Published in December 2023

December was a quiet month, so there is not a lot to catch up on. But even if the list is short, you might find something on it interesting.

Earth911

Airlines Are Hiding More Than Fees

Making Sustainable Travel More Affordable

Reprints

Earth Action: Make a Vegetarian Meal

Getting Rid of Zip-Top Bags

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ParentMap

Are You Ready? Make Emergency Preparedness Your 2024 Resolution

Welcoming Back the Light: Fun Ways to Celebrate the Winter Solstice

Holiday Shows for Seattle Families

Reprints

Best Seattle-Area Places to Go Sledding and Tubing

Snowshoeing 101 for Seattle-Area Families

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Reading Down a Crooked Road

In December, I continued my exploration of local bookstores with a new addition to my neighborhood: Charlie’s. That resulted in a purchase for my teen, but the 14 books I read in December were mostly purchased long before that outing. Partly in an effort to spark some holiday spirit, and partly in a race to complete my 2023 reading challenge, I loaded up on Christmas romance novellas during the last weeks of the year. Among those, Jenny Holiday’s (pseudonym, or nominative determinism?) A Princess for Christmas was the favorite (I bought it based on the description when it was first released, and only now got around to reading it). Among the more literary experiences of the month, Thinning Blood by Leah Myers (a library book) sparked a bunch of new thoughts in my brain that could be useful for my own creative endeavors, and The Dream We Carry: Selected and Last Poems provided a dose of serendipity.

I grew up in the American West and I’m kind of a viking nerd, so inevitably, I ended up following Jackson Crawford’s Old Norse YouTube channel. Last spring, I watched a video in which he talked about a 20th century Norwegian poet named Olav Hauge. That weekend was Independent Bookstore Day, and I found myself at Open Books, where I found a volume of Hauge’s poems. Of course, I had to buy it, and in December I finally read it. It turns out that Hauge was very influenced by Asian poetry, and I really like his verses.

It’s not a book, but in December I also saw Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron. To be honest, it wasn’t my favorite Ghibli movie.

And that’s December in the books.