Blessed is the Season Which Engages the Whole World in a Conspiracy of Love

It’s quiet and cold this morning. The kitchen is somewhat messy, signs of life and fun from last night still all over the countertops. Our friends Matt and Beau are leaving today to go back to New Orleans for the holidays so we had a goodbye dinner last night and I made this recipe. It turned out well! Perfect for a cold winter night.

I looked at the calendar yesterday and realized we have less than two weeks until Christmas and we haven’t done any of our actual shopping yet. Why do we wait so long every year? Christmas has a way of sneaking up on me, I suppose because we’re so consumed with the craziness of the end of the year, and I seem to lose track of time this time of year. The plan is to get all of the shopping completed this weekend and to do what we can to relax and have a smooth rest of the season. We’ll see if it actually happens that way.

As the holidays are setting in, I hope they feel like the photo above: warm, cozy, relaxing. I want them to be filled with joy and laughter and kids playing and family time and cozy Christmas movies and pasta and wine and blankets and lots of hunkering down at home. Of course, there’s much more to life than warm and cozy feelings, and the chaos of the holidays are a great reminder of that, but I think the best we can all hope for is to have those moments sprinkled in with the rest of what life has to offer

That’s my wish this year: To appreciate all the moments that this season brings, the cozy and the crazy (which can sometimes be one in the same). Hamilton Wright Mabie said it best:

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”