When Things Are Darkest, Light More Candles

Hello magical friends!

An Extra Day for an Extra Full Week

I've packed so much into this past week, I needed an extra day for this newsletter. A holiday party (book & cookie exchange), houseguests, kids home from college and grad school, a market, and a family Hanukkah celebration last night on the final night of the holiday.

The last night of Hanukkah coincided with the winter Solstice this year, and the symbolism was not lost on my woo-leaning heart. When things are the darkest, we need to light the most candles and shed the most light.

It's been such a busy week, but also such a heart-full one.

Bookie Cookie Success

The Bookie Cookie party was such a success! So many friends, old and new, showed up. There were hundreds of cookies, and many were even gluten-free, which is a blessing and a curse because I love cookies!

My 95-year-old mom was able to make it, and it was wonderful for her to spend time with my cousins visiting from the East Coast. We all ate the cookies my grandmother was famous for making—pinwheel cookies (recipe here). FYI, these come out just as delicious if you make them with gluten-free flour.

In between wrapping over 100 books and presents, making stencils for and helping my husband spray close to fifty special editions, and baking my heart out, I managed to get some writing done and go thrifting twice.

Cartblocking: My New Seasonal Job

Once I went with friends who showed up after I put out this call on Facebook:

I think I have a problem.

I really need to write 3k words tomorrow, but I also really need to save Christmas.

Here's the deal: I like to go thrifting at my favorite spot on Wednesday mornings. Those in the know, know that's when they put out the good stuff. There are a lot of people in the know, including my thrifting nemeses. Let's just call them Scroogella and the Grinchette.

S&G roll up in their Range Rovers, grab the big carts, and are always first in line. Word on the street is they have a resale business. They definitely have expensive taste.

Once inside, they divide and conquer, racing up and down the aisles, hoovering up every single item with a designer label that's hot on Depop, eBay, Poshmark. Every size. Every gender. Every department. What doesn't go in the cart goes on their person. They wear leather jackets out, sling bags across their bodies.

I can't say for sure, but I don't think they pay for everything they wear out of the store. But they do pay—hundreds of dollars. Sometimes they fill two carts each.

Listen, I get it. I resell some stuff too. It pays for my thrifting habit and keeps quirky finds out of landfills. I especially like to repair and upcycle, and I'm lucky I have the skills and equipment to mend holes, replace buttons, and refinish things. But not everyone can do that. Some people are just hoping for a new item that still has its tags from Nordstrom.

Good luck after S&G show up! The way those two shop is mean-spirited. They're like locusts, leaving nothing behind for others.

So nowadays, half the reason I go on Wednesday mornings is to foil Scroogella and the Grinchette. I race around grabbing every single designer item I see, everything I know they'd have grabbed first. I fill my cart just as high as theirs. I smile sweetly at them when they glare at me.

And then I wait patiently till they leave and put it all back so that someone else who can't get there till their lunch break still has the thrill of finding a really expensive sweater to wear to their holiday party for only eight bucks.

I have a problem. So much so that I might have to get up at 5 am to get the words in before showing up at my new seasonal job: Cartblocking.

I'm happy to report that a couple of my friends showed up to help me and... S&G were not there! Perhaps they had a visit from the ghosts of Christmas past and decided to stay away this week and let others have a turn.

All I can say is that I was rewarded with the exact two writing chairs I've been stalking on Amazon for close to a year—for $60 instead of $600. I also somehow manifested the exact two nearly brand-new puffer jackets I was looking for (short and long length), although one of them had bullet casings in the left inside pocket. This weirdly delighted me. My story brain lit up like a Christmas tree.

I'll spare you all any more of my ramblings for now and leave you with pictures and a wish for you all to enjoy a peaceful, happy, joy and book-filled holiday with delightful surprises and warm squeezes.*

*I forgot to mention I got a heated hand massager in the family gift exchange. I can't wait to stick my hands in that thing at the end of my marathon typing sessions!