The days after and before.

Christmas morning breakfast.

I love the days after Christmas and before the New Year. 

We have such a beautiful big Christmas Eve gathering each year at Shekina Garden, which takes days of planning and preparing, and of course there is our own planning and expectation of Christmas Day. Baking, cooking, and lists. It is so beautiful, and every year it is amazing to host a gathering of over one hundred people. Travelers from around the world come and celebrate with us. 

This year we put together a service of poetry, stories, performance art, and singing. It was so beautiful to watch people’s faces as they realized what was happening. A choir! A woman with a tampura, singing in Hindi! A performance piece with a tiny wooden bird! 

This year I felt buzzy and happy, relieved that everything came together. I was on a high because the art came together, and I love stories and art. Then we had our own lazy Christmas Day, with stockings and gifts, crepes for breakfast and snacks for lunch. Our landlords came over with gifts for blankets for the kids (they worry that we are too cold), and Christy and the girls came over in the afternoon for a while. 

Leafy and Kenya made everyone beautiful presents. There was big Star Wars theme this year. Chinua bought me some lovely new clothes. We got a couple of new boardgames. The boys have enough Lego to build for days.

And the community got together in the evening at Christy’s house then, with pizza and hot buttered rum, Leaf’s cinnamon rolls, endless stories from Cate and Chinua, and a lot of laughter from all of us, tired from the night before but so happy to be together.

And then the day after Christmas, when I realize that my time is my own for a few days before school starts again, I can look over the past year and dream about the next. I can write in the early hours of the morning. I love these days. Getting up for coffee. Thinking about all the possibilities. The possible art of a new year. Candles in the evenings. Eating together. I don’t really want them to end. 

***

My monthly Q and A video is up! Normally these vlogs are for patrons only, but for this month only, my vlog on self care is available for everyone to watch. Enjoy! You can watch it here.

Now you can support my writing on Patreon. Patrons can give as little as a dollar a month, and get extra question and answer videos and day in the life posts. Your patronage shows your support for my writing, and it means so much to me. Thank you.