This week was so relaxing and fun! Early on we celebrated my boyfriends birthday and then on Thursday we headed down to Rhode Island for NYE. Friends from Boston came to stay with us and we had the best weekend playing house, going to a perfect party, and hosting friends for football. I also did a lot of sitting by the fire reading books and working on my goal setting for 2022. I’m so excited to start this new year rested and centered! - D

We had a staycation week and I was so happy about that after a busy Christmas. It was so nice to have time to read allll the books and play with face masks and new kitchen gadgets, and for the kids to play with their gifts and see friends. I ready to be back to school and normal today, but it’s a snow day and at the rate it’s coming down right now, I think we may be getting a few more days of family togetherness. - E

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What We’re Reading and Watching

• I definitely watched the Harry Potter reunion on HBO Max and it was everything I had dreamed of! I loved that they were all on the old sets, that they brought in not just the cast but the different directors, and that they shared so many funny personal anecdotes. It really made me appreciate what the experience was like for all of the children, especially working with all of the notable actors that were involved, and it made me feel very warm and fuzzy about the series. - D

• I completed my dream from last week of reading The Therapist by B.A. Paris in 24 hours (it was great!!) and then moved on to a lighter romance from one of my favorites, Sarah MacLean, called Bombshell. It’s about a woman named Sesily who is unmarried and 30 with a wild reputation in 1830’s London. She’s part of a group of women who take down badly behaved men, and it’s delightful! - D

• Lila got the new YA thriller by Karen McManus, You’ll Be the Death of Me, (she also wrote One of Us is Lying and The Cousins) for Christmas, and I had to borrow it once she finished it. Lila didn’t love it as much as her earlier works, but I really enjoyed it and read it all in one day. It took a little longer to build a connection with the characters, but by the middle of the book I was fully invested in them and the mystery. -E

• I finished Apples Never Fall, Liane Moriarty’s newest book, and loved it. I was drawn into the sibling dynamics and the complicated and layered portrait of their parent’s marriage. There were parts that were a little out there, but overall it was great. -E

• This is embarrassing to admit, but I tried twice to watch the new Maggie Gyllenhaal-produced movie, The Lost Daughter, with Olivia Colman and Dakota Fanning, but I fell asleep both times! I wanted to love it because I think all of the women involved in it are awesome, but I just couldn’t get into it. -E

• We saw Sing 2 and we did love that! (really giving away my lowbrow taste in movies with my recommendations this week, haha!). -E

What We’re Buying

• I didn’t buy much this week, but I did get very into the beauty products that Eloise got me for Christmas. One of the biggest standouts so far are the Laneige Radian-C Cream- there is never enough moisture or ingredients to fade dark marks on my pale winter skin and amp up the glowiness!! I’m also obsessed with the Artis brush that I have been using mostly for concealer. - D

• Dinah and I were Vitamin C cream swapping at Christmas this year! She gave me the Summer Fridays CC Vitamin C Serum and the Summer Fridays Cloud Dew Moisturizer and I am totally obsessed! They are so good and I feel like my skin is clear and bright even with the late nights and less than perfectly healthy holiday eating. -E

• I have also been living in the Dudley Stephens Park Slope Fleece that my mom gave me for Christmas. It’s so soft and cozy but still looks pulled together and isn’t too heavy for Maryland weather. I now own it in three colors! -E

What We’re Making

• For New Year’s Eve, we went to a small party of close friends and I wanted to bring a festive cocktail. Our hostess and I share a deep love of Paloma’s so I found this Half-Baked Harvest recipe for a pitcher of Paloma’s that you put a champagne floater on when you serve them. I didn’t make the red, white and blue fruit ice cubes, but it was so good! The muddled rosemary added a nice herbal note, and my only recommendation is to serve it over a TON of ice, because the recipe is pretty boozy!

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