2026 Mood(board)
and the two words I've chosen to guide my year...
Happy New Year! Happy 2026! I know, I know: I’m late to, well, everything right now.
We had a really lovely, full run-up to Christmas—we hosted a couple great parties, attended a couple really great parties, practiced my favorite Icelandic tradition, Jolabokaflod, where we give each other books and chocolates and then snuggle up to read together.
We spent Christmas Eve at St. Peter’s and Christmas morning at home, snuggled up together, and then my parents came to visit us here in Brooklyn for a couple days after Christmas, and then Henry and I took a quick, fantastic trip to the Bahamas with my family and some treasured old friends, and then all four of us went to Knoxville to spend a really great long weekend in the Smoky Mountains with Aaron’s whole family…and we finally got back from all of that on Monday night, and I have to tell you, it has taken me some time to get back into the real life of it all, and to be honest, I’m not there yet.
Sometime soon, I’ll do a holiday recap—I’ll tell you more about the holidays and about those lovely trips. I’ll tell you about some of the sweetest moments of our Christmas season, some of the gifts that meant the most, some of the gatherings that made the season really special. I’ll do a year-end recap. I’ll tell you about all the things coming up this year…and here’s another thing I really should be doing: just before Christmas, my editor sent back her edits on the rough draft I sent her in the fall, and so the next couple weeks will be a busy editing season, all the last little fixes and updates before we send this cookbook off to the printer.
But here’s where I am right now: snuggled up under a blanket on the sofa, one ear cocked for Henry, who is convalescing in our bedroom having just had his wisdom teeth removed this morning—what a way to end your first college Christmas break, right? UGH, poor guy!
I mentioned that we were in Knoxville for a long weekend earlier this week, a late-Christmas celebration with Aaron’s extended family. We rented a big house in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, and for three days we played games and cooked together and told all the old stories, and it was such a fun and special time together.
Right at the last minute, I bought a stack of magazines and asked my sister-in-law Emily to pack paper, scissors and glue sticks. On our first night there, we had some time after dinner and before the Bears/Packers game—both Aaron’s family and mine are from Chicago, so we’re forever Bears fans, of course, but my sister-in-law is a die-hard Packers fan, so things get a little spicy when the two go head to head. :) But I digress…we had a little time in between things, so a handful of us settled in at the long kitchen table and made mood boards—not fancy virtual ones on Pinterest, but the kind I used to make at sleepovers in junior high: words and images torn out of magazines.
For whatever reason, I’ve never thought of making mood boards with Aaron and the boys. All three of them are very creative, of course—writing and recording music, making videos and films, etc, but mood boards feel sort of crafty in a way that feels very girl to me—maybe if only because it’s something I did when I was a girl. Mood boards felt like something I’d love to do with my sisters-in-law and nieces and mother-in-law, a welcome trip back to a nostalgic girlhood activity.
As we settled in and started leafing through magazines and ripping out pages, I told them we could each make it as serious as a vision for what we want in the next year or as light as images that we think are pretty or moving. We cut and pasted in a companionable way, chatting and laughing, sharing scissors, reaching across one another for glue sticks and glitter tape, and it ended up being surprisingly connective. And I’m happy to report that it was not a girls-only activity, and sitting next to one of my nephews meant I got to ask him some questions about why he chose one image or another, and I feel like I know him a little better than I did before that night, which is so special.
My own mood board is mostly not that deep, really, just all things I love: water and flowers and books, stripes and a starry sky and a sailboat. A picnic, a dress shirt, lots of references to nature, and words that move me: dream weaver, extraordinary, feeling, universe, seeing, earth, soul, beat, intention.
The one thing that I almost didn’t add is that line at the bottom left: “my superpower is my fearlessness.” OMG, no one has ever called me fearless, and to be honest, as I get older, I’m more and more aware of how anxiety and fear have colored so much of my life. I can see now how much they’ve affected my family over the years, and I’m so sorry for all the moments over the years that I’ve missed or made difficult for the people I love because I was afraid. But what is a moodboard if not an opportunity to be aspirational, right? Here’s to fearlessness!
More than what’s on the mood board, though, the fact of making it is right in line with my theme for 2026: ANALOG CONNECTION.
Each word matters on its own: in this coming year, I want my life to be way more analog and less digital. And I want to connect more intentionally with the people in my life.
And the words matter together: I want to connect with human people in offline, in-person, deeply IRL ways. I want to go for walks and share meals and tell stories and yes, make mood boards. I want to cook together and run errands together and go on road trips together. I want to prioritize time together with people who matter to me, even if it means another flight, even if it’s expensive or hard to find time for.
I don’t want to scroll. I don’t want most of my social interactions to take place via text. I want in-person, face-to-face, in all of the awkwardness and inconvenience and magic of human interaction.
On our quick trip to the Bahamas, we caught up with friends we’ve known forever but don’t see nearly often enough, and it was such a sweet reminder that just seeing someone’s photos on IG or occasionally texting is absolutely not a replacement for playing on the beach with their kids or standing in the kitchen with them, watching them ask your teenager about college—ANALOG CONNECTION!
A new-ish friend here invited us over to play games on a Saturday afternoon and I couldn’t say yes fast enough—ANALOG CONNECTION! Another friend asked me to co-host a happy hour gathering for a non-profit she volunteers for—another quick yes: ANALOG CONNECTION!
Three fun links:
If you’re doing Dry January (respect!), I highly highly recommend Ghia non-alcoholic aperitifs & spritzes—slightly bitter, super delicious, and SHAUNA25 gives you 25% off for the rest of the month!
And if, for example, your college-aged son just got his wisdom teeth out and you need to find a way to feed him something other than 24-7 ice cream, Brodo is THE BEST bone broth I’ve ever had—perfect for our recovering kid, but also really great in a mug on a cold January day.
If you got a gift card or a little cash for a Christmas gift and you want to add a some true delight to your kitchen, these stainless coupes from CB2 are soooooo darling. I’ve had my eye on them forever and just finally ordered a set, and they make plain old ice cream feel like such a fancy little treat. Also the brass version are on sale right now, and they’re so cute, too.
Two albums and a show:
The new Brandi Carlile album Returning to Myself is so so great—poetic, personal, beautiful.
I feel like in the last couple weeks, every time I turned around, someone was talking to me about Geese, so I finally started listening to them while I edit, and now I’m hooked. It’s extra fun that they got their start when they were high school kids in our neighborhood, and I love Cameron Winter’s kind of all-over-the-place voice.
Of course I’m watching Season Two of The Pitt—I don’t normally like hospital shows, and I do have to look away at some of the gory stuff, but I really love this show—Noah Wyle and Katherine LaNasa especially are so great.
Three books I’ve loved recently:
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
Strangers by Belle Burden
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
I’ll be back again soon with all the things I’ve been meaning to tell you. In the meantime, I’ll be making soups and smoothies and overcooked pasta for my convalescent and trying to get myself into some sort of post-holiday rhythm—and also I’ll be practicing analog connection every chance I get, even though it’s hard to get calendars together, even though it’s easier to hunker down, even though, even though, even though…
One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is the word effortless. I always hear people talk about “effortless entertaining” or an outfit that’s “effortless” or a meal that’s “effortless.”
But here’s the thing: entertaining isn’t effortless. And great personal style isn’t effortless. And connection isn’t effortless. In fact, almost nothing that matters is effortless, and maybe we should stop using that word as a selling point.
Maybe “worth the effort” is a better way to say it. Let’s connect, because it’s worth the effort. Let’s gather people around our tables, not because it’s effortless, but because it’s worth the effort. Let’s practice analog connection in big and small ways because it’s worth the effort—because all the best things are.