Cottage Letter for February: An ode to gals and pals

This month’s Cottage Letter includes a blank notecard and envelope along with a three page letter. Fun!

Maybe I’m late to the Galentine’s Day valentine concept… celebrating friendship love. It seemed to be a hot topic all over the place this year. Was it around all this time? Have I just not noticed? I asked Google:

“The holiday can trace its origins to a 2010 episode of "Parks and Rec," in which the main character, Leslie Knope, decides that the day before Valentine's Day should be an opportunity to celebrate the platonic love among women, ideally with booze and breakfast food.”

Yep, definitely out of the loop on this one. A friend of mine recently lost his wife of 50 years. First Valentine’s Day without her, so I would like to add Palentine’s Day to the list of Valentine’s and Galentine’s. I thought of my pal a lot on Valentine’s Day. Interestingly, the Cottage Letter this month is also about the love between friends rather than romantic love.

Less expectation. More celebration.

Over here at the household we celebrated the day as a family. A Familentine’s Day, if you will. Famlentines? My daughter and I made a heart shaped cake for daddy and he showed up at home with a bouquet of flowers for each of us.

Nailed it.

I had a lot to celebrate this year. Mostly in the form of people I have never officially met.

Since launching my new letter series COTTAGE LETTERS, I have had a whole alumni of PARIS LETTER subscribers show up.

What a treat! It felt like a reunion. Some people had subscribed to my Paris Letters for years. Then my little monthly friendlies ended when the project ended and Dear Paris, the anthology of the letters, came out. The anthology was, of course, a celebration and it was nice to be published with Simon & Schuster, but it did signal the end of an era, which would have been sad if I hadn’t ALSO had so many other things going on.

I call them “All the alsos…”

Also Covid hit, so I was locked in with needy roommate (aged 4) at the time.

Also, health-wise I had a lot going on. (I was finally discharged from the oncologist this month… after SEVEN years.)

Also I left Paris so figured I should come up with something else.

Also also also. All the alsos.

I didn’t realize that I had pushed a lot of bereft feelings down whilst all the ALSOs were going on. When people showed up again to subscribe… gosh it was like valentine after valentine after valentine.

It made me emotional. Misty eyed with glee over the sight of familiar names.

So thanks everyone. You sure know how to make a girl feel loved. Galentines and Palentines all over the place.

Photo: Kelly Sikkema

This month’s letter includes a blank notecard to write a message to anyone who could use a little extra love.

To subscribe to the Cottage Letters, head on over to Etsy.

Happy (paper) Valentine’s to you.

Janice