Happy New Year! The house has been deep cleaned and de-Christmased, and life is returning to normal. During the holidays I cozily thought about leaving up the tree and decorations until January 6, the actual Twelfth Day of Christmas. Not to be a tiresome pedant, but the first day of Christmas is actually Christmas, not December 12, as is often assumed. Anyway, at one point I thought how lovely it would be to extend the Christmassy feeling all the way through Advent to the Epiphany, and then I woke up on January 1 with what can only be described as Big New Year’s Energy, and knew that it was all going down that day. I should know myself better; New Year’s is always when I want a fresh clean house.
Our houseguests left the morning of the first, and they were such a joy to have that I didn’t want them to leave. We had so much fun and laughter; we went for long walks and consumed lots of good food and wine, we played a game and watched a movie, we had espresso martinis in the afternoons and put together a 1000 piece puzzle in five hours. The boys watched a lot of hockey and football and the girls companionably read books together. I wanted them to actually move in with us and stay forever.
All the festivities went well: the open house was a success, Christmas dinner turned out very well, and Tuesday’s lunch turned into a very pleasant visit for the most part. I enjoy my husband’s cousins, particularly the couple who live in Calgary; we have always seen each other around the holidays and I was happy to continue that tradition. However, my ability to be a gracious hostess was severely tried when two relatives, who had said that very morning that they would not be able to make it, showed up three hours late, just as everyone was preparing to leave. At that point all topics of conversation had been exhausted, the food was all gone, as was a significant percentage of the content of our beverage fridge, and all the dishes had been put away. The result was fifteen people standing awkwardly in the kitchen for another full hour, making small talk which had already been made for three hours, while my soul briefly left my body. This was a highly unsatisfactory end to the festive season. Had the gathering ended by the specified time, I would have been pleasantly contented with our festive gatherings and my ability to be a hostess for nine out of the past eleven days, but as it was, by the time everyone left I was a bitter husk of my former self.
I didn’t have a lot of downtime during the holidays, but I did squeeze in some pretty decent reading. Without further ado, I give you:
Nicole’s Holiday Reading
Fates and Furies. This was an intense book about secrets, perspectives, and the multiple sides of every story. I have to admit I wasn’t sure about this for the first thirty pages, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read about a slutty guy doing lots of drugs, but I wanted to give it a chance since the author was interviewed extensively in the courses I took this fall. I’m glad I did give it a chance, the story really picked up. It’s a poetically written book about a marriage and how it works; this is not a plot heavy book but wow, it’s gorgeously written and very complex.
How To Love The World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. I read a little of this book each day pre-yoga practice for the past few months and it’s a beautiful way to start the day. Uplifting, lovely poetry about everyday things. A lot of the poems appeared to have been written in the pandemic, specifically during lockdown, so it definitely has that flavour.
Middlemarch. It is a bit surprising to me that I hadn’t read Middlemarch prior to this, what with all the women’s English literature that I love, but here we are. I’ll say that if you’re going to tackle an 837 page book, doing it in the holiday season while on a blogging and writing break is a smart idea. I liked it but found it tricky at first to keep track of all the characters. So many characters! So many. I spent a lot of time thinking wait, is he her brother-in-law, no, wait, who is this guy? and then flipping back to try to decipher. Perhaps I should have taken notes. I loved the statement about women’s lives during that time period, which is an endless source of fascination for me. By the way, do you like the bookmark? My younger son spent months working on, designing, and drawing bookmarks for me, and you will definitely be seeing them in future posts.
The Book of Awakening. This is a book of daily meditations, and it is absolutely beautiful. The focus is on being present to the life that you are living right now, to bring in joy and contentment. That said, this is the third year that I have read a book of specified daily readings, and I am not going to continue that for a fourth. I found this with Rumi, with the Stoics, and now with this – the first month feels life-changing, then it starts to feel repetitive, and by the end of the year I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the daily lessons. Still, a brilliant book to come back to every once in a while.
Maybe Once, Maybe Twice. I heard this book raved about on a podcast, Bad on Paper, saying it was a really unique and original romance, so I thought I would check it out. I have to say, it was a pretty fun read to start 2024! The concept is a bit weird, honestly, but stay with me for a moment: an aspiring musician realizes that she’s thirty-five and the clock, it is ticking. She wants a music career and a baby, but she’s working for her mom’s real estate company instead. Well, here she is, thirty-five, and she realizes that at two different points in her life she made one of those “If we’re not married by 35, let’s marry each other” promises, to two different men. Then, as she turns 35, they both come back into her life. What to do? So, what I’m saying is that premise was strange but if you can mentally get past it, it’s a pretty fun book about second-chance romance, with a really good best friend subplot, which I am here for. It really is an original concept and there are a lot of twists that you don’t normally see in a romance.
I have lots on my TBR list, and a goal to get better at DNFing books that are a drag to me. We will see how that shakes out this year! I hope you’re all enjoying your start to January – I’ll just be over here, catching up on life! xo
Happy new year!
Noah and I started taking down the Christmas decorations yesterday, but we’re taking it slow. He boxed up the Christmas village and I took down the Christmas card display. I’m going to have him remove all the wire from the evergreen roping today so we can separate it into the yard waste and recycling. I’m hoping to have the job mainly done by the end of the next weekend, though we leave some of the lights outside (all but the candy canes) through the end of February.
It sounds like you had a very festive holiday. Sorry for the late guests. You read a lot during a busy time. I have a few books going at once but I haven’t finished one in I don’t know how long, before Christmas for sure. And yesterday I realized my book club meets in a week so I have to (get to)s tart another one.
Slow and steady is a good idea!
Oooh, what are you reading for book club?
Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler. It’s a sequel to a book we read in 2022.
I also also think about leaving the tree up until January 6th and then my brain explodes and I can’t stop thinking about MUST HAVE A DE-CHRISTMASED HOUSE NOW.
I left up some faux evergreens on our mantle with twinkle lights and red berries because it makes me happy and the wreath is on the door but everything else is neatly packed away until next November.
Ugh. That late arrival you describe is perhaps my worst nightmare. I am so sorry you had to live through that.
I can’t wait to see all the bookmarks your son made; that is truly one of the sweetest gestures ever. Love this <3
You feel me exactly! It all seems so festive…until it’s New Year’s. Then no ornament is safe!
Oh, Middlemarch! I may have mentioned it before, but I had an odd experience reading that book. For about the first half I didn’t like it and wanted to DNF, but for some reason kept reading and ended up loving it- I actually cried at the end. This is why I have trouble DNFing a book now- what if it’s really a “Middlemarch???”
All your books sound good- even the romance (a genre I don’t usually read) sounds intriguing. I’m going to look for the book of poems (I love the cover!) and The Book of Awakening- it sounds like it would be good for my “Every Day Counts” theme of 2024.
Nice job with all your hosting, but oof- that story of the late guests does sound grueling!
Oh yes, I remembered you had that experience! That’s probably why I tend to finish too – what if it ends up really good? But honestly, that almost never happens!
I took Christmas down on Jan 1 as well. I did it while the boys watched a movie and Taco said, “why are you taking our christmas tree, why?” which is a line from How The Grinch Stole Christmas. So basically he thought I was being the grinch. We have had to explain multiple times where all the Christmas decorations have one and now he’s back to asking where the pumpkins are. He is VERY CONFUSED about holidays.
I just started listening to Bad on Paper after you suggested it recently. I really like it! I read Becca Freeman’s Christmas book at the end of the year and really loved it!
Wow, the late arriving guests who said they weren’t coming – WTF. I would have been pissy, too. We had a house warming party when Phil moved into his first house years ago and one couple showed up super late when the food was all gone and then I was stressed about how the food was all gone… It’s odd to be so late to something. We had a situation a couple of summers ago when we were having Phil’s extended family over. We invited his cousins and aunt. 2 of the cousins and the aunt said they could come, 1 cousin said he couldn’t. Then he showed up and the cousins brought their 20-something kids with. We had NOT bought enough food for that many people so I pretended Phil was off husking the corn somewhere when he was really buying more brats and corn. I grew up in a house where we overbought when we had people over but Phil is one who buys JUST enough. But it was all just so very odd! Luckily we had plenty of aps and drinks so we just stalled the start of dinner while he ran to a close-by grocery store. People are very weird at times. All that said, we do adore this group of family members, we will just buy like twice what we think we will need if we have them over.
LOL at Taco
OMG LISA!!! That’s even worse. I have to say I did not even try to offer food to the guests, but I did get them a drink. Fortunately one only wanted water. WATER, YES, I HAVE IT. But I think it’s worse to bring extra people!
I want to read that book too!
Lol, Taco and his holiday confusion. Just wait until Easter! Or Valentines!
DYYYING at the Taco/Grinch line. HAHAHA.
I am still shuddering about the late guests, who had already DECLINED?!?! That’s not cool. If you say you can’t come, you don’t come. And there was no food left! ACK! I would have died, Nicole. I am so pleased you are still with us. And I am so glad the rest of the hosting went well!
Christmas is still in full swing at my house, because, basically, the other adult in the house didn’t want to put it away and I didn’t feel like DEMANDING that it be put away. But now I am all itchy because I want my house restored to pre-Christmas order. I am trying really hard to still light the tree and admire the decorations but it is growing increasingly difficult. It just feels like CLUTTER. Anyway, I am vicariously enjoying your clean and Christmas-free home.
I really enjoyed Fates and Furies (which I also read this year!) but I had to giggle at your description: “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read about a slutty guy doing lots of drugs” Yes, so true. It took me a long time to warm up to it as well, although the beauty of the language really helped draw me in.
Suzanne, you know it. It was such a beautifully written book, so even if I didn’t really like the characters, it was just so interesting and lyrical. It felt like poetry, but long.
Also, I am surprised I didn’t drop dead right there on the floor. It was TRYING.
I love your eclectic holiday reads. We took our stuff down on the 26th, which I realize is very Grinchy. I echo Suzanne above about the guests who declined and showed. YIKES.
Yes, they were very eclectic! I got all my “holiday themed” reads done before Christmas, so after was a time of reading mayhem!
I am leaving my Christmas stuff up until mid-January. You had your early Secret Festive Season and I was all adamant that I wouldn’t do anything until December, but I’m still in for twinkly lights and mistletoe. I will not be swayed before January 14.
I did not share your view of Fates and Furies, although the folks in my book club loved it, so clearly I am wrong!
Ah, we are the same, just with a time shift! I like it.
I love your word “de-Christmased” My house was de-Christmased on the 26th!! 🤣 The dollhouse waited until Jan. 1. Oh, the unexpected guests – my worst nightmare!! But it sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas!
It wasn’t so much the unexpectedness – I could have rolled with that. It was the SHOWING UP WHEN THE PARTY WAS OVER, making the party go on for another hour. Sheeeeesh.
” At that point all topics of conversation had been exhausted, the food was all gone, as was a significant percentage of the content of our beverage fridge, and all the dishes had been put away. The result was fifteen people standing awkwardly in the kitchen for another full hour, making small talk which had already been made for three hours, while my soul briefly left my body.”
Okay – that made me laugh out loud. The idea that conversation can be warmed over and limp just like food.
I read Middlemarch twenty years ago when I was on a trip to Italy – I have such a distinct memory of how surreal it was to be reading a book where the main character goes to Rome while I was in Rome myself. Anyhow, I really liked Middlemarch. I like George Eliot’s writing, but the women can be such ninnies. Middlemarch has the least ninnies, I thought. Though I loved Silar Marner too.
I had mixed feelings about Matrix – fascinating details, loved the writing, but where is the plot? – and your assessment of Fates and Furies makes me feel like maybe Lauren Groff just isn’t for me?
Happy New Year!
Mmmmm, I know what you mean. I looked up Groff’s other books, specifically because of this course, and thought “That’s a no from me.” Nope. But I did like Fates and Furies!
Reading a book about being in Italy while in Italy would be very meta.
I can see myself emotionally shutting down over a situation like the one you described at the end of your holidays.
For the fourth time, I’m rereading The Book of Awakening. This seems to be the perfect moment in my life to re-read it. ❤️
It IS the perfect moment for you to revisit it.
Kari, I honestly thought I would cry when I saw them drive up. WHAT EVEN, THIS PARTY MUST END.
New Year’s resolution: have an espresso martini or two next NYE in the afternoon. That is BRILLIANT. A few years ago we had the whole family over and my SILs and I got most of a 1,000 piece puzzle done. Ugh on the “no shows” showing up at the last minute. Blergh.
I highly, HIGHLY recommend espresso martinis! Delicious! And awakening. Although not like The Book of Awakening. A different awakening!
Middlemarch is one of my favorites! When I reread it a couple of years ago, I realized I was writing to my colleagues in this really “arch” way. LOL
Also my favorite–the bookmark with Rexie on it made by the Boyhouse. So, so cute!! Especially if they’re not into crafts otherwise.
Enjoy your de-Christmased house and post-holiday quiet, Nicole!!
Maya, I know what you mean. Diary of a Provincial Lady HIGHLY influenced/ influences my writing style. What would EM Delafield do? I should have that tattooed on my body.
Isn’t that bookmark great? He’s become very good at drawing on his computer, some of the pictures he makes are really remarkable, I say in a Proud Mom way. And he started just by wanting to draw anime! Ah, life, it is a journey.
(And by that first comment, I meant that reading the novel had weirdly influenced my own correspondence style.)
I de-Christmased on January 1 like a lot of the other commenters, as it was back to work on Tuesday and I also wanted a fresh clean house! Fates and Furies is one of my favorite books, and I started a re-read last week. Groff’s most recent 2 books have been in a different style as her others and I just could not get into them. I hope your classes were fun!
I am so glad that you had a good holiday, even if there were a couple of relatives who gave you agita! I have a few family members who do that, show up late and then expect (?) everyone to just kind of accept that and rally and even stay longer. We even had one who was supposed to be on appetizers who came with his item unprepped after we had finished dinner!! Sigh. There has to be at least one.
WHAT. That’s awful, Kyria! So rude. I am considering never inviting these people over ever again, but, well, you know how it goes.
I had to make a character chart for Middlemarch! It was so confusing and I was just constantly flipping and considering and doubting, haha! Oof, that situation with the late guests is one of my hosting nightmares – you survived and thrived the “big show” only to have your earned sigh of relief cut off. Props to you for managing through that whole kerfluffle!
Oh, I should have made a character chart!!! That’s such a smart idea because whoa, who’s a Vincy, where does this person fit in, is this person an innkeeper? I got lost so many times!
Oh my god on the late shows! I would have had such a hard time. When a party is done it’s done-I want my bed! Soooo sweet on your son making you bookmarks. Ahh my heart. Each year we have been flying out earlier for the winter (Jan 2, then Dec 31, and Dec 26 this year!). We had all our kids and grandkids for our Christmas on the 23rd. It was our 3rd party. I was taking down the tree at 8 am on Dec 24. It seems weird but no way I’m coming back to that in March!
Oh Pat, I would have done the exact same thing! There’s zero way I want to face a Christmas tree in March after a winter away!
OH!! I finally read The Glass House and loved it.
oooh, thanks Erin!
THREE HOURS LATE after saying they wouldn’t be there? Were they staging some deeply unpleasant social experiment? Noooooo.
I thought I’d read more Lauren Groff but apparently I’ve only read The Monsters of Templeton – liked it, though. I like your assessment of daily affirmations: “lovely, lovely, lovely, oh for the love of god STOP INSPIRING ME I’M SO OVER YOU”.
Our Christmas tree is still up because my sister and her family were here to do Christmas over new year’s. I am undressing it tonight. It’s in an out-of-the-way spot, though, so it doesn’t feel intrusive when it’s up later.
STOP INSPIRING ME!!!
We took our decorations down on New Years Day, which felt GREAT. I was so DONE with them. Now the house feels all clean and ready for the New Year. We do still have our wreath on the door, and I was planning to take it down for the 12th day, but now I may leave it up a bit longer.
Thanks for the book recs, I put a couple on hold via Libby (library audio books), and think I might buy the Book of Awakenings in physical form. I struggle with living in the present, and it is a good place to live. I mean, unless you’re remembering happy things or anticipating happy things, I enjoy those. But dreading difficult things sucks the joy out of NOW.
I meant to say that I read ‘The Matrix’, by Lauren Groff. I liked the writing a lot, and wasn’t sure about the story, but it held up. So I will read this newer book as well. 🙂
After reading people’s comments, I looked up The Matrix and I knew it wasn’t a book for me. But I did enjoy this one!
I think you might really love that book, J. It’s very inspirational, and also gentle. The author has had a lot of grief in his life, and that comes through in his lessons to himself.
I love the feeling of a clean house on New Year’s!
People showing up three hours late when they said they weren’t coming at all? I’d have lost it!! My friend and I were just talking about guests who stay past their welcome and how we always start to do the dishes and how that still doesn’t give some folks the hint. Second step could be the vacuum cleaner? Or at least, the dust vac!
I like your last book recommendation because I need some light reading right now!
Bijoux, I DID DO THE DISHES!!!! Lol. I didn’t think of the vacuum but that’s another idea. Ha!
It sounds like you had a very lovely start to the new year with your house guest and I am so glad you feel ready to take on this new year with a clean slate (aka taking down Christmas on the 1st). I usually have to transition out of the holiday season, so the tree stays up until Epiphany OR LONGER 😉
Whatever works, works! Maybe one day I’ll leave my tree up that long!
PLEASE be a tiresome pedant about the first day of Christmas and that decorations stay up until the Feast of the Epiphany. I get tired of explaining this over and over again every December. Now I know there are two of us out there setting the world straight. What is wrong with people on this point?
I’m trying to read more books, not your level of reading, but more. And I need to embrace DNF as a legit conclusion and just move on. Why is this difficult to do?
Hahaha, okay, a tiresome pedant I shall be!
It’s SO difficult to DNF, I find, but often I think of all the time I wasted reading bad books, ugh.
Our decor was taken down the 27th, and I’ve often done the 26th. The house feels empty but clean. I keep watching out the back window and some people still have everything up – it’s almost like we do too!
‘My soul briefly left my body,’ is the perfect way to explain. I would definitely be curled up on the floor if I was hosting people for 9 out of 11 days!!
Empty but clean – yes! I looked at my card-less piano and it felt very strange. But nice to clean things up!
I am Team Early Christmas and also Team Take Down Christmas on the 26th, haha. I just get my fill of Christmas in November and then after the holiday, I’m ready for my apartment to go back to normal!
I am APPALLED at the guests who arrived THREE HOURS LATE after declining. What the what?!
Happy 2024, Nicole!
It’s just so nice to have a fresh clean home! I support your choices!
I wasn’t going to comment, but… Wow. The gall of the relatives saying they weren’t coming then coming, late, and staying for an HOUR? My soul would have left my body, for sure, and my head would have definitely exploded.
I am SO curious about these courses you took in the Fall and what your next projects are, Nicole! You’ve mentioned the courses a couple of times, and I’ve seen in other blog comments that you’ve teased some major new goal…. can’t wait to hear more when you are ready to share!
(Also, thanks for sharing the titles of those inspirational books. I am always, always looking for spiritually-focused books that will help me expand my thinking. <3)
I love when you comment, Anne! So thanks for that. I really loved those books and I hope you’ll get as much out of them as I did.
I’ll definitely share, I’ll probably overshare, knowing me!