Issue #60: January 2025 Favorites
A new kitchen tool, the easiest breakfast food, a planetary parade, and more
January is the longest month. We’ve all seen the memes and jokes about it in the last few days. It looks the same on the calendar, but it seems to stretch for an extra week than the other months. All jokes aside, we lost Justin’s grandma this month, as well as a family friend. There has been one terrifying headline after another, and it’s a stressful time for so many people in our community with jobs and the future up in the air. It’s exhausting trying to readjust to a new administration on top of natural disasters and devastating accidents.
I felt the same last year, so I may need to figure out how to romanticize January next year and make it a special month. Maybe it’s just the one month that requires trudging through.
The good news is that I found some things I loved this month. I’d probably have a book on the list if I didn’t attempt to start Onyx Storm and immediately find myself completely lost in characters and terms I didn’t remember. This one might cause me to fall behind in my reading goal, but I’ll catch up. I might need to reread this to get inspired:
Alright, let’s dive into the good stuff.
🎥 A Real Pain
Succession made me a huge Kieran Culkin fan (and obviously Father of the Bride). We added A Real Pain to our watch list a while back, but once it won some Golden Globes, we moved it up the list. It’s a story of two cousins who visit Poland with a tour group to see where their grandmother grew up and learn more about their heritage. Their personalities are night and day different, and that felt familiar to me. It was like watching smaller experiences I’ve had with my little brother, who has a personality opposite of mine in almost every way. There’s something so beautiful about stories that feel real, especially when so many movies and TV shows now are so wild and fantastical. I highly recommend this and cannot wait to see what else Jesse Eisenburg does in the future.
🥣 Overnight Oats
My husband has some early mornings for work, and in the winter, it feels impossible to do early morning things when it’s dark until 8 AM. We started prepping overnight oats each weeknight, which has been a game changer. There are one million ways to add things to this basic recipe, but we haven’t gotten sick of this mix, and it’s been a few weeks. Finally, we are consistently eating breakfast. Mix these together in a jar and throw them in the fridge overnight.
1/2 cups of rolled oats
1/2 cup of almond or oat milk
A healthy squeeze of honey, agave, or maple syrup
2 tbsp of yogurt
2 tbsp of chia seeds
Add berries in the AM when ready to eat
Use jars like these to make your fridge look extremely organized and Instagram-ready.
📺 Silo
I do not usually like post-apocalyptic content, but Silo changed my mind. I ignored the first five people who recommended it, but I changed my tune when it came up on two different girl hangs in one weekend. We consumed the entire first season over the holidays and sped through the second season's first half. You are introduced to an entire community living in an underground silo and the only people allowed to go outside are being punished and they never return. It’s intense, and we are trying to stretch out the rest now since we only have a few episodes left. Apple TV has been crushing the content lately.
🍓 Yoggies
I love snacks but don’t often buy them in bulk for my house. After eating an entire tub of Costco’s peanut butter stuffed pretzel bites in one week and devouring a whole box of Ritz peanut butter crackers in a few days, I learned my lesson. I clearly have a peanut butter problem. Anyways, I bought us a bag of these little yogurt balls for a recent flight, which were incredible. They are hard to find in stores, so I immediately ordered them in bulk to keep on hand. I feel like these would be great treats for little kids, too.
🏰 Traitors
Our household looks forward to Thursday nights for the new episode of Traitors on Peacock. Alan Cumming stole my heart when I read his memoir a few years ago. I would have never guessed he’d host a reality TV competition show with Bravolebrities, survivor contestants, and MTV stars. But it’s fantastic television. Season three started this month, and this season is off to an excellent start.
🪐 SkyView Lite
Did you see all the planets this week? We spent a few minutes standing in the cold each night, pointing out Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus. Even with streetlights in the city, those four were easy to see in a line across the sky. Whenever something like this happens, I remember how much I love the free SkyView Lite app. You open the app and point to the sky, and it highlights planets, constellations, and other astronomical features. Seeing how Mars was in Gemini (my sun sign) was cool. Highly recommend this free app to get nerdy with space.
🍕 Pizza Steel
Four weeks into our Pizza Night journey for the year, it’s been an absolute hit. At the beginning of the book, the author shares a list of tools you need to make pizza at home successfully. The best new thing we bought was this pizza baking steel. It’s similar to a pizza stone, but it fits nicely into our oven and has perfectly cooked multiple styles of crust. We are making our first Detroit-style pizza this weekend, and I’m pumped.
☕️ Hot Chocolate
My mom sent us four flavors of Land ‘O Lakes hot chocolate for Christmas. It’s another thing I don’t normally buy for the house, but it’s been so fun having a little treat. The raspberry chocolate flavor is the best.
👙 Self Tanning Drops
I have incredibly pale skin. It doesn’t bother me much, but in the depths of the big dark, I start to feel like a vampire. I have had a few disastrous self-tanning moments in my lifetime when I strived to have the same orange skin that my friends did in high school, so I haven’t touched the stuff since. But after reading multiple glowing reviews (see what I did there?), I decided to try this brand. I put a few drops into my moisturizer once or twice a week, and my face looks like it has a very minimal, healthy glow. I’m no beauty influencer, so I’m only ever sharing something that I love.
This story about cyberbullying absolutely blew my mind. It’s a long read, but you have to trust me when you see what happened to these kids.
I have owned these shoes for five years, and they never let me down. They are comfortable and give me some height, plus they pair well with black tights.
Do you ever think about parallel lives? This story was absolutely beautiful and thought-provoking.
I spent hours putting together a Seattle City Guide with all of our favorites and would love it if you’d share it or save it for a future trip.
Obsessed with this Jersey Shore rebrand. But I also weirdly want to watch old Jersey Shore episodes. Will it hold up?
Instead of finishing one of the books I’m partially done with, I started reading this book instead. This story is so freaking wild.
Congrats on getting through the longest month of all time. I’m off to call my senators about cabinet nominations while prepping pizza dough. What a strange world we live in.
Cheers!
Steph
**Reminder: Some of the links included are affiliate links. Purchasing through them may give me a few pennies, but it won’t cost you any extra. The pennies help me justify the amount of time I spend watching bad TV to share with all of you. Another way to help is to share this, hit the like button, or even drop a comment with something you have loved this month. And if you’re really inspired, you can pledge your support.