'Tis the Season, Christmas Card Season (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

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This month, Elephant's Child is hosting Words for Wednesday, in which two groups of 6 words are provided, and you are challenged to write a story for each set, or one story incorporating them all.  

This is part of a serial story, and if you click on the "Alice" page above, you can read the previous segments, with last week's segment at the bottom.

The list of this week's prompt words and my story follows:

1. invincible
2. wander
3. goofy
4. supreme
5. purring
6. pretend

And/or 

1. linen
2. kick
3. puny
4. immense
5. zoom
6. sound

Between the candle’s glow and the small warming fire in the fireplace, Alice was in no danger of being completely in the dark, but she still hated that the electric lights had cut off.  She didn’t express it as such, but the scientist part of her felt almost INVINCIBLE when she was surrounded by even the simplest technology that separated her from the forebears who had hauled water from the old well and used kerosene lanterns.  Not a sense of superiority, but more a gratitude that she had so much more available to her.

She heard a PURRING by her feet and reached down with her free hand to pick up the kitten she’d adopted the week before.  PUNY and underfed, she still wondered how it managed to WANDER up to her house, and it had won her heart with its GOOFY big ears and propensity to ZOOM all over the house, playing with everything it found.

As Alice listened to the “your call is important to us” message from the electric company, wishing they would hurry and take her report of the power outage, she heard another SOUND.  At first she couldn’t tell if she’d really heard it, or where it was coming from.  She set the phone down and with IMMENSE concentration, strained to listen beyond the kitten’s purr.

It came again, and this time it was unmistakeable.  Someone was at the back door.  At first the noises were quiet, then came the noise of a solid KICK to the door.  Someone was trying to break in.

With SUPREME effort not to scream, she got up silently, scooped the kitten in one hand and the phone in the other, and headed for the root cellar.  Not trusting that her relatives would keep their distance as they’d been told to do, she had turned the cellar into what she called a tornado shelter to make it more acceptable.  She had stocked it with emergency food, water, candles, flashlights, even some LINEN, a futon and an emergency toilet in case she ever got trapped and had to spend a night there.

Pulling back the cellar door that was in the floor under the kitchen table, she crawled down a couple of steps and quietly lowered the door.  She threw the bar that would lock her in by the light her phone provided, and hung up on the still not responding electric company.  Dialing 911, she thought to herself, Now even Eugenie cannot PRETEND I’m being paranoid.

Today is:

Christmas on the River -- Demopolis, AL, US (celebrations Southern style, including a Barbecue Cook-off; through Sunday)

Dita e Clirimit -- Albania (Liberation Day)

Electronic Greetings Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays  

Fairy Flute Fantasy -- Fairy Calendar

Festival of Saturnia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (for the Sons of Saturn; Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto)

Holiday Ale Festival -- Portland, OR, US (beer, outdoors, in the cold, in December, but it is seriously good beer and worth it; through Sunday)

International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People -- UN

National Chocolates Day -- yes, another one

National Lemon Creme Pie Day

National Unity Day -- Vanuatu

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting -- NY, NY, US

St. Andrew's Eve -- in many traditions, a night to fortell the future, especially whom you will marry

St. Saturnius of Toulouse's Day (Patron of Toulouse, France)

Square Dance Day -- internet generated, and fun to do, but here's some information about square dancing   

Thanksgiving Day -- Norfolk Island

William Tubman's Birthday -- Liberia (it's longest serving President)

Anniversaries Today:

Erwin Rommel marries Lucie "Lu" Mollin, 1916

Birthdays Today:

Jon Knight, 1968

Don Cheadle, 1964

Andrew McCarthy, 1962

Kim Delaney, 1961

Cathy Moriarty, 1960

Jeff Fahey, 1956

Howie Mandel, 1955

Joel Coen, 1954

Garry Shandling, 1949

Petra Kelly, 1947

Chuck Mangione, 1940

Peter Bergman, 1939

John Mayall, 1933

Jacques Rene Chirac, 1932

Diane Ladd, 1932

Vin Scully, 1927

Madeline L'Engle, 1918

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., 1908

C.S. Lewis, 1898

Busby Berkeley, 1895

Nellie Tayloe Ross, 1876

Louisa May Alcott, 1832

Wendell Phillips, 1811

Christian Doppler, 1803

Charles Thomson, 1729

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Tatort"(TV), 1970

"I Want to Hold Your Hand"(Beatles single release), 1963

"Bells Are Ringing"(Musical), 1956

"Kukla, Fran, and Ollie"(TV), 1948

"Gay Divorce"(Musical), 1932

Today in History:

Jews of Augsburg, Germany, are massacred, 1349 (Sometimes, it seems, the more things change...)

King Philip II devalues Spanish currency, 1596 (See above...)

Sir James Jay invents invisible ink, 1775

San Jose, California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, 1777

Dessalines & Christophe declare St Domingue (Haiti) independent, 1803

First Italian opera in US, "Barber of Seville" premieres (NYC), 1825

Thomas Edison demonstrates hand-cranked phonograph, 1877

The first motorcycle race ever is held in Surrey, England; the distance was one mile and the winner was Charles Jarrot in a time of 2 minutes, 8 seconds, 1897

The first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system is issued to Ernest Sirrine. 1910

Fire destroys most of the buildings on Santa Catalina Island, California, 1915

Howard Carter opens the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the public, 1922

Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole, 1929

The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas, 1944

The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine, 1947

Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space, orbits earth twice, and is successfully recovered after splashdown, 1961

Canadian Space Agency launches the satellite Alouette 2, 1965

Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari) releases Pong (the first commercially successful video game) in Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, California, 1972

The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution stating that Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan, 1983

The Czechoslovakian Parliament votes to end Communist rule, 1989

The United Nations Security Council passes two resolutions to restore international peace and security if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by the following January 15, 1990

A 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurs off the northern coast of Martinique, 2007

Pablo Picasso's electrician reveals 271 previously unknown works he claims were gifts from the artist, 2010

NASA announces its space probe MESSENGER has almost certainly found water ice buried beneath the surface of the north pole of Mercury, 2012