Merry Much Happens

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Speaker 1 The holidays can be a lot, can't they?

Speaker 1 For business owners especially, this time of year can go from cozy to chaotic. Fast.
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Speaker 1 That's shopify.com slash nothing much.

Speaker 1 Welcome to a special episode of Bedtime Stories for Everyone,

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 very

Speaker 1 much happens.

Speaker 1 You feel good,

Speaker 1 and then you fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.

Speaker 1 I write and read all the stories you hear, and nothing much happens.

Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Wittersheim.

Speaker 1 Before we dig in and cozy down,

Speaker 1 let me remind you that all our lovely NMH merch,

Speaker 1 our weighted pillow, and autographed books are available at the link in our notes

Speaker 1 or at nothingmuchhappens.com.

Speaker 1 Tonight, we are bringing you something special.

Speaker 1 An extra long episode of our own holiday favorite staff pics.

Speaker 1 Perfect to play while you sit by the tree, snuggle into your favorite ugly sweater,

Speaker 1 or fall asleep with a belly full of gingerbread. I asked each team member to give me their favorite December episode of the show.

Speaker 1 Is our group chat called Nothing Much Staffins?

Speaker 1 It is.

Speaker 1 And I thought as I told you a bit about what to expect tonight, I could also tell you a little about the lovely people who helped me bring these stories to you.

Speaker 1 First tonight, we have Bob's Pick,

Speaker 1 which is holiday at Weathervane Farm.

Speaker 1 And I think that is proof that Bob

Speaker 1 secretly likes all the puns

Speaker 1 because that story is full of them. Bob is, as you have heard me say many times, our audio engineer,

Speaker 1 which means

Speaker 1 he takes care of every element of how this show sounds. Bob and I met through a mutual friend years ago.

Speaker 1 He was the first person I turned to when I was ready to make my little idea of bedtime stories for grown-ups into a reality.

Speaker 1 He's been there for me and for you

Speaker 1 for every single episode of this show.

Speaker 1 He keeps me grounded and focused,

Speaker 1 and his meme game is top tier.

Speaker 1 He sleeps very well and lives very happily in Ypsilanti, Michigan with his wife, Barbara, and an ever-fluctuating number of humans and animals.

Speaker 1 Next,

Speaker 1 we have Lindsay's pick,

Speaker 1 which is mistletoe and marmalade.

Speaker 1 A delightful story featuring our favorite animals in the village and just a bit of romance.

Speaker 1 Now Lindsay takes care of our website and if you need help with that yourself, I've got a link to her business in our notes.

Speaker 1 She is fantastic at taking a disjointed voice memo from me

Speaker 1 where I'm not even sure what I'm asking for

Speaker 1 and turning it into the absolutely charming sight we now have.

Speaker 1 She and her daughter Briar

Speaker 1 listen together most nights

Speaker 1 and I hope that the memories they're making now

Speaker 1 spending that quiet time together will last a long time.

Speaker 1 Next comes Nate's pick.

Speaker 1 Nate is my manager and in most senses, my business partner. He listens to all my wild dreaming,

Speaker 1 all my silly ideas,

Speaker 1 and then helps me make them actually happen.

Speaker 1 He cares so much about what we are making here.

Speaker 1 Not just that we are helping folks to sleep, but that we are giving comfort and community when many need it most.

Speaker 1 Nate picked Model Trains and Make Believe.

Speaker 1 A sweet story about a visit to an exhibit in downtown on a chilly night.

Speaker 1 Another

Speaker 1 very valuable member of Team NMH is Kaylee.

Speaker 1 She helps us with marketing and design.

Speaker 1 She designed all of our merchandise and remade our logos this year, among many other projects.

Speaker 1 She has a beautiful vision for all the work that I do and she helps me see it.

Speaker 1 She picked the innkeeper's holiday,

Speaker 1 which

Speaker 1 is basically me wanting to write a white Christmas episode. It's a story about the innkeeper and chef

Speaker 1 getting ready for the inn to bustle with guests and merriment.

Speaker 1 I'll slip my own pic in here,

Speaker 1 which is The Tree Farm.

Speaker 1 It's a story about an orphan tree

Speaker 1 finding its way home for the holidays.

Speaker 1 And did you catch the mention of it this year in Grey Cat and Grimoire?

Speaker 1 Now, I saved Megan's pick for last

Speaker 1 because her favorite is Game Night,

Speaker 1 which I also really love.

Speaker 1 And it takes place latest in the month. It captures a moment near New Year's and is full of friends.
and food and fun.

Speaker 1 Megan is in charge of community care at NMH.

Speaker 1 I sometimes call her our fairy pod mother.

Speaker 1 She moderates all our social media pages.

Speaker 1 She is the kind, loving person answering your emails and DMs.

Speaker 1 She can help you with the big feelings that sometimes come up

Speaker 1 and with as much care, also tech support.

Speaker 1 She She does it all.

Speaker 1 So these are the people

Speaker 1 who work so hard to make sure you are tucked in with love and thoughtfulness each night. And I feel very lucky to work with them.

Speaker 1 They all support me

Speaker 1 and help to make what I do more effective and dreamy.

Speaker 1 So from all of us and nothing much happens,

Speaker 1 we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a long winter's nap.

Speaker 1 And if you've made it this far,

Speaker 1 you probably don't need me to say that I'll tell the story twice

Speaker 1 and I'll go a little slower

Speaker 1 the second time through.

Speaker 1 But I just wouldn't feel right if I didn't

Speaker 1 So fluff your pillow.

Speaker 1 I'm imagining you with a candle in a Dickensian holder at your bedside. Blow it out.

Speaker 1 You won't be visited by three spirits tonight, though we do hope you wake

Speaker 1 feeling like a brand new,

Speaker 1 happy person tomorrow.

Speaker 1 Let's all take a deep breath in

Speaker 1 and out

Speaker 1 once more breathe in

Speaker 1 and sigh it out.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 Holiday at Weathervane Farm

Speaker 1 Just hanging the lights would take a day,

Speaker 1 but I didn't mind at all.

Speaker 1 It was a special time of year,

Speaker 1 one that I looked forward to

Speaker 1 through the rainy days of spring,

Speaker 1 the summer heat,

Speaker 1 and especially as the leaves dried and fell

Speaker 1 on the drive up the road at night

Speaker 1 when the farm came into sight

Speaker 1 and you saw the trees wrapped in white lights,

Speaker 1 the branches suddenly picked out against the dark sky,

Speaker 1 the roof line of the house and barn,

Speaker 1 and even the weather vane all glowing

Speaker 1 well

Speaker 1 it made a day of work well worth it

Speaker 1 and besides the beauty

Speaker 1 it was a way to guide visitors

Speaker 1 our farm relied on the community to help us keep our rescued pigs and goats and donkeys in hay and feed for the winter.

Speaker 1 So a few years ago, we hatched an idea to bring them all together.

Speaker 1 It involved lots of twinkle lights, hot cocoa and cider,

Speaker 1 and Santa hats with holes cut out for long floppy ears.

Speaker 1 After all,

Speaker 1 who wouldn't want to drive out to the country on a snowy December evening

Speaker 1 and be wished seasons bleedings

Speaker 1 by all the goats?

Speaker 1 A volunteer knitted giant Christmas sweaters for the donkeys.

Speaker 1 Our oldest and sweetest dog, a slow-moving pug

Speaker 1 who who couldn't see too well, played Santa Paws,

Speaker 1 laying on the cushioned seat of a small sled in the barn,

Speaker 1 where people could tell him what they wanted for Christmas and get their pictures taken.

Speaker 1 He often snoozed through the whole thing.

Speaker 1 We strung mistletoe

Speaker 1 above the pig's enclosure,

Speaker 1 And while no one had actually

Speaker 1 gone in for a kiss,

Speaker 1 they did get quite a lot of belly rubs and treats.

Speaker 1 We found big yoga balls painted like ornaments that the goats chased and tried to jump on.

Speaker 1 Mostly it was an excuse to bring people close to our animals

Speaker 1 and let them be reminded of how beautiful they were,

Speaker 1 how much they enjoyed their lives here,

Speaker 1 where they would never be in danger,

Speaker 1 where they would only know love,

Speaker 1 and that being a part of giving that safety and love

Speaker 1 was an excellent way to celebrate the season.

Speaker 1 Over the years,

Speaker 1 we'd found a few ways to make the trip out to the country even more worthwhile.

Speaker 1 A Christmas tree farm down the road

Speaker 1 began donating wreaths and garlands

Speaker 1 and now it was a regular part of the tradition for lots of people to get their front door wreath from Weathervane Farm.

Speaker 1 We had urns of hot cocoa and trays of doughnuts and Christmas cookies set up around heaters on the front porch of the farmhouse,

Speaker 1 and the tractor hitched to a wagon lined with hay bales

Speaker 1 to take folks out for rides through the snowy fields.

Speaker 1 So today,

Speaker 1 as I took boxes of lights and decorations out to the yard,

Speaker 1 I was already full of holiday spirit.

Speaker 1 I watched the ducks waddling off to the pond,

Speaker 1 which hadn't frozen over yet,

Speaker 1 to spend the day sunbathing on the banks.

Speaker 1 They called to each other as they went,

Speaker 1 and I sang out,

Speaker 1 Honk the Herald Angel Sing.

Speaker 1 I crack me up.

Speaker 1 I looked down at the lights in my hands.

Speaker 1 I knew there was a system for this,

Speaker 1 where to start and a best way to proceed

Speaker 1 without getting the cords all tangled up,

Speaker 1 but I never remembered.

Speaker 1 It was always a process

Speaker 1 of trial and error.

Speaker 1 So I picked an outlet, plugged in a set of lights,

Speaker 1 and started to string them up.

Speaker 1 As I made my way

Speaker 1 around the back side of the barn,

Speaker 1 I looked out at the back pasture.

Speaker 1 We'd had a new addition to Weather Vane a while back.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 two additions actually.

Speaker 1 Our first cow.

Speaker 1 She'd come at the end of the summer,

Speaker 1 in need of some medical care, and skittish at first.

Speaker 1 We'd soon learned she was pregnant.

Speaker 1 And one early morning, a few weeks past,

Speaker 1 we'd found her with a beautiful,

Speaker 1 light brown, fuzzy calf laying in the straw.

Speaker 1 The vet had pronounced them both in good health,

Speaker 1 and him in need of a name.

Speaker 1 I couldn't help myself.

Speaker 1 With his tan blonde fur and round belly,

Speaker 1 he was immediately dubbed Winnie the Moo.

Speaker 1 Winnie and his mom were chewing in the pasture,

Speaker 1 and I stepped one foot up onto the fence rail

Speaker 1 and leaned in to coo at them.

Speaker 1 Mom lifted her head to look at me,

Speaker 1 still unsure about all of us.

Speaker 1 It would take her a while to trust,

Speaker 1 and that was fine.

Speaker 1 Winnie,

Speaker 1 never having known anything but safety,

Speaker 1 came right up to the fence, Mom hurrying behind him to keep watch.

Speaker 1 And she let me reach out

Speaker 1 and give him a scratch along his neck.

Speaker 1 On the nights we had visitors, we'd take them to the smaller barn out back

Speaker 1 where they could bed down in the straw and have a bit of privacy.

Speaker 1 Maybe some Christmas they would want to don their reindeer antlers

Speaker 1 and join in the fun.

Speaker 1 But not this year.

Speaker 1 I went back to my work,

Speaker 1 adding more lights and big candy canes the size of shepherds' hooks that stuck into the ground.

Speaker 1 We'd had a bit of snow the week before,

Speaker 1 but it had melted away within a day or two.

Speaker 1 And I was hoping for more before the festivities began.

Speaker 1 It certainly was getting colder.

Speaker 1 I was keeping warm with my work,

Speaker 1 but I noticed the ducks coming back early from their excursion to nestle in at the barn.

Speaker 1 I heard a horn blowing down the long driveway

Speaker 1 and checked that all the gates were closed

Speaker 1 and walked down the drive to wave at a big truck I recognized.

Speaker 1 The wreaths were here

Speaker 1 the yards and yards of garland

Speaker 1 made from Easter white pine

Speaker 1 with its long soft needles

Speaker 1 And I noticed among all the greenery a tree

Speaker 1 bundled in twine

Speaker 1 stuck in with the rest

Speaker 1 I could hear one of our donkeys braying in the yard, excited by a visitor.

Speaker 1 And I called out as they climbed from the truck,

Speaker 1 Mule-tied greetings.

Speaker 1 I got one of them to chuckle.

Speaker 1 The other just shook his head and said, that's it. I'm taking your present back.

Speaker 1 What present?

Speaker 1 What did you bring me?

Speaker 1 And they hauled the huge Christmas tree out of the open bed and stood it up.

Speaker 1 It must have been twenty feet tall.

Speaker 1 I grinned at them,

Speaker 1 and they grinned back.

Speaker 1 Where should we put it? I laughed.

Speaker 1 Somewhere the goats won't knock it over, he said, with a sigh.

Speaker 1 Mistletoe and Marmalade

Speaker 1 It was our first Christmas together.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 we'd had Christmases as friends, plenty of them,

Speaker 1 and a Christmas in the early days of falling in love.

Speaker 1 But this was our first Christmas as a married couple, as

Speaker 1 a blended family.

Speaker 1 There was me, my ginger cat, marmalade,

Speaker 1 my scruffy brown dog Crumb,

Speaker 1 and now my love, and his sleepy, giant greyhound, Birdie.

Speaker 1 In some ways it felt like we'd been together for ages,

Speaker 1 and in others it all felt brand new.

Speaker 1 I'd known how he took his coffee, no milk, a spoonful of sugar,

Speaker 1 and I knew his taste in music and the story behind the old green corduroy jacket he'd had since college.

Speaker 1 But I was completely surprised by his passion for tabletop RPGs.

Speaker 1 and near encyclopedic knowledge of the history and flavor profiles of many, many varieties of chilies.

Speaker 1 I think I had surprised him too.

Speaker 1 When I'd replaced the sconces in the bedroom with some vintage ones I'd rebuilt and rewired.

Speaker 1 He joyfully flicked the switch off and on several times,

Speaker 1 admitting that this was well above his skill set

Speaker 1 and that it seemed like magic to him.

Speaker 1 I had a feeling that this was one of the joys of loving someone for a long time,

Speaker 1 realizing that there was always more to learn about them.

Speaker 1 The animals had also learned more.

Speaker 1 For example, that Birdie liked to graze and didn't usually eat his breakfast all at once.

Speaker 1 Once Crum realized there was a second breakfast available, just one bowl over, he'd scarf his own

Speaker 1 and then dive into Birdie's.

Speaker 1 This had led to a somewhat complicated morning routine, involving shoeing Crumb out into the yard as soon as he'd finished his last kibble

Speaker 1 and convincing Bird to go on and clean his plate.

Speaker 1 But most days we managed it.

Speaker 1 Marmalade, as usual, took it all in stride.

Speaker 1 She had priorities.

Speaker 1 She needed to lay on her perch and watch the birds at the feeder.

Speaker 1 She needed several naps to bathe her paws and face

Speaker 1 and have some uninterrupted one-on-one time with me

Speaker 1 and whether there was one dog chasing his tail or two while she did it, she didn't much care.

Speaker 1 I knew some of her disaffected nature was put on.

Speaker 1 She liked to appear a bit above her brothers.

Speaker 1 But I'd also seen her bathe both of their faces when they'd come back from their checkups at the vet.

Speaker 1 And on movie night, her favorite spot was right between them,

Speaker 1 her chin resting on Bird's back,

Speaker 1 and her back paw stretched out to touch Crum's belly.

Speaker 1 We were

Speaker 1 a happy little pack heading into the holidays,

Speaker 1 and decorating had been a good deal of fun for all of us.

Speaker 1 I wasn't a very organized person,

Speaker 1 so

Speaker 1 when it came time to gather together all the bulbs and strands of light and little houses for the Christmas village,

Speaker 1 we'd had to troop up to the attic,

Speaker 1 down into the basement,

Speaker 1 root through the garage,

Speaker 1 and dig under the bed.

Speaker 1 But eventually we found nearly everything

Speaker 1 our tree went up in the living room right in front of the big picture window

Speaker 1 where it could be seen from the street

Speaker 1 there was a moment of contention while we debated white lights versus colored lights but luckily

Speaker 1 My sweetheart realized I'd made a very convincing argument and my pick were strung up.

Speaker 1 As we hung up bulbs and ornaments, some from my collection and some from his,

Speaker 1 we told the stories of them.

Speaker 1 Here was the bulb my mom had been gifted the year I was born,

Speaker 1 with the date still etched on the side, and the crack that had been carefully glued

Speaker 1 after I'd pulled the tree down when I was three.

Speaker 1 Here was the ornament made of popsicle sticks and cotton balls he'd glued together in kindergarten,

Speaker 1 unrecognizable

Speaker 1 as any particular thing,

Speaker 1 but cherished just the same.

Speaker 1 As we decorated,

Speaker 1 the animals watched a bit nervously from their beds.

Speaker 1 Boxes were often regarded with suspicion by all of them.

Speaker 1 Things were either coming in or going out,

Speaker 1 and they weren't sure they approved of either.

Speaker 1 Finally, Marmalade, bravest of the three,

Speaker 1 tiptoed up to the tree

Speaker 1 and reached a paw out

Speaker 1 toward a green glass bulb.

Speaker 1 I could see her curious eyes reflected in the surface,

Speaker 1 and whether she broke the bulb or not,

Speaker 1 I thought I was likely to remember this moment for years to come.

Speaker 1 Her wonder at it,

Speaker 1 the glow of the tree lights through the fur of her ears.

Speaker 1 She batted it experimentally,

Speaker 1 and I squatted down beside her and replaced it with a felted mouse on skis.

Speaker 1 She reached out again,

Speaker 1 batting at it,

Speaker 1 and watching the branch bounce as it was buffeted.

Speaker 1 I gave up and just unhooked the mouse and tossed it for her.

Speaker 1 She caught it and kicked it under the couch where she could just barely fit, her hind legs and tail sticking out as she wrestled with her new toy.

Speaker 1 We decided to move anything breakable up to the higher branches.

Speaker 1 Crumb came closer to sniff at the boxes and tilt his head as I wound the key on the bottom of a snow globe

Speaker 1 and tipped it up in front of him.

Speaker 1 A tinny version of the Christmas song played as he watched the suspended snowflakes slowly drift down

Speaker 1 over a little house not so different from our own.

Speaker 1 I hummed along,

Speaker 1 reached out to scratch under his chin.

Speaker 1 To pups from one to ninety-two.

Speaker 1 Though it's been said many times, many ways,

Speaker 1 Meowie Christmas

Speaker 1 to you.

Speaker 1 I heard a chuckle from the other room

Speaker 1 and wondered if my appreciation for bad puns had come as a surprise, like my electrical handyman skills had.

Speaker 1 I heard him bustling around in the kitchen, a drawer opening, and wondered if he was starting dinner.

Speaker 1 I set the snow globe down in front of Crumb, who got down on his belly and pressed his nose to the glass,

Speaker 1 still watching the snow fall.

Speaker 1 Bluebird stood and stretched beside the couch,

Speaker 1 and I called him over.

Speaker 1 He sat down beside me, and I put my arm around him,

Speaker 1 and we looked up at our beautiful tree.

Speaker 1 I thought it might be a little chilly for him,

Speaker 1 and I reached for one of his sweaters in a box.

Speaker 1 It was an ugly Christmas sweater,

Speaker 1 with reindeer and baubles,

Speaker 1 and candy canes stitched on.

Speaker 1 I laughed as I pulled it over his head.

Speaker 1 He looked at me with consternation and despair, but I told him at least I wasn't making him wear his antlers yet.

Speaker 1 Come see Bertie in his sweater, I called.

Speaker 1 He peeked out from the kitchen with something in his hand.

Speaker 1 He came closer and presented it to me, some leaves and red berries, tied together with the striped twine we saved from the bakery boxes.

Speaker 1 He squatted down beside me and whispered,

Speaker 1 It's mistletoe.

Speaker 1 I'm pretty sure these are bay leaves from the spice drawer.

Speaker 1 Hmm.

Speaker 1 They may still work, though.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 they probably do

Speaker 1 model trains and make believe

Speaker 1 there is something about this season

Speaker 1 and the month of December in particular

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 becoming a kid again

Speaker 1 slipping into that

Speaker 1 easily delighted state

Speaker 1 is more effortless

Speaker 1 and welcome

Speaker 1 than at any other time of year.

Speaker 1 Even the bah humbuggliest among us

Speaker 1 will at some point look up at a street light

Speaker 1 and watch the halo of snowflakes circling around it

Speaker 1 or see a lit tree

Speaker 1 through a frosted window,

Speaker 1 or hear a carol

Speaker 1 plunked out on a piano

Speaker 1 in someone's front room,

Speaker 1 and feel a shiver of excitement and warmth,

Speaker 1 just like they felt when they were young.

Speaker 1 My own bah humbug quotient being

Speaker 1 naturally quite low to begin with,

Speaker 1 I found myself grinning at every shop window display,

Speaker 1 savoring each gingerbread cookie bought from the bakery,

Speaker 1 and taking deep breaths as I passed the Christmas tree lot

Speaker 1 to drink up the scents of fresh sap

Speaker 1 and pine.

Speaker 1 So when I saw that there would be a model railroad display

Speaker 1 in the lobby of the movie theater downtown,

Speaker 1 I knew right away

Speaker 1 not just that I would attend,

Speaker 1 but that I would be a repeat visitor.

Speaker 1 I love

Speaker 1 little things,

Speaker 1 miniature things,

Speaker 1 the tiny Christmas villages that nestle under trees,

Speaker 1 doll houses with their Lilliputian furnishings,

Speaker 1 and, of course, model trains.

Speaker 1 I decided to go,

Speaker 1 at least for the first time, by myself,

Speaker 1 so I could take all the time I wanted

Speaker 1 to just

Speaker 1 look.

Speaker 1 I learned a long time ago

Speaker 1 that when the days are cold and dark,

Speaker 1 you have to look for the things that can be enjoyed

Speaker 1 and lean in deliberately.

Speaker 1 So I parked at the park

Speaker 1 and came the long way through town

Speaker 1 to admire the lights strung over the street.

Speaker 1 And by the time I arrived at the theater,

Speaker 1 my cheeks were stung with cold,

Speaker 1 and stepping into their old-fashioned lobby, felt wonderfully warm.

Speaker 1 They had thick red carpets,

Speaker 1 brass fixtures,

Speaker 1 and a concession stand with a shining walnut bar

Speaker 1 that was as old as the building.

Speaker 1 The smell of popcorn washed over me,

Speaker 1 and I bought myself a box to enjoy while I browsed.

Speaker 1 It came in the same red and white striped carton I'd been buying since my very first big screen movie.

Speaker 1 See, I was already closer to my younger self.

Speaker 1 Then the trains. What fun.

Speaker 1 The tracks snaked through the snowy landscapes, set across a dozen platforms,

Speaker 1 spanning nearly the full width of the lobby.

Speaker 1 I started at the train station,

Speaker 1 looking down with my bird's eye view,

Speaker 1 and saw that there were four separate tracks

Speaker 1 coming in behind the depot,

Speaker 1 along platforms bustling with tiny people.

Speaker 1 The station master was there,

Speaker 1 a small arm raised, and a whistle in her mouth.

Speaker 1 And I imagined the sounds I would have heard

Speaker 1 if I were there beside her.

Speaker 1 The train engines,

Speaker 1 people calling hello and goodbye,

Speaker 1 be careful and welcome home.

Speaker 1 The peal of locomotive bells,

Speaker 1 rustling overcoats, shoes clapping against the platform boards,

Speaker 1 bits of gossip as scarves were tossed around necks

Speaker 1 and gloves pulled over fingers.

Speaker 1 I hadn't even seen a train travel an inch yet,

Speaker 1 and I was already having a wonderful time.

Speaker 1 Beyond the depot was a small town.

Speaker 1 And while it wasn't exactly our own little village,

Speaker 1 it was a sort of tribute to it.

Speaker 1 There was a movie theater

Speaker 1 showing Miracle on Thirty Fourth Street, per their marquee.

Speaker 1 the sidewalks were heaped with snow just like our own

Speaker 1 and there were cars stopped at the streetlights

Speaker 1 with fir trees tied to their roofs

Speaker 1 i leaned down to look into the shops

Speaker 1 where people were buying toys

Speaker 1 and standing on street corners with rapt presents under their arms

Speaker 1 All this time,

Speaker 1 the trains hadn't been running.

Speaker 1 Maybe to let the onlookers

Speaker 1 take in all the details first,

Speaker 1 or maybe because they were just running on the schedule

Speaker 1 set by the tiny station master.

Speaker 1 Either way,

Speaker 1 with a whistle and a whirr,

Speaker 1 they all came to life and began to travel over the tracks.

Speaker 1 I picked one to follow with my eyes

Speaker 1 and saw a bright red engine leave the station

Speaker 1 with several cars full of passengers.

Speaker 1 The lights in the lobby dimmed,

Speaker 1 and the lights in the trains grew brighter.

Speaker 1 The Christmas tree

Speaker 1 in their tiny town square glowed with colored bulbs.

Speaker 1 Another locomotive caught my eye,

Speaker 1 this one a shiny black.

Speaker 1 And as it stopped to let a freight train chug across its tracks,

Speaker 1 I leaned down

Speaker 1 and saw their dining car lit up

Speaker 1 and full of passengers and servers.

Speaker 1 White tablecloths were spread over the tables

Speaker 1 and meals and drinks laid out.

Speaker 1 Again I imagined myself there.

Speaker 1 What might I order?

Speaker 1 Or would I be the bartender, shaking up a cocktail behind the bar

Speaker 1 as the snowy land slipped past?

Speaker 1 The freight train cleared the tracks.

Speaker 1 The switch was thrown and the diners sped off.

Speaker 1 I walked around the platform

Speaker 1 to take in another angle

Speaker 1 and saw a forest green engine pulling its cars up a steep mountain path.

Speaker 1 Beside the tracks were snow-covered trees and ice-capped peaks

Speaker 1 and a tunnel cut through the rock.

Speaker 1 I thought of the person who must have made this little world,

Speaker 1 the storytelling and drama they were able to build into it.

Speaker 1 A thing like this must have taken hours and hours.

Speaker 1 And I felt quite lucky to get to experience it at all.

Speaker 1 It's a thing I love about humans

Speaker 1 when they find a passion

Speaker 1 and put themselves into it.

Speaker 1 The gardener who knows the Latin names for all the plants in their greenhouse.

Speaker 1 The amateur astronomer watching for a comet in the quiet of early morning.

Speaker 1 Knitters and potters and model railroad enthusiasts.

Speaker 1 Isn't it just a different version

Speaker 1 of the little kid who knows every kind of dinosaur?

Speaker 1 When I was in college, there was a storefront between the bagel shop I stopped at most every morning

Speaker 1 and my first class of the day.

Speaker 1 In that shop, a man with silver hair made fine suits by hand,

Speaker 1 and I often peered in to watch him, dressed neatly in one of his own suits,

Speaker 1 as he ironed fabric and marked it with chalk.

Speaker 1 Years later, I still thought of him often.

Speaker 1 His work was clearly a passion,

Speaker 1 and he did it with such care and skill.

Speaker 1 The people who wore his suits must have felt like they were

Speaker 1 walking around in a work of art.

Speaker 1 My box of popcorn was nearly empty,

Speaker 1 and remembering that the trains would be on display all month,

Speaker 1 I pulled my hat tight over my ears

Speaker 1 and got ready to head back into the night.

Speaker 1 I pretended I was stepping off a train

Speaker 1 rather than out of a theater.

Speaker 1 And as I strolled through town,

Speaker 1 I made up a story

Speaker 1 about coming home for the holidays.

Speaker 1 My first time back in my hometown after a while away,

Speaker 1 and who might be waiting for me,

Speaker 1 caring a lot about something,

Speaker 1 finding a passion,

Speaker 1 imagining,

Speaker 1 telling stories and playing pretend.

Speaker 1 I would never be too grown up for any of it.

Speaker 1 The Innkeeper's Holiday

Speaker 1 For most of the winter season, the inn sits quiet and dark.

Speaker 1 There might be a light on in one of the rooms on the top floor or in the library,

Speaker 1 as the innkeeper caught up on her rest and relaxation.

Speaker 1 She cooked small meals for herself down in the kitchen

Speaker 1 and shoveled just enough of the front front drive to get in and out.

Speaker 1 She watched from the back porch as the lake froze over,

Speaker 1 and answered the phone when it rang,

Speaker 1 with guests calling to book their summer stays.

Speaker 1 But starting in the middle of December, the great house began to light up.

Speaker 1 Strands of twinkle lights were wound around the fence posts in the drive

Speaker 1 and along the roof lines and porch rails.

Speaker 1 The window boxes were stuffed with pine boughs and holly berries and tall dried pine cones.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper thought that there was something reminiscent of a honeycomb in their shape as she tucked them into place.

Speaker 1 In the attic she found boxes of glass ornaments and pretty ceramic reindeer that looked like they'd been sculpted by hand.

Speaker 1 She'd been pushing the attic stairs back up into place

Speaker 1 when she heard a car door slam from the drive.

Speaker 1 She hurried to the window in the staircase and saw Chef standing on the cobblestones looking up at her.

Speaker 1 She waved and Chef waved back

Speaker 1 and popped open the hatchback on their car,

Speaker 1 showing the crates of fresh food and cases of champagne they'd brought.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper smiled wide and clapped her hands like a child.

Speaker 1 She liked having the place to herself for a while

Speaker 1 to read her books and make plans for next summer.

Speaker 1 But she was ready for a bit of company, for the house to hum with life again,

Speaker 1 for the good scents of coffee cake and scones to rise up from the kitchen,

Speaker 1 and for guests to come and celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another.

Speaker 1 She set her boxes of decorations down at the foot of the staircase

Speaker 1 and pulled her overcoat from the hook in the front office

Speaker 1 and went out to help Chef with the food.

Speaker 1 They embraced in the cold air and caught up as they carried the food and wine down the long hallway and into the kitchen.

Speaker 1 Chef had been traveling as they always did during the off-season,

Speaker 1 some of it for rest and vacation,

Speaker 1 and some to cook in other kitchens.

Speaker 1 They'd been somewhere sunny and warm, and after the holidays were headed to a ski chalet for the rest of the winter.

Speaker 1 In the boxes were jars of beautiful green olives. packets of pine nuts, bags of red onions, and sleeves of fancy crisp crackers.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper recognized the ingredients for Chef's fancy green olive pate

Speaker 1 that they served as past appetizers for their guests.

Speaker 1 There were lots of other things, too.

Speaker 1 They'd be making a few big meals and afternoon teas

Speaker 1 and breakfast over the week or so that the inn was full.

Speaker 1 Chef would make a gingerbread inn that would sit on the entryway table

Speaker 1 and plates of their dark chocolate truffles with flakes of sea salt on top.

Speaker 1 She left Chef to their work and got back to decorating.

Speaker 1 She was dusting the reindeer and setting them in a scene on the long mantle above the fireplace when she realized music would make her work a little merrier.

Speaker 1 They had a fancy sound system with speakers in all the common rooms,

Speaker 1 but she also kept a turntable on the desk by the window.

Speaker 1 And in the boxes she'd brought down were a few holiday albums in cardboard sleeves.

Speaker 1 She took one out, holding it carefully along its edges with her fingertips,

Speaker 1 and spun it to read the list of songs on each side.

Speaker 1 They were old, jazzy versions, sung by crooners and sirens,

Speaker 1 and she set it on the player and flipped the switch to start it turning.

Speaker 1 She laid the needle carefully into the groove

Speaker 1 and listened to the piano and horns and jingle bells as she looked at the cover art.

Speaker 1 By the afternoon, the tables and mantles were done up,

Speaker 1 the wreath was on the front door,

Speaker 1 and the guest rooms had been made ready with fresh sheets and towels

Speaker 1 and small table-top ceramic trees that lit up with a switch

Speaker 1 and made the rooms glow with soft colours.

Speaker 1 She shared a plate of sandwiches with Cheff in the kitchen, and they talked through the menus.

Speaker 1 The next day guests would begin to arrive, and they were booked full for the holiday.

Speaker 1 What's left? Chef asked.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper took a long drink of her tea and said,

Speaker 1 Just the tree.

Speaker 1 In years past they'd had it in different spots,

Speaker 1 sometimes in the front hall, to greet guests as they arrived,

Speaker 1 and sometimes on the back porch,

Speaker 1 where they served champagne and looked out at the houses across the lake, lit up with holiday lights.

Speaker 1 But this year they were doing something different.

Speaker 1 They had been working for months to restore the ballroom on the second floor.

Speaker 1 There had been a leak in the ceiling that had damaged the plaster,

Speaker 1 and there had been many missing tiles in the parquet floor.

Speaker 1 The light fixtures had needed rewiring,

Speaker 1 and the whole space needed fresh paint, new curtains and furnishings.

Speaker 1 Now

Speaker 1 it was ready.

Speaker 1 The ceiling patched and painted,

Speaker 1 glowing filament bulbs in the sconces,

Speaker 1 and a charming, if slightly mismatched, collection of settees and side tables clustered in groups.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper thought it would make the perfect spot for the Christmas tree,

Speaker 1 for guests to gather to share gifts and wishes for peace on earth,

Speaker 1 and then, when the year ended,

Speaker 1 to clink champagne glasses

Speaker 1 and have a midnight kiss.

Speaker 1 She climbed the stairs to check the space

Speaker 1 and found the freshly polished floors glowing

Speaker 1 and the candles on the window sills ready to be lit.

Speaker 1 She had the boxes of ornaments and many, many strings of light ready for the tree.

Speaker 1 From one window, she could see the lake,

Speaker 1 frozen for a dozen feet at the shore,

Speaker 1 and with dark, rippling water further out.

Speaker 1 There were still ducks,

Speaker 1 a dozen or more, with dark green and grey feathers,

Speaker 1 and one white farm duck among them.

Speaker 1 And she smiled

Speaker 1 and said in a whisper that fogged the glass,

Speaker 1 found family.

Speaker 1 It's how she felt too

Speaker 1 here with the house,

Speaker 1 with Chef and the guests who'd be arriving soon.

Speaker 1 She crossed the room and looked out another window and saw

Speaker 1 a big truck with a tall Norway spruce in its bed trundling down the drive, beeping its horn.

Speaker 1 The Tree Farm

Speaker 1 With just a week till Christmas,

Speaker 1 there hadn't been many customers coming down the long gravel two track to the farm today.

Speaker 1 Most folks had their tree already,

Speaker 1 and while we might get a few stragglers here and there,

Speaker 1 some Kringle come lately's as we called them,

Speaker 1 we were wrapping up for the year in little ways all over the farm.

Speaker 1 Two of our three tractors that pulled trailers lined with hay bales,

Speaker 1 usually full of customers, out into the fields to find their trees,

Speaker 1 were now settled into the barn, swept clean, and tucked in for the rest of the winter.

Speaker 1 The last box of candy canes had been opened and hung on the branches of the giant tree in the shop,

Speaker 1 and we didn't anticipate needing any more this season.

Speaker 1 A few of our workers had taken their pay and their stocking from the long mantle, full of tips and treats,

Speaker 1 and wished us all a happy holiday and gotten on the road, headed home.

Speaker 1 There were just a few of us left,

Speaker 1 as the sun came closer to setting

Speaker 1 and the night air turned cold.

Speaker 1 It had been a sunny day,

Speaker 1 and in the bright light, busy with loading trees into pick-up trucks

Speaker 1 or onto car roofs,

Speaker 1 I'd shed my coat, warmed as much by my efforts as by the merry mood around me.

Speaker 1 But now I pulled it back on and zipped it up to my nose.

Speaker 1 I found my hat in the pocket and drew it firmly over my ears.

Speaker 1 I wasn't ready to go home yet.

Speaker 1 The farm is really beautiful at night.

Speaker 1 Along the drive are strings of lights, draped on poles wrapped to look like candy canes.

Speaker 1 And near the barn and shop, everything is lit.

Speaker 1 Candles in every window, wreaths on every door.

Speaker 1 We have warming stations, heaters with their welcoming glow.

Speaker 1 All of it really cheerful and lovely, but...

Speaker 1 My favorite spot was out in the open fields, under the stars,

Speaker 1 where the moonlight reflected on the snow,

Speaker 1 and the only sound

Speaker 1 was of the crunch of your boots

Speaker 1 and your own breath.

Speaker 1 It was my job each night to make one last round with the tractor through the fields

Speaker 1 to make sure all of the customers had been collected,

Speaker 1 no villager left behind.

Speaker 1 And now that I was better bundled, I set out.

Speaker 1 We had a half-dozen fields that were ready for cutting, and many, many more planted for the future.

Speaker 1 It was a careful system,

Speaker 1 rotating the fields so that the soil could rest,

Speaker 1 so that the trees would have time and space to grow.

Speaker 1 And as I rolled through them, I felt a deep peace settle into me.

Speaker 1 The night air was like peppermint in my nostrils, making me feel awake

Speaker 1 and attuned to the trees and the stars.

Speaker 1 I had read once that the minerals in our bones

Speaker 1 had been born in the belly of a star,

Speaker 1 light years away and ages ago

Speaker 1 And when I rode through the fields at night and looked up

Speaker 1 I did feel my place

Speaker 1 I was a child of the universe,

Speaker 1 the same as the pine trees and the deer bedded down in their dens.

Speaker 1 I stopped on the edge of the Douglas firs,

Speaker 1 turned off the engine,

Speaker 1 and reached for my thermos.

Speaker 1 When I twisted off the top, steam, sweet and spicy, rose up and rippled in the air.

Speaker 1 I poured my hot cider, spiced with cinnamon, into the thermos mug

Speaker 1 and wrapped my hands around it.

Speaker 1 I leaned back in the tractor seat

Speaker 1 and propped my feet unprofessionally on the dash.

Speaker 1 For a few minutes, I just sat and sipped

Speaker 1 and listened

Speaker 1 and looked.

Speaker 1 The sky was cloudless.

Speaker 1 There would be no snowfall tonight

Speaker 1 and there was only the faintest bit of wind stirring the treetops.

Speaker 1 When I'd had that last sip of cider from my cup,

Speaker 1 I closed up my thermos

Speaker 1 and started the tractor

Speaker 1 to finish the loop back to the shop.

Speaker 1 Just as I came over the slight rise near the Nordman firs,

Speaker 1 I spotted a tree

Speaker 1 cut and left behind near the trail.

Speaker 1 I clicked my tongue and shook my head.

Speaker 1 It doesn't happen often.

Speaker 1 But every once in a while, someone will cut a tree

Speaker 1 and change their mind.

Speaker 1 Spot a better one

Speaker 1 and leave the first behind.

Speaker 1 We ask our guests not to do this, but

Speaker 1 it happens.

Speaker 1 I stopped the tractor and jumped down.

Speaker 1 I stood the tree up on its cut end and looked at it.

Speaker 1 A perfectly handsome tree.

Speaker 1 Why anyone would have left it was beyond me.

Speaker 1 I loaded it onto the trailer and climbed back in.

Speaker 1 A few minutes later, I was turning in toward the barn

Speaker 1 when I spotted headlights coming slowly down the drive.

Speaker 1 I stepped down from the tractor and pulled my gloves on, going to meet them.

Speaker 1 The car stopped a few yards from the shop, and a man stepped out.

Speaker 1 He had a worried look about him, his hands crammed in his pockets,

Speaker 1 and he hurried to the shop door and found it locked.

Speaker 1 Hello, I called out to him.

Speaker 1 He turned toward me, shielding his eyes from the bright strings of Christmas lights.

Speaker 1 Hello, he called back.

Speaker 1 Looks like I've missed the

Speaker 1 well,

Speaker 1 not the boat, but maybe the sleigh.

Speaker 1 I chuckled and strolled into the pool of light.

Speaker 1 Nearly, but as long as I'm here, I might be able to help.

Speaker 1 Need a tree?

Speaker 1 He sighed and smiled gratefully. Yes,

Speaker 1 I meant to make it out earlier.

Speaker 1 But work kept me late, and I just don't want to go home one more day without one.

Speaker 1 I'll take any tree you've got.

Speaker 1 Must be kismet.

Speaker 1 I just found an orphan tree in the field.

Speaker 1 I pulled the tree down from the trailer and stood it for him beside the baler.

Speaker 1 The piny scent was thick in the air, and I saw his face soften as he looked at it.

Speaker 1 That's just the kind we had when I was a kid. It smells just the same.

Speaker 1 Well then, I thought someone had left it behind, but now I guess

Speaker 1 they'd cut it for you. They must have known you'd be late and needed it.

Speaker 1 His eyes brimmed, and he bent his head, feeling around in his pockets for his wallet.

Speaker 1 The shop was closed, our register shut down for the day.

Speaker 1 And as he drew out a card, I reached for the bailing twine

Speaker 1 to tie the tree to his roof. Ah, never mind, I said.

Speaker 1 Just pass it along, okay?

Speaker 1 Before the year is out.

Speaker 1 Deal?

Speaker 1 He helped me hoist the tree up onto his car and caught the edge of the twine as I tossed it.

Speaker 1 Deal.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 Merry Christmas.

Speaker 1 Game night.

Speaker 1 The tree was still up,

Speaker 1 and we still had plates of cookies, decorated with red and green icing,

Speaker 1 and plenty of leftover holiday cheer.

Speaker 1 And while the days before the 25th were full of that lovely anticipation that only happens once a year,

Speaker 1 the days immediately after felt like a deep sigh of relaxation.

Speaker 1 Everything was done,

Speaker 1 and now we could just enjoy a bit of time before we put our ducks in a row for the coming year.

Speaker 1 A few years back, we'd started a tradition for the thirty-first,

Speaker 1 and it had stuck.

Speaker 1 We'd had our share of glamorous New Year's Eves,

Speaker 1 nights out, dancing into the wee hours, coming home with confetti in our hair and crumpled noise makers in the pockets of our coats.

Speaker 1 At some point, that kind of celebration had slipped down the other side of the hill and gone from exciting to exhausting.

Speaker 1 And that's when we started game night.

Speaker 1 We'd invite half a dozen or so friends, make a big buffet of snacks,

Speaker 1 and clear off the kitchen table to make space for fun.

Speaker 1 Remember fun?

Speaker 1 When we were kids, we woke each day with a deep-seated need

Speaker 1 and an insatiable appetite for it.

Speaker 1 We sought it out and often found it a hundred times a day.

Speaker 1 We made up games in an instant,

Speaker 1 played them until we thought up a better one, and then played that.

Speaker 1 Game night always reminded me how vital fun was.

Speaker 1 How good it felt to laugh until my cheeks hurt.

Speaker 1 And now,

Speaker 1 instead of waking up bleary-eyed and headachy on New Year's Day,

Speaker 1 I was guaranteed to wake up feeling like a kid again.

Speaker 1 We had a bit of cleaning up to do before our guests arrived,

Speaker 1 and we divvied up the jobs.

Speaker 1 There was firewood to be brought in,

Speaker 1 food to prepare,

Speaker 1 and a few scraps of wrapping paper still kicking around under the sofa in the living room to be picked up.

Speaker 1 I volunteered for all kitchen-related chores and left my better half to attend to the rest.

Speaker 1 I always opted to be in the kitchen if I could.

Speaker 1 It never felt like work to me.

Speaker 1 Not when I could turn on some music, dance around in my socks, and chop and saute,

Speaker 1 and wind up with something delicious at the end.

Speaker 1 I started by making a soup, something thick and hearty for a cold December night.

Speaker 1 I took a couple leeks from the fridge.

Speaker 1 I thought they looked like green onions that had grown up and lived adult lives now.

Speaker 1 I sliced them into coins and dropped them into the colander to rinse in the sink.

Speaker 1 Leeks are grown in sandy soil and need to be washed carefully before they're cooked.

Speaker 1 Some might find that a pain,

Speaker 1 but I liked all the small, fiddly parts of cooking,

Speaker 1 dicing things into even pieces,

Speaker 1 snipping herbs from stems,

Speaker 1 and even washing leeks.

Speaker 1 Once they were squeaky clean, I sauteed them in the bottom of a giant soup pot

Speaker 1 with olive oil and a pinch of salt.

Speaker 1 While they cooked down, I overturned a bag of golden potatoes onto the counter and started peeling and chopping.

Speaker 1 Then, in with the potatoes and broth and fresh thyme and black pepper.

Speaker 1 I had a grandfather who believed wholeheartedly in the healing properties of black pepper,

Speaker 1 and I always added an extra pinch for him.

Speaker 1 I set the soup to simmer away

Speaker 1 and turned to the next task.

Speaker 1 The soup would be perfect to serve up in cups between rounds.

Speaker 1 But we also needed finger foods that wouldn't interrupt our all-important play.

Speaker 1 For this, I made Muhammara,

Speaker 1 a delicious dip of Syrian origin that felt pretty fancy, but came together in a flash.

Speaker 1 It was made with roasted red peppers, walnuts, breadcrumbs, chili flakes, and pomegranate molasses, all blended together in my food processor.

Speaker 1 It was a beautiful, rich red color.

Speaker 1 And I spooned it into a few bowls which I could set around the table, surrounded by fresh veggies and toasted flatbread.

Speaker 1 The soup was nearly ready,

Speaker 1 and our friends were expected soon, and I had just one more thing to make.

Speaker 1 It was a treat, a bit rich in flavor, but one of those snacks that folks just can't leave alone.

Speaker 1 Truffle popcorn.

Speaker 1 I popped a huge pot of popcorn,

Speaker 1 and when the kernels stopped pinging in the pan,

Speaker 1 I tipped all the fluffy hot pieces into a big brown paper bag.

Speaker 1 I drizzled truffle oil in a tiny stream over the corn and added a good bit of pink salt.

Speaker 1 Then I folded the top of the bag up and shook it for all I was worth.

Speaker 1 I heard the fire crackling in the grate,

Speaker 1 and had a feeling I was being watched in my dance of the truffle corn fairy.

Speaker 1 But I didn't mind.

Speaker 1 How's that fire going?

Speaker 1 I called out.

Speaker 1 I just heard a laugh come back at me.

Speaker 1 I tipped the popcorn into a few bowls

Speaker 1 and set them out with a muhammara.

Speaker 1 I stuck a few stacks of napkins around the place and turned on some music.

Speaker 1 I had a few bottles of bubbly for toasting the new year.

Speaker 1 I pushed open the door from the kitchen out to the back yard and stuck them neck deep into the nearest snow drift.

Speaker 1 This is a handy part of living somewhere with plenty of snow.

Speaker 1 Any snow bank can be an extension of your refrigerator.

Speaker 1 As I was coming back in to stir the soup, I heard a friendly knock and the jingle bells on the front door ringing as our friends began to pile in.

Speaker 1 Oh, the loveliness of having friends, dear and old enough, to treat your home as their own

Speaker 1 As soon as coats were hung up and hugs exchanged, folks were reaching into cupboards for glasses,

Speaker 1 knowing just where the corkscrew and bottle openers were, and setting themselves down at the table,

Speaker 1 rolling up their sleeves and getting ready to play.

Speaker 1 I turned off the soup and set the lid ajar to let it cool

Speaker 1 and poured myself a glass of something.

Speaker 1 The popcorn was disappearing just like I knew it would,

Speaker 1 and everyone wanted to know what its secret ingredient was.

Speaker 1 But I was stubborn about sharing.

Speaker 1 It's special to my house.

Speaker 1 You'll have to come here when you crave it, I finally said,

Speaker 1 and set down a few board game boxes and decks of cards on the table

Speaker 1 as we debated what we'd play tonight.

Speaker 1 Last game night, I had taught them a card game that my family had played when I was young.

Speaker 1 And once everyone had caught on to its breakneck pace, we couldn't quit till nearly midnight.

Speaker 1 We'd called it nutsy or sometimes peanuts.

Speaker 1 But I'd heard it go by a dozen funny names, including the racing canfield, peanuts pounce, scramble, squeal, and scrooge.

Speaker 1 We all agreed after last time we had a few scores to settle,

Speaker 1 and decided to make it another night of cards.

Speaker 1 We cleared away the boxes and passed around decks of cards, and all started to shuffle.

Speaker 1 Card games had been a big deal in my family.

Speaker 1 I knew how to shuffle cards like a blackjack dealer by the time I was seven years old.

Speaker 1 And as I watched my friends mix and count out the first thirteen of each deck and pass them over to the person on their left,

Speaker 1 I had a strong memory

Speaker 1 of being the littlest one at the table with all my aunts and uncles.

Speaker 1 My feet not yet touching the ground as we set up our hands and waited with excitement for someone to shout, Go!

Speaker 1 Then the sounds of flipping cards, cards slapped onto the table, and grown-ups elbowing each other out of the way to get that seven of spades onto the six.

Speaker 1 Now

Speaker 1 to be in my own home, my own family of friends, the smell of the popcorn and soup in the air,

Speaker 1 and all of us grinning around the table at each other, drumming our fingers and waiting to turn that first card.

Speaker 1 I guessed we'd probably forget to count down at midnight.

Speaker 1 Too busy laughing. and playing,

Speaker 1 and then, at some point, run out into the snow to retrieve the champagne.

Speaker 1 We'd raise our glasses and make a resolution.

Speaker 1 This year,

Speaker 1 more fun.

Speaker 1 Holiday at Weathervane Farm.

Speaker 1 Just hanging the lights would take a day.

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 I didn't mind at all.

Speaker 1 It was a special time of year

Speaker 1 one that I looked forward to

Speaker 1 through the rainy days of spring,

Speaker 1 the summer heat,

Speaker 1 and especially as the leaves dried and fell

Speaker 1 on the drive up the road at night,

Speaker 1 when the farm came into sight,

Speaker 1 and you saw the trees wrapped in white lights,

Speaker 1 their branches suddenly picked out against the dark sky,

Speaker 1 the roof line of the house and barn,

Speaker 1 and even the weather vane,

Speaker 1 all glowing.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 it made a day of work well worth it.

Speaker 1 And besides the beauty,

Speaker 1 it was a way to guide visitors.

Speaker 1 Our farm relied on the community

Speaker 1 to help us

Speaker 1 keep our rescued pigs and goats and donkeys

Speaker 1 in hay and feed for the winter

Speaker 1 so a few years ago

Speaker 1 we hatched an idea

Speaker 1 to bring them all together

Speaker 1 it involved lots of twinkle lights, hot cocoa and cider,

Speaker 1 and Santa hats with holes cut out

Speaker 1 for long floppy ears.

Speaker 1 After all, who wouldn't want to drive out to the country

Speaker 1 on a snowy December evening

Speaker 1 and be wished seasons bleedings

Speaker 1 by all the goats?

Speaker 1 A volunteer knitted giant Christmas sweaters for the donkeys.

Speaker 1 Our oldest and sweetest dog, a slow-moving pug who couldn't see too well,

Speaker 1 played Santa Paws,

Speaker 1 laying on the cushioned seat of a small sled in the barn,

Speaker 1 where people could tell him what they wanted for Christmas

Speaker 1 and get their pictures taken.

Speaker 1 He often snoozed through the whole thing.

Speaker 1 We strung mistletoe

Speaker 1 above the pig's enclosure.

Speaker 1 And while no one had actually

Speaker 1 gone in for a kiss,

Speaker 1 they did get quite a a lot of belly rubs and treats

Speaker 1 we found big yoga balls painted like ornaments that the goats chased and tried to jump on

Speaker 1 mostly it was an excuse to bring people close to our animals

Speaker 1 and let them be reminded reminded of how beautiful they were,

Speaker 1 how much they enjoyed their lives here,

Speaker 1 where they would never be in danger,

Speaker 1 where they would

Speaker 1 only know love,

Speaker 1 and that

Speaker 1 being part

Speaker 1 of giving that safety and love

Speaker 1 was an excellent way to celebrate the season.

Speaker 1 Over the years

Speaker 1 we'd found a few ways to make the trip out to the country

Speaker 1 even more worthwhile.

Speaker 1 A Christmas tree farm down the road

Speaker 1 began donating wreaths and garlands.

Speaker 1 And now it was a regular part of the tradition for lots of people

Speaker 1 to get their front door wreath from Weather Vane Farm.

Speaker 1 We also had urns of hot cocoa

Speaker 1 and trays of doughnuts and Christmas cookies

Speaker 1 set up around heaters on the front porch of the farmhouse

Speaker 1 and the tractor hitched to a wagon lined with hay bales

Speaker 1 to take folks out for rides

Speaker 1 through the snowy fields.

Speaker 1 So today,

Speaker 1 as I took boxes of lights

Speaker 1 and decorations out to the yard,

Speaker 1 I was already full of holiday spirit.

Speaker 1 I watched the ducks waddling off to the pond, which

Speaker 1 hadn't frozen over yet

Speaker 1 to spend the day

Speaker 1 sunbathing on the banks.

Speaker 1 They called to each other as they went,

Speaker 1 and I sang out,

Speaker 1 Honk, the herald angels sing.

Speaker 1 I crack me up.

Speaker 1 I looked down at the lights in my hands.

Speaker 1 I knew there was a system for this.

Speaker 1 Where to start

Speaker 1 and a the best way to proceed

Speaker 1 without getting the cords all tangled up.

Speaker 1 But I never remembered it.

Speaker 1 It was always a process of trial and error.

Speaker 1 So I picked an outlet,

Speaker 1 plugged in a set of lights,

Speaker 1 and started to string them up.

Speaker 1 As I made my way around the back side of the barn,

Speaker 1 I looked out at the back pasture.

Speaker 1 We'd had a new addition to Weather Vane a while back.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 two additions, actually.

Speaker 1 Our first cow.

Speaker 1 She'd come at the end of the summer,

Speaker 1 in need of some medical care,

Speaker 1 and skittish at first.

Speaker 1 We'd soon learned she was pregnant.

Speaker 1 And one early morning, a few weeks past,

Speaker 1 we'd found her with a beautiful, light brown, fuzzy calf

Speaker 1 laying in the straw.

Speaker 1 The vet had pronounced them both in good health

Speaker 1 and him

Speaker 1 in need of a name.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 couldn't help myself.

Speaker 1 With his tan blonde fur

Speaker 1 and round belly,

Speaker 1 he was immediately dubbed Winnie the Moo.

Speaker 1 Winnie and his mom

Speaker 1 were chewing in the pasture,

Speaker 1 and I stepped one foot up onto the fence rail

Speaker 1 and leaned in to coo at them.

Speaker 1 Mom lifted her head to look at me,

Speaker 1 still unsure

Speaker 1 about all of us.

Speaker 1 It would take a while to earn her trust,

Speaker 1 and that was fine.

Speaker 1 Winnie,

Speaker 1 never having known anything but safety,

Speaker 1 came right up to the fence,

Speaker 1 Mom hurrying behind him to keep watch.

Speaker 1 and she let me reach out

Speaker 1 and give him a scratch along his neck.

Speaker 1 On the nights we had visitors,

Speaker 1 we'd take them to the smaller barn out back,

Speaker 1 where they could bed down in the straw and have a bit of privacy.

Speaker 1 Maybe some Christmas they would want to don their reindeer antlers

Speaker 1 and join in the fun,

Speaker 1 but not this year.

Speaker 1 I went back to my work,

Speaker 1 adding more lights

Speaker 1 and big candy canes the size of shepherd's hooks that stuck into the ground.

Speaker 1 We'd had a bit of snow the week before,

Speaker 1 but it had melted away within a day or two,

Speaker 1 and I was hoping for more

Speaker 1 before the festivities began.

Speaker 1 It certainly was getting colder.

Speaker 1 I was keeping warm with my work,

Speaker 1 but I noticed the ducks coming back early

Speaker 1 from their excursion to nestle in at the barn.

Speaker 1 I heard a horn blowing down the long driveway

Speaker 1 and checked that all the gates were closed

Speaker 1 and walked down the drive

Speaker 1 to wave at a big truck I recognized.

Speaker 1 The wreaths were here,

Speaker 1 the yards and yards of garland

Speaker 1 made from Easter white pine

Speaker 1 with its long, soft needles.

Speaker 1 And I noticed among all the greenery

Speaker 1 a tree,

Speaker 1 bundled in twine,

Speaker 1 stuck in with the rest.

Speaker 1 I could hear one of our donkeys braying in the yard,

Speaker 1 excited by a visitor.

Speaker 1 And I called out

Speaker 1 as they climbed down from the truck,

Speaker 1 mule-tied greetings.

Speaker 1 I got one of them to chuckle.

Speaker 1 The other just shook his head and said, That's it. I'm taking your present back.

Speaker 1 What present? What did you bring me?

Speaker 1 And they hauled the huge Christmas tree

Speaker 1 out of the open bed

Speaker 1 and stood it up.

Speaker 1 It must have been twenty feet tall.

Speaker 1 I grinned at them

Speaker 1 and they grinned back.

Speaker 1 Where should we put it? I laughed.

Speaker 1 Somewhere the goats won't knock it over, he said with a sigh.

Speaker 1 Mistletoe and marmalade

Speaker 1 It was our first Christmas together.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 we'd had Christmases as friends,

Speaker 1 plenty of them,

Speaker 1 and a Christmas in the early days of falling in love.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 this was our first Christmas as a married couple,

Speaker 1 as

Speaker 1 a blended family.

Speaker 1 There was me,

Speaker 1 my ginger cat, cat, marmalade,

Speaker 1 my scruffy brown dog, crumb,

Speaker 1 and now

Speaker 1 my love,

Speaker 1 and his sleepy giant greyhound, birdie.

Speaker 1 In some ways it felt like we'd been together for ages,

Speaker 1 and in others

Speaker 1 it all felt brand new.

Speaker 1 I'd known how he took his coffee.

Speaker 1 No milk, a spoonful of sugar.

Speaker 1 And I knew his taste in music

Speaker 1 and the story behind the old green corduroy jacket he'd had since college.

Speaker 1 But I was completely surprised by his passion for tabletop RPGs

Speaker 1 and near encyclopedic knowledge of the history and flavor profiles of many,

Speaker 1 many varieties of chilies.

Speaker 1 I think I had surprised him too.

Speaker 1 When I'd replaced the sconces in the bedroom with some vintage ones I'd rebuilt and rewired.

Speaker 1 He joyfully flicked the switch off and on several times,

Speaker 1 admitting that this was well above his skill set

Speaker 1 and seemed like magic to him.

Speaker 1 I had a feeling that this was one of the joys of loving someone for a long time,

Speaker 1 realizing there was

Speaker 1 always more to learn about them.

Speaker 1 The animals had also learned more.

Speaker 1 For example, that Bertie liked to graze and didn't usually eat his breakfast all at once.

Speaker 1 Once Crum realized there was a second breakfast available, just one bowl over,

Speaker 1 he'd scarf his own

Speaker 1 and then dive into Birdie's.

Speaker 1 This had led to a somewhat complicated morning routine

Speaker 1 involving shooing crumb out into the yard as soon as he'd finished his last kibble

Speaker 1 and convincing Bird to go on and clean his plate.

Speaker 1 But most days we we managed it.

Speaker 1 Marmalade,

Speaker 1 as usual,

Speaker 1 took it all in stride.

Speaker 1 She had priorities.

Speaker 1 She needed to lay on her perch

Speaker 1 and watch the birds at the feeder.

Speaker 1 She needed several naps to bathe her paws and face

Speaker 1 and have some uninterrupted one-on-one time with me.

Speaker 1 And whether there was one dog chasing his tail or two while she did it,

Speaker 1 she didn't much care.

Speaker 1 I knew some of her disaffected nature was put on.

Speaker 1 She liked to appear a bit above her brothers.

Speaker 1 But I'd also seen her bathe both of their faces when they'd come back from their chuck-ups at the vet.

Speaker 1 And on movie night, her favorite spot was right between them,

Speaker 1 her chin resting on Bird's back,

Speaker 1 and her back paw stretched out to touch Crumb's belly.

Speaker 1 We were

Speaker 1 a happy little pack

Speaker 1 heading into the holidays.

Speaker 1 And decorating had been a good deal of fun for all of us.

Speaker 1 I wasn't a very organized person, so

Speaker 1 when it came time to gather together all the bulbs and strands of light

Speaker 1 and little houses for the Christmas village,

Speaker 1 We'd had to troop up to the attic,

Speaker 1 down into the basement,

Speaker 1 root through the garage, and dig under the bed.

Speaker 1 But eventually, we found nearly everything.

Speaker 1 Our tree went up in the living room,

Speaker 1 right in front of the big picture window,

Speaker 1 where it could be seen from the street.

Speaker 1 There was a moment of contention

Speaker 1 while we debated white lights versus colored lights.

Speaker 1 But luckily, my sweetheart realized I'd made a very convincing argument and my pick were strung up

Speaker 1 as we hung up bulbs and ornaments,

Speaker 1 some from my collection and some from his,

Speaker 1 we told the stories of them.

Speaker 1 Here was the bulb my mom had been gifted the year I was born,

Speaker 1 with the date still etched on the side,

Speaker 1 and the crack that had been carefully glued after I'd pulled the tree down when I was three.

Speaker 1 Here was the ornament made of popsicle sticks and cotton balls he'd glued together in kindergarten,

Speaker 1 unrecognizable as any particular thing, but

Speaker 1 cherished just the same.

Speaker 1 As we decorated,

Speaker 1 the animals watched a bit nervously from their beds.

Speaker 1 Boxes were often regarded with suspicion by all of them.

Speaker 1 Things were either coming in or going out,

Speaker 1 and they weren't sure they approved of either.

Speaker 1 Finally, Marmalade,

Speaker 1 bravest of the three,

Speaker 1 tiptoed up to the tree

Speaker 1 and reached a paw out

Speaker 1 toward a green glass bulb.

Speaker 1 I could see her curious eyes reflected in the surface,

Speaker 1 and whether she broke the bulb or not,

Speaker 1 I thought I was likely to remember this moment for years to come

Speaker 1 Her wonder at it

Speaker 1 The glow of the tree lights through the fur of her ears

Speaker 1 She batted it experimentally

Speaker 1 and I squatted down beside her

Speaker 1 and replaced it with a felted mouse on skis

Speaker 1 She reached out again,

Speaker 1 batting at it,

Speaker 1 and watching the branch bounce as it was buffeted.

Speaker 1 I gave up and just unhooked the mouse and tossed it for her.

Speaker 1 She caught it and kicked it under the couch

Speaker 1 where she could just barely fit,

Speaker 1 her hind legs and tail sticking out as she wrestled with her new toy.

Speaker 1 We decided to move anything breakable up to the higher branches.

Speaker 1 Crumb came closer to sniff at the boxes

Speaker 1 and tilted his head as I wound the key

Speaker 1 on the bottom of a snow globe

Speaker 1 and tipped it up in front of him.

Speaker 1 A tinny version of the Christmas song played as we watched the suspended snowflakes

Speaker 1 slowly drift down

Speaker 1 over a little house not so different from our own.

Speaker 1 I hummed along

Speaker 1 and reached out to scratch under his chin

Speaker 1 to pups from one to ninety-two.

Speaker 1 Though it's been said

Speaker 1 many times,

Speaker 1 many ways,

Speaker 1 meowy Christmas to you.

Speaker 1 I heard a chuckle from the other room

Speaker 1 and wondered if my appreciation for bad puns had come as a surprise,

Speaker 1 like my electrical handyman skills had.

Speaker 1 I heard him bustling around in the kitchen,

Speaker 1 a drawer opening, and wondered if he was starting dinner.

Speaker 1 I set set the snow globe down in front of Crum,

Speaker 1 who got down on his belly

Speaker 1 and pressed his nose to the glass,

Speaker 1 still watching the snow fall.

Speaker 1 Bluebird stood and stretched beside the couch,

Speaker 1 and I called him over.

Speaker 1 He sat down beside me, and I put my arm around him,

Speaker 1 and we looked up at our beautiful tree.

Speaker 1 I thought it might be a bit chilly for him, and I reached for one of his sweaters in a box.

Speaker 1 It was an ugly Christmas sweater,

Speaker 1 with reindeer and baubles,

Speaker 1 and candy canes stitched on.

Speaker 1 I laughed as I pulled it over his head.

Speaker 1 He looked at me with consternation and despair, but I told him at least I wasn't making him wear his antlers

Speaker 1 yet.

Speaker 1 Come see Birdie in his sweater, I called.

Speaker 1 He peeked out from the kitchen with something in his hand.

Speaker 1 He came closer and presented it to me.

Speaker 1 Some leaves and red berries tied together with the striped twine we saved from the bakery boxes.

Speaker 1 He squatted down beside me and whispered,

Speaker 1 It's mistletoe.

Speaker 1 I'm pretty sure these are bay leaves from the spice drawer.

Speaker 1 Hm.

Speaker 1 They may still work, though.

Speaker 1 Probably

Speaker 1 they do.

Speaker 1 Model trains

Speaker 1 and make believe.

Speaker 1 There is something

Speaker 1 about this season

Speaker 1 and the month of December in particular

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 becoming a kid again,

Speaker 1 slipping into that

Speaker 1 easily delighted state

Speaker 1 is more effortless and welcome

Speaker 1 than at any other time of the year.

Speaker 1 Even the bahumbugliest among us

Speaker 1 will

Speaker 1 at some point

Speaker 1 look up at a street light

Speaker 1 and watch the halo of snowflakes circling around it

Speaker 1 or see a lit tree

Speaker 1 through a frosted window

Speaker 1 or hear a carol

Speaker 1 plunked out on a piano

Speaker 1 in someone's front room,

Speaker 1 and feel a shiver of excitement and warmth,

Speaker 1 just like they felt when they were young.

Speaker 1 My own

Speaker 1 bah humbug quotient

Speaker 1 being

Speaker 1 naturally quite low to begin with.

Speaker 1 I found myself grinning at shop window display,

Speaker 1 savoring each gingerbread cookie bought from the bakery,

Speaker 1 and taking deep breaths as I passed the Christmas tree lot

Speaker 1 to drink up the scents of fresh sap and pine.

Speaker 1 So when I saw that there would be a model railroad display

Speaker 1 in the lobby of the movie theater downtown,

Speaker 1 I knew right away not just that I would attend,

Speaker 1 but that I would be a repeat visitor.

Speaker 1 I love

Speaker 1 little

Speaker 1 things,

Speaker 1 miniature things,

Speaker 1 the tiny Christmas villages that nestle under trees

Speaker 1 dollhouses with their Lilliputian furnishings

Speaker 1 and of course

Speaker 1 model trains

Speaker 1 I decided to go

Speaker 1 at least for the first time

Speaker 1 by myself

Speaker 1 so I could take all the time i wanted

Speaker 1 just to look

Speaker 1 i'd learned a long time ago

Speaker 1 that when the days are cold and dark

Speaker 1 you have to look for the things

Speaker 1 that can be enjoyed in them

Speaker 1 and lean in deliberately

Speaker 1 So I parked at the park

Speaker 1 and came the long way through town

Speaker 1 to admire the lights strung over the street

Speaker 1 and by the time I'd arrived at the theater

Speaker 1 my cheeks were stung with cold

Speaker 1 and stepping into their old-fashioned lobby,

Speaker 1 felt wonderfully warm.

Speaker 1 They had thick carpets,

Speaker 1 brass fixtures,

Speaker 1 and a concession stand with a shining walnut bar

Speaker 1 that was as old as the building.

Speaker 1 The smell of popcorn washed over me,

Speaker 1 and I bought myself a box to enjoy

Speaker 1 while I browsed.

Speaker 1 It came in the same red and white striped carton

Speaker 1 I'd been buying since my very first

Speaker 1 big screen movie.

Speaker 1 See,

Speaker 1 I was already closer

Speaker 1 to my younger self.

Speaker 1 Then

Speaker 1 the trains.

Speaker 1 What fun

Speaker 1 The tracks snaked through snowy landscapes

Speaker 1 set across a dozen platforms,

Speaker 1 spanning nearly the full width of the theater lobby.

Speaker 1 I started at the train station,

Speaker 1 looking down

Speaker 1 with my bird's eye view,

Speaker 1 and saw that there were four separate tracks

Speaker 1 coming in behind the depot

Speaker 1 along platforms bustling with tiny people.

Speaker 1 The station master was there,

Speaker 1 a small arm raised,

Speaker 1 and a whistle in her mouth.

Speaker 1 And I imagined the sounds I would have heard

Speaker 1 if I were there beside her

Speaker 1 the train engines,

Speaker 1 People calling hello and goodbye

Speaker 1 Be careful and welcome home

Speaker 1 The peal of locomotive bells

Speaker 1 Rustling overcoats

Speaker 1 Shoes clapping against the platform boards

Speaker 1 Bits of gossip

Speaker 1 As scarves were tossed round necks

Speaker 1 and gloves pulled over fingers.

Speaker 1 I hadn't even

Speaker 1 seen a train go one inch yet,

Speaker 1 and I was already having a wonderful time.

Speaker 1 Beyond the depot

Speaker 1 was a small town,

Speaker 1 and while it wasn't exactly our own village,

Speaker 1 it was a sort of tribute to it.

Speaker 1 There was a movie theater

Speaker 1 showing miracle on Thirty Fourth Street, per their marquee.

Speaker 1 The sidewalks were heaped with snow, just like our own

Speaker 1 And there were cars stopped at the street light

Speaker 1 with fir trees tied to their roofs

Speaker 1 I leaned down to look into the shops

Speaker 1 where people were buying toys

Speaker 1 or standing on street corners

Speaker 1 with rapt presents under their arms

Speaker 1 All this time

Speaker 1 the trains hadn't been running

Speaker 1 Maybe to let the onlookers

Speaker 1 take in all the details

Speaker 1 or maybe because they were

Speaker 1 just running on the schedule

Speaker 1 set by the tiny station master.

Speaker 1 Either way,

Speaker 1 with a whistle

Speaker 1 and a whir,

Speaker 1 they came to life

Speaker 1 and began to travel over the tracks.

Speaker 1 I picked one to follow with my eyes

Speaker 1 and saw a bright red engine leave the station

Speaker 1 with several cars full of passengers

Speaker 1 the lights in the lobby dimmed

Speaker 1 and the lights in the train grew brighter

Speaker 1 the Christmas tree

Speaker 1 in their own tiny town square

Speaker 1 glowed with colored bulbs

Speaker 1 Another locomotive caught my eye.

Speaker 1 This one

Speaker 1 a shiny black.

Speaker 1 And as it stopped to let a freight train jug across its tracks,

Speaker 1 I leaned down

Speaker 1 and saw their dining car lit up up

Speaker 1 and full of passengers and servers.

Speaker 1 White tablecloths were spread over the tables

Speaker 1 and meals and drinks laid out.

Speaker 1 Again,

Speaker 1 I imagined myself there.

Speaker 1 What might I order?

Speaker 1 Or would I be the bartender

Speaker 1 shaking up a cocktail behind the bar

Speaker 1 as the snowy land slipped past?

Speaker 1 The freight train cleared the tracks,

Speaker 1 the switch was thrown,

Speaker 1 and the diners sped off.

Speaker 1 I walked around the platform

Speaker 1 to take in another angle

Speaker 1 and saw a forest green engine

Speaker 1 pulling its cars

Speaker 1 up a steep mountain path.

Speaker 1 Beside the tracks were snow-covered trees

Speaker 1 and ice-capped peaks,

Speaker 1 and a tunnel

Speaker 1 cut through the rock.

Speaker 1 I thought of the person who must have made this little world,

Speaker 1 the storytelling and drama

Speaker 1 they were able to build into it.

Speaker 1 A thing like this,

Speaker 1 it must have taken hours and hours

Speaker 1 and I felt quite lucky to get to experience it at all.

Speaker 1 It's a thing I love about humans

Speaker 1 when they find a passion

Speaker 1 and put themselves into it.

Speaker 1 The gardener who knows the Latin names for all the plants in their greenhouse,

Speaker 1 the amateur astronomer watching for a comet

Speaker 1 in the quiet of early morning,

Speaker 1 knitters and potters, and model railroad enthusiasts.

Speaker 1 Isn't it just

Speaker 1 another version of

Speaker 1 the little kid who knows every kind of dinosaur?

Speaker 1 When I was in college, there was a storefront between the bagel shop I stopped at most

Speaker 1 every morning

Speaker 1 and my first class of the day.

Speaker 1 In that shop, a man with silver hair

Speaker 1 made fine suits by hand,

Speaker 1 and I often peered in to watch him

Speaker 1 dressed neatly in one of his own suits

Speaker 1 as he ironed fabric and marked it with chalk.

Speaker 1 Years later I still thought of him often.

Speaker 1 His work was clearly a passion,

Speaker 1 and he did it with such care and skill.

Speaker 1 The people who wore his suits

Speaker 1 must have felt like they were walking around in a work of art.

Speaker 1 My box of popcorn was nearly empty.

Speaker 1 And remembering that the trains would be on display all month,

Speaker 1 I pulled my hat tight over my ears

Speaker 1 and got ready to head back into the night.

Speaker 1 I pretended I was stepping off a train

Speaker 1 rather than than out of a theater.

Speaker 1 And as I strolled through town,

Speaker 1 I made up a story

Speaker 1 about

Speaker 1 coming home for the holidays.

Speaker 1 My first time back in my hometown

Speaker 1 after a while away,

Speaker 1 and who might be waiting for me,

Speaker 1 Caring a lot about something,

Speaker 1 finding a passion,

Speaker 1 imagining, telling stories and

Speaker 1 playing pretend.

Speaker 1 I would never be too grown up

Speaker 1 for any of it.

Speaker 1 The Innkeeper's Holiday

Speaker 1 For most of the winter season,

Speaker 1 the inn sat quiet and dark.

Speaker 1 There might be a light on

Speaker 1 in one of the rooms on the top floor

Speaker 1 or

Speaker 1 in the library

Speaker 1 as the innkeeper caught up on her rest and relaxation.

Speaker 1 She cooked small meals for herself

Speaker 1 down in the kitchen

Speaker 1 and shoveled just enough of the front drive to get in and out.

Speaker 1 She watched from the back porch

Speaker 1 as the lake froze over

Speaker 1 and answered the phone when it rang with guests

Speaker 1 calling to book their summer stays.

Speaker 1 But starting in the middle of December,

Speaker 1 the great house began to light up.

Speaker 1 Strands of twinkle lights were wound around the fence posts in the drive

Speaker 1 and along the roof lines and porch rails.

Speaker 1 The window boxes were stuffed with pine boughs and holly berries

Speaker 1 and tall dried pine cones.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper thought

Speaker 1 that there was something reminiscent of a honeycomb in their shape

Speaker 1 as she tucked them into place.

Speaker 1 In the attic,

Speaker 1 she found boxes of glass ornaments

Speaker 1 and pretty ceramic reindeer

Speaker 1 that looked like they'd been sculpted by hand.

Speaker 1 She'd been pushing the attic stairs back up into

Speaker 1 place

Speaker 1 when she heard a car door slam from the drive.

Speaker 1 She hurried to the window in the staircase and saw Chef

Speaker 1 standing on the cobblestones, looking up at her.

Speaker 1 She waved

Speaker 1 and chef waved back

Speaker 1 and popped open the hatch back on their car,

Speaker 1 showing the crates of fresh food and cases of champagne they'd brought.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper smiled wide

Speaker 1 and clapped her hands like a child.

Speaker 1 She'd liked having the place to herself for a while

Speaker 1 to read her books

Speaker 1 and make plans for next summer.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 she was ready for a bit of company,

Speaker 1 for the house to hum with life again,

Speaker 1 for the good scents of coffee cake and scones

Speaker 1 to rise up from the kitchen,

Speaker 1 and for guests to come

Speaker 1 and celebrate the end of one year

Speaker 1 and the beginning of another.

Speaker 1 She set her boxes of decorations down at the foot of the staircase

Speaker 1 and pulled her overcoat from the hook in the front office

Speaker 1 and went out

Speaker 1 to help Chef with the food.

Speaker 1 They embraced in the cold air

Speaker 1 and caught up

Speaker 1 as they carried the food and wine

Speaker 1 down the long hallway

Speaker 1 and into the kitchen.

Speaker 1 Chef had been traveling, as they always did during the off-season,

Speaker 1 some of it for rest and vacation,

Speaker 1 and some to cook in other kitchens.

Speaker 1 They'd been somewhere sunny and warm,

Speaker 1 and after the holidays were headed to a ski chalet for the rest of the winter.

Speaker 1 in the boxes were jars of beautiful green olives,

Speaker 1 packets of pine nuts,

Speaker 1 bags of red onions,

Speaker 1 and sleeves of fancy crisp crackers.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper recognized the ingredients for chef's fancy green olive pate

Speaker 1 that they served as past appetizers for their guests.

Speaker 1 There were lots of other things, too.

Speaker 1 They'd be making a few big meals

Speaker 1 and afternoon teas

Speaker 1 and breakfast over the week or so that the inn was full.

Speaker 1 Chef would make a gingerbread inn that would sit on the entryway table

Speaker 1 and plates of their dark chocolate truffles with flakes of sea salt on top.

Speaker 1 She left Chef to their work

Speaker 1 and got back to decorating.

Speaker 1 She was was dusting the reindeer

Speaker 1 and setting them in a scene on the long mantle above the fireplace

Speaker 1 when she realized music would make her work a little merrier.

Speaker 1 They had a fancy sound system with speakers in all the common rooms,

Speaker 1 but she also kept a turntable on the desk by the window,

Speaker 1 and in the boxes she'd brought down were a few holiday albums in cardboard sleeves.

Speaker 1 She took one out,

Speaker 1 holding it carefully along its edges with her fingertips,

Speaker 1 and spun it to read the list of songs on each side.

Speaker 1 They were old, jazzy versions, sung by crooners and sirens.

Speaker 1 And she set it on the player

Speaker 1 and flipped the switch to start it turning.

Speaker 1 She laid the needle carefully into the groove and listened to the piano and horns and jingle bells

Speaker 1 as she looked at the cover art.

Speaker 1 By the afternoon the tables and mantles were done up.

Speaker 1 The wreath was on the front door,

Speaker 1 and the guest rooms had been made ready with fresh sheets and towels

Speaker 1 and small tabletop ceramic trees

Speaker 1 that lit up with a switch

Speaker 1 and made the rooms glow with soft colors.

Speaker 1 She shared a plate of sandwiches with Chef in the kitchen,

Speaker 1 and they talked through the mus.

Speaker 1 The next day, guests would begin to arrive, and they were booked full for the holiday.

Speaker 1 What's left? Chef asked.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper took a long drink of her tea and said,

Speaker 1 just the tree.

Speaker 1 In years past,

Speaker 1 they'd had it in different spots,

Speaker 1 sometimes in the front hall to greet guests as they arrived,

Speaker 1 and sometimes on the back porch where they served champagne

Speaker 1 and looked out at the houses across the lake,

Speaker 1 lit up with holiday lights.

Speaker 1 But this year

Speaker 1 they were doing something different.

Speaker 1 They'd been working for months to restore the ballroom on the second floor.

Speaker 1 There had been a leak in the ceiling

Speaker 1 that had damaged the plaster,

Speaker 1 and there had been many missing tiles in the parquet floor.

Speaker 1 The light fixtures had needed rewiring,

Speaker 1 and the whole space

Speaker 1 needed fresh paint,

Speaker 1 new curtains and furnishings.

Speaker 1 Now

Speaker 1 it was ready.

Speaker 1 The ceiling patched and painted,

Speaker 1 glowing filament bulbs in the sconces,

Speaker 1 and a charming, charming, if slightly mismatched collection of settees and side tables clustered in groups.

Speaker 1 The innkeeper thought it would make the perfect spot for the Christmas tree,

Speaker 1 for guests to gather, to share gifts and wishes for peace on earth,

Speaker 1 and then,

Speaker 1 when the year ended, to clink champagne glasses

Speaker 1 and have a midnight kiss.

Speaker 1 She climbed the stairs to check the space

Speaker 1 and found the freshly polished floors glowing,

Speaker 1 and the candles on the window sills ready to be lit.

Speaker 1 She had the boxes of ornaments

Speaker 1 and many,

Speaker 1 many strings of lights ready for the tree.

Speaker 1 From one window she could see the lake,

Speaker 1 frozen for a dozen feet at the shore,

Speaker 1 and with dark, rippling water farther out.

Speaker 1 There were still ducks,

Speaker 1 a dozen or more,

Speaker 1 with dark green and grey feathers,

Speaker 1 and one white farm duck among them.

Speaker 1 And she smiled,

Speaker 1 and said, in a whisper that fogged the glass,

Speaker 1 Found

Speaker 1 family.

Speaker 1 That's how she felt too,

Speaker 1 here

Speaker 1 with the house,

Speaker 1 with chef and the guests who'd be arriving soon.

Speaker 1 She crossed the room and looked out another window

Speaker 1 and saw a big truck

Speaker 1 with a a tall Norway spruce in its bed trundling down the drive,

Speaker 1 beeping its horn.

Speaker 1 The tree farm

Speaker 1 with just a week till Christmas,

Speaker 1 there hadn't been many customers

Speaker 1 coming down the long gravel two-track to the farm today.

Speaker 1 Most folks had their tree already.

Speaker 1 And while we might get a few stragglers here and there,

Speaker 1 some

Speaker 1 Kringle-Come Latelies, as we called them,

Speaker 1 we were wrapping up for the year in little ways.

Speaker 1 all over the farm.

Speaker 1 Two of our three tractors that pulled trailers lined with hay bales,

Speaker 1 usually full of customers, out

Speaker 1 into the fields to find their trees,

Speaker 1 were now settled in the barn,

Speaker 1 swept clean and tucked in for the rest of the winter.

Speaker 1 The last box of candy canes had been opened and hung on the branches of the giant tree in the shop.

Speaker 1 And we didn't anticipate needing any more this season.

Speaker 1 A few of our workers had taken their pay and their stocking from the long mantle,

Speaker 1 full of tips and treats,

Speaker 1 and wished us all a happy holiday

Speaker 1 and gotten on the road, headed home.

Speaker 1 There were just a few of us left as the sun came closer to setting,

Speaker 1 and the night air turned cold.

Speaker 1 It had been a sunny day,

Speaker 1 and in the bright light,

Speaker 1 busy with floating trees into pickup trucks

Speaker 1 or onto car roofs,

Speaker 1 I'd shed my coat,

Speaker 1 warmed as much by my efforts

Speaker 1 as by the merry mood around me.

Speaker 1 But now I pulled it back on

Speaker 1 and zipped it up to my nose.

Speaker 1 I found my hat in my pocket

Speaker 1 and drew it firmly over my ears.

Speaker 1 I wasn't ready to go home yet.

Speaker 1 The farm is really beautiful at night.

Speaker 1 Along the drive are strings of lights,

Speaker 1 draped on poles,

Speaker 1 wrapped to look like candy canes.

Speaker 1 And nearer the barn and shop,

Speaker 1 everything is lit.

Speaker 1 Candles in every window,

Speaker 1 wreaths on every door.

Speaker 1 We have warming stations,

Speaker 1 heaters, with their welcoming glow.

Speaker 1 All of it really cheerful and lovely.

Speaker 1 But my favorite spot was out

Speaker 1 in the open fields

Speaker 1 under the stars

Speaker 1 where the moonlight reflected on the snow

Speaker 1 and the only sound

Speaker 1 was the crunch of your boots

Speaker 1 and your breath.

Speaker 1 It was my job each night

Speaker 1 to make one last round with the tractor

Speaker 1 through the fields

Speaker 1 to make sure all of the customers had been collected.

Speaker 1 No villager left behind.

Speaker 1 And now that I was better bundled, bundled,

Speaker 1 I set out.

Speaker 1 We had a half-dozen fields that were ready for cutting,

Speaker 1 and many, many more

Speaker 1 planted for the future.

Speaker 1 It was a careful system,

Speaker 1 rotating the fields

Speaker 1 so that the soil could rest,

Speaker 1 so that the trees would have time

Speaker 1 and space to grow.

Speaker 1 And as I rolled through them,

Speaker 1 I felt a deep peace settle into me.

Speaker 1 The night air was like peppermint in my nostrils,

Speaker 1 making me feel awake

Speaker 1 and attuned to the trees and the stars.

Speaker 1 I had read once

Speaker 1 that the minerals in our bones

Speaker 1 had been born in the belly of a star

Speaker 1 light years away

Speaker 1 and ages ago.

Speaker 1 And when I rode through the fields at night

Speaker 1 and looked up,

Speaker 1 I did

Speaker 1 feel my place.

Speaker 1 I was a child of the universe,

Speaker 1 the same as the pine trees

Speaker 1 and the deer bedded down in their dens.

Speaker 1 I stopped on the edge of the Douglas firs,

Speaker 1 turned off the engine,

Speaker 1 and reached for my thermos.

Speaker 1 When I twisted off the top,

Speaker 1 steam,

Speaker 1 sweet and spicy,

Speaker 1 rose up and rippled in the air.

Speaker 1 I poured my hot cider,

Speaker 1 spiced with cinnamon, into the thermos mug

Speaker 1 and wrapped my hands around it.

Speaker 1 I leaned back in the tractor seat

Speaker 1 and propped my feet unprofessionally

Speaker 1 on the dash.

Speaker 1 For a few minutes I just sat

Speaker 1 and sipped

Speaker 1 and listened

Speaker 1 and looked.

Speaker 1 The sky was cloudless.

Speaker 1 There would be

Speaker 1 no snowfall tonight

Speaker 1 And there was only the faintest bit of wind

Speaker 1 stirring the treetops

Speaker 1 When I'd had the last sip of cider from my cup,

Speaker 1 I closed up my thermos

Speaker 1 and started the tractor

Speaker 1 to finish the loop back to the shop.

Speaker 1 Just as I came over the slight rise

Speaker 1 near the Nordman firs,

Speaker 1 I spotted a tree

Speaker 1 cut and left behind behind near the trail.

Speaker 1 I clicked my tongue

Speaker 1 and shook my head.

Speaker 1 It doesn't happen often,

Speaker 1 but every once in a while

Speaker 1 someone will cut a tree

Speaker 1 and then change their mind.

Speaker 1 Spot a better one

Speaker 1 and leave the first behind.

Speaker 1 We ask our guests not to do this,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 it happens.

Speaker 1 I stopped the tractor and jumped down.

Speaker 1 I stood the tree up on its cut end

Speaker 1 and looked at it.

Speaker 1 A perfectly handsome tree.

Speaker 1 Why anyone would have left it it behind

Speaker 1 was beyond me.

Speaker 1 I loaded it onto the trailer and climbed back in.

Speaker 1 A few minutes later,

Speaker 1 I was turning in toward the barn

Speaker 1 when I spotted headlights

Speaker 1 coming slowly down the drive.

Speaker 1 I stepped down from the tractor

Speaker 1 and pulled my gloves on,

Speaker 1 going to meet them.

Speaker 1 The car stopped a few yards from the shop,

Speaker 1 and a man stepped out.

Speaker 1 He had a worried look about him.

Speaker 1 His hands crammed in his pockets,

Speaker 1 and he hurried to the shop door and found it locked.

Speaker 1 Hello,

Speaker 1 I called out to him.

Speaker 1 He turned toward me, shielding his eyes from the bright strings of Christmas lights.

Speaker 1 Hello, he called back.

Speaker 1 Looks like I've missed the...

Speaker 1 well,

Speaker 1 not the boat, but maybe the sleigh.

Speaker 1 I chuckled and strolled into the pool of light.

Speaker 1 Nearly, but

Speaker 1 as long as I'm here, I might be able to help.

Speaker 1 Need a tree?

Speaker 1 He sighed and smiled gratefully.

Speaker 1 Yes,

Speaker 1 I meant to make it out earlier,

Speaker 1 but work kept me late,

Speaker 1 and I just don't want to go home one more day

Speaker 1 without one.

Speaker 1 I'll take any tree you've got.

Speaker 1 Must be kismet.

Speaker 1 I just found an orphan tree in a lot.

Speaker 1 I pulled the tree down from the trailer

Speaker 1 and stood it for him beside the baler.

Speaker 1 The piny scent was thick in the air

Speaker 1 and I saw his face soften as he looked at it.

Speaker 1 That's just the kind we had

Speaker 1 when I was a kid.

Speaker 1 It smells just the same.

Speaker 1 Well then,

Speaker 1 I thought someone had left it behind,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 now I guess they'd cut it for you.

Speaker 1 They must have known you'd be late and that you needed it.

Speaker 1 His eyes brimmed,

Speaker 1 and he bent his head,

Speaker 1 feeling around in his pockets for his wallet.

Speaker 1 The shop was closed, our register shut down for the day.

Speaker 1 And as he drew out a card,

Speaker 1 I reached for the bailing twine

Speaker 1 to tie the tree to his roof.

Speaker 1 Ah, never mind, I said.

Speaker 1 Just pass it along

Speaker 1 before the year is out.

Speaker 1 Deal?

Speaker 1 He helped me hoist the tree up onto his car

Speaker 1 and caught the edge of the twine as I tossed it.

Speaker 1 Deal

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 Merry Christmas.

Speaker 1 Game night

Speaker 1 The tree was still up

Speaker 1 and we still had plates of cookies

Speaker 1 decorated with red and green icing,

Speaker 1 and plenty of leftover holiday cheer.

Speaker 1 And while the days before the 25th were full of that lovely anticipation

Speaker 1 that only happens once a year,

Speaker 1 The days immediately after

Speaker 1 felt like a deep sigh

Speaker 1 of relaxation.

Speaker 1 Everything was done.

Speaker 1 And now

Speaker 1 we could just enjoy a bit of time

Speaker 1 before we put our ducks in a row for the coming year.

Speaker 1 A few years back,

Speaker 1 we'd started a tradition for the thirty-first,

Speaker 1 and it had stuck.

Speaker 1 We'd had our fair share of glamorous New Year's Eves,

Speaker 1 nights out,

Speaker 1 dancing into the wee hours,

Speaker 1 coming home with confetti in our hair

Speaker 1 and crumpled noise makers in the pockets of our coats.

Speaker 1 At some point,

Speaker 1 that kind of celebration

Speaker 1 had slipped down the other side of the hill

Speaker 1 and gone from exciting

Speaker 1 to exhausting.

Speaker 1 And that's when we started game night.

Speaker 1 We'd invite half a dozen or so friends,

Speaker 1 make a big buffet of snacks,

Speaker 1 and clear off the dining room table to make space for fun.

Speaker 1 Remember fun?

Speaker 1 When we were kids, we woke up each day

Speaker 1 with a deep-seated need

Speaker 1 and an insatiable appetite for it.

Speaker 1 We sought it out and often found it a hundred times a day.

Speaker 1 We made up games in an instant,

Speaker 1 played them until we thought up a better one,

Speaker 1 then played that.

Speaker 1 Game night always reminded me how vital fun was,

Speaker 1 how good it felt to laugh until my cheeks hurt.

Speaker 1 And now,

Speaker 1 instead of waking up bleary-eyed and headachy on New Year's Day,

Speaker 1 I was guaranteed

Speaker 1 to wake up

Speaker 1 feeling like a kid again.

Speaker 1 We had a bit of cleaning to do before our guests arrived,

Speaker 1 and we divvied up the jobs.

Speaker 1 There was firewood to be brought in,

Speaker 1 food to prepare,

Speaker 1 and a few scraps of wrapping paper still kicking around under the sofa in the living room to be picked up.

Speaker 1 I volunteered for all kitchen-related chores

Speaker 1 and left my better half to attend to the rest.

Speaker 1 I always opted to be in the kitchen if I could.

Speaker 1 It almost never felt like work to me.

Speaker 1 Not when I could turn on some music

Speaker 1 and dance around in my socks

Speaker 1 and chop

Speaker 1 and saute

Speaker 1 and wind up with something delicious at the end.

Speaker 1 I started by making a soup,

Speaker 1 something

Speaker 1 thick and hardy for a cold December night.

Speaker 1 I took a couple of leeks from the fridge.

Speaker 1 I thought they looked like green onions that had grown up and lived adult lives now.

Speaker 1 I sliced them into coins

Speaker 1 and dropped them into a colander to rinse in the sink.

Speaker 1 Leeks are grown in sandy soil

Speaker 1 and need to be washed carefully before they're cooked.

Speaker 1 Some might find that a pain,

Speaker 1 but I liked all the small, fiddly parts of cooking,

Speaker 1 dicing things into even pieces,

Speaker 1 snipping herbs from stems,

Speaker 1 and even washing leeks.

Speaker 1 Once they were squeaky clean,

Speaker 1 I sauteed them in the bottom of my giant soup pot

Speaker 1 with olive oil and a pinch of salt.

Speaker 1 While they cooked down,

Speaker 1 I overturned a bag of golden potatoes onto the counter

Speaker 1 and started peeling and chopping.

Speaker 1 Then,

Speaker 1 in with the potatoes and broth,

Speaker 1 and fresh thyme,

Speaker 1 and black pepper.

Speaker 1 I had a grandfather

Speaker 1 who believed wholeheartedly in the healing properties of black pepper,

Speaker 1 and I always added an extra pinch for him.

Speaker 1 I set the soup to simmer away and turned to the next task.

Speaker 1 The soup would be perfect to serve up in cups between rounds,

Speaker 1 but we also needed finger foods that wouldn't interrupt our all-important play.

Speaker 1 For this I made Muhammara,

Speaker 1 a delicious dip of Syrian origin

Speaker 1 that felt pretty fancy, but came together in a flash.

Speaker 1 It was made with roasted red peppers,

Speaker 1 walnuts, breadcrumbs, chili flakes,

Speaker 1 and pomegranate molasses,

Speaker 1 all blended together in my food processor.

Speaker 1 It was a beautiful, rich rich red color,

Speaker 1 and I spooned it into a few bowls,

Speaker 1 which I could set around the table,

Speaker 1 surrounded by fresh veggies and toasted flatbread.

Speaker 1 The soup was nearly ready,

Speaker 1 and our friends were expected soon.

Speaker 1 And I had one more thing to make.

Speaker 1 It was a treat,

Speaker 1 a bit rich in flavor, but one of those snacks that folks just can't leave alone.

Speaker 1 Truffle Popcorn

Speaker 1 I popped a huge pot of popcorn

Speaker 1 And when the kernels stopped pinging in the pan,

Speaker 1 I tipped all the fluffy hot pieces

Speaker 1 into a big brown paper bag.

Speaker 1 I drizzled truffle oil in a tiny stream over the corn

Speaker 1 and added a good bit of pink salt.

Speaker 1 Then

Speaker 1 I folded the top of the bag up

Speaker 1 and shook it for all I was worth.

Speaker 1 I heard the fire crackling in the grate and had a feeling I was being watched in my dance of the truffle corn fairy.

Speaker 1 But I didn't mind.

Speaker 1 How's that fire going?

Speaker 1 I called out

Speaker 1 and just heard a laugh come back at me.

Speaker 1 I tipped the popcorn into a few bowls

Speaker 1 and set them out with a Muhammad.

Speaker 1 I stuck a few stacks of napkins around the place

Speaker 1 and turned on some music.

Speaker 1 I had a couple bottles of bubbly for toasting the new year,

Speaker 1 and I pushed open the door from the kitchen out to the backyard

Speaker 1 and stuck them neck deep into the nearest snow drift.

Speaker 1 This is a handy part of living somewhere with plenty of snow.

Speaker 1 Any snow bank can be an extension of your refrigerator.

Speaker 1 As I was coming back in

Speaker 1 to stir the soup,

Speaker 1 I heard a friendly knock,

Speaker 1 and the jingle bells on the front door ringing as our friends began to pile in.

Speaker 1 Oh, the loveliness of having friends, dear and old enough,

Speaker 1 to treat your home as their own.

Speaker 1 As soon as coats were hung up and hugs exchanged,

Speaker 1 folks were reaching into cupboards for glasses,

Speaker 1 knowing just where the corkscrew and bottle openers were

Speaker 1 and setting themselves down at the table,

Speaker 1 rolling up their sleeves and getting ready to play.

Speaker 1 I turned off the soup

Speaker 1 and set the lid ajar to let it cool

Speaker 1 and poured myself a glass of something.

Speaker 1 The popcorn was disappearing just like I knew it would,

Speaker 1 And everyone wanted to know what its secret ingredient was.

Speaker 1 But I was stubborn about sharing.

Speaker 1 It's special to my house.

Speaker 1 You'll have to come here when you crave it, I finally said,

Speaker 1 and set down a few board game boxes and decks of cards on the table

Speaker 1 as we debated what we'd play tonight.

Speaker 1 Last game night,

Speaker 1 I had taught them a card game that my family had played when I was young.

Speaker 1 And once everyone had caught on to its breakneck pace,

Speaker 1 we couldn't quit till nearly midnight.

Speaker 1 We'd called it nutsy or sometimes peanuts.

Speaker 1 But I'd heard it go by a dozen funny names,

Speaker 1 including the racing canfield,

Speaker 1 peanuts pounce,

Speaker 1 scramble, squeal,

Speaker 1 and scrooge.

Speaker 1 We all agreed.

Speaker 1 After last time,

Speaker 1 we had a few scores to settle.

Speaker 1 And decided to make it another night of cards.

Speaker 1 We cleared away the game boxes

Speaker 1 and passed around decks of cards

Speaker 1 and all started to shuffle.

Speaker 1 Card games had been a big deal in my family.

Speaker 1 I knew how to shuffle cards like a blackjack dealer

Speaker 1 by the time I was seven years old.

Speaker 1 And as I watched my friends mix and count out the first thirteen of each deck,

Speaker 1 pass them over to the person on their left.

Speaker 1 I had a strong memory of being the littlest one at the table

Speaker 1 with all my aunts and uncles,

Speaker 1 my feet not yet touching the ground,

Speaker 1 as we set up our hands

Speaker 1 and waited with excitement

Speaker 1 someone to shout, Go.

Speaker 1 Then

Speaker 1 the sounds of flipping cards,

Speaker 1 cards slapped onto the table,

Speaker 1 and grown-ups elbowing each other out of the way

Speaker 1 to get that seven of spades onto the six.

Speaker 1 Now

Speaker 1 to be in my own home,

Speaker 1 my own family of friends,

Speaker 1 the smell of popcorn and soup in the air,

Speaker 1 and all of us grinning around the table at each other,

Speaker 1 drumming our fingers,

Speaker 1 and waiting to turn that first card.

Speaker 1 I guessed we'd probably forget to count down at midnight

Speaker 1 too busy laughing and playing

Speaker 1 And then at some point

Speaker 1 run out into the snow to retrieve the champagne

Speaker 1 We'd raise our glasses

Speaker 1 and make a resolution

Speaker 1 This year

Speaker 1 more fun

Speaker 1 sweet dreams.