Hello friends! How are you? I am doing pretty well. I am officially on vacation now. Nothing huge planned, a short visit with both kids from 12/23-12/26, and a goal for me, to clear out the garage.
If The Girl comes home after graduation for a bit, we are going to need that garage for storage and right now, it’s pretty full of her stuff AND The Boy’s stuff. They are adults now so let’s call them Emma and Evan. 🙂
Right Now:
I am hosting for the online service and then student ministry. My favorite time of the morning. Gosh, I love those students.
This Week:
I’m all partied out. My book club party, two work parties and a christmas light tour are all behind me. This week will be spent lounging, reading and preparing for Evan and Emma’s visit. Did I tell you that Evan is bringing Root Beer, his cat! The last time I saw her was right out of Kansas and she was itty bitty. Looks like she loves Seattle.
Reading:
I’m trying to read all the books before the end of the year. I just finished 1984 for the read-along. Part 1’s discussion is posted. Part 2 and 3 will post before the end of the month followed by my formal review of the book. It was a re-read but man, there is so much to say.
Also reading:
- Burn by Peter Heller (love Heller but this one is a little harder to bite into. Kind of episodic at the moment).
- The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams (picked this one up off of Hoopla when I was too lazy to go downstairs to get my Kindle. It’s delightful!)
- All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall (releases Jan 7th, dystopian, post-apocalyptic goodness).
This might be it before the end of the year as I want to have them reviewed too.
First book of the year?
I have no idea! I’d like it to be a memorable one. Infinite Jest has been on my shelf forever. It’s 1100 pages long. Maybe it will be my first book of the year. It’s a beast.
Watching:
My husband rediscovered his Adam 12 DVD collection so we’ve been watching that, back to back. It’s so nostalgic. The LA streets of that time were so uncluttered and some of those businesses still exist today.
I’m about to breakout my Bob Newhart Christmas collection. Now that’s a really fun time.
Grateful for:
- Vacation time. I worked retail when I was younger and never had holidays off. I am so lucky and blessed to be able to enjoy that time off now.
- Martha Stewart’s Giant Ginger Cookies that make a handful of people very happy. I make them every year and they are the PERFECT holiday cookie and massive!
- I started to write a book a long time ago, right before COVID and lost the file. I knew it was in the Cloud somewhere but not in Google, not in Box, not anywhere which made no sense. But I was testing something for work this week and found it in OneDrive! It’s all rubbish now that I’ve put some distance between it and myself but it has me thinking about writing again.
What’s going on in your world? Any exciting plans? Books that you are looking forward to?
Book Chatter 
Happy Holidays. Enjoy your break from work and especially enjoy your visit with Emma and Evan. I finished decorating yesterday by setting up the luminarias in the front yard and making my traditional bourbon pecans. Now on to watching my favorite holiday movies.
I hear you about holiday parties! We hosted my husband’s book launch event on the 7th, have celebrated my birthday, went to a Christmas chorale concert last night, have a Christmas Open House next weekend, a book group gathering on Thursday, and a NYE party coming up. For this introvert, that’s a lot of socializing!
Root Beer looks pretty cool with the sunglasses. Seattle life suits her!
I have several books by Peter Heller to catch up on. Thanks for the reminder. I’ll have to look for All the Water in the World. Sounds like my kind of book. You might like The Light Pirate, if you haven’t already read it.
Adam 12 brings back memories! Martin Milner used to have a beach house in Del Mar where we used to hang out every summer as teens. Loved that show (and Emergency). I’m thinking about binging on Downton Abbey this holiday season. I never did finish the series.
Adding that Ginger Cookie to my baking list for tomorrow. Yum! Thanks!
I love all the old shows. Emergency 51, Chips, Leave it to Beaver and the slightly newer The Wonder Years. It’s hard to find good shows these days. Many grab your attention but they don’t have the deep message that so many of them had of year’s past.
I love that you “outed” Evan and Emma! I do hope you have a fantastic time with them (and Rootbeer) even though it’s brief. How fun to all be together over the holidays. My daughter comes home this Wednesday for a couple weeks so I am looking forward to that.
1984 is going well, I am done with Part 2 and should finish it in the next few days. I may not wait until the 31st to post.
Haha. It was time. Calling them The Girl and The Boy was getting old.
I read it pretty much straight through but took notes for each part and wrote up my posts ahead of time so I could schedule them. It’s a wild read for our times and now with all the drone stuff, Big Brother are you out there?
Hooray, Evan and Emma can officially claim their names! Root Beer looks pretty happy, too. I hope you have a wonderful holiday visit … enjoy your time away from work.
Ha. Adam-12. That’s fun. One Adam 12, One Adam 12. Sort of dating ourselves, but I remember the show well. I like the picture of Root Beer. I hope she travels well. The motion can be hard. Enjoy your vacation days!
Root Beer is a stellar traveler. Drove all the way out from Kansas to Seattle. Has flown twice before. She is not a kitten anymore but super chill.
My time off started with a little stomach thing. Food poisoning? Possibly with all the holiday eats. Better now.
I hope you enjoy your time with Emma and Evan. It’s hard to believe they are adults now! Love that photo of Root Beer with those glasses. I could never get cats to wear anything. LOL
Maybe now that you found that WIP it is time to start a new writing project! 🙂
Yes. Everyone keeps asking me for a book. I am a natural storyteller, the book in question was a memoir of sorts but what I found was absolute rubbish so I need to rethink it.