Rabbit, rabbit, as we say for luck in our house on the last day of the month!
It’s also the last day of the year, of course. I’m looking back on my year of reading and am reminded of some books that made my life richer. Here are some that stand out among my favorite reads of 2017, in the order in which I read them: Continue reading
It’s Dec. 30, and I’ve just returned from a year-end ritual: my eye exam. My eyes have been dilated, throwing my vision off a bit and making me extra photosensitive. On top of that, I left my glasses behind to get new lenses placed into them.
The result? I can barely read my computer screen as I type. My world is out of focus and could be so for two weeks, until my glasses are returned to me with their new lenses.
I apologize in advance for any typos that might creep in as a result.
That said, focus seems as good a theme as any for the end of a year and start of a new one. Continue reading
It was below 0° F when I woke up yesterday morning, and close to that this morning. As I type now, it’s 8° F. Colder than the desert at night (I checked) but not as cold as the inside of my freezer.
The post-Christmas quiet has set in, and I have my work cut out for me. That’s it pictured above: the collection of books I received as gifts. Continue reading
And Christmas Day came, because it always does, whether you want it to or not, and it always goes, whether you want it to or not, because life is as it is.
— Jeanette Winterson, The Snowmama, from “Christmas Days”
Every year for the past several years, my family and another have come together a few days before Christmas to make and decorate cookies together.
Sometimes a lot gets accomplished. Sometimes not so much. That’s not really the point. The point is that we have created a holiday tradition of fun and fellowship, one that brings us together to laugh and play (and work; making and icing cookies is hard work!), and one that feels closer to the meaning of Christmas than a frenzy of buying and wrapping and unwrapping. Continue reading