End of December | 2024

A roundup of mundane magics and writing worth sharing

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Today's post has a quick reflection, followed by the end-of-the-month roundup of mundane magic moments, and books I finished. The sections are clearly marked, so feel free to jump ahead. No links section this month.

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I’m approaching the end of this year feeling mostly peaceful. This month has been really difficult in some ways and also really beautiful — which is how I would generally describe most of 2024.

My family and I will be spending a quiet night in for New Year’s Eve and then enjoying a noon-year’s party the next day with some of our friends, and I’m really looking forward to both.

For now, here’s some magic from December.

✨️ Mundane Magics ✨️

• Craft club with my friends: I know, I basically say this every time, but it will never get old. We only had one meeting this month, but it was still wonderful.

• My friends talking me up to our local animal shelter: I have the most wonderful, supportive friends, and this month two of them did the unthinkable for me — they answered their phones and talked to strangers — all so I could hopefully adopt a couple of cats. (I don’t yet have an update on the adoption of said cats — I promise you will know as soon as it happens. 🤞🏻)

• A local town Christmas event with my mom: We got to walk around inside the most gorgeous old building and do a scavenger hunt and eat cookies. Then we went to look for the petting zoo and found out they had actual real-life joeys (!!!) and you could hold them (!!!!!) and take pictures for ten bucks, so of course that's where my money went. My mom and my daughter, Sybil, got a free caricature done for the 3rd year in a row, and the kids decorated cookies and brought home balloon animals. It was cold, so we didn't even look at most of the vendors, but in many ways, I think it was the best year yet.

I feel like I'm giving Home Alone bird lady vibes? Anyway, I didn't care at all because: look at the tiny joey!

• Pileated woodpeckers at our feeder: I love all the birds that come to our feeders, but there’s something about the much larger pileated woodpeckers that I find especially entertaining.

I mean, look how enormous they are!

• Getting to hug my nephews: For various reasons I won’t get into here, I haven’t seen my nephews in person in literal years, but this month, when my parents brought our kids to a breakfast with Santa, I got to see and hug my nephews. I tried to play it cool, but of course I immediately cried. One of them is already taller than me! It’s been hard to miss out on so much of their lives, and I’m so grateful for the chance to start getting to know them again.

• Finishing reading War and Peace: More on this below, but I feel so accomplished.

One of our fellow slow readers created these badges for us to mark the end of each section, and it really helped build that sense of accomplishment.

• Snow on the solstice: It was magical, that’s all I can say.

• Playing Stardew Valley with my husband: It can be hard to find the time and energy to do things together, but I love playing games with Jon, and Stardew is one of my favourites. He’s really good at the mining and fishing, and I get to do most of the farming and foraging, and it’s just great.

• An accidental lobster roll: A few weeks ago, our grocery delivery order had an unexpected item inside that we definitely did not buy — lobster. It was already frozen, so I put it in the freezer until we could figure out what to do with it, and decided that we should make lobster rolls. Having only had fresher, professionally made lobster rolls in the past, these were certainly the worst lobster rolls we’ve ever had, and they were still absolutely delicious. For a moment, I almost felt like I was in Maine again. It is by far the most serendipitous grocery delivery accident that has ever happened to us.

• A slow, quiet Christmas: I’ve been trying to say yes to plans with family and friends as much as possible for the holidays this year, but I still need quite a bit of rest and quiet. This year, our annual Christmas brunch at my husband’s brother’s house was held a couple weeks earlier, meaning that we had nowhere to go on Christmas day and were able to just stay home and go at our own pace. I loved every minute. I also ended up alone for a few hours on Christmas eve, while my husband took the kids to visit with family — I couldn’t tell if my allergies were acting up, or if I was sick, so I decided to stay home — and I watched It’s a Wonderful Life on my own in the quiet, which was kind of weird and bittersweet, but also pretty nice.

• Sybil's birthday: Our oldest is 6! and she's incredible.

Sybi on her birthday in a butterfly fairy costume gifted to her by her grandparents, shared with her permission (as much as a 6 year old can understandably give it).

Books I Finished

• Blood Orange by Yaffa AS: A poetry book from a displaced queer Indigenous Palestinian. This is a stunning, powerful collection as well as being a quick read. I highly recommend it.

• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: (CW: r*pe, murder) I'm not sure how to introduce this book. It's billed as contemporary fiction or even mystery, but neither of those really fit. I've read this book a handful of times since I first discovered it as a teenager, and it's absolutely heartbreaking, but I think the way that the author writes about the grief and love of the central family and the people connected to them is stunning and beautifully done. It's not a perfect happy ending book, but there's a lot of grace there, and I find myself noticing different lines and details every time I come back to it.

• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: A 1,300 page literary classic that I would never have actually picked up off my shelf without the help of Simon Haisell's year-long slow read here on Substack. Reading this book was an incredible experience. It has changed the way that I read. It's much easier for me to appreciate less likable characters and to see their humanity after this slow-read. And I've added some other slow-reads to my queue for next year. If you want to join the 2025 War and Peace slow-read, you can find the information here.

• Over Sea, Under Stone and The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper: The first two books in this middle-grade fantasy series. I read The Dark is Rising as a standalone last year, and decided that this year, I'd like to read the rest of the series along with my now-annual slow-read. The first book, Over Sea, Under Stone, has a slightly more adventurous (and less dark) vibe but was just as enjoyable. I loved seeing Merriman's character in a different setting with other people and learning more about him. I'm looking forward to continuing the rest of the series into the new year.

• How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Kari Leibowitz: A helpful nonfiction book for those of us who tend to struggle in the colder, darker months. I found this to be especially helpful for providing a perspective shift and practical options for enjoying the winter season. If you've read Katherine May's Wintering, there's a good chance you'd enjoy this as well.

• The Right Kind of White by Garrett Bucks: A memoir about Buck's reckoning with his Whiteness. I picked this up after discovering Garrett through his Barn Raisers project (and post-election community-building calls) right here on Substack and appreciated learning more about his experience and perspective leading up to his current projects.

• Lumberjanes, Volumes 1 and 2 by Grace Ellis, ND Stevenson, Shannon Watters, and Gus A. Allen: An LGBTQ+ fantasy comic series that I am now very invested in. It's set in a camp for girls “hard-core lady types” and the campers in Roanoke cabin get into all kinds of shenanigans with various magical creatures, and it's adorable, and I now have to make a plan to buy the entire series.

Wishing you all a happy new year! Please join us in the comments with your own mundane magics, books you finished, or anything else you’d like to share with us. And as always, feel free to share this post if anything resonated with you.