December Dispatch

🎄

Haddonfield is a sweet little town in South New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. My mom’s sister, Jessica, and her husband Rob live there. The town is filled with gorgeous colonial homes, and everyone decorates spectacularly — there are sparkly string lights on every spruce tree, wreaths on every front door, and candles in every window.

I’ve only ever lived in cities: Los Angeles during my youth, New York during my adult life, and London during study abroad. For me, small towns like Haddonfield are just about as alien as foreign countries, and I explore them with the same level of care and intrigue. It is strange and delightful to be somewhere so wholesome.

Seemingly everyone greets each other by name. I go with my cousin Celia to drop off homemade ginger snaps at each house down the road, and neighbors respond in kind. Two varieties of homemade pretzels are delivered; one soft and covered in salt, the other crunchy and coated in chocolate.

There are long silences in the living room while my cousins work on a miniature puzzle replica of Van Gogh’s “Wheat Field with Cypresses.” My maternal grandfather, a retired surgeon, watches with hawk-like eyes, acutely judging my cousins’ level of precision as they struggle to correctly match near-identical pieces of sky and tree.

My mom (Jennifer), brother (Tyler), and mom’s fiancée (Bruce) have all flown in from LA. My mom loves sparkling wine, and she and Bruce have ensured that we have some of the very best; bottles of Veuve Cliquot, Tattinger, and Mumm are all flowing throughout the Christmas festivities.

Days are short here in Haddonfield. I find myself waking up close to noon and exhausted by 9:30 PM. I’m catching up on sleep from this semester of teaching (I typically wake up at 6:50 AM on weekdays). It’s not just that, though — I feel comforted and held with so much family around in my aunt and uncle’s cozy home. I feel safe and cared for. At home in New York City, I’m always hustling. Here, I can finally rest.