What We’re Reading and Watching

• We’ve been working our way through all of the Christmas movies and so far we’ve watched Elf, White Christmas, Home Alone, Babes in Toyland (the girls described this as weird but surprisingly good), all of the Christmas Prince and Princess Switch Movies and multiple versions of The Nutcracker. Next on our list are the Christmas Chronicle movies. -E

• We both loved Amy Poeppel’s book Musical Chairs, so I decided to read her first novel, Small Admissions. It’s about a girl named Kate going through a rough breakup, who gets a job doing admissions at an UES private school. Between the admissions process and friend group dynamics, this made me so nostalgic for my NYC days! - D

• I’ve been in a little bit of a “suburban ladies doing crimes” TV phase. If you haven’t watched Dead to Me or Good Girls, both are on Netflix and worth the watch if you want something medium-stressful to escape into! - D

What We’re Buying

• I was in Target doing a Christmas/cleaning supplies run and I randomly bought this dress and then immediately wore it to a Nutcracker Tea Party! It’s long and loose enough to be comfortable, but the puff sleeves and the detailed texture on the fabric make it look a lot dressier and higher quality than the price. -E

• I wanted a simple black sweatshirt and ordered this one from Amazon. It’s the softest super microfleece, but looks nicer than that, with a mock neck, drop shoulders and tunic length. I’m thinking about ordering the green color for our trip to Vermont over Christmas! It runs true to size, but size up if you actually want it to be oversized. - D

• This R & Co. blow dry spray is so good! It does a good mix of keeping volume at the roots but also keeping the ends smooth. I’ve been using it on the girls’ hair as well and it helps keep it looking nice and styled the next day too. - E

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What We’re Making

• We just decorated gingerbread houses with kits that I got from Trader Joe’s that are so sweet. - E

• Instead of our usual trip to the ballet to see the Nutcracker with our friends, we went to their house and had a tea party. We watched the ballet through the Ballet Theatre of Maryland, decorated cookies and glass ball ornaments, and had the Afternoon Tea to go from Reynold’s Tavern. It was such a perfect holiday party for a small group. - E