My very dear friends
I was planning to send out a bumper Christmas newsletter this week, filled with good things and candied hams and stocking stuffers and glowing red noses, but it has been such a very good and very full year that I just don’t think I have the pep, the brio, the get-up-and-go, the ho-ho-ho left in me. I think I’m just going to pour myself a clinking glass and settle down in this armchair and knock off early.
It has been an extraordinarily happy year. I’ve met remarkable people and I think I’ve done some good work and I’ve had a lot of fun. One of the things I am happiest about is meeting all of you. Thank you for your responses and your interactions and just for putting your name on that subscription form and pressing send and for not, so far, pressing “unsubscribe”.
I’m excited about next year, and I know it’s unfashionable to say this but I’m excited about the world and about all the glowing, waiting, unfurling things of life, and I am looking forward to sharing as much of it with you as I can, and as much as you will stand.
I’m in Lisbon now and the Christmas lights are out and a light rain is jeweling the window and I have my very first actual fir tree, which isn’t big but it’s pretty, and it’s all lit up and hung with red and silver, and I’m going to sit here in front of it and become gently, reflectively drunk and wish you all a great deal of happiness. I’ll see you in 2020
All my very warmest love
D
