Moonlit Missives

Snow Moon 2026

#reading,  #playing,  #tea,  #eats,  #watching,  #adventures

date: 2026-02-01  author:  Lei

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Happy full moon!

It’s been a very full month, despite the cold, snow, dark, and work. Here are my highlights 🌟

Reading

Reading has been FULL STEAM AHEAD 🚂💨 Did I start the month trying both the Anti-Brain Rot Reading Challenge and this year’s Read Harder Challenge?? Yes. Do I have too many books now? Yup 😅 Still, it was fun to read so widely to start the year. Here’s my progress, if you’re curious: RHC, ABRC.

Favourite Reads

  1. With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo ❤️‍🔥 I purposefully read the audiobook because the author is the narrator and also a spoken word poet! It’s worth it for the emotions she adds to the story. I didn’t think I’d enjoy a teen mom story this much.
  2. The Apothecary Diaries v1-3 ⚗️by Natsu Hyuuga, Nekokurage, Itsuki Nanao Thanks to all my friends who recommended this series! I fell in love in the first volume, borrowed as an ebook from the library (via Libby + my Kobo, dream team!) and decided that I must buy the series. But GUESS WHAT?? My sister heard me, and my parents decided to gift it to me through my local comic shop 🥹 So now I get to pick them up, one-by-one, as a continually giving birthday present 💝
  3. The Unboxing of a Black Girl by Angela Shanté 📖 My poetry pick of the month! Shanté is such a former teacher, with little footnotes for every poem for further reference and reading.

I’m not sure if I enjoyed these, but I keep thinking about them:

Playing

Hello Kitty Island Adventure!!! Getting to play makes me feel like I’m not working too hard, even if I “worked” in-game to catch all the in-season fish 😹

Thanks to my friend who always assigns a card game project I tried FIVE new card games:

  • Happy Mochi - great theme, simple fun 🍡
  • Oh My Socks! - ALWAYS down to try an Antoine Bauza game and he delivered 🧦
  • Garden Variety - felt AI-designed?? skip!! 😬
  • Scout - not as circus-y as I expected, need to try again to decide if I like it 🎪
  • Play Nine - I’m as surprised as you might be that this was my fave! The rules are easy to pick up, the rounds are quick and it has a luck-based mechanic that makes play exciting most turns ⛳

Ooh, and I got to play another cozy session of Earthborne Rangers, a co-op, adventure, environmentalist game. 🌱

And yes, Alex beat me at Heat on the LAST TURN of the game and I’m still a lil’ salty about it, especially because it wasn’t just luck, I derped. 🏎️

Tea

I got to enjoy a Camellia Sinensis workshop this past month, and the most memorable one was the 30+ year-old pu er that smelled like a stable and tasted like licking damp, musty barnwood 🤣 Happy year of the horse?? 🐴

Some other standout tea experiences:

  • Golden Leaves from Cha Noir - tastes BUTTERY somehow?? 💛
  • Nepalese Tea from Camellia Sinensis 🍵
  • Black tea that a friend brought me back from a fancy Edinburgh high tea spot

Eats

As it was my birth day month, I got to feast several times:

  • Kamayan (eat-with-your-hands) FEAST chez mon amie 🥰
  • Brunches galore
  • kfried chicken
  • bulgogi stew for the cold

Watching

Adventures

  • Pole + Pilates - I was super consistent this month, and I hope to continue that into February
  • Embodied Writing Workshop - I tried this with a friend and it was a lovely mindful space (which DELISH chai)
  • Puppy Yoga!!!

Whew! What a month 🤩 Stay warm out there 🧣

HUGS!