The Grateful Days of Winter

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: This is the start of the hardest part of winter. Christmas is well and truly past, the excited glow of setting new goals and planning for the upcoming year has dimmed (I see you, already skipping out on the gym) and most of the country is bone-achingly cold, covered in ice and snow, or on fire. The earliest southern gardens won't see new life for at least another month, while in the northern states, we've got three more months to get through before the forsythia blooms.

So whether you're huddled up against the cold and dark or fleeing fiery disaster,  this is an excellent time to cultivate gratitude. Studies have shown it improves your mental and physical well-being, and at the very least, it will keep you from annoying your loved ones with constant whining.

To kick up off, here are a few things I'm grateful for:

 

1970s disaster movies - I honestly can't explain this, except to say I want to watch something that's exciting and action packed, but that doesn't get my heart rate up. I tried watching Carry On, but seeing Justin Bateman be bad was just too distressing. You know what's the opposite of distressing? George Kennedy, who was in every disaster movie of the decade. The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Airport - you know it's all going to be okay with manly men like Chuck Heston and Steve McQueen on the job. (Also, they're always paired with women obviously fifteen years younger - was that a 70s thing I missed?)

 

Yes, there are 2 dogs here. Look closely.

My Shih Tzus who don't need exercise - I love my dogs all year round, of course, but it's when the weather is crappy they really shine. I have friends and family with hearty, active breeds: standard poodles and pit bull mixes and terriers. Rain, snow or impending fire tornado (have we had one of those yet?) those doggos need to move. My boys? Oh, heck, no. They were bred to sit on the emperors lap. It was probably an honor for a courtier to carry their ancestors out to do their business. Rocky and Kingsley run outside, pick their paws up in a way that clearly indicates their disgust with snow, and run back in as soon as mission accomplished. They spend the rest of the day lazing 1) in front of the wood stove or 2) by the space heater.

Not having to go anywhere - See Shih Tzus, above. I know this is the time of year lots of people start pouring over the internet version of travel brochures (an I the only one who misses those?) but not me. I don't want to get on a boat or a plane. I don't even want to go to the Hanneford for groceries, and that's only three miles away. I am in my house like a Hobbit in its hole and I like it.

 

Shea butter moisturizer - As soon as my forced hot air heat kicks in, my skin becomes dryer than Arrakis. In fact, I could use an opposite stillsuit, that wrings every drop of moisture out of the air and, I don't know, circulates it all over my body. Until some smart kid invents that, large tubs of shea butter are my best friends. I slather it on until I slide out of bed every time I roll over. Sadly, I have yet to figure out how to moisturize my back below the neck and above the waist - you know, that part where you yell, "Honey, come get my back for me!"

 

Cat recovering - Have I mentioned my daughter's cat before? When Virginia departed for grad school in The Hague, she left her kitty with me, after a heartfelt speech about how much she loved the animal, and how vital it was to her mental health, and how it would be the pet her small children would remember someday. So naturally, after this foreboding start, the cat escaped from my house and got hit by a car. Now, if it had been my 14 year old Neko (who's smart enough not to run into the road) I would have cradled her gently while the vet eased her into the next world.

But I can't do that with Virginia's two-year-old wonder kitty, can I ? So after approximately $570,000,000,000 (okay, not that much, but it has been enough to buy a mid-range used car) AND spending the past 15 weeks living in a large dog crate on a table next to my desk (have to keep the cat company, or he yowls) I'm happy to say Walker the Bionic Cat is doing much better. His surgeon thinks he'll be able to travel to the Netherlands with Virginia in early February, and if he leaps off her balcony into the canal below, it'll be her look-out, not mine.

 

 

 

 

Now it's your turn, Dear Readers. What are you grateful for in these dark days of winter?

Bonus Shih Tzu and cat jail content

Face of Flying

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: This is going to be an extremely female-oriented topic, so I apologize in advance to our many male readers. As anyone can tell after hanging around here for even a short period of time, the Reds are travelers.  I probably fly the least of anyone - not having had a book out in mumble mumble years, and I still easily average four or five round trip flights annually, between conferences and family visits. 

In the past several years, travel has come to intersect with my increasing, shall we say, dedication to skin care. I was blessed with good genes, and didn’t have to bother with much more than scrubbing away make-up and slapping on sunscreen - and even that wasn’t until moisturizers with SPF became common in the early 90s. (I remember getting my first 30 SPF face cream as a gift from a friend - they were expensive back then!)

However, time marches on, and I’ve discovered that since menopause, my face has a tendency to resemble ancient animal skin parchment unless fed a steady diet of retinol, vitamin C, Niacinamide, moisturizer, etc., etc. And flying tends to exacerbate every issue, right? First off, it’s stressful. Crowds, security, standing in line for Starbucks, wrestling your luggage into the bathroom stall. If you’re on business or book tour, you inevitable have to get up at 5am after a not-so-great night’s sleep. Maybe you’re wearing a mask because who knows what germs are traveling alongside you? Then it’s two or four or six hours in a tube with a humidity level as low as 10%. The average humidity level in the Atacama Desert of Chile, widely considered the driest place on earth? 15-40%. Uh huh.

So I’m trying to follow the suggestions of flight attendants I’ve read. Drink two bottles of water per hour of flight time? That’s easy, especially with a collapsible travel bottle. Mist your face? Okay. Go without makeup? That’s a no from me, especially when traveling on business. Avoid alcohol? No problem, I don’t like to drink on flights anyway. Avoid caffeine? Oooo. That’s going to be a REAL hard one for me.

I did like the idea of thoroughly washing your face and putting on a fifteen minute mask (or masque) once you’ve reached your hotel. I LOVE those Korean face masks.

How about you, Reds? What’s your go-to skin care when traveling, generally, or flying specifically? 

RHYS BOWEN:  Flying without makeup, especially when I’m on book tour and I’m going to be met by a driver then at a fancy hotel? Not going to happen. I do drink water but not so much that I’m up and down to the bathroom. I mist my face. But I also accept that welcome Prosecco when I board. I like to relax. 

As for the perfect skin care routine, my skin has become so sensitive recently that most products aggravate it. So it’s the most simple moisturizer and occasional mask. I have been given lovely sets of Lancôme and Clinique but hardly dare to use them

HALLIE EPHRON: “Welcome Prosecco”??? What? Where? How did I miss that?? 

My “skin care routine” is usually one step, flying or not: I wash my face once a day. When it’s super dry inside I use a moisturizer because it feels good. Vaseline on my lips. Sun block if I’m going to be in the sun. 

Beyond that, my go-to skin-care solution involves trying not to look in the mirror. Time marches. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I use Dove sensitive skin soap, morning and night, without fail,  and sometimes a bare trace of Vaseline for moisturizer on my eyelids and face if it’s a little dry. I have not put a mask on my face in my entire life. My face has not been in the sun without massive sunscreen for 30 years. No makeup on the plane? Ah.Yikes. Nope. Not unless I am on the way home and no one will see me. (And wearing a mask is such a boon in those circumstances.)

I rarely drink on a plane, but will never (crossing fingers) give up caffeine. (Except I will not drink airplane coffee. Yuck.) And in hotels,  I try to sleep on my back so the decoratively piped hotel pillows don’t leave welts on my face. (And I burst out laughing about wrestling the luggage into the bathroom stall. EVERY time. My suitcase is like..one  impossible inch too big.)

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Weirdly, I never thought too much about my face being dry on planes. It’s my eyes, the inside of my nose, and my lips that really suffer. Lots of dry-eye drops, and lip balm, always. I wear my usual make-up, a tinted moisturizer. 

Should I admit that I don’t normally wash my face? I have to use a foaming eye cleanser morning and night, so my face gets warm water then, and if I’ve worn more makeup than usual I’ll take it off with a bit of that. I also use loads of Clinque humectant face care stuff; a spray mist, a gel moisturizer, and either a sunscreen moisturizer or a night one, all in layers. Absolutely no soap!

I cannot imagine how anyone can drink two bottles of water per hour on a flight unless they intend to barricade themselves in the plane toilet for the duration!

 

LUCY BURDETTE: I don’t think too much about skin and planes either, though I don’t drink alcohol or caffeine while flying and do try to hydrate. Skin care: I use an enzyme wash, then Olay with SPF 30 in the morning and my favorite Alaskan lavender skin moisturizer at night (Alpenglow.) I bought some of that at a farmer’s market in Homer, AK years ago and have been ordering it ever since. I’m very lazy about makeup, but if someone would tell me how to remove mascara efficiently, I promise I’ll try harder!

JENN McKINLAY: I’m like Debs - it’s my lips, nose, and eyes that get dry when I fly. So, Aquaphor (a Beiersdorf product) as lip balm, for sure. It’s like Vaseline but has a healing agent in it. Saline nasal spray and eye drops as needed (my seatmates love me - lol). I do drink water and airplane coffee but no alcohol. I don’t wear makeup except for mascara when I travel, and for my skin I apply Eucerin Q10 (another Beiersdorf product) which is my daily moisturizer. Overall, I’m pretty low maintenance. 

 
JULIA: How about you, dear readers? Any go-to tips for putting your best face forward? Or, if that's not your thing, share what you use to make travel more comfortable for you.

 

Photo of woman in plane by Pexels (freerangestock.com)