Weekend Reading #73
Winter break, going off (one of) my meds, Christmas crafts, last-minute gifts, and thoughts on wrapping up 2025.
Happy holidays, friends! I hope everyone’s having a nice weekend. And if you’re having a hard time, I hope you can be gentle with yourself. The holidays aren’t always the most wonderful time of the year. Things are hard right now.
I was honestly really struggling until a week ago, and with my doctor’s guidance, made the decision to go off one of my medications. It feels like the right thing to do. More on that below.
If you’re struggling to feel inspired politically, I think you’ll really like listening to this conversation with my friend Liz Minnella. I cannot believe how much she’s accomplished, and talking to Liz gave me some much-needed hope.
I shared a few gifts that you can get in time for Christmas in case anyone is still catching up. My silver bells (pictured above) are 30% off and will arrive in time for Christmas and Dorsey is offering complementary overnight shipping.
There was part of me that thought this holiday season would be really sad without Buddy, and while I miss him and think about him all the time, but the kids are at such fun ages, and it’s impossible not to enjoy that. For the next 2+ weeks, I get to spend time with my kids, and have very little work to do. I just need to finish listening to a podcast episode and send some notes to my editor, but I am otherwise done working until the kids are back in school.
and I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to skipping the morning rush to get the kids out the door, and to just enjoy this time together.
I kept things a little slower and simpler this holiday season. Getting a head start on my kids’ gifts and keeping gifts physically smaller made things easier. I leaned into the girls’ love of Labubus, and tried to buy things they’d actually like and use, so they’re each getting plush a wearable blanket, beads, a crossbody, a talking stitch for one of my girls and a claw machine for the other.
Weekend Plans
My sister is here until Monday, the kids’ cousins arrive Tuesday, and we have a some fun plans with friends woven in. We took the girls downtown to AG to get their dolls’ hair done and we had planned to go to the Christmas market, but it was freezing, so we took them to the Mini So store, and then went home to build Legos. The kids got their big grandma gift last night and we all played Mario Kart and this dance game. It was a lot of fun and very interactive.
We’re seeing my friend Katie and her family tonight and I’m sure we’ll play more Mario Kart, do some crafts, maybe a little baking, and we need to watch episode 4 of The End of an Era.
The Holidays with Kids
We added our garland around the door and I lit the big bushes that flank our front door. No time like a week before Christmas to add a little more cheer.
I keep thinking of the things I get to do in this life that feels so different from the one I used to live. My husband thanked me for making Christmas magical the other night, and while it was really nice to hear, I honestly love doing it. It felt like a lot with work and life and everything else, but it’s fun. There is immense privilege in getting to feel that way, and I really am so grateful.
Holiday Crafts
We are deep into Christmas crafts and have made houses and ornaments. I linked a bunch of the craft supplies I purchased here. And we used these houses which happen to be on sale right now.
The girls are 5 and 7, so they are very into the holidays—the movies, crafts, treats, gifts—it’s been a lot of fun. My son is 2 and-a-half and this is the first Christmas that he’s gotten into it, too. He asked Santa for a rocket ship and watched Polar Express this year. We watched the end of the movie the other night and as Santa flew off, Jack yelled “HO! HO! HO!”
