictured when I looked far back into the past was of me lying in my bed in the old farm house that we still lived in today. I was alone and I could picture everything just like it was yesterday. As I began to speak everything went quiet around me.

"Becca did you know that there was once a time when we thought we wouldn’t be able to tell you this story? There was once a time I had a dream about this very moment. Shut your eyes sweet girl and picture back with me..."