Sonya Chloe Lives at the North Palace
An Arctic Novel (and a Polar Bear Poem)

Charme de Neige (French for Snowspell)

"...think of it as a winter solstice celebration that comes after Christmas...after New Year's, in fact..."

Charme de Neige is celebrated at Palais du Nord, an Arctic ice palace and Sonya Chloe's home. Charme de Neige, or Snowspell, starts at the stroke of midnight New Year's Eve and ends at midnight a week later.

Sonya Chloe has many meetings with her Manyhelpers earlier in the week, but once that's out of the way, it's time for the Last Day of Snowspell Soiree. Dessert is a massive Palais du Nord Gateaux, as well as ice cream served in teacups once belonging to European royalty.

Revenge is sweet, when you eat ice cream out of your enemy's teacup. Sonya Chloe explains: "Revenge is sweet, when you eat ice cream out of your enemy's teacup." No, she hasn't forgotton Empress Anna Ivanovna's treachery in Sankt-Peterburg, circa 1730...

Following the Melting of the Swan* Ceremony, it's a whirl on the Holiday Memory Retention Roller Coaster, and voila! guests are back snug in their beds, with visions of sug-...wait ~ that's the wrong holiday. But you get the idea.

* an ice swan

a sprig of forsythia in her hair,
peach and lime on a silver tray,
a wild ride through the midnight air -
Charme de Neige, im Januar

reggie poem | snowspell | sonya chloe | home

"because my mother Agrafena Arsenieva

loved black butterflies" ~ Sonya Chloe

Babushka Baum: "Babushka" means 3 things in Russian ~ grandmother, scarf and butterfly. "Baum" is German for tree. A Babushka Baum goes up midnight New Year's Eve and stays up for 7 days (the duration of Charme de Neige*).

No lights - butterfly ornaments only. Paint a branch, or wrap with string or yarn.

* Snowspell

Q: What kind of gifts go under a Babushka Baum?

A: "Something like a butterfly, or something a butterfly would like."