John Holton is our host for Writer’s Workshop. Here are the prompts for 12/23/25:

  1. Write a post inspired by the word winter.
  2. Write a post in exactly seven (7) sentences.
  3. How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa Claus? Why did you stop?
  4. Have you ever had a terrible house guest? If so, what happened?
  5. If you had to walk away from one technology in your life, what would it be?
  6. List your five most recent favorite things.

Ooh, I *love* a favorite things post! That feels like a particularly fun one for Christmas morning. Let’s talk about a few of my favorite things…

eos Shea Better Body Lotion Coconut Waters 

This is a thick, creamy lotion that does a great job with hydration. The coconut waters scent is perfect, too. Lightly sweet without the heaviness that sometimes comes along with tropical scents.

TWIST Hit Reset Light Clarifying Shampoo

This shampoo does such a great job resetting my hair. I’ll use it once a week to strip out all the products I’ve used in an attempt to manage my curls.

Duluth Asset Management Straight Leg jeans

Do I have assets that need management? Probably not, but who really gives a flip. These are a sturdy pair of straight leg jeans with a stretchy feel that makes me not despise the idea of zipping them up. I say that’s a win on all fronts.

Spotify’s Calming Instrumental Covers

You know how sometimes things fall into place for no discernable reason? My Alexa took instruction from a TikTok video — poorly, I might add, as the video in question asked Alexa to play “instrumental Christmas music.”  Next thing I knew Spotify had queued up Calming Instrumental Covers and I ran that the rest of the day. They are surprisingly soothing, 10/10 highly recommend.

automatic battery operated tealight candles

I thought the most exciting part about these tealights was that they have a remote. Joke’s on me — turns out the most exciting part was that after I turned a set on the first night to run a six hour cycle they automatically repeated that cycle the following night. Cool beans.

badge by Patty