I think this is my favorite Christmas song ever.

Largely because of the repetition of the phrase "see a hippo hero standing there." If I ever start a band we will be called Hippo Heroes. Also yay for Christmas!

Reasons I know I'm getting older.

1. I subscribe to O Magazine. And I love it. I cry at least once an issue. And I always make like ten resolutions I'll never keep by the time I get to the last page. One day I will have that vision board, one day.

2. I find it really relaxing to flip through a nice Land's End or L.L. Bean catalogue. I notice myself stopping to gaze at a chunky, cable-knit turtleneck sweater and thinking, that's pretty and PRACTICAL. I could wear that to a farmer's market, and if I owned that I might start going to farmer's markets! If I get a Land's End catalogue and an Anthropologie in the mail at the same time now, I'm more excited about the Land's End. It's not even that I necessarily like the clothes better. It's just so soothing, all that down and wool and sensible shoes.

3. When I was in Charleston this past weekend, I took a stroll around C of C's campus. I saw a lot of obvious freshman girls, and whereas four years ago, my inner monologue would have gone something like this, "Is that girl wearing tights as pants!? Tights! Why even wear pants. I can see just as much of your butt as if you were naked. And is that other girl wearing pajama pants? That's just as bad. You might just be going to the dining hall, but my God girl, have some self respect,"- now my inner monologue goes more like this "oh girls, oh sweet, sweet girls, my little lambs, you're so lucky to be here in this city at this school, oh how I wish I could just hug you and tell you to hold onto these moments as they pass, and yes I'm tearing up a little, because you're just so young!"

4. I cannot get enough of the show, House Hunters. I can watch boring people tour the insides of boring houses for literally hours and hours on end. And I find it fascinating. Will they love carpet or will they be hard-wood people? Are they granite snobs? Will they pick the big yard that requires a lot of maintenance or the noisy house near the highway? I just don't know. It is the kind of suspense I can handle.

5. I stayed up until 3am last weekend, and I think I'm still recovering from it. How did I do this on a regular basis for years?!

If I buy a seasonal sweater then that will just be the end of youth as I know it.

home, sweet Charleston home

I saw this tree every Christmas for five Christmases, five Decembers I spent in the most beautiful city on this entire planet (and I've seen some cities that could truly boast in the beauty department). And this year even if it's just for two days, I'll get to see it again, go back again to my beautiful Charleston. I thought after two years I might miss this city less, that it might hurt a little less acutely when I think of the white, almost balletic bridge spanning over the Cooper River, of salty, briney, steaming oysters on cold nights, of soft green expanses of tidal marsh in every direction, of spanish moss and cracked bricks, of gas lanterns and sweetgrass baskets, of empty winter beaches and Shem Creek at night, lit up by boats and bars reflecting off of the bottle of beer in your hand. But I don't miss Charleston any less. I don't think I ever could. Because even though Richmond is my home, home, the place I grew up and where all my family is, Charleston is the home my soul chose. And so whenever I am away from my city, homesickness will just be a part of my life, a constant, pressing sense of something gone, something important that I just can't locate.

But this weekend, for two days, I'll be home.