I spent my birthday hiking in the mountains outside Santa Fe, and the weather gods were absolutely there for me, serving up the kind of fluffy wet snow I’d been dreaming of all year.

When we first contemplated moving to New Mexico, I felt that I could be on board as long as I had the opportunity to snowshoe or ski three months out of the year. Snow makes me incredibly happy, and it doesn’t hurt that a snowy day allows me to wear all my hand knitted treasures.

After our epic winter birthday hike, we stopped at the Kakawa Chocolate House in Santa Fe for some barely-sweet chocolate elixirs. The folks at Kakawa don’t make modern candy–they make Old World potions that call up images of an ancient secret city. Outside the Chocolate House, the snowfall played along with my fancies–illuminating the entire city, turning it into a fairy tale realm.

Speaking of fairy tales, my birthday loot happily included a copy of Kat Howard’s A Cathedral of Myth and Bone. Kat edited my most recent novel, and her work is brilliant and evocative and magical. (Also, she’s generous and honest and kind. You should read her stuff!) 2019 promises to be a great year for reading, so let’s get started, shall we?