A Sweet Custom

in which I celebrate the New Year

I got a text from T the other night, just as I was thinking about taking a hot bath, asking if I was coming to the New Year’s blessing of the village by the mayor. With a twinge of regret about the bath, I threw on some clothes and hustled into the village to see what was going on.

My village only has around 700 people in it. And a chunk of them was in a…