Small Joys

Oops. Got caught up in some journaling, so I’m late on this one.

Today Holidailies says: Share your best advice for surviving the holiday season.

I’ve answered this last year, on December 3. My answer was to protect your peace, namely by saying no to things and people who disrupt it. You don’t have to do all of the things and you don’t have to see all of the people.

This year, I’m suggesting saying yes, but to the small joys that can still be found in an ever-demoralizing world. There’s a lot going on around the world, as there always is, with war, natural disasters, economic instability, and social upheaval. If you’re in the United States, 2025 has been a whammy of political insanity. For all intents and purposes, the country is collapsing under a regime led by a megalomaniac who has one foot in the grave and wants to ruin as much on his way out as he can. Wherever you turn, there’s bad news.

And yet, wherever you turn, there lies the opportunity for a small joy.

Fill a bird-feeder and watch our feathered friends flit around. Look at how the sun shines on their feathers, listen to their little chirps and songs.

Make a giant mug of hot chocolate. Dump in some marshmallows and top it off with whipped cream. Sit under a quilt, take a sip, and let the whipped cream dot the tip of your nose.

Listen to your favorite music. Play the same song over and over again as many times as you want. This song has 1,046,490,278 plays on Spotify. I think I’m responsible for those last 278 of them. The music sounds like we’re being flung out into some kind of giant cosmic nightclub. I love it.

Call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a long time. Let the friendship pick up like it was just yesterday. Listen to how happy they are to hear from you. You’ll hear it in their voice.

Sleep late. Like, really late. Past noon. Get up, have lunch. Then read a good book. If you need a nap, take a nap.

Put on something comfortable and stretch. Feel how everything extends and loosens up.

Hold the door open for someone else, just to do it.

Make a donation to your favorite charity.

Light your favorite candle.

Watch your favorite comedy. Or spooky movie. Or musical. Or drama.

Help your kids build a snowman.

Draw something fun on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk.

Play solitaire with real cards. Or have a game night with friends.

Stroll through a museum.

Get on the floor and romp around with your dog. Let your cat judge you both.

Take a hot bath with a million tea lights around you like they do in the movies.

Look up at the stars.

Scroll through your phone at pictures of the good times.

Go down a YouTube rabbithole of old commercials. Send the links to friends your age. Every time I see a montage of commercials from the 70s and 80s, it’s like I’m a kid again. “I had that! And that! Remember that?”

Buy something small on sale that you never tried before. I’ve discovered vanilla cream seltzer for 89 cents for a 33-ounce bottle, and the other day I managed to snag five of them for a dollar.

Small joys like that are sustainable. They’re what will get us all through both the season and whatever earthly turmoil surrounds us. Post ’em if you’ve got ’em. I’m always looking for fresh ideas.

A Christmas ornament in the shape of a snowman, with a small tag that says "joy."

A Fine Point

I’m a writer. This means I work with words, little things that have meaning and must be treated with respect.

Yes, I write in a colloquial way here, but I also know a thing or two about grammar, having spent 14 years of my career as an editor.

Phonics? Yep. Give me some phonemes and graphemes, baby.

Rhythm and flow? I’m a poet and I know it.

Spelling? Oh, heck yeah. In French, too, back before I let my French collect cobwebs.

Yet I’ve been making a giant mistake my whole life, one that I must confess to you now.

I’ve been both spelling and saying poinsettia incorrectly, as pointsettia.

PoinTsettia.

POYNT-set-ee-ah.

Ain’t no t after the n in that word.

Oops.

Anyway, here’s a little pic I took today. It’s a close-up of a POINSETTIA.

A close-up of part of a poinsettia.

Holidailies 2025!

Hello, friends! It’s time for Holidailies! What a year it has been, so I will preface this by saying I’m not sure I’m going to be able to post every day, though I’m going to give it the ol’ college try. I’m moving at the end of the month, so between that, work, and not the best of health, I may miss a few days.

Don’t worry, it’s not my heart. It’s just other crap happening at the worst possible time that makes everything that much more exhausting to deal with. And it’s Gee, You’re Pushing 60 crap, at that. Like, I’m having a gallstone scare at the moment. Right. I’ve become the crone who writes about gallstones. The Gallstone Crone. Santa, if you’re listening, please bring me a new and healthy body to live in, kthnx.

As for moving, I still don’t know where I’m moving to. Oh, it will be somewhere in the county, but I haven’t signed a lease yet. Ye gods, people, what they put people through to apply for an apartment now. They want to look at the deposit history in my bank account, run a criminal background check, confirm my job and salary with my employer, and collect a pint of blood. I once had to get a State Department background check and it wasn’t nearly that much. I asked the guy why all of it was necessary and he said it was because so many landlords are getting scammed now. Beats me. All I know is that from what I’m seeing on the socials and message boards, this kind of thing has only cropped up in the past few years, because I didn’t have to do any of this four years ago. In fact, when I first moved back here 10 years ago from Long Island, I didn’t even have a job. The prevailing attitude was “No worries. If you don’t pay, we throw you out. Simple as that.”

So that’s a bit of stress I don’t need right now.

And now for a Holidailies prompt: What have you been most looking forward to this holiday season?

Holidailies, of course! It has become my favorite holiday tradition, a time to catch up with blog buddies and get into the spirit. I’m going to see the State Christmas trees on Sunday, so I hope to have pictures worth sharing from that. You know, if the lights aren’t green again this year. If they are, I’ll find something else to photograph and post.

In the meantime, here’s the first ornament I bought this year. I got it in Arizona while I was in Phoenix for a work trip last March. It’s a little more golden than yellow, but I had to use a flash so the surrounding lights wouldn’t muddy the other colors.

A Christmas ornament featuring a hummingbird, a cactus, and some flowers.

I’d never been to Arizona before that trip, and what little time I spent there makes me want to go back for a vacation. There is something healing and restorative there. Maybe in March. The weather was lovely when I was there and some locals told me it’s really the best time to visit, before it gets too hot. Something to think about.

Until next time, ho, ho, ho and please pardon any typos.