Good Things

As a bad year winds down, here are ten things that made me happy

Let’s be honest: this year was a dumpster fire in the middle of a trash forest, filled with politicians who seem intent on turning this country into a Christian nationalist redoubt where the billionaires get rich, the immigrants get deported, girls and women get victimized and the Oval Office somehow keeps getting gaudier.

Santa’s Naughty List must be a mile long.

There was Kash Patel, who seemed more interested using the FBI’s plane to watch his much-younger girlfriend sing the national anthem at a professional wrestling events than he was in catching criminals, and Pete Hegseth, who strutted around railing against “dudes in dresses” “beardos” and “fat generals” when he wasn’t committing war crimes.

There was Pam “Redact it all” Bondi, and RFK, rolling back vaccine requirements and ranting about the “mutilation” of children when he wasn’t pumping himself full of testosterone and cheating on his wife, and Sean Duffy, who heard you complaining about the misery and expense of traveling by air and said, “here’s a pullup bar.”

And then there was Trump. Our heartless, callous, visibly-in-decline president, who, in between musing about whether he’s getting into Heaven (spoiler alert: he is not), spent his year tearing down the East Wing, freeing the January 6 criminals, enriching his family, ranting about television hosts, making nice with the Middle Eastern prince who had a journalist murdered and dismembered with a chainsaw, calling female reporters “piggy” and “stupid” and slashing USAID programs, thus causing, per one study, “the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.”

As always, the cruelty is the point.

And December felt like the rotted cherry on top of the trash sundae that was 2025. So far, this month has given us breaking news shooting at Brown University, only to be interrupted by breaking news about the massacre at Bondi Beach. Which was followed by waking up the next morning to the news about Rob and Michelle Reiner, and then Trump’s terrible, cruel, soulless, heartless commentary about that

We are closing out the month, and the year, with another tranche of Epstein-related materials, another reminder that powerful men see young women and children like disposable party favors, and that these men are hardly ever punished in a manner commensurate to their crimes.

When historians look back at this era, they will not be kind to Trump or his enablers.

In the here and now, though, things have been bleak, and we’ve had to find our sunshine where we could.

It wasn’t all awful. I published a book that I’m proud of, and I’m writing one that I’m having so much fun with. My younger daughter got into her first choice college, my older one spent her first post-college year living her best life in New York City. My husband and I took a trip to Italy — our first time out of the country since the pandemic — and I did a bike trip with friends in Canada.

Here are some good things, the books and shows and moments that made my 2025 a little more merry and bright.

Growing orchids in water: To the woman on Instagram who shared this hack: instead of watering your orchids, or giving them ice cubes, just rinse the potting moss off the roots and pop your orchids into water for nonstop blooms: you were right. I was wrong to doubt you. May your pillow always be cool on both sides, may your skin and your gutters always be clear, and may you always find whatever snack you’re craving in your pantry.

Tuxedo Cake from Costco: I bought this guy on a whim to serve at break-the-fast, having no idea that I’d accidentally stumbled upon a magical item, one with blog posts and Reddit threads devoted to its deliciousness. There’s layers of chocolate cake, white and milk chocolate mousse and brownie chunks, all lovingly enrobed in chocolate ganache. It costs like $20 and serves…okay, I don’t know how many people it’s actually meant to serve. It’s really really good, okay? And it freezes. If you have leftovers. I didn’t, but you might!

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans: There are books you enjoy for an afternoon on an airplane. Then there are books whose characters you find yourself thinking about, weeks or months or even years after you met them. Remarkably Bright Creatures was one of those books. The Correspondent was another. Reading the book had me swinging between admiration and awe (this is a debut! And it’s written in the second person!). Sybil van Antwerp isn’t the kind of protagonist you see all the time: she’s a septuagenarian, a bit of a crank, a woman who will write an angry letter to the editor, a cool thank-you note to the neighbor who leaves roses for her birthday, a letter to a brother telling one kind of truth, a letter to a best friend that tells another. Lives are lost, secrets are revealed, and, slowly, Sybil emerges as one of the most unforgettable main characters you’ll meet.

L’Oasis de Baignade: I did a bike trip in Canada over the summer. We rode about 350 miles over nine days, and had a day off in Quebec City, where I found this swimmers’ paradise. City officials rope off a portion of the Louise Basin in the Port of Quebec to create a temporary Olympic-sized swimming pool, complete with buoys, guarded by lifeguards, surrounded by decks, with chairs and cushions, showers and changing rooms and snack bars. The previous day’s ride had been a slog through a tsunami of thunder and rain. I was ready to be out of the mud and off of my bike, and that afternoon, I swam, and sunned, and had the most delicious soft-serve ice cream with shortbread cookie crumbles, basil and a balsamic syrup on top. It was perfection. (Related note: why is Canadian ice cream so delicious?)

Stay Awake by Dan Chaon: In my opinion, Dan Chaon is one of the most under-appreciated writers of our time. His work is hard to categorize, blending elements of horror and speculative fiction with the lovely writing you’d expect from literary fiction. I’ve loved all of his books, and if you’re new to his work, these weird, wonderful short stories, about regular people confronting loss and horrors and nightmarish scenarios that may or may not be completely real, are the perfect place to dive in.

Getting My Dog and My Husband Matching Sweaters: 10/10 recommend.

Kaiserschmarrn: I love a dessert with a backstory and a funny-sounding name, and this guy’s got both. In October, my husband and I went hiking in the Italian Alps. We’d stop for lunch at alpine huts that served traditional Tyrolean food: dumplings, goulash, the most delicious soups and eggs and bacon, and, for dessert, kaiserschmarrn. The story is, a chef made a fancy, buttery pancake, studded with rum-soaked dried fruit, for a king’s dessert, then, on his way out the door, he dropped it on the floor (#relatable). Instead of sending nothing to the table, he picked up the pancake fragments, covered them in powdered sugar, and a dessert was born. Making them is a little more complicated than your standard-issue breakfast pancake – you’ve got to separate the eggs, then whip the whites into soft peaks, and fold it all together – but it’s worth it.

Long walks and happenstance discoveries: My husband is the flaneur in our marriage. I take long bike rides, he goes on long wanders all around Philadelphia. A few weeks ago, I joined him on a long walk to brunch. We headed north, perambulated through Old City to Northern Liberties, and had shakshuka and hummus at Cafe La Maude. Right next door, I discovered City Planter, which is an adorable little nursery/plant shop, where I got a beautiful hand-painted pot and an amaryllis bulb as a Chanukah gift for my older daughter, who’s got a tiny balcony outside of her apartment and likes to grow things there.

“Meet the Cartozians” — I went into this play at the Second Stage Theatre knowing next to nothing about it, except that it had two acts and that it deal with the Armenian genocide and a famous Armenian reality-TV star. That wasn’t wrong…but the play, by Talene Monahon, is so much more than that, in a perfect blend of satirical and sincere. Who gets to be an American? Who gets to be white? Is being “the other” a benefit, or a liability? Is home where you came from, or where you’ve come to? The acting was top notch, the themes were timely, and the ending left most of the audience in tears.

Heated Rivalry: I know everyone’s obsessed, and rightly so. I’ll admit that I’ve had a touch of “I was into Shane and Ilya before everyone else was into Shane and Ilya” (and there’s a “Today Show” clip from early 2024 floating around there somewhere to prove it). This adaptation is heartwarming and heartbreaking, spicy and sweet…which is what happens when you get a producer who doesn’t look down at his source material and commits to giving the devoted romance readers what they want — all the yearning, all the smashing, all the love. The leads’ performances are fantastic, their chemistry is off the charts, and the show feels like a gift we truly did not deserve from our neighbors to the North. Every author should get an adaptation this good, and watching Rachel Reid’s dreams come true has been as gratifying as the last ten minutes of Episode 5.

Happy “I’m coming to the cottage” eve to all who celebrate…and let me know where you’ve been finding comfort and joy in these dark days.