This is the last engagement column of the year, and it's designed to whet your appetite for our upcoming holiday series.  

"Season's Eatings" starts Christmas Eve and explores holiday food traditions of families from around the region. The clever name for the series came from Features Editor Kristy Dorsey, who thought of it in 10 seconds flat one morning. Darn, she's good!

Graphic designer Maria Reagan is creating the logo you'll see with every story, so we can promise that will be beautiful.

The series kicks off with a story about Greek food traditions by John Ruddy, The Day's copy desk chief, who occasionally treats us to beautifully written stories. For this one, Ruddy interviewed parishioners of St. Sophia Hellenic Orthodox Church in New London. The Day staffers flock to St. Sophia for its annual food festival every November, and we can attest the food is fabulous. Ruddy's story, which features pastry traditions, is worth fasting for. You'll know what we mean once you read the story.

We'll take you into the homes of others around the region as they celebrate their cultural heritages with great chow.

We'll celebrate Hanukkah with a family from Lisbon in a story by Staff Writer Greg Smith. Yes, we know the last candle on the menorah was lit weeks ago. We still want to shine the light on the Jewish holiday traditions, and we think you'd agree that latkes and other Jewish comfort foods are good year-round.

Groton reporter Kimberly Drelich met a wonderful woman from her beat who told us, and showed us, about traditional Vietnamese holiday dishes. Homemade egg rolls, anyone?

How about some hot chocolate from Peru? When Staff Writer Johana Vazquez was telling us about it in the newsroom, our mouths were watering.

Claire Bessette, who has long covered the Haitian community in Norwich, will delight us with the history of soup joumou, a hearty dish that represents unity and independence for the people of Haiti. While reporting her story, she took a couple of sips of a Haitian holiday drink called Kremas, and we teased her endlessly about drinking on the job.

Staff Writer Joe Wojtas visited an Italian family from Westerly and wrote about the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes, with a little lasagna thrown in. While reporting his story, Wojtas made plans to watch the making of a traditional Italian sausage, Soppressata, or "soupy," later this winter. Yay, more food stories to come in 2022!

Reporter Elizabeth Regan will be writing about the food traditions around Kwanzaa, and we're eager to read about the "bounty of the harvest" in her story. We might also have a story about Polish holiday traditions; stay tuned.

Hungry yet? We are! Let's feast on "Season's Eatings" together. 

And since not everyone celebrates in traditional ways, Brian Hallenbeck will be bringing us a nice story about an Old Lyme man who has a different way of observing the holidays. If we don't cover your holiday food traditions with a story, please go ahead and tell us all about them in the comment section or send me an email.

We hope you got a good taste of how The Day covers the community in 2021. We're looking forward to hearing more about your favorite newspaper content in 2022.

Karen Florin is The Day's engagement editor. She can be reached at k.florin@theday.com or (860) 701-4217.