*cues up Back in the Saddle Again by Gene Autry*

👋 Welcome back, Lil Swipes! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving here in the US, and if you are from not the US, I hope you had a lovely Thursday last week. We had a great time with my fam in Texas (I had all my favorite foods and hugged most of my favorite Texas people). Then our washing machine bit the dust so WE ARE SEARCHING FOR JOY AT THIS TIME. All joy-bringing links and tidbits welcome in this place.

🕯Adored this very apt Advent meditation from Tish Harrison Warren.

✈ Heather McMahan (WHOMST I WILL TOUCH IN A PROFESSIONALLY RESPECTFUL WAY ON SUNDAY) raves about this travel pillow and it is still on crazy sale on Amazon RN.

🎄Y’all know I’m #teamfaketree and a few of you told me about these Scentsicles that make your house smell (probably better than) like a real tree. LO THEY DOTH DELIVER.

🇬🇷 I read/listened to Circe by Madeline Miller on our way to Texas last week, and as someone who went through a BIG TIME Greek mythology phase in junior high, I really loved it. I think The Song of Achilles and The Silence of the Girls will be next for me.

💃 Sometimes I just like to watch the opening of All That Jazz, and then Abraham from White Christmas, and then the finale from Center Stage (when that dude kicks off the motorcycle YOU CAN FORGET IT), and then Fred Astaire’s Firecracker Dance from Holiday Inn (which I love but I’m afraid is canceled due to its unfortunate blackface scene), and then the Broadway Melody from Singin’ in the Rain with GENE KELLEY’S PERFECT FACE (I mean look at that bone structure, the lines around the eyes, the hair, the teeth it’s all very much a yes).

🎥 As a side note, no one asked but my all-time favorite vintage movie star is either Montgomery Clift (read this impossibly sad excerpt from Anne Helen Peterson’s book Scandals of Classic Hollywood [another side note no one asked for, I love AHP]) or VERY SPECIFICALLY Marlon Brando holding a cigarette and wearing a t-shirt.

EXHIBIT A:

ANYWAY:

🦖 I am loving this video of a dinosaur attack.

🍫 I am sorry to inform you that Reese’s White Creme Trees are the business.

📒 My Christmas gift to my own self was the Sacred Ordinary Days 2020 Liturgical Planner (I got the grey). I’m hopeful it will keep me engaged in between my spiritual direction sessions with Fran.

🎶 My Spotify year in review notes that I have listened to Rubberband Man the most this year, as well as the Descendants soundtrack, so I think that means I need to get my kids their own Spotify accounts?

🎧 I know I work here, but this Flavortown episode of The Popcast made me straight cry with laughter.

👩🏻 This play-by-play of Nancy Pelosi’s press conference was the perfect cross between Designing Women and The Soup. I love R. Eric Thomas.

🖼 Finally, I am fully in on Tom Hanks and am PROBABLY ATTRACTED to this portrait taken by Miller Mobley.

Okay, empty your pockets! Can’t wait to hear what you’re loving this week. ❤️