First, a confession: My #tbtbsanta box arrived a month ago. I held off on opening it, first as a reward and later as a talisman, warding off bad seasonal events.

It should be noted that I looked at the box every day. I considered opening it. And so I left it unopened — and my poor Santa probably wondering what in the world was the matter with me.

But today, today I woke up and it was sunny. I realized I’d made it through both Thanksgiving and Christmas without breaking and I felt a little more like myself than I have since early October. And I knew it was time to open my box.

My Santa, Jordan, didn’t know when she sent me the box that I was going to hold onto it like a life raft. But the box was filled with good, buoyant things that make me even gladder now that I’ve opened it.

Already, we’re off to a great start: I drink a ton of cocoa, so am super excited to have new varieties to try. I didn’t have a new ornament for this year, because I hadn’t gone anywhere to get one. And the card made me guffaw!

I love purple. I love sparkles. I love nail polish. Put them all together and we have a winner!

Okay, on to the packages! (For the record, I also have Peanuts Christmas wrapping paper….)

First up, there is a fun tiny planter shaped like a Jane Austen bust so I can bring my gardening inside for the season.

Second, there are two books I’ve been wanting to read, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ well-received The Water Dancer and Ten Blind Dates by Ashley Elston, a Christmas-themed romance.

Finally, there was a gift for Corey — a catnip-filled croissant:

Thank you, Jordan, from both Corey and me. We absolutely love our gifts!

I came across this song, “This Love Won’t Break Your Heart,” by Annalise Emerick, as I was working on my Christmas mix. While I sometimes include New Year’s songs on my cd, I opted not to include it this year. But it is beautiful and I wanted to share it with you, particularly as we head into this final week of 2020.

Happy Boxing Day, everyone!

I hope you had a nice Christmas! Things here went fine. We ate cinnamon buns for breakfast, had a walk around the neighborhood, and talked with our parents. We cooked a modest feast together, opened presents, and watched White Christmas and the next episode of Dash and Lily.

And now we will rest and relax for another week before I need to think about adulting again. There will be more cooking (apparently I can only handle three-four dishes a day, so our Christmas dishes are being spread out through at least one more day, if not two), baking, reading, and knitting. I will listen to Christmas music and new music and watch Christmas movies (which I just couldn’t do for the most part before the holiday). I am definitely sleeping in. There may be some video chats and phone calls with friends, and we are trying to set up a socially distanced movie night with a couple local friends in our bubble. There will be time outside during daylight hours, even on the chilly days. And there will be lots of time with Rudi, after so much time apart. I’m looking forward to all of it.

Merry Christmas, everyone! However you’re celebrating, I hope you’re able to find the moments of joy.

If you’re looking for some ways to fill today, let me give you a few suggestions, each about an hour:

The String Queens are a D.C. trio and are amazing. They released a holiday EP this year, Our Favorite Things, and have left their album launch on YouTube for your enjoyment.

Ford’s Theatre here in D.C. has converted its annual performance of A Christmas Carol into a radio play (scroll down to the bottom) for the stream, through Jan. 1.

A film version of A Child’s Christmas in Wales was made a few years ago. If you’d like to hear Dylan Thomas read his nostalgic holiday poem, that will only take you 20 minutes.

Wishing you and yours a relaxing, peaceful day.

Three beautiful things from my week past:

1. Our friend Sam and his brother, Alan, share their family kugel recipe with me. It was my favorite dish the years I spent Christmas Eve at their grandparents’ gathering.

2. Rudi’s post-travel COVID test came back negative.

3. Christmas cookies from the farmers market.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Happy Christmas Eve! I hope you’re nearly done with the running around and are ready to begin celebrating, however that looks for you this year. Things here in D.C. aren’t quite done, but they’re rapidly approaching good enough. And that’s maybe all I can hope for in 2020.

Some of us believe there was a real baby two-plus thousand years ago who was the Light. Others believe the darkness of the season and the soul is combatted by physical and metaphysical light and love. Whatever your school of thought, I hope you can find the reason we’ve spent the past 24 days marking the season within yourself. I wish that for each of us, because there’s a lot of darkness out there in the world right now and it can be so easy to be swept away by it.

Our final Virtual Advent Tour post comes from Bridget at The Ravell’d Sleave, as it often does. She’s got a Christmas message for you. Read it again tomorrow, too, if you’re struggling.

That’s all, folks! Thanks once again to raidergirl3, Kat, kathy b, Rudi Constance, Deb Nance, Marg, Chick, Jo Kay, and Bridget for such wonderful posts and for sharing themselves with us and to you for reading along. Merry Christmas! Happy holidays! May the peace and the force and even the joy be with you.