Cadvent 21

Welcome back, everyone – four sleeps left to go! I know, right?

The days are at their shortest, the weather its coldest (well – for those of us in the western hemisphere, of course!), our homes their cosiest. As I said yesterday, I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves! A bit of caring for yourself goes a long way in the deep of winter, where it’s safe to say that feelings come on stronger than any time else!

If you’ll indulge me, I want to start today with a small personal anecdote session, but I promise we’ll get to the good festive content shortly (hey, you can even scroll straight to it – I promise that’s allowed as well!): this is my first winter since moving to Sweden (everyone send some warm wishes to Kate for her first Christmas since I moved out), and this is what it looks like once it gets to 2-3pm…

It’s my first time living somewhere where the seasons changing is more than just a fun thing happening in the background (it’s drizzle and cloud all year round in the UK)! Winter and summer really are worlds apart here. There’s an ebb and flow between the light part of the year and the dark – it’s a pleasing kind of cycle, but you have to be ready for it. At the moment it’s cold and dreary, and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a lot of effort that goes into getting through the weather’s gloomiest days.

Writing these posts is already giving me a regular sort of warm space to get comfortable in. And in a similar fashion, I hope the blog is offering a bit of warmth for you all. There’s a lot of joys to be had in those warm spaces we find for ourselves, especially in the most formidable season, and I hope we can all take pleasure in finding them wherever we can. It doesn’t have to be anything special – just take a moment to think of the small ways we know how to make ourselves happy. Knowing how to do that goes a long way to creating those spaces. And I hope that’s something we can have in mind as we go through our day today.

In the meantime, hang up your coat, get your blankets, fetch your cocoa – dairy, oat, and soy milk all accepted in the halls of BlogClan – let’s go on a warm winter’s journey into Cadvent… day twenty-one!

Kicking (pawing?) things off with some grand content from the wonderful Shimmerpaw! It’s the classic and perfect harmony of cat and Christmas tree:

Next up, we have some snowy, snowy art sent in by Topazkit!

We also have this mischievous ball of energy, courtesy of Meadowstripe:

Some more art now, this piece being sent in by Fallenfeather. If this isn’t OC, I’d love to know who the artist is! A great, fluffy find – thanks, Fallenfeather!

Now we have another piece from Plumecloud, once again giving us the kind of mischievous energy I hope we’re all channelling in our day to day life. Thank you for this!

And last but not least: Kimchi. Kat’s sister’s Sphynx cat, and another style icon in today’s already-glamorous line-up of iconics.

Thank you again to everyone for your submissions; as with yesterday, if anyone has access to the original sources for any of these, I’d be much obliged if you could comment below so I can drop links to them in the post above!

Before I leave you to your days, let me circle back to the place I opened this post: try to take a moment to think of the small ways you know how to make yourself happy – no matter how awkward it may sound to do that, and indeed no matter what those ways may be. Think of all the power that gives you over your own feelings and emotions, and hold onto that as we get closer to Christmas.

Cos yeah, it’s a season of big emotions, sending our feelings in all different directions – highs and lows, the pure excitement and the quiet. It’s a lot to get excited about, and a lot to take in! So as we head into the home stretch before the big day, I suggest we find those warm spaces, and hold onto the joy we know we have – there’s just four sleeps left to go now, a lot to get excited about, and if we know how to make ourselves happy, to craft those warm spaces, the rest will follow. BlogClan’s got your back.

So be excellent to each other, you lot. And take good, festive care of yourselves! Happy Cadvent, and I look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow!