Weekly Roundup

Winter Wonderland Edition

December is my favorite month. It’s the only month where you get a present for waking up every day. More importantly, I have a very special Advent calendar that brings me so much joy: the Bonne Maman Tiny Jam Calendar™️. That’s not its official name, but honestly it should be.

Behold the beauty, the glory, the magnificence of the Bonne Maman Tiny Jam Advent Calendar.

Every day you get a TINY JAM. Truly I’m not sure what else you need in life other than to be surrounded by microscopic fruit preserves. They can be used for anything - the possibilities are endless. I’ve been getting them since 2020, and I’m still working through last year’s stash. Don’t mind me, just in heaven over here. Now onto what writerly activities I’ve been up to this past week.

What I’m reading:

(Content Warning)

I mentioned this in the Tuesday blog, but I am reading Le Consentement by Vanessa Springora. (Consent, in English.) This book was published in 2020, and details how Springora was sexually abused and groomed by an older male writer. Her raw and unflinching look at the abuse she suffered led to France changing its age of consent laws. (From 14 to 15 which…I don’t even know what to do with that.)¹

Hashtag The French

I do this to myself - I start reading a fun book,² and then all of a sudden my subconscious needs to balance it out with something heavy. It’s an important book, but hoo boy. I can’t read it for any extended period of time. From my own perspective, the writing in French is clear and easily understandable, which is almost worse. I’m glad I can bear witness to Springora’s story, but I hate that this book has to exist at all.

• Great for: bearing witness, memoir lovers

• Bad for: my mental health, anyone who needs a break

What I’m writing:

Still my novel. Still this newsletter. Still syllabi.

• Great for: my productivity

• Bad for: decent photos

Here’s a picture of my friend’s puppy, though.

She is perfect.

What I’m listening to:

Basically the minute Halloween is over I start listening to The Nutcracker Suite. This is my favorite recording. I have absolutely no idea why other than the fact that I enjoy it as 90 minutes of music straight through and I know the ballet well enough to imagine what’s going on throughout the show. If I try to listen to any other recording, I get angry that it’s not *this* specific one.

• Great for: seasonal cheer, ballet lovers

• Bad for: former/current dancers who know this music too well and wants to pull their hair out when they hear it, people who don’t like classical music

Mug Moment of the Week:

So comfy, cozy.

The Christmas theme continues. Christmas is really the only holiday I decorate for and/or care much about. Christmas Eve is my favorite holiday.³ Despite my extremely Italian name, I’m half Polish, and as a kid, we did Wigilia, which is the Polish Christmas Eve.⁴ As a kid, seeing your entire extended family on Christmas Eve AND getting presents on Christmas Even and Christmas Day? Magical.⁵ So obviously, I have multiple Christmas mugs that now need to have their day in the sun. We’ll see how the weeks work out and if I can fit them all in.

This lovely mug from Paper Source is not only giant, but also includes a cute design of Santa and his unicorns-as-reindeer. Its contents are steaming hot chocolate, made with milk, because that is the only way to make hot chocolate.

• Great for: Christmas lovers

• Bad for: people who have no hearts and or no sense of whimsy

What about you, my fellow chaotic friends? Do you have Advent Calendars? Do you decorate and have any seasonal mugs? As always, thanks for joining me here and let me know in the comments!

1. https://www.politico.eu/article/france-sets-age-of-consent-at-15/#:~:text=The%20French%20National%20Assembly%20on,often%20seen%20as%20%E2%80%9Cambiguous.%E2%80%9D

2. More on that soon.

3. How European of me, I know.

4. I have never done/attended/eaten a Feast of the Seven Fishes and I am scared of it, tbh. The Polish meal is similarly fish based - no meat because Catholicism.

5. I could go on here. In fact, this paragraph was twice as long and I had to cut it down because I was going off on tangents that were very related to Poland, Christmas and pierogi, but not mugs.