Marzipan and Mistletoe: Reflections

Christmassy Happenings

This has been a fun month though, as before, things changed slightly from my original idea - I had intended to share a single photograph and a single sentence, maybe two. There were some days when I ended up writing two or three paragraphs. I did manage to stick to the single photograph, though.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing the more structured Daughter of Claus season last December, but I did also enjoy being reactive for Marzipan and Mistletoe. I think the two seasons complement each other quite well - I would like, at some point, to revise, update, and expand the original Daughter of Claus posts to include references to Christmas in our new home, noting anything new as well as how we’ve interpreted older traditions in our new setting.

Some days didn’t go to plan - not the posts, but the days themselves. Fortunately, I was confident there would be enough Christmassy happenings that I didn’t need to worry about coming up with anything in advance of starting the season, which kept this one quite light. On the flip side, that did mean that some nights I was so exhausted I was basically falling asleep writing the posts. A couple of amusing typos crept through in the original emails, too, as a result of an over-enthusiastic (and slightly erratic) autocorrect on my new mobile telephone, and me being too tired to proofread repeatedly.

And now to 2025! I have several ideas for seasonal notebooks this year, but I haven’t quite made up my mind about what they will be yet. I don’t like to lock these things down much in advance - last year I hadn’t even thought of the idea of the Back-Folk (June’s seasonal notebook) until April. We’ll see what happens, and what feels like the right thing at the right time.

I’ll be back on the first day of February with an update on the theme for my next seasonal notebook, which will run throughout March.

Lydia Crow
The Highlands, Scotland