Sundaze 303: Winter solstice, at-home Taste Film and my first panto!

Happy Sundaze, my loves!

And, happy winter solstice! My family and I are celebrating Dongzhi (the Chinese winter solstice festival) with tong yuen and visiting my cousin and her newborn. For a few years now, I’ve really come to embrace Dongzhi as a time for deep reflection, renewal and resetting my energies. You can read more about the celebrations here.

Aside from that, it’s been a frantic week of Christmas prep here after spending a week in Hong Kong! We headed back to Hong Kong to celebrate my brother’s wedding banquet, which was the most beautiful evening. It was incredibly healing and relaxing to spend seven days in my favourite city, too. Perhaps I’ll share a photo diary of our trip in the New Year – I fear I’ve run out of time for one this month! We landed back on the 14th and, since then, work has taken up all of my time. Each evening has been crammed with picking up food for hosting, presents for loved ones, household bits I’d forgotten, and wrapping gifts like my life depends on it. I can hardly believe it’s Christmas next week!

My first-ever pantomime experience!

Tickets kindly gifted to me with no obligation to post content.

Last night, Watford Palace Theatre invited me to a performance of their Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime. I’ve actually never been to a pantomime before, so it felt very special indeed to make this my first. The show was brilliant: perfectly suited and written for the whole family with some fun songs – a few K-pop bits! – and audience interaction. The young ensemble were simply incredible, plus Stephen Fry even stars as the voice of the giant, and made a cameo appearance in an earlier performance! It runs at Watford Palace Theatre until 4 January, so if you’re local and looking for some Betwixmas fun, I completely recommend.

At-home Taste Film

On Friday night, my sister surprised me with the most magical at-home Taste Film experience! Last year, I treated her to the Mamma Mia! Taste Film experience in London for her birthday, and we loved it. And, on Friday, Louise put on her own TasteFilm event for us! It was festively themed around The Holiday, and we had so much fun. It was one of the most thoughtful evenings ever.

Links I’ve Loved

This single-serve tiramisu French toast sounds just like what I want for my New Year’s Day breakfast!
‘The End of an Era’ has made me sob for much of the month.
Megan shared her current notebook ecosystem, and I’m a sucker for these posts lately.
I completely adore Ella’s storytelling voice and this one on getting older was wonderful.
On notebooks.