Merry Christmas - Late

I had a nice Christmas. It was very low key and spent with my family. We did our dinner and gift exchange on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day I went to my mom’s house and we made French toast for breakfast and panini’s for lunch and put puzzles together. Then I went home and took a nap. I also took today off work and my nephew came over and we went to a couple book stores. Then, I took down my Christmas tree and decorations. It had been up for over a month so I figured it was ok. I left out a couple things that are more winter than Christmas.

It’s been a nice holiday. As we close out the year, I will be working from home a couple days and spending my evenings possibly cleaning out some spots in my house. I’m ready to close out the year quietly and start the new one a little lighter. 

Monday Morning

Some mornings are worth getting up for. Today as I left my house for work, I opened up my garage and there was a white coat of frost over the grass, trees, and pretty much everything. It was really quite pretty. I couldn't see the mountain because of a layer of fog. I'll pretend it was only fog and not also inversion/pollution. The drive to work was foggy as well. The nice kind that still lets me see where I'm driving. And then when I pulled off the freeway, I noticed that it was actually snowing. Or really thick fog? It was sticking to the ground and cars, super fine and soft. I kind of really love winter.  

I'm completely ready for Christmas. All the gifts have been bought and wrapped and yesterday I delivered treats to my neighbors. I made spiced applesauce bread in fancy baking cups and caramels. I was trying for raspberry caramels like Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory does. These are not them. I used 3 teaspoons of extract and it's not enough. There's only a hint of raspberry. They are still really tasty though. Next time I try it, I'll use raspberry oil instead. 

Anyway, it's going to be a busy week to get through both at work and home, but then starting Friday afternoon, I plan to relax and just have a Merry Christmas. 

Book Goal: Finished

I completed my book reading goal today, officially. I met my # count a few books ago and today I’m at 82 books read so far this year, and all of my different subsets complete: 7 nonfiction, 3 “classics”, 10 paper books I already owned, 5 non-romance, 5 diverse authors, 6 kindle already own, and 5 childhood favorites. I have some thoughts on the whole thing. 

At the beginning of the year it seemed like such a fun challenge and I was excited to find books to fit in each of the categories. It ended being a bit of a bother because I felt I couldn’t always read exactly what I wanted to stay on track with the goal. Hitting 78 books was never really the problem, but getting them in the categories did end up taking some thinking about and pushing off other books. 

I have 958 books on my kindle currently and a lot of them are unread. Going through my kindle was like taking a trip back in time and I can see periods of my life in those books. A lot of books I have read had forgotten about and others I remember buying them and thinking I absolutely had to read them and now I look at them and my tastes have changed and I’m not interested at all. I didn’t even look through all of them to pick out stuff to read so I know there is probably so much I have completely forgotten I have there. 

I do have quite a few paper books sitting on my shelves that I haven’t read and some of the books I really thought I would read this year, just never really appealed. And a couple of them felt like a huge weight was lifted because I finished them. I finally read Circe by Madeline Miller which I had purchased, purged, and repurchased. And now I’m keeping because it was so good and gave me things to think about. LOL

I really like reading non-fiction and will keep reading it. Finding diverse authors was interesting. I did have to make an effort, but there is so much out there to choose from. I initially thought that finding 5 non romance would be hard because I gravitate to having a little bit of romance in the majority of the stuff I read. Turns out it wasn’t that hard. 

I picked some good childhood books to re-read and a couple of them I still love so much. I was surprised to find that Harriet the Spy had a good bit of fat shaming in it which I never noticed it as a kid. I still have all the nostalgia but not sure that one really holds up so well. 

I did find myself looking for smaller books, just so I could keep up, especially with the classics. I didn’t want big tomes this year. It kind of feels like cheating although there is nothing wrong with books of any size. 

So I’ve decided next year there are no goals. It’s going to be a free for all and I want to see where it takes me. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try new things, but I want to feel free to put books down if they aren’t working, or pick up a really big novel that takes me a month read. I still have a bunch of books on my shelf that I never purge because I’m going to read them “one day”. Well maybe that day will come next year. So my Goodreads goal will probably be somewhere between 12-24 books. Very small just because I like to click on that link and look at my books but I don’t want it to feel restricting at all because I just want to read whatever, whenever. 

Now I’m going to spend this snowy, wet evening with my Christmas lights on and re-reading comfort books and celebrate that I hit my goal and it was good for me to do this year. I found new books and authors and old favorites, which was really the whole point of it all. 

Holidays

Ha ha ok so I put up my Christmas tree today. It’s the earliest I’ve ever done it but I was just feeling the vibe. My soul has been craving that cozy, old fashioned, childhood Christmas feeling. Peace on earth, goodwill to men seems really hard to find this year so I’m making it inside my house. I started with a new candle warmer that looks like it belongs in a Christmas village and went from there.

It’s been a drizzly, cloudy, lovely fall day. My mom and sister and I went to buy our poinsettias this morning. We get them from a place out near the freeway that I don’t know if many people know about. They sell them every year so I assume they make some money off of them. I hope so. Going into the greenhouse filled with poinsettias is one of my favorite things. It’s so hard to decide. So I basically don’t. I knew I wanted a big red one, but then I got 3 smaller ones in different colors as well. They just make me happy.  

When I got home and got my new plants in their place, I just made up my mind to decorate. I’ve still got the Fall/Thanksgiving decorations out (all 4 of them ha ha) and put out the Christmas stuff too. It just seemed like the perfect day with the drizzle outside. 

I’m still not quite ready for Christmas music, that can come later. But I’ve got some cozy going on now, at least. I also made lasagne soup for dinner and have a baked potato soup planned for tomorrow. What I really need now is the smell of wassail in my house. Pretty sure I have a wax melt that flavor. I’ll have to get it out. 

Anyway I have all next week off work and I’m looking forward to it. Thanksgiving week is probably my most favorite time of the year. 

Sitting in the Sun

It’s Sunday and I’m sitting in my favorite place to be on a Sunday early afternoon: my library. The tree outside my window is a mixture of green and yellow and the tree next to it has already dropped all its leaves so the sun is coming inside. My plants are loving it and I’m eating it up as well. I’m trying to absorb all I can. I don’t get seasonal depression, but I definitely feel it sometimes that I’m not getting all the light I probably should be, as I go from home to office to home again in the dark. 

I’ve seen a few people with Christmas decorations already up and one of the radio stations is playing Christmas music 24/7. It’s still a little early for me for that, but I’m actually feeling quite positive about the holidays this year. I’m looking forward to them. If this stays with me, I’ll probably even put up my Christmas tree this year. I have this week for work and then I’m on vacation the entire week of Thanksgiving and am looking forward to it for sure. 

I’ve got 5 books left to read to meet my reading goal (and 2 books to read the # of books for the goal) and I’m feeling pretty good about it. There are 7 weeks left in the year and I’m halfway done with a book that counts towards the 5. The goal started out pretty fun, and I’ve been pretty happy with the books I’ve read because of it, but it has made me feel a few times that I couldn’t read what I wanted to, or that I had to read something else to stay on track. So I’m playing around with the idea for next year that I read one of the old classics or massive historical-fiction tomes sitting on my shelf and leave it at that. Just have a free for all and not really care what I read. Sometimes that makes me more adventurous, sometimes not. I’ll see what I feel like as 2024 gets closer. This year I found a new non-fiction writer that I want to read more of for sure. 

Time Change Blues

Last weekend I talked my mom and sisters into not being productive at home and we went shopping. I honestly could have gone, got what I needed, and been back home before we even left, but what's the fun in that. As it was, we got to a busy shopping center in the middle of the day and had lots of traffic and people to deal with. But it was still fun. I just wanted to get out. It was a warm day and the sun was shining and I really enjoyed it. 

Then my mom reminded me it was daylight savings. I didn't really notice it on Sunday. I was just home doing my thing and it got dark when it got dark. Monday, we all went to my niece's high school play and I definitely noticed that it was almost dark when I left my house at 5:30. I have to get used to driving in the dark again, I guess. 

Today, it's just dark because clouds. I had to get up for an early meeting online and and I've been able to work from home with the window open a bit to hear the rain. It's so nice, even if it is chilly. How many is too many cups of cocoa? 

The holiday season will be in full swing before I know it. I'm trying to balance everything and enjoy the fall and have gratitude for so many good things in my life, but also be aware of things I can do around me. I can't truly help most of the world problems right now, though I've given some money to a few causes, but I can make a difference where I am. 

Presidential Barbie

So it’s only been about 2 years or less since I started following SharonSaysSo on Instagram, but I like her content and it’s one of the places I get my news from. She also does a paid book club that I’ve done 2 “semesters” of and have really enjoyed. I only do them when she picks books I’m interested in reading or meeting the author (online, of course). Anyway, I saw that she was coming to Utah to speak. My sister also follows her and texted me to see if I wanted to go. She was able to get us tickets and last night we drove down to UVU for the event. She’s a great speaker and I had an excellent time. I just love the idea that no matter what your political beliefs, everybody can get involved in making the government and communities in which we live better. That normal, everyday people can make a difference. That was the gist of her message last night. Anyway, well worth the trip down there on a “school” night and worth only getting 6 hours of sleep last night. :)

This is the only picture I took. She said she was dressed as Presidential Barbie, which is hilarious.