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'Small Town Setup' puts you right in a Hallmark movie.

All six episodes of Small Town Setup premieres on Hallmark+ on Thursday, January 2, 2025, and is hosted by Ashley Williams, who you'll recognize from movies like Falling Together and Two Tickets to Paradise as well as How I Met Your Mother.

Just like your favorite Hallmark movies are all about finding love, Small Town Setup focuses on singles coupling up. The show will follow a single who "has made it in the big city, but has yet to find love." And their concerned parents (definitely a Hallmark trope and an IRL trope...) get the whole neighborhood involved in finding three potential matches.

"When the singleton arrives home for a visit, they are presented with dating options curated by their hometown. After three dates, will they find love in their hometown? Or head back to the big city? All is revealed at a big town hall event, full of heart, warmth, and a few laughs along the way."

Okay, getting the entire town involved in my love life sounds crazy, but the whole community coming together for a town hall event sounds exactly like the kind of sweet and sappy event my life needs. (Listen!! Dating as a 20-something in the city is harder than I expected...)

Throughout the trailer we see our singles looking for love around their hometown, going on small town dates, and finding connection in the most unexpected places. Yeah...I'll be tuning in — especially since Small Town Setup is totally giving Gilmore Girls.

1. Lilly Jay initially felt blindsided by her divorce from Ethan Slater.

No one ever wants to watch the world publicly see their ex with someone else. We don't know how we'd feel if our ex decided to move on with someone as famous as Ariana Grande, but we suspect we'd want to press pause on our social media intake.

Dr. Lilly Jay added, "No one gets married thinking they’ll get divorced, in the same way we don’t board a plane expecting to crash. But I really never thought I would get divorced. Especially not just after giving birth to my first child and especially not in the shadow of my husband’s new relationship with a celebrity [Ariana Grande]," (via The Cut).

2. Lilly's in the acceptance stage of her divorce with Ethan.

It can be embarrassing to watch others give their opinions about your 'failed' romantic relationship, but It's something Dr. Lilly Jay's working through. "In the countless hours I spend rocking my son to sleep, pushing his stroller, marveling at his sweaty little hands grasping a crayon, I work diligently on my private project of accepting the sudden public downfall of my marriage," she wrote. However, she's not looking to bury her head in the sand.

"This, I tell myself, is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide."

3. Lilly Jay believes her happy ending is out there.

Some people cling to pessimism after feeling hurt by the person they love while others still look at the glass as half-full. Dr. Jay's choosing the latter which is impressive to us! She further wrote, "Slowly but surely, I have come to believe that in the absence of the life I planned with my high-school sweetheart, a lifetime of sweetness is waiting for me and my child."

That's right rockstar mom; focus on enjoying what else life has to offer!

4. Lilly Jay does miss when her life was private.

Fully understanding Dr. Lilly Jay is a clinical psychologist, there's a certain level of disbelief at how much of the breakdown of her divorce has become public. Against her will, people found out about a delicate matter and it didn't help that the other parties involved were so giddy while she tried to make sense of what was taking place.

She said, "In this season of shock and mourning, over a year after the end of my marriage was made public, I deeply miss the life of invisibility I created for myself as a psychologist specializing in women’s mental health." Yet, she has hope that maybe something good can come from this even though she works at a "Children's Hospital."

"...while I still firmly believe in following my patients’ leads and not presuming to know what parts of my personhood resonate with them, the publicity I did not consent to increasingly feels like both a challenge and an opportunity," Dr. Jay insists.

5. But, Lilly's taking a chance by embracing this visibility.

There's not an easy way to accept everything Dr. Lilly Jay has experienced, but we truly think she's brave for expressing her fears, vulnerability, and hope in her The Cut essay. Her final caveats? She's "okay" and wants the world to get to know her on her terms.

"You know how a sponge is most effective at absorbing liquid when it’s already a bit wet? Maybe we can think about my messy not-so-personal life in that way: a dose of my own loss, rage, powerlessness, sadness that helps me hold yours."

Ingredients for Paleo Christmas Cookies

For the cookies:

• 1/2 cup grass-fed salted butter, softened
• 6 tablespoons raw honey
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 3 cups almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

For the frosting:

• 6 tablespoons coconut butter or coconut manna
• 1/4 cup cacao butter
• 1-2 tablespoons honey
• Plant-based food coloring
• Vegetable-dyed sprinkles, for topping*

How to Make Paleo Christmas Cookies

1. Add the softened butter and honey to a large mixing bowl. Cream the mixture together using a handheld mixer until it is smooth. Add in the eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract and whisk until they are well combined. Pour in the almond flour, coconut flour, and baking soda, and continue mixing until the batter has come together smoothly.
2. Separate the dough into two, and place each one on top of a piece of plastic wrap. Roll each dough into a ball, then flatten to a thick disk, cover completely with the plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator to firm up for at least 2 hours or overnight.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove one of the dough discs from the refrigerator, unwrap the plastic and place the dough on top of a piece of parchment paper, then top it with another piece of parchment paper. Use a roller to flatten out the dough to about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch thick. Work quickly with your favorite Christmas cookie cutters, and use a thin spatula to lift the cut cookies onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake the cookies in the oven for 10 minutes. Let them cool for a few minutes, then place on a wire rack for further cooling. Gather the leftover scraps back into a ball in the plastic wrap or parchment paper and place it back in the refrigerator, while working with the other piece of dough. Do this in batches to keep the dough from getting too warm and so you don’t overcrowd the baking sheet.
5. While the batches of cookies are baking, use a small saucepan to lightly melt the coconut butter and cacao butter together over low heat on the stovetop. Remove the pan from the heat when the ingredients have just melted together. Stir in the desired amount of honey, then set aside to cool and thicken up slightly. If you are using food coloring, add in the desired amount into the frosting mixture (1-2 teaspoons of green or red should do the trick). If you plan on only using white frosting, only use a small amount of honey, as it can make the frosting an off-white or light brown color.
6. After the cookies have completely cooled, decorate them with the frosting and sprinkles as desired. If you don’t have any professional piping tools, an easy fix is to place the frosting in a plastic sandwich bag and remove all the air when sealing the top. Cut a tiny tip off one corner of the plastic bag, then gently squeeze and pipe over the cookies. Use one plastic bag or piping bag for each color of frosting. Top with corresponding sprinkles and enjoy!