December, you're my favorite
Weekend Reads v. 6.12.2025
On Thursday afternoon, I was on a video call with several colleagues when someone brought up the weather.
“You know, we’re supposed to get snow tomorrow in DC.”
“Already! Oh yikes,” said the lady in Florida.
“Wait, tomorrow? I thought we were due to get snow on Friday,” I piped up.
“Um, yes, I believe the forecast is still for tomorrow. Tomorrow is Friday.”
“Tomorrow is Friday??? I thought today was Wednesday.”
So, that tells you how this week is going for me. It’s a week where I broke my don’t-eat-potatoes rule twice in one day (chips at lunch, fries with dinner). A week where each day’s to-do list grew longer and longer by the minute. I had an unexpected visit to the vet with my cat, and a pile of year-end reports to write so that other people could turn in their year-end reports. Sheesh.
But. BUT! I got the majority of my holiday shopping and shipping completed. (Win!) I submitted an untold number of reports. (On time!) And I took the stairs in the parking garage instead of the elevator everyday. I’m also right on schedule with my advent reading. My hair may be a disaster these days, my waistline may be having an identity crisis, and there might be 47 tabs open inside my brain at any given moment, but I am savoring each and every small win from this week. That’s probably because I love December, and every year she flies right past me.
That blink-and-you’ll-miss-it experience probably has to do with the fact that weekends in December are precious real estate. And so, I’ve been counting down to this particular weekend for quite a while. I’ve also been prepping — not with bars of silver or dehydrated MREs — but with careful planning and action. Holiday cards are ordered and ready for the postman by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. Most gifts are purchased before Advent begins. Piles of wrapped gifts start replacing the piles of shopping bags. And on and on my prepping goes. All that allows me to enjoy my favorite month. This weekend promises to be a stellar kick-off weekend.
I’m headed to a museum exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls on Saturday and then hitting up a Christmas market. We’ll end the day with some college football. Fingers crossed, the weekend will also give me the time I need to finish a new gift guide for you. (Hope you don’t have gift guide fatigue after that blistering Black Friday marketing storm that hit us all!)
Until then, here are a few fun things I found around the internet that might give you something clever to say at your next holiday party.
“‘May I Meet You?’ is not a bad pickup line.”
I can’t stop thinking about this article about the negative impact technology in classrooms has on a child’s cognitive function.
“But starting around the year 2000, something changed. For the first time in the history of standardized cognitive measurement, Generation Z is consistently scoring lower than their parents on many key measures of cognitive development—from literacy and numeracy to deep creativity and general IQ. And the early data from Generation Alpha (born after 2012) suggests the downturn isn’t slowing—it’s accelerating.” (via gift link, The Free Press)
13 recipes for popular Christmas desserts in Portugal.
Writer extraordinaire Plum Sykes just gets me. “I’m always daydreaming about a life that is old-fashioned and out of date. I’m a nostalgia freak, really, for the aesthetics of a Mitford-era England, one of roaring fires, big draughty houses and people wearing several layers of lambswool indoors.”
“The Monks in the Casino: A brief theory of young men, ‘the loneliness crisis,’ and life in the 21st century.”
You can make your own Connections game. Kind of dying because apparently my nephew is really into the NYTimes version, and now maybe I will cement my role as Cool Auntie by making my own games? One can hope!
The most beautiful watering can. It’d be perfect for an apartment or small home.
Strongly considering this paper mache kit as a holiday activity for my nephews. See also from the same cute shop: this cloche mushroom candle that I may need to make mine one day.
We are debating whether or not to fully decorate our Christmas tree. Our reasons are simple: the lights look so beautiful, ornaments take ages to put on the tree, and we’re tired. But I’m very tempted by dried orange garland. It always smells so wonderful and catches light beautifully. Maybe that could be an option for the very-tired us?
Who would like to come with me to the Rhone Valley in France and stay in this glorious luxury farmhouse??
Good gift ideas for kids from the New Yorker.
This lunisolar almanac is very cool. “Originating in Chinese tradition, the lunisolar almanac is also charmingly known as “old yellow calendar” 老黃曆, a moniker that refers to the time its jurisdiction fell under the emperor (identified by imperial yellow).” And here’s a short story about how this particular one came to be.
Here’s to a wonderful first weekend of December for you!