Between the feasting of Christmastide and the fasting of Lent lies ordinary life without a clear script. During the holidays, hospitality is expected and expressed in full calendars and busy homes. Once the decorations are packed away and the last guests have gone, a familiar quiet settles in. There is relief in this, since hospitality is work. Yet the sudden retreat into private life also reveals something else: how thin our social fabric has become, and how rarely we practise hospitality as a natural and sustained way of life.