It's beginning to look a lot like *argh*
A holiday survival-ish guide, plus subscription sale ends THIS WEEKEND!
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One thing I learned in overhauling and organizing HONEY STAY SUPER a few weeks ago? I’ve written a lot about and around the holidays. I suppose it makes sense, holidays are lousy with emotional buttons, especially when it comes to our roles and relationships like motherhood, marriage, separation, and divorce.
I’m sharing some of my favorites from the archives—truly none of my holidays have been anything alike over the past 5 years—and below those posts are a few favorites from other writers too. This post might be too long for email so make sure to head here or here for the full version. There are even more holiday posts in the HSS archive, including a hangover cure. Yes, it works. I promise.
What a thing it is to be thankful
This has been, as they say, a year. It has been a year with the peak-iest peaks and the valley-est valleys since the births of my children. The takeaways are much the same now as they were then—we are all healthy and here, I love and feel loved, there is much to be thankful for. Even when things are tough, perhaps especially then.
Happy Thanksgiving, David Spancer
I spontaneously wrote this post in bed on Thanksgiving morning 2022 while I was away from my kids and about to spend a raucous and fantastic Thanksgiving with my cousin and her boyfriend. I remembered this post—and David—the other day. With Thanksgiving upon us again, I decided to share…
I miss my mantel
A reminder that I use the paywall as a privacy wall on posts that delve into intimate topics like marriage, divorce, dating, non-monogamy, and/or sex. This is one of those. If you’re a paid subscriber and want to forward this email to someone? Always ok! But I’d ask that you please not share screenshots or excerpts from beyond the paywall on social media. Thank you.
Our better angels
A little over a year ago, after Christmas, I bought a Christmas tree. I should say I bought another Christmas tree. We already had two aluminum ones, a 2-footer and a 5-footer. Then there’s the one we’d get every year, a real one that we’d sometimes cut down ourselves. This …
Well thank god THAT'S over
A few days ago I almost wrote a post titled something like “the easiest holidays ever?” I almost wrote it because I believed it and it felt true. And overall, there were many things that were easier than they had been in holidays past.
Everything that went right
Toward the spring of my freshman year of college, I felt a distinct shirking from my suitemates. I don’t remember now if it was a sense of general avoidance or an obvious cold shoulder, but I finally asked what the hell was going on. The two girls in the room next to mine were sitting on the same bed and exchanged a look. Then the smallest, skinniest, and most personality-plus of the two spoke up and said, “You’re so negative all the time. All you do is complain.”
Some things come up over and over again around the holidays—generational conflict, food and eating and comments about bodies or diet, politics and relationships, and grief. I love the combination of the below posts together, even though only one is timed for the holidays. They will leave you feeling seen and much less alone as you enter the fray, from
and .
Happy holidays, everyone. Ready or not here we go—
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