We had a doozy of a beginning of 2026. After dodging a snow storm the morning we flew out, and staying a night at the retro (super cool!) TWA Hotel at JFK, we landed in sunny St. Lucia for a much-needed holiday. I don’t know about you, but I find a post-Christmas vacation an absolute must after all of the running around that leads up to the big day.
The island of St. Lucia is mountainous, similar to my favorite Caribbean island St. John USVI, so I immediately loved it. Some of the flatter islands, like Turks and Caicos, are very pretty but I find them less interesting for their lack of drama. Our resort, which we booked on AmEx points (score), was luxurious and overlooked the most incredible mountain, not the Pitons. But we did take see the stunning Pitons, a mountain pair formed by the island’s volcano, several times.
On New Year’s Eve we danced poolside with new friends. We ate a Caribbean-themed dinner on the beach. On the first day of 2026, we rode the waves on a catamaran and went snorkeling up the coast of the island, seeing spotted eels, tons of squid and cuttlefish and beautiful little fish swimming all around us. We’d never felt so lucky. Don’t we look so happy below?
And then…we woke up for our flight home on Saturday to chaos. All of the flights that day were cancelled because of the US capture of the Venezuelan leader; they shut down all of the air space over the Caribbean. Suddenly, we weren’t sure when we were getting home. While the air space reopened on Sunday, anyone flying out Saturday was without a way home. I spent most of that day refreshing every major airlines booking page trying to get a flight. At one point, we were going to take a 90 minute boat ride to Martinique, fly Transat Airlines to Montreal and then drive home five hours to New York.
Then I snagged a flight on Jet Blue to New York four days after we were supposed to leave. Still, that was lucky!
Can you say you’re stranded when you’re stuck in paradise? It was a debate in our family. We were so lucky to be somewhere beautiful. We could stay in our hotel. There was four more days of sun when friends back home were texting us how cold it was in New York. Still, we had to incur four more nights of hotel room costs, food at the pool and dinners, and the unsettling feeling that Trump might do something else and cancel flights again. We enjoyed ourselves but felt eager to get on the plane.
One of my best moments of 2026 so far was on the plane ride home: I was trying to nap but I was uncomfortable without a place to rest my head. Without saying a word, my 15-year-old Harper, who was doing school work with his headphones on, reached into his backpack and pulled out his sweatshirt. He handed it to me. “I thought you might want a place to rest your head,” he smiled.
Melt.
You know that feeling when your kids hit you square in the heart, I know you do. It was the sweetest.
What I Read Over Break
I had a few books that I was asked to blurb (my favorite) so I was catching up on those — more on these incredible novels later. I also read David Szalay’s award winning novel FLESH. I spent the first half of the book loving the story. It was clever, turning gender roles on their head, and giving us a contemporary definition of masculinity. Three-quarters of the way in, though, I turned on the main character—and the writing. In trying to create a hollow character, Sgalay fails to deliver any real personhood. The character’s one word answers persist to the end, and when the book finished, I couldn’t believe how many critics raved about this story. It was so empty. If that was the point, it was made but I also walked away without any sense of how this character had changed. Oy. Very disappointed, and I feel like I can say that since my voice is quiet in a sea of praise.
Has anyone else read FLESH and seen something I didn’t?
A couple months ago, I reported that I had tried listening to ISOLA by Allegra Goodman, and I couldn’t get into it. When we got stuck at the resort, I went to the community bookshelf in the lounge and pulled a print copy of the novel from the shelf.
I reread all the parts I listened to and I was so engrossed I couldn’t believe it was the same story. In the end, it was one of my top three books of 2025. This proves two points for me: One, some books just don’t work as audiobooks due to their narrator, the subject matter or the voice. Two, I would feel engrossed in novels more if I had open chunks of time to read. Without anything else to do on the island, I returned to the book for entertainment. There was so much less competing for my attention.
I suppose I need to leave my phone in another room when I’m reading. Do you do that?
Is Anyone Else Watching Simon Cowell’s Boy Band Show?
I should have watched “People We Meet on Vacation,” Emily Henry’s adaptation, so we could discuss, but I was sucked in to the new Simon Cowell reality show on Netflix. It’s called “Simon Cowell: The Next Act.” Please watch it. It’s so cute, and now I want this boy band to succeed, even though I don’t really like boy bands. Their voices are legit good.
Plus, all of the boys in the group are Irish and English, which means they have the cutest accents, and they’re all the same age as my son. I want to hug them every time they have a set back. Their cheeks!! Once a mom, always a mom.
Here’s a fun fact: The band calls themselves “December 10,” which is my birthday. I actually swear. Isn’t that hilarious?
French Again!
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to learn enough conversational French that I can go live in France for a year and communicate. Maybe teach writing! I took French from kindergarten through college, but as soon as I stopped speaking it, I lost it all. I began my French class last spring, but I couldn’t take one this fall. I vowed to pick it back up, and my first class was Monday night.
I’m in the class with a quirky Italian woman who chuckles at the pronunciation of certain words. For some reason, she makes me smile nonstop. She says she’s as Italian as one can be but dreams of being French. Isn’t it funny how we’re drawn to certain places and cultures without explanation? I’ve been hanging up pictures of the Eiffel Tower since I was in elementary school. Was I French in a previous life? LOL.
I’m going to skip Media Diary this week since I pretty much filled you in on what I’m watching, reading and listening to these days. I can’t wait to spend another year with you all! Happy Reading!
xo
So glad you made it home safely!
You really have a sweetest family! Hope those extra few days ended up to be a net positive.