It’s Capricorn season, y’all. through gritted teeth “Yay!” weak air horns and a puff of confetti.

An anxiety-driven year merges with the usual anxiety-driven holiday cheer and then poof we have 2021. What a ride. I am here on behalf of fellow earth-sign dwellers everywhere to wish you and yours Happy Freaking Holidays and a Merry Damn New Year. What better way to celebrate Capricorn season than focusing on accomplishments and reflecting on how we can make our talents and ourselves useful. That would be great in a normal year, but we’re talking about 2020, y’all. Everyone’s tired and anxious and waiting, waiting, waiting. So maybe this season we just give ourselves a collective break and try to enjoy the small pleasures? Sure, we’re still going to freak out about decorations and activities, shopping lists and whether to visit family, vegan pozole and drinking too much on an empty stomach.

A small side note: Nicholas and I have fought every New Year’s Eve for the past three years. We don’t know why, and we can never remember why we fight, but we just do. It’s as if we shipped the airing of grievances from Festivus to New Year’s Eve. It was, in fact, the only way to close out 2020.

That said, December was mostly pleasant and peaceful at Casa Almanza. We did our best to create some Winter Wonderland magic with walks around the neighborhood, hay bale backyard movie nights, trips to drive-through light shows, decorations, holiday celebrations, cookies, sugar, way too much chocolate and not enough cheer. Upon reflection, we decided that 2020, while awful, brought us closer as a family unit. We love each other, are sick of each other, look after each other, hold each other’s hands when the lights go out, we watch movies together, eat together, we cry together and lose our tempers. We whine and we grow frustrated, we laugh and we scream within moments. As Bashy says when he wants to be left alone, “I’m in my feels, Mama.”

We all are.

Happy 2021.