1. Hot chocolate. Hot chocolate once a day, every day, twice a day. Hot chocolate with whipped cream. Hot chocolate with whipped cream and a smidge of peppermint. Whipped cream on cinnamon applesauce for breakfast. Whipped cream by itself. There are no rules.
2. The time just before sunset on a gray day when it’s not quite dark outside yet, but you notice that it’s also not quite as light as it was 10 minutes earlier. The time of day that’s most conducive to wearing comfy clothes, making a cup of tea, and cozying up with a book in the warm glow of some fairy lights, your roommate’s salt lamp, and the streetlights that are just beginning to turn on.
3. “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” by Elton John. It’s been stuck in my head all day — to the point where I have no choice but to blurt out a lyric every now and then — but every time it cycles through, I’m reminded of the friend who first heard it and thought of me. The gesture of sending music to share a feeling you can’t put into words.
4. Sad Christmas songs. Sometimes the mistletoe is just cheap plastic.
5. People with contagious laughter. A laugh that echoes and swells and fills the entire space with shimmers of pink and yellow. The feeling of making someone laugh. Laughing so hard your tummy hurts and — for just a moment — you forget about the reasons why you haven’t laughed in a while. Laughing in class at a moment when you shouldn’t be. Laughing with your friends on the floor of your dorm room when you have too much to laugh about to say goodnight. Laughing just to laugh.
