Three beautiful things from the transition between 2016 and 2017:
1. I did not get the majority of my Christmas cards out before the 25th, as I’d hoped, but finished them instead in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, which I justified as being part of the Twelve Days of Christmas and therefore perfectly fine. (I’m happy receiving mail at any point of the year. I’m trusting my friends and family are, too.) In need of a change of scenery, I packed up my stationery and relocated to a nearby cake shop. They had Christmas-themed cupcakes, a friendly barista who told me not to waste my money on their hot chocolate, comfy armchairs, a gigantic coffee table to spread my stuff out on, and a Christmas tree and other holiday decorations. (Also, when they forgot anyone was left upstairs, they switched to a very loud and upbeat playlist.) It was the nicest belated card-writing venue I could have asked for.
2. Sarah, Rudi, and I spent our traditional New Year’s Eve out at the movies. We had a pizza supper, walked over to admire the City Center Christmas tree, and watched Rogue One (a fine addition to the canon with a talented and diverse international cast), La La Land (ear wormy soundtrack, great costumes, and excellent cinematography), and Hidden Figures (phenomenal! a rare combination of a well-crafted script and gifted performances deserving of all the awards it should garner) over the course of ten hours. As always, it was a low-key, but special way to turn the page on the year.
3. Two of the three orchids my uncle sent me for my birthday four years ago are still alive, and, when I left for the holidays, there were buds on both. The nicest part of returning to work on Tuesday was discovering two of the buds on the yellow orchid had blossomed:
My uncle died three years ago this month, and I like to think the orchids blooming around Christmas — which he loved and for which he always provided a goodie bag to us, complete with scratch-off lottery tickets — are his way of making sure I have a nice holiday.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?