This post marks the second completed year of monthly recaps. Despite periods of inconsistent blogging this past year, I’ve always made sure to get my monthly recaps up, sometimes staying up until the early morning to do so. On top of that, I published 22 of 25 Blogmas posts this past month. It was almost more content than I could keep up with writing, and I imagine that it was more content than you could keep up with reading. If you fancy catching up on some, my favourites are: new apartment tour, ice skating adventures, a day at the museum, another way to build a habit. Anywho, from here on out, I hope to get back to my regular posting schedule of 2x/week; if I could keep up with [most of] Blogmas, this should be a walk in the park eh?
Books
One Day in December by Josie Silver // ★★★★★ // This was the holiday read of the year for me. I texted my friend when I finished it, vouching for the novel but warning her that it might ruin love for her forever. Others (on Goodreads) say that it will make you believe in true love. Would recommend for fans of One Day, Love, Rosie, and Love Actually.
Circe by Madeline Miller // ★★★★☆ // This novel didn’t live up to the hype for me, but to be fair, there was a lot of hype. I thought this would be an epic, but it just felt like subplot after subplot with no greater adventure. But perhaps that’s what eternal life is like for a goddess. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the novel and breezed through it. If you’re a Greek mythology nerd, you’ll surely appreciate exploring Circe’s character as you never have before.
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton // ★★★★☆ // Even though I feel like Dolly Alderton’s opposite, reading her memoir was like chatting with a close girlfriend and gossiping about her love life, which was wild enough for the both of us! This memoir isn’t just about romantic love, but also about the journey of life through all types and phases of love. Would recommend for ladies in their twenties who are on their own journey trying to find out who they are and their place in the world (me).
Vox by Christina Dalcher // ★★★☆☆ // I had high hopes for this novel because the premise was so interesting, but I simply didn’t like the characters and the dystopian society wasn’t believable. I particularly didn’t like the protagonist Jean, who was so angry, petty, and self-righteous. Sure, she had good reason to be angry, but her approach to it was unproductive; her anger didn’t mean anything. Everything was so black and white with her, which didn’t allow for nuanced dialogue.
Films/shows
RBG was my watch of the month. I had heard about “The Notorious RBG” and knew she was an icon in pop culture and influential for reasons deeper than that, but I didn’t know what that those reasons were and I simply didn’t know who she was, so when I saw this documentary about her on my flight from Philly to Beijing, I gave it a try. I’m in awe of her strength, intellect, work ethic, and commitment to truth, gender equality, and women’s rights. I can’t learn enough about her and have added On the Basis of Sex and her memoir My Own Words to my to watch/read.
Two more new watches this month were Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I like superhero movies, and Homecoming was as enjoyable as any. Tom Holland played Spider-Man so charismatically. But Into the Spider-Verse was really special. The construction was so unique with a great combination of 2D and 3D animation.
And how can December be complete without some holiday classics? I rewatched Home Alone 1 & 2 with my family, and it was as charming as ever. I rewatched Elf on the plane. Also on the plane, I rewatched Crazy Rich Asians and The Greatest Showman, which aren’t festive films, but the magic and grandeur of the films are especially welcome around the holidays.
On Netflix I watched The Christmas Chronicles and The Good Place with my family.
Music
I subscribed to Spotify Premium last year after seeing how many minutes of music I listened to from my Spotify Wrapped. This year, I listened to 71,132 minutes, which I think is slightly less than what I listened to last year; I think it may be because I’ve listened to more podcasts this year.
My monthly playlist is a bit short this month because I’ve mostly been reaching for my Christmas playlist. I’m still listening to Christmas music and no one can stop me.
Shopping haul
Nobody should have told me about Bath & Body Works‘ annual Candle Day sale, where their $25 three-wick candles go on sale for $9. Though, I think I showed a lot of restraint only buying two candles: maple cinnamon pancakes and vanilla bean noel. Yes, I already had six three-wick candles at home from last year but that’s beside the point.
Lately
The past four years I’ve been in Philly for college, I didn’t get the chance to immerse myself in the city’s festivities because I was too stressed and busy trying to finish up the semester, so this year, finally graduated without anymore finals to worry about, I was buzzing.
I did most of my holiday shopping at holiday markets and small businesses in Philly and NYC the last weekend of November and first weekend of December. If you’re feeling a little nosy and want to see some of the ~awesome~ things I gifted friends, check out my roundup of small businesses I shopped at this season.
You can find Addison St, 1700 block on many lists of Philly’s most beautiful alleys. This residential street is lined with trees wrapped in string lights all year long, but it’s especially lovely to visit during the holidays.
I was running errands one morning near Parc Bistro & Cafe and had a free afternoon, so I decided to duck in for coffee and have some time to myself. Get a load of the beautiful Parisian interior decked out with festive garlands in this blog post.
During the second week of December, I got my butt to the post office to mail holiday packages. There’s a post office near my apartment, but it was rated low on Google, which made me feel a little paranoid about the safety of my international packages, so I popped by the charming B Free Franklin Post Office, which is also a museum, in Old City, one of my favourite neighbourhoods in Philly. However, when I arrived, I found out that it wasn’t a full service post office, so I couldn’t mail out my international packages. Undeterred, I got my domestic packages mailed out first, made a pit stop at Old City Coffee and sat there for a bit of afternoon reading, then walked a few more blocks to a full service post office and got the last of my packages mailed off.
One of my favourite holiday activities this season was ice skating with Bomi at Dilworth Park. We had been meaning to skate together since last winter, but something always came up. Finally the stars aligned for us. More on the blog here!
After ice skating, I had dinner with my friends Louise and Steph in Chinatown. Then, we headed to Louise’s apartment to meet Earl Jr! He’s a Scottish Fold and you can follow him on Instagram here :’)
I did another photography gig with Philly Snap Booth, this time at the Masonic Temple. Admittedly, this corporate gig wasn’t as fun as the wedding gig I did the first time, but the venue was cool to explore (you usually have to pay an admission fee, so this felt extra exclusive) and the lobster mac and cheese balls were bomb.
Another favourite activity this season, though not exactly festive, was seeing the Fabulous Fashion: From Dior’s New Look to Now exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. More on the blog here!
Before heading home for the holidays mid-December, I made one last visit to the Christmas Village at LOVE Park with my roomie Georgina to grab a cuppa spiced apple wine from Chaddsford Winery’s vendor stall, which came with a souvenir mug. I don’t usually drink, but I couldn’t resist the mug. I drank about half of the wine and wore a pink cap to mask my pink face. I wondered if the pink cap would emphasise the pink of my face, but luckily the pink cap simply made the pinkness of my face seem like a reflection from my cap… at least some of it.
I spent my first full day back in Beijing at the hair salon. I wanted to get a super short hair cut but my hair stylist and my mom really liked the youthfulness that the length of my hair gave me, so I simply got a trim. And re-permed. And coloured. And a fringe. heh.
The next evening, my mom and I visited the nail salon to get festive nails. The lady doing our nails showed us some photos online that we could choose from and added her own creative touches as well. When I got home, I took photos of my nails in front of the festive centerpiece on our kitchen island, but needed help taking the two-handed photo, so I called my dad over. He took his job really seriously and brought out his lights.
After one week in Beijing, my family and I spent the fourth week of December in Japan. I don’t want to say too much because there’ll be a blog post on it, so all I’ll say for now is that this family polaroid was taken on the Sagano Scenic Railway in Kyoto. You can see that my fringe is being stubborn at the part. I think I’ll have to switch to taking morning showers so that I can blow dry my fringe in place.
After Japan, I rung the New Year in from Beijing, and now I’m back in Philly!
How was your December, and what are you looking forward to in January?