The Friday Five, 12/13/24: 5 things I've been up to this week

December is flying on by: my 38th birthday is a month from today. I have about a week left of work and then I'm looking forward to a week off for the holiday break, also.

Cute croissant keychain from Paris Baguette
Cute croissant keychain from Paris Baguette

What I've been up to this week:
  1. Game night with friends. Last Friday, my husband and I had a game night with two friends (my MOH from the wedding, and her husband) and stayed out way too late—we left around 3:30am. We hadn't seen them in a while, though, and we also showed them our wedding videos and talked for a bit. We played Machi Koro, which is always fun, and UNO Show 'Em No Mercy, which is also fun, although a kinda crazy version of UNO.
  2. Opening Advent calendars. I'm fortunate to get a lot of candy and snack samples for my job, and we have FOUR Advent calendars we are opening daily, currently. They include: Sour Patch Kids, Jelly Belly (Harry Potter Marauder's Map, with trivia!), Lindt, and now a HI-CHEW one (pictured below), which is a lot of fun because you don't know if you'll be getting HI-CHEW candy or gifts ... a few of the gifts have included stickers, socks, pins (which I collect), and more. And this is not an Advent calendar, but Paris Baguette sent me a pretty nice box too, including a super cute baguette keychain (see picture below), which I love. 
  3. Eating out/getting takeout. Last Friday, we went to Texas Roadhouse in Novi before game night. On Sunday, my parents and I got Hungry Howie's takeout, and on Tuesday, my husband and I went out to eat before a movie at Emagine Novi, too.
  4. Watching TV shows. There were new episodes of Married at First Sight, The Ultimatum (Netflix), Shrinking and Before (AppleTV), The Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO Max), and Elsbeth, Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, and Matlock (CBS/Paramount+). I also started No Good Deed, on Netflix, which has a stellar cast: Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano in the lead roles, plus Linda Cardellini, Poppy Liu, Luke Wilson, Denis Leary, O-T Fagbenle, Abbi Jacobson, and more. There are eight episodes up of that and I binged four of them yesterday. 
  5. Watching movies. We went to see The Return on Tuesday at Emagine Novi, the story of Odysseus, which was very good, with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche; I'd give it 4/5 stars. I also watched The Tourist's Guide to Love, on Netflix, which came out last year, but it was on my list to watch; it had Rachael Lee Cook in it, and was cute. Red One is apparently out on Prime already, and I'd like to watch that, as I missed it in the theater, although it only debuted on November 15th, so that's a pretty fast turnaround to streaming—less than a month. I also watched Dear Santa, on Paramount+, with Jack Black, and although it has terrible reviews I thought it was fun ... I'd probably give it 3.5/5 stars.
HI-CHEW Advent calendar
HI-CHEW Advent calendar

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