Sunday Sundries, Vol. 27

The holidays are a beautiful thing. When you’re in school. I don’t know when the last time was that I had the holidays off. Probably second-year university and even then I was working the odd shift.

This is a very lucky year for me. I’m completely on my own schedule for 25 days from when my semester ended until January 4 when I’m back in class again. I’ve been calling it the 25 Days of Melmas and am catching up with books, tv shows, laundry, freelance work and anything else that fell by the wayside during the semester.

Even if you are working or schooling or anything else through the holidays, I hope you find some time to treat yourself to chocolate, a book or a cup of tea.

You deserve it. Good job making it through the year!

I’ll be doing a lot of writing here with my spare time, so I’ll be around if you want to talk or leave a comment. This will be the last Sunday Sundries until the New Year, so I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s some holiday reading for you:

• It’s easy to feel safe in Canada, but when I read stories like Aya’s at Humans of New York I’m reminded that a lot of people are living lives similar to my grandparents and great-grandparents during World War II, if not worse. I’m so glad Brandon Stanton does what he does. He does so much to remind us we’re all just human. It’s scary to think people sometimes forget that.
• What Christians and Pagans share over the holidays.
• This daily calendar from the You Are Beautiful project. 2016 is on the horizon!
• And this wrapping paper I wish I knew about last week!
• It’s not too late to buy some saucy things from this feminist gift guide. Everyone needs cat armour.
• Is freelancing going to stress you out?
• Illustrations show how technology is taking over our lives.
• Secrets about how the couples in Love Actually, actually end up!
• If you think your family’s weird, check out these unusual Christmas traditions from around the world.
• This fanart of Ms. Marvel punching Donald Trump in the face, and the history behind it.
• Owning books is one of the best things you can do to help your child’s education, but people are finding ways to cope with less physical books in the digital age.
• It might surprise some people what ‘famous’ Youtubers actually make.
• My friend Kat left her full-time job to make time for more happy while juggling eight sometimes jobs.
• I love seeing what Banksy’s been doing in Syrian refugee camps.
• Stories like this make me go WTF?
• Do you like getting surprise postcards from all over the world?
• A U.N. analysis of American shows they’re missing several women’s rights.
• Being lazy is actually focusing your productivity.
• Lawyers in Japan are expected to work 105 hours per week.
• A brief history of chili peppers.
• I keep making maps using Mapiful.
• Next year I want to try a whiskey advent calendar.
• North Korea’s capital is more colourful than you might think.
• Austin Kleon’s thoughts on reading are worthwhile!
• This video of people being awesome: