Well mes chéries, the final day of #12DaysOfBlogmas is here. I am quite relieved, if we’re being honest, but also already nostalgic. It’s been a fun twelve days of planning content for you all, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the past 11 posts as well!
For the very last day of blogmas, I wanted to share the sentiment of the holiday season with you all.
Even though I did not grow up in a religious household, my parents and I have always lightly celebrated Christmas and followed its traditions (at least until my mom decided to tell me Santa no longer was coming because of the 2008 recession 😂). So naturally, I’ve always wondered what the holidays mean to me personally since I did not celebrate it for religious reasons.
I used to view Christmas as another family-oriented holiday that I just couldn’t get much out of. I was never a grinch, but just never felt like I could fully embrace the holiday feels. But over time, I started seeing that Christmas really is more about about love and peace as corny as it sounds. It’s why so many people love the holiday season and the warmth it brings them regardless of what holiday they celebrate. It’s truly a time for you to celebrate with everyone you love. (In reality, these holiday parties are probably also sprinkled with a few that you can’t seem to shake from the group 🌝, but if they were gone who would provide all the exciting drama 😏?) All jokes aside, it is the time of the year to let bygones be bygones, wrap up loose ends, and celebrate life itself.
At the end of each year, I’m sure I’m not the only one who shares this sentiment that sometimes they feel like at the end of the year they didn’t accomplish what they wanted, aren’t necessarily where they imagined they’d end up, and certainly are not with the people they thought they’d end up with. Sometimes it’s a good thing, because you ended up in a place that is much more suitable for you. Other times, you’re disappointed in yourself. Whether all of these feelings are positive or negative, I hope that this holiday season you are able to reflect on 2017 and be proud of where you ended up.
For me, I’m pretty close where I thought I would be less a few details. There have been some incredible highs and some seriously low lows. But at the end of last year, I learned that you can’t be upset about what you didn’t get to do. Instead, you have to praise yourself for the things you DID accomplish. Sometimes, shit happens, and it really screws up the life path we try to follow. We look to the sky and say “WHY ME?” as we pity ourselves. But is it ever that bad that we can simply never ever recover from it? I would argue no.
We can’t know what is “good” if we haven’t felt what’s “bad.” We can’t know who we are supposed to be if we don’t let life’s twists and turns help us grow. Everyone around you helps shape you as a person. No matter how much you dislike them, they teach you something valuable that no one else could. So this holiday season, I’m not focused on the bads that happened, no matter how recent they are. I’m going to take the time to love life and the people in it for what they are and who they are. I hope you find a way to feel and spread the love too!
This brings me to the end of my season’s greetings to you all, mes chéries. I hope you find warmth in your hearts and a peaceful happiness within as you decorate your trees, light your menorahs or kinaras. I’ll be staring at the twinkling lights on my little one in my apartment right with you.
Thank you for riding this journey with me, taking me for my good and bad blog days, not criticizing me if I missed a post or Instagram post or didn’t follow through with certain things I would announce on Twitter, and so on. I hope I was able to teach you something this year the way you taught me how to be more supportive of myself and not put so much unnecessary pressure on myself. I feel nothing but love from La Coterie, and I’m eternally grateful.
Happy holidays, mes chéries. I love you all deeply.
I’ll see you in the next one soon. Until then, bisou bisou…
Based in New York City, Erica Huang is the creator and voice behind Bouge & Rouge. This blog is a playground of her thoughts where she invites you to join her on her journey through her 20s. Erica shares her lifestyle, fashion and beauty tips, adventures, and personal thoughts with the goal of inspiring others to always persevere and be unapologetically yourself.
