It's Christmas Eve and we're hosting. This will be a short one. ​If you celebrate, have a very Merry Christmas. If you don't, have a great week!

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Weirdly, a book about an infectious disease outbreak in 1850s London called out to me from my bookcase. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson chronicles the cholera outbreak that rewrote how cities operate. It reads almost like a thriller with a bit of infrastructure studies thrown in.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• Download all your thoughts with a brain dump. [RAD]

• How far can companies go to silence their employees speech. [Embedded]

• "Foreign countries and cities don’t exist to entertain us or to teach us anything. They’re just places where people live, and do some things differently and some things the same." [The Deleted Scenes]

• The meaning of The Color Purple. [Pop Culture Happy Hour]

• Struggle, potential, and growth. [Hidden Brain]

• How early tackle football is hurting kids brains. [The Daily]

• Hidden kitchens. [The Kitchen Sisters Present]

• Our streaming service for Hallmark went wonky one night so we tried something completely different. Violent Night essentially asks, "What if Santa was a badass?" I don't normally go for action/raunch but this movie was a surprise. There was a lot more depth to the narrative and characters than I expected. Also, there are Christmas jokes throughout that kept the comedy going. [Amazon Prime]

• I think we finally watched the winner of this year's crop of new Hallmark films. Sealed with a List was a good movie. The lead is a brunette... with short hair! It takes place in New York City! This movie was aided by a decent script and a believable friends to romance storyline. Plus, the acting was on point. Just the right mix of drama and not taking itself too seriously. [Hallmark Channel]

• Following our holiday party, we had a few leftovers to eat. For lunch one day, I basically snacked on spinach balls. They are one of the vegetarian offerings and I don't mind when we have leftovers. I like to dip them in cocktail sauce. [Food.com]

• We're trying to eat more beans. Between that and not wanting to fill our fridge too much before the Christmas crush, we made black beans and sausage. I threw in some bonus celery since we needed to use it up. This was a quick weeknight dish that tasted great topped with sour cream. I also tried it with goat cheese but the sour cream was better. [Martha Stewart]

I love wedding pictures. This was my favorite from a roundup of 50 stunning options. Something about the common detail of it is striking. [PetaPixel]

The days are getting longer again. Huzzah! Why not check out the Sun Angle Calculator to see how the sunlight hits your home. (This was a great tool for when we were condo shopping.) You can also check things like the path of eclipses and various daily details like sunrise, sunset, and daylight duration.

Hello to that week of the year where time makes no sense. But family is in town which means I am going to sneak out without the kiddo to get some things done.