This very merry, halcyon week

This is my favorite week of the year. This limbo week, falling between Christmas and New Year’s Day, where the bustling preparations for Christmas are behind us but the sense of expectation remains, as does the permission to imbibe, indulge and unwind. Good food, good drinks, good friends, bourbon, eggnog, spicy coffees and a little extra maple syrup with breakfast thank you very much, and not doing much of anything until after the new year ball drops. It’s a week that takes the weight off, and it should, because the secret of adulthood is that Christmas magic is actually the hard handiwork of legions of women shopping, making, prepping, cooking, baking, decorating and all around grinding themselves to make the season special and memorable for their children and families. It’s a bit tiring, and so this liminal lazy week is a nice gift for us behind-the-scenes merri makers especially, and I hope that, like me, you make the best of it by doing nothing much.

I’m sharing a few photos here of some of what we’ve been up to this Christmas season. It’s been a lot of Christmas movies, a lot of Christmas stories, a lot of Christmas cooking and baking and a lot of twinkling Christmas lights. We’re going to miss it.

I also wanted to let you know that I’ve paused paid subscriptions for the time being. In the past couple months, we’ve moved into our new house in the Pennsylvania countryside (an update on that is coming soon), which is still not completely renovated, and it’s been so much unpacking and cleaning and building and trying to find the right faucet pieces to install a 100-year-old cast iron farm sink in the master bathroom which is still, however, sitting on the floor. Okay then. That, coupled with raising two small boys, a flock of chickens, two new barn cats, starting to homeschool my oldest, trying, in vain, to finish up edits on my manuscript, and getting ready for Christmas on top of it all and I’m a wee bit behind in being able to post here. I kept thinking I’d get my footing the next week and then that week would swiftly pass, so I thought I’d take the pressure off and put a pause on your generosity for a few weeks until I can dust myself off and get back into the saddle.

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you don’t need to do anything. I still may share a post or two if time allows in the interim, and of course you have access as a paid subscriber to all my past paid-only pieces here on Substack. When I resume paid subscriptions, it’ll reboot automatically.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year! I’m sure there’ll be plenty to talk about in 2026….

Thanks for being here with me, truly.