F**k! I'm 31.
31 and December is already *TOO* much fun...
Like all my stuff, this letter might get cut off in your inbox. Click here to read in browser, as God intended.
December sort of feels like that time this summer my parents rented us e-bikes to ride around Park City the day of my cousin’s wedding. I had never been on one before, and suddenly I was whipping downhill and around sharp corners, engine buzzing, looking at every pot hole or bump in the road like “Okay, that minuscule piece of detritus on the asphalt might actually kill me!” And then, weirdly, it was over just when I stopped thinking I was going to die and started having fun. Go figure.
I think a lot of people feel similarly, perhaps you too. I want to partake in every possible festive tradition I can, but the gas tank is empty. Yesterday, positively wiped from a weekend of (double) birthday festivities and holiday hosting and what feels like a compounded hangover from the entire month of December— I had to press a big fat pause button.
After doing my one pre-planned activity of the day— a goodbye coffee with my beloved friend Sophie who is moving to Ireland for culinary school in a few short days! Take me with you, Soph!— I came home, cleaned the house top to bottom, donned my favorite fanciest loungewear and finally flopped down on the couch to binge watch Christmas movies.
At time of writing I have binged You’ve Got Mail, Something from Tiffany’s, Office Christmas Party and White Christmas. Last night I made one of my favorite Ina Garten recipes for dinner— her warm roasted chicken and bread arugula salad— along with some brown butter, leek and rosemary mashed potatoes. WOW! If you eat chicken, you must try her roast chicken this way. I’m linking my TikTok recipe video for it below, I could honestly eat this every day.
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(And FYI, if you make this— you do not need to prep the bird so far in advance or stuff the herbs under the skin. I have done it with 48 hours of seasoning and with 2 hours of seasoning and there was objectively no difference. If anything, the thyme sprigs under the skin are annoying to pick out, I skip making the vinaigrette and just shower my arugula in great champagne vinegar.)
At the moment, I have Wishbone Kitchen’s Spicy Spaghetti-o Soup on the stove because I fear the breakneck speed of December has caught up with me. I’m feeling a little sick. (NOOOoooOOOOoooOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)
I do have a long letter for paid subscribers below about a little epiphany I had on my birthday Monday, identity, my relationship with Islam, and going “home.”
But before the jump: a few fun December things!
I’ve been barreling towards my yearly reading goal for 2024 as best I can. Fellow book-heads may recall that I increased my goal halfway through the year when I hit my goal early— I thought I’d make it to 100 books this year no problem, but I did not at all account for how busy Q4 gets, and I started December with eight books to read by New Year’s Eve. 🫠 I am crushing my way through my goals and I picked some seasonal reads to make the most of the holidays before they pass me by, starting with a novella that
recommended (Cruel Winter With You by Ali Hazelwood! Enjoyed!) and Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year (a cheesy cozy mystery romance that I enjoyed), followed by Elin Hilderbrand’s Winter Street. Whew! If you have Christmas reads I should download next, let me know in the comments. As a break from Christmas content, I’m allowing myself the second book in Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series-- her books are like candy to me!Really feeling rich reds, navys, and chocolates this year and I’ve thrifted some great cranberry and garnet sweaters and button ups this month. I’m wearing them with these cool velvet flats that Dolce Vita gifted me and maybe my new Donni pants. (For all these wins, I totally struck out trying to acquire barrel leg jeans that work for me. I fear I’m too tall to make the incumbent barrel leg pair fit right!) This all culminates in what I’d describe as a strong feral hunger for anything and everything Ralph Lauren. If there’s a polo bear too!?!? Forget it. I’m SICK for that polo bear!!!
Scenes from a birthday stroll through the RL flagship. I found this article on influencers suing each other for “copying” their Amazon aesthetics, erm, fascinating…
Every year my best friend and I have a “holiday hooky day” where we take off work (if we have jobs, lol) and do the most fun holiday tourism stuff around Manhattan. This year we had the best time in Rockefeller Center, shopping around, sipping seasonal bevs, yapping, day drinking and finishing with a spectacularly festive and rich holiday dinner at Raf’s— followed by many negronis at Temple Bar. It was surprisingly (or I guess not surprisingly!) one of the best nights of my life. I love an impromptu and accidental drunken night.
Excerpts from the best day ever! I am really coveting these striped pants from Donni after snagging my first ever pair of their pants and loving them.
On Monday, I turned 31!