Briarpatch Bests: December
Where we recap a month's worth of things we read, watched, listened to, and bought.
Hello friends! Happy New Year. Happy 2026. Happy Fresh Start for Everybody!
If you’re new here, welcome to our monthly recap of books, shows, products, recipes, and more. We are on holiday break for the Briarpatch Podcast but are delighted to get one last Briarpatch Bests into your hands before returning to our normal schedule next week.
A little commotion for our last 2025 Briarpatch Bests. It’s been so fun to look back on The Briarpatch and see just how far we come in our first season. In case you missed them, these were our top three posts from 2025:
Decluttering + Taylor Swift + Puppy Surprises—this definitely tracks for our particular brand of chatter. We can’t wait to see what Season Two brings. You can join us for alllll of the fun for less than the cost of a fancy coffee:
An Encouraging Note from the Paid Tier:
“Authentic! Zero mom guilt for doing it differently. And, the occasional sports info I didn’t know I needed!”
- Friend of the Briarpatch
📚 Reading
BKS: Inexplicably I’ve read a lot of books in December. Now, these were not
Pulitzer Prize winning novels, but I’m almost never reading those anyway, lol.
I finished volumes 3-5 of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion and these books are so enjoyable and the plot really starts to pick up around Volume III. I love the characters and reading about their deepening relationships.
I read a number of holiday books including I’ll Be Home for Christmas, Yours for the Season, Winning a Lady’s Heart, and Molly’s Surprise (yes, that Molly, lol). Yours for the Season was my favorite of this bunch—I would say read it this week if you’re still in the festive spirit.
I finished The Austen Affair and Best Offer Wins. The former is a charming regency time travel romance and the latter is a completely unhinged psychological thriller. I wrapped the year with 43 titles and I’m pleased with the late-season surge after many reading slumps along the way.
KNW: One of my 2026 hopes is to finally set up an official reading log so that I can better remember what I read (yes, if you’ve been hanging around a bit, you know this is a long-unmet wish, but I have high hopes for January). I’d also love to make an effort to prioritize reading over doomscrolling a bit more (cliche but true). I managed to read three books in December and have a handful on deck as we move into the new year.
A Queen’s Match by Katherine McGee is the sequel to A Queen’s Game. I’ve been waiting for this release since last November. It’s a charming historical fiction novel based on late nineteenth century European aristocracy. My British history is a little rusty, but I do know that the late Queen Victoria spent a lot of time trying to marry off all of her grandchildren. It was fun to see how Katherine imagined it all playing out. Katherine McGee is the author of the American Royal series, which is 100% worth reading if you’ve never picked them up.
I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Jenny Bayliss was our BBC pick for December. It was charming but I stand by The Twelve Dates of Christmas being the best holiday book she’s written.
Heart the Lover by Lilly King was recommend by multiple friends and I started it on our way home from Charlotte. I’m only halfway done but will be finished by the end of today. It’s only five-ish hours on audio, so it’s the perfect way to use up remaining Spotify hours.
📺 Watching
BKS: Is it weird that one of my low level goals for 2026 is to watch more TV? LOL. I used to love to watch TV, but in this current season I find it really difficult to make the time to watch things I want to see that aren’t for little people. Naturally we have all watched and loved The End of an Era. The new Knives Out movie is HIGH on my radar, and I’m eagerly awaiting the return of All Creatures Great and Small and the new season of Bridgerton.
KNW: Not sure how helpful it is to include all of the holiday movies I watched in December, but perhaps you can tuck this list away for next year. Chad Michael Murray is quite charming in Joy to the World and With Love, Meghan’s Holiday Special (Meghan, she’s just like me in matching holiday pajamas making puppy chow) was a perfect present-wrapping companion.
Emily in Paris is back (have I really watched Emily traipse around Europe for five seasons?) and everything picked up exactly where we left off at the end of Season Four. It’s nothing if not charming and low-lift television with fun fashion. Guess I will keep following Emily wherever she goes?
Clearly we watched The End of an Era Docuseries on repeat in December. My biggest takeaway is that I’ll defend Taylor Allison Swift until my last day on earth and wish I had cashed out some of my 401(k) to go to Vancouver for the last night of the tour.
The January television release schedule has me wishing, alongside B, for a little extra viewing time into my calendar this month—Bridgerton, Shrinking, The Pitt, The People We Meet on Vacation! I can’t wait.
🎧 Listening
Executive decision to leave ‘audio’ books in the ‘reading’ section; we’re choosing to define listening as podcasts or other auditory content consumed.
BKS: I didn’t listen to anything new this month but have thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas music for all she’s worth.
KNW: I didn’t listen to any podcasts beyond my regular weekly podcast rotation but we did make a fun playlist of all our favorite Christmas songs to play on the way to school each morning. It was a highlight of the holiday season. 10/10 recommend. Brainstorming songs we could add to a Valentine’s list for February.
🍳 Cooking
BKS: Made this bread multiple times to serve alongside soup and our spaghetti night on Christmas Eve. I made it with this French Onion soup and it was fantastic! I literally texted all my friends and said, you have to make this!” I’m also newly obsessed with this sparkling wine, a Christmas gift from my bff AB—delicious and pairs perfectly with this cutie contraption that my mom slipped into my stocking.
KNW: Still making a lot of frozen chicken taquitos (fed is best) but I did make our favorite breakfast casserole for Christmas Day (sausage instead of bacon always) and a few basic holiday treats (Puppy Chow, Rice Krispie Treats). We had more than one charcuterie board over break (the cinnamon-dusted cheese at Trader Joe’s is delicious) and I made multiple batches of creamy chicken lemon soup and one of my girlfriends dropped off a pot of Sausage and Tortellini soup that was delicious. KPW has asked me to track down the recipe. I’ll report back if I’m successful.
🛍️ Shopping
The three best things we bought in December.
BKS: I feel like all I did in December was shop and yet, I’m not quite sure what to share here. I did finally purchase a snackle box which I do think will bless us in the new year. I ordered it on the 23rd hoping to have it the 24th and 25th to stock with food as we were traveling around to all the places but alas it came just a couple days ago. I gifted my girlfriends (and myself) a nodpod and this weighted sleep mask is a 10/10. Would be a great self-care item to grab for the new year or as a relaxing gift for a winter birthday. I can’t remember if I’ve shared this before but I just reordered my favorite laundry detergent. Listen. I want my laundry to smell good but I don’t like the synthetic fabric softener smell and feel. So I buy ‘free and clear unscented detergent’ and then add a capful of this. It’s heavenly.
KNW: This shouldn’t be hard, since we just wrapped December both literally and figuratively. But here we are with three of the most random things that showed up on my porch this month. I’ve repurchased this laundry sanitizer at least a half dozen times in 2025. In my head, it keeps germs away and makes the laundry smell nice. I started filling this pill case up on Saturday mornings to make my daily morning and evening supplement routine a smidge easier. And the little people needed new drawing tablets and these were only $9 for a set of 4 so I can stash the extra set in the car for emergencies.
In case you’re new around here, we do one of these emails every month and have a nice little archive now. You can find them here on our website.
Our first Briarpatch Book Club pick for 2026 is Conform by Ariel Sullivan. To say we’re excited would be a gross understatement. We’ve got a running list of theories and topics to discuss and can’t wait to dig into all of it. Join us on Wednesday, January 25 at 9 p.m. EST for a Substack Live and book discussion. As always, the live is open for all subscribers! A replay will be shared with paid subscribers on Friday.
Neither of us have taken down our Christmas decorations and we didn’t do any laundry yesterday (trying to take all the luck into the new year that we can). We’re going to try to wash backpacks tomorrow and get our respective circuses ready for school as we continue to soft launch 2026.
In our houses the New Year doesn’t really start until Tuesday…
Love,
Kristin + Betsy
I’m also so excited to have a subscription now! What a wonderful Christmas gift! 🎁 I can’t wait to explore some of the past content and am excited for what’s to come!
Slow start into 2026 is definitely the way to go. So many people I know are doing that this year! Both with resolutions/goals/vision boards/bingo cards and with actually getting started doing things.