Hello dear readers,

I’m writing this to you on the morning of New Year’s Eve with a pot of turmeric tea nearby. I’ve been taking things slow the past few days after what feels like an entire year of being busy, and it feels so good to not have anywhere to be. After a month of cooking and crafting and celebrations, I’m more than ready to hide in my home and let the quiet take over.

I love all the seasons and periods of the year for different reasons, but the end of December holds a special place in my heart. The holiday festivities have wrapped up and I’m left alone, with nothing but reading and writing and knitting to keep me occupied until the new year starts.

In terms of the new year: I no longer create goals for myself for a number of reasons, but there are a few things I do try to make happen as the year turns over. One of those is slowing down and paying attention to what’s going on around me, and luckily, I think I’m getting better at this as time goes on. This year in particular feels incredibly full; I gardened, sewed, knitted, cooked, baked, filmed, wrote, and read my way through the year, and overall, I’d say it was a resounding success. 

With this new (ish) archival endeavor I’ve taken on, I wanted to start a new tradition of a New Year’s Eve post, where I can show you some of the things I learned, loved, and experienced throughout 2025. While there’s so much more I want to share—so much more that happened—I’ve distilled it down into the following:

Highlights

1. Growing a wildflower bed in the back yard
2. Finishing the final draft of my novel
3. Seeing snow geese fly by outside our living room window
4. Canning pumpkin with my grandma in late October
5. Publishing my poetry collection
6. Sabbat celebrations with the girls
7. Re-learning how to be creative without the pressure to share
8. Spending most of my free time in summer gardening
9. Getting back into reading like I used to (voraciously)
10. Finally tearing away from the need to be online

Lessons

1. Not everything needs to be posted online
2. Too much caffeine is, in fact, not good for you
3. It’s okay to disappoint people, especially if your health is involved
4. Definitely buy the funky vintage fabric at the thrift store
5. There will always be more of what you need
6. You can match the energy others put into relationships, and you’ll be a lot less stressed because of it
7. Painting your entire house is possible and also the right thing to do
8. Going analog won’t solve all your problems, but it’ll solve a lot of them
9. You really can make anything you see online, rather than buying it, and it’s all the more fulfilling
10. You have so much time

Best books

1. The Sea House by Esther Freud
2. The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
3. Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
4. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
5. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
6. Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister
7. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
8. Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg
9. Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood
10. Tides by Sara Freeman

Best films

1. Miss Potter
2. The Big Year
3. Caveat
4. Wake Up Dead Man
5. Crash
6. The Gentlemen
7. Sex, Lies, and Videotape
8. Midnight in Paris
9. Where’d You Go, Bernadette
10. Secretary

What I’m taking with me

1. Working with pastels
2. Stopping what I’m doing to listen to the wind or the rain
3. Standing at the front door to watch birds at the feeder
4. Lamps and other warm lighting
5. Continuing to assert my boundaries in small ways
6. Early mornings spent writing
7. Reading instead of scrolling on my phone
8. Writing nights with friends
9. Spending evenings at home with my sewing machine
10. Homemade soup, always

What I’m leaving behind

1. Going out when I have a migraine to avoid other people’s disappointment
2. Staying up way too late
3. Notifications on my phone
4. Checking email more than once per day
5. Looking at my phone before noon
6. Eating food I don’t enjoy
7. Forgetting to water my house plants
8. Putting other people first (all the time)
9. Overthinking, because whatever it is won’t matter in a month
10. Feeling like I need to be in/show up in online spaces in ways that don’t suit me

I hope that 2025 was good to you, and that 2026 is even better. Happy New Year, everyone!

—Catherine

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