Today is the shortest day/longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere. Coming up soon, we have Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and other winter holidays. Soon will be the end of the year and the decade.

I am taking off the next two weeks to spend the holidays with my family. There won’t be any blog posts, story releases, or regular social media posts from me. (You may get a few fun pictures if I have the time to share.) My promo newsletter is already scheduled to let you know about all the great holiday deals. This is a good time to sign up because I hear there are usually book sales right after Christmas to help you fill up any new e-readers you may have received. But otherwise, you won’t hear anything from me until January 6, when I’ll be preparing to release my new book series, the Santa Cruz Witch Academy!

Today, I am lighting candles on my altar and spending time with my family. I’m praying for rain to stop the bush fires in Australia.

Here is my Yule altar. Some of my Wiccan tools have been with me for my entire two decades of practice. Even the altar is handmade. When I buy something ready-made, I try to add my own twist onto it. For example, wrapping beads around the stem of my silver chalice. Blue is a strong theme for my practice so many items are blue glass or have blue glass beads to decorate them.

And here is my Yule “tree.” This is actually a rosemary bush. I’ve tried having a small evergreen tree before, but they died. So I hope that I can transplant this bush into the garden after the holidays. It would be nice to grow fresh rosemary. All of the decorations are handmade.

Happy Solstice! See you in 2020.