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Write about a family adapting a holiday tradition to take place over video chat.

Posted in Holiday on Jun 6, 2021

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✍️ 59 stories

A Virtual Tradition

Submitted to Contest #69

Title: A Virtual TraditionAuthor: HaripriyaAuthors Note: Hello everyone! I wish you all a happy Saturday! Other than the previous one, this story is a bit more traditional, yet still cheerful and happy. During these tough, challenging times, we might have a negative mindset. But please remember that this won't be permanent. Everyone is working together to solve this! But there are always other solutions we could do which are just as effective as being together, and this story teaches that. I hope you enjoy it!"Students! During your fall brea...

67 likes 19 comments 19
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Elephant Day

Submitted to Contest #69

Cleaning up confetti sucks. It sticks to everything; the fold-out couch, ancient desk drawers, and the neatly stacked boxes by the front door. Bits of chocolate is smeared on the tabletop, and plastic cups lie in disarray all over the tiled floor.  “Martha Jean, you are late for school; again.”  The moody teenager stalked out of the room, a raspberry tart still wedged halfway out of her mouth. After she slammed the door, I had finally picked up the last of the striped paper, wiping a towel across my sweaty face.  “Hon...

66 likes 19 comments 19
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Grief and Grandma

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Submitted to Contest #69

"Hi!! How're you guys doing?" I said, struggling to make my voice heard over the sounds of everyone else. My words echoed through my aunt's audio, and I could hear her saying "What? What'd she say?" to my baby cousin George. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her in person, a year or two ago. It had been at grandpa's funeral, and she had been very drunk. "Hey Maisie, come on over here. Come on!" she'd yelled over from across the field. She was on her fifth martini, but I didn't stop her. No one did, because she'd just lost her fat...

64 likes 90 comments 90
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Weird

Submitted to Contest #69

“This feels weird,” Stephanie mumbled, yanking her pudgy hand out of the mayonnaise jar.Mom chuckled, the red recording light of her camera blinking off. She leaned back, watching the footage over and over.Stephanie rolled her eyes and stretched the gooey arm as far away from her as possible. Mayonnaise sticks to everything. Nothing is sacred to that slimy white spread.She waltzed over to the sink, standing on her tippy toes to throw the water on full blast. Mom glanced up, daggers in her gaze. Stephanie quickly cleaned h...

49 likes 18 comments 18
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Turkey Day Planning

Submitted to Contest #69

At least once a week, Heather called her mother so they could chat. The tradition was long-standing, and sometimes they talked for almost an hour, and other weeks, it was just fifteen or twenty minutes, but it was the best they could do. And Heather knew that for her mother, it was a lifeline. Heather and her husband, JC, were career airmen in the Air Force. Heather only had a few more years left, but she and her mother always planned at least one get-together during the holiday season since she joined, back when she was eighteen. And wh...

48 likes 16 comments 16
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Her last wish

Submitted to Contest #69

I had always been alone in this world. I have never felt loved before because I didn’t have anyone who loved me. My parents had died in a fire, I would have as well but I had been saved by a kind young woman. She took me with her since I had no one to go to. I later found out that she runs an orphanage. That’s what I was... an orphan. Christmas was around the corner when I could almost smell the warm, hot chocolate warming my hands with sticky marshmallows melting in the heat. Every year during the holidays us orphans would be given gifts as...

41 likes 39 comments 39
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The True Tradition

Shortlisted for Contest #69 ⭐️

At the conclusion of meeting #379, Jane covered her webcam, turned off her speakers, and dropped her head into her hands. It was the same every time. These video meetings left her drained and emotional, questioning every word she said, every half-heard phrase, every glitchy movement from her coworkers. It was difficult enough to work from home when communication in companies was so poor, but to add a video meeting to the mix was almost too much for her to handle. At least it’s just for work. And they’re usually relatively short, she tho...

40 likes 31 comments 31
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You're on mute!

Submitted to Contest #69

"You're on mute!" I find myself repeating these words over and over again. My coworker sits there looking at the screen with a confused face. "The little red button with a white stripe through it," I try to guide him as to where it is. He still looks confused. "You know what? I'll just call you," I hang up the skype call and grab out my phone. It's 6:24. I have half an hour until my family video chat and I have one hour until my friends' video chat. All in one night. Who organised it all you may ask? Well they all organised it all. And they ...

26 likes 4 comments 4
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Christmas in our hearts

Submitted to Contest #69

The holiday season varies in different parts of the world with many traditions probably similar to your own, and others very different. In my country, here in Philippines, during this season, my family , relatives and friends always have a reunion to be remembered. However, time comes when clash and misunderstanding between families start. It is inevitable and part of life. And still no matter what happened, we're family.   To some, Christmas can seem like a Norman Rockwell's painting of Jimmy Stewart and Clarence the angel but tha...

23 likes 5 comments 5
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The Year of Know Thanks

Submitted to Contest #69

“Dad! Dad! No… Arrrrrgggg!!” Jarod yelled at the screen. So far the Zoom call was not going well. “Hey! Marie! Can you see this? It’s Jarod! I’ve got Jarod on the screen!” called back Jarod’s father, Jim. “Hey buddy! I can see ya… Can you see me?” “No Dad,” Jarod groaned. “You have the camera setting wrong… I can see Mum and she is not finished getting dressed…” “Oh, right,” chuckled Jarod’s father. “Is this better..?” Jarod swore as the call ended. Tapping the Zoom icon on his phone and following all the convoluted instructions eventually J...

23 likes 7 comments 7
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A Distant Thanks

Submitted to Contest #69

“Mom, we can’t eat an entire turkey!”“Honey, it’s Thanksgiving. We always make the turkey.”It was a bit late to say that when my mother was prepping the marinade, but between the two of us, there was absolutely no way we could finish it.“Okay, what about the other dishes? Are we making cranberry sauce? Or pumpkin pie?”“Of course not, Taylor, your aunts and uncles are still doing their dishes. Thanksgiving has always been potluck in our family.”“Mom.” I had to tread carefully, not wanting to get in trouble but also wanting to make sure I woul...

19 likes 18 comments 18
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Mama's Dinner Suprise

Submitted to Contest #69

Mama’s Dinner Surprise Suzanne Marsh “Mama, come on, please hurry it up! They are almost set up for your segment of the dinner.” Our family was determined to enjoy our ‘normal’ family Thanksgiving, with or without our all being together. COVID19 was not going to ruin our day or meal. Mama, who absolutely hated having her picture taken had reluctantly agreed to a video chat. She wanted to be part of the dinner, but seemed somewhat confused as to how this was going to happen, until she saw the camera, video. “Oh no, oh hell no, I am not ...

18 likes 1 comment 1
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Dog Scents

Submitted to Contest #69

    Normally, when we take out the food, he’s happy and wagging his tail.   He stares at the screen blankly, like a deer after it’s been shot by a hunter, but still ain’t dead.  Pub hears the voices of his family, but doesn’t smell anything.  See, dogs sense the world through smell.  A dog with no smell ain’t never happy.       So, I got me a little dish with a turkey sandwich, a little green bean casserole, and some cranberry sauce.  So,...

16 likes 0 comments 0
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Its me, Marlee

Submitted to Contest #69

“It’s me, Marlee.” I looked into the glitching screen, trying to find a face. One of many faces that I’ve missed since the summer. Spending your summer in Utani’s desolate prison sucks. Well, it’s not technically a prison. More like a hideaway house where no one can find me except the two cops I live with now. Mr. and Mrs. Sinns. They’ve allowed me to use a tablet for the day to call my family. At least the only family I know will still talk to me. My parents, in Coloro and my sister who lives here in Utani.  “Marlee, dear? Is that you?...

16 likes 2 comments 2
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Out of a Solitary Planet

Submitted to Contest #69

  When I was a child, time always seemed to slow down before Christmas. I remember how the days seemed to drag then, filled with waiting, and hoping, and waiting again. Then too, there was the suspense - this might be the year Santa doesn’t come, I probably shouldn’t have hit my sister, etc. But my small fears were always swallowed up in the overwhelming joy of Christmas morning.  I always woke up before my sister, in the cold, pale hour before dawn when no one else in the house was yet awake. I remember how I used to lie in bed a ...

15 likes 10 comments 10
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