Happy new year, everyone! And hello to new subscribers who got here via Instagram, which I deleted yesterday. Thank you so much for signing up to receive this, I truly appreciate it. I send out these “cake for breakfast” updates on the first Tuesday of each month, and other pieces as I feel like it/am able, which is usually 1-2 times per month.
Despite my assertion in previous posts that I love Christmas and hate NYE, I ended up having a terrible Christmas but quite a lovely new year. Christmas involved stomach bugs, abandoned plans, and lots of tears. Conversely, on NYE we spontaneously hosted 7 of my in-laws for an afternoon/evening “apéro” (drinks - usually alcoholic - and snacks/finger food). Let me tell you that spontaneous hosting is NOT generally my idea of a good time, but it ended up being lovely, and a much needed moment of festivity in an otherwise pretty disappointing holiday period. After everyone had left and the baby was in bed, we let the big kids stay up “late” to play a few games they have recently been given for birthdays/Christmas. They absolutely loved it, so I think we may make that a new tradition. Once they were in bed I had a G&T, watched the new Trevor Noah special1 with my husband, and went to bed at 10.30pm. Delightful.
petits plaisirs
Obviously this time of year is full of plaisirs, even during a largely underwhelming Christmastide. I have literally had cake (panettone) for breakfast every day for the past week, and at this point I would get much more plaisir out of a plate of vegetables. I’m planning to do Vegetarian January2, not so much because I want to reduce my meat intake (I don’t eat a ton of meat anyway) but because it will force me to focus more on making veg-based meals, which my body is absolutely begging for. I sometimes wonder what age I was when I started to actively really look forward to vegetable-dense meals after a period of indulgence. Perhaps that’s the mark of adulthood.
thoughts
My main resolutions for 2024 are to read more myself, and read more with the kids. These things are really important to me but so much of 2023 felt like treading water that they fell by the wayside. For myself, I want to re-establish the habit of reading regularly, rather aiming for a particular number of books, so I’ll start with 15 mins/day - this past year, I could easily go for days or even weeks without picking up a book - and maybe work up from there.
With the kids, I am going to borrow the homeschooling concept of the “morning basket” to bring a bit more focus and structure to our reading time together. Until now, we’ve basically just read whatever the kids ask to read at any given moment, but now that they’re getting a little older (newly 4 and very nearly 6), I’d like to introduce more shape to the selection of books that we’re reading month to month. For now, I’ve picked a few books on the theme of “the world”, a few Christmas books, a few faith-oriented books, a selection of picture books we all enjoy, and a chapter book. Oh, and an illustrated version of A Red, Red Rose, in preparation for our Burns Supper at the end of January.
I’m also resolving to make more effort to meet up with friends, now that I am no longer pregnant and sick nor needed for nursing (I’m nursing 2x/day but I can go out in the evenings now). Relatedly, I want to get out and about in Paris more. We live literally 10-15 minutes outside the city and I hardly ever visit, which I know I will regret if/when we move!
Finally, my husband and I want to spend an evening per week either playing a game or listening to a podcast together. We’ve both been so exhausted for the past year that we spend 99% of our evenings watching Seinfeld or Brooklyn 99 or Kim’s Convenience3, which can be cosy and fun but means we rarely actually talk haha.
Also: the 6yo’s resolution is to pray more, and the 4yo’s resolution is to fart more, and that really tells you everything you need to know about their personalities.
la vie en france
Christmas is a big deal in France, but it’s not as much of a big deal as it is in the UK, or indeed the US. For one thing, the main meal typically happens on Christmas Eve - the réveillon - which just makes so much more sense since there’s already so much going on on Christmas Day that preparing a feast in addition just feels masochistic, ya know?4 But also, some shops are still open on Christmas Day, you can still order take out (ask me how I know), and there’s just generally less pressure on it. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, and I miss the UK particularly at Christmas time, but when Christmas turns out to be a big let down as it did this year, it’s kind of nice to feel like it’s not such a huge deal for most other people.
what’s cooking
It’s a stereotype that everyone hates Brussels sprouts, but if true, I think it’s a travesty. I LOVE them, but I have a glut left over because Christmas dinner didn’t happen (see: 2/3 adults too sick to eat on Christmas Day, 3/3 children entirely unenthused by Christmas dinner). Tomorrow, I’m planning to make this recipe for orecchiette with Brussels sprouts, pine nuts, and parmesan. If I wasn’t doing vegetarian January then I would have added bacon, and I will likely add a bunch of chilli. No, my kids will not eat it and no, my husband probably will not like it, but I will, and as chief chef in a home full of people with wildly different tastes, that’s all I really care about.
things i thought were good
I found this piece on The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine5 really interesting, and it resonated with my experience/observations. People are always so shocked when I tell them that I don’t find the food here in France that great! I listened to the podcast version, but the narration was very flat so I advise reading it if you have time.
I just discovered
here on Substack, which has been really helpful as I’ve tried to think of some concrete, realistic steps I can take to improve our reading habits at home. I appreciate that although Sarah’s love of books is clearly what drives her Substack, it lacks that slightly nauseating, saccharine way of talking about books/reading that many book-oriented Substacks have.I’m currently reading The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion which somehow feels like the perfect end of year/new year read? I don’t know why, maybe just because it’s so real. I have never experienced grief (thank you Lord) but there is a lot that still rings very true and relatable, and of course Didion’s clear, restrained writing is always a pleasure to read.
coming in 2024
I’m planning to keep more or less the same structure to my Substack in 2024: “cake for breakfast” will come out on the first Tuesday of each month, and then other posts will be unscheduled, but typically 1-2 per month. However, I’m hoping that a combination of the baby taking semi-reliable naps, and no longer being on Instagram, will mean I can focus a bit more on those additional posts. I might also start paywalling parts of posts, specifically parts that are more personal, but it’s my intention to continue the model of paid subscriptions being largely on a “good will” basis, with just a few paid-only posts scattered across the year.
Some things I’m planning to write about in the next few months are:
A Bringing Up Bébé re-read after 5 years of raising kids in France. How much of it rings true? What seems unfair or exaggerated? What is a little “rose tinted”? This will probably be in two or three parts.
Something about baby naming. No, I’m not pregnant, but everyone loves this theme, right? I’m really interested in how people choose names, and we have a pretty specific approach to naming our children, so I’m thinking this will be fun topic to write about.
I’m planning to read The Brothers Karamazov during Lent, using
‘s series of mini lectures to help me along the way. If anyone wants to join, I’d love to take this on with company, but I’ll probably write a few reflections in any case for anyone who’s interested.My most popular post last year was The ghost ships that surround us, and I’d like to explore some of those themes a bit more. In particular, I want to write something based on the fact that I’ve lived in a lot of places that people say they would love to live in: Paris, London, Dublin, Edinburgh. Whilst I’ve had wonderful experiences in all those places, none of them magically fulfilled me. I’d like to explore the idea of longing for other places as someone who has lived in places that many people long for.
For fun, I’m already planning a series called The SAD girl’s guide to summer, for those of us who have “reverse” seasonal affective disorder, and find that the hot weather and long daylight hours negatively affect our mood. It’ll be a lighthearted set of posts full of ideas to make the most unbearable months (no, really) of the year a little more bearable.
Wishing you all a sense of freshness and new possibilities in these first days of 2024,
Gina
Overall I would recommend it. It got off to a boring and exasperating start, but there was a good proportion of material we found really funny.
Starting a day late because my husband defrosted 20 sausages to BBQ on Jan 1st lol
I maintain that Kim’s Convenience is the most underrated sitcom out there. Clean and sweet but genuinely funny, with a beautiful example of a realistic marriage at its centre.
Well, this year was a bit of an exception since we had two Masses on Christmas Eve - the Fourth Sunday of Advent and the Christmas Vigil - so cooking that day felt pretty overwhelming, too.
It’s from 2019 but it came up as “from the archives” in the Guardian Long Reads podcast. I think everything said still holds.
I'm gonna have to check out Kim's Convenience, ty for the rec!
Thanks for the shoutout, Gina!