I had a hard time with this post! It was hard to pick and choose. I am sure some of these were new in 2022 but not all of them are.

I seemed to read books this year that were mysterious, magical, with some animals and crazy thrown in there for good measure. I read eclectically and seasonally, and I am a huge mood reader. I will often start a book, not feel like reading it, put it down for a few months then pick it up again and love it. Anyway, and without any further preamble, here are my top favorite reads of the year!

Legends & Lattes: I just finished this yesterday so it is fresh in my mind. I absolutely loved this book about a retired orc who wants to open a coffee shop, and I devoured it in hours. It was delightfully cozy and warm, and it gave me all the comfy feels. It was perfect for this week of in between times. If you do read it, try to have a beverage and snack handy. You will need it. (Sci-fi Fantasy)

Greenglass House is such a fun read! So wintry and atmospheric, about travelers snowed in at the Greenglass House hotel during the holidays. It is very entertaining, and one of my very favorite things about it are the stories the different guests tell every night. There is a underlying mystery or two, and some other secrets as well but you will have to read to find out. (Review) (Middle Grade)

How to be a Good Creature: This book was a beautiful memoir about Sy Montgomery’s life in 13 animals that she shared her life with from childhood on. And what a menagerie it was. Each one represented her life and where that moment in her life placed her, and how that animal touched her soul. And in essence, in her words, taught her to be a good creature too. (Full Review) (Memoir)

Wildwood Whispers: I can’t think of this book without thinking of the lushness of summer. I literally wanted to move into this book, I just loved so much about it. This one was a romp through all the goodness of summer, blackberries and honey. (Full Review) (Magical Realism)

The Agathas: I stayed up way past my bed time while reading this one. I had to know what the heck happened. I needed the answer. It was so good. (YA, Mystery)

The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina: I don’t even know if I mentioned this one on my blog! I don’t know how I wouldn’t have but … it was amazing. It was so full of surprises and family and I loved it every second of it. (Magical Realism)

Gone-Away Lake: Another summery type book in my mind, full of adventure, quirky characters, cozy cottagecore feelings. I originally read it to preview as a read aloud for Wyatt and I but then fell in love with it myself! I don’t know how I missed this as a kid growing up but I am glad that I read it now. Very wholesome. I also read the second one immediately after I read this one, which if you know me and how weird I am about reading sequels, that is a very big deal. (Middle Grade)

My Best Friend’s Exorcism: Grady Hendrix almost always makes my list of favorites I feel like. This one gave me a Stranger Things vibe, with it being all retro and 80s. It was weird and creepy and gross at times, and there was a whole scene I just literally skipped over because I am a wuss, but it is also about loyalty and friendship. On some level as well, I believe there is an alternate way to interpret this book, a commentary under the surface not spoken, much like Hendrix’s book The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. (Horror)

A Haunted History of Invisible Women: I can’t express how interesting this book is honestly. It made me think about ghost stories in an entirely different way, and is a sad, informative, fascinating read. (Nonfiction)

Other Birds: My very favorite book of the year. Beautifully fantastic, full of whimsy and characters I wish I could meet in real life. In fact, I would move to Mallow Island in a heartbeat. I have loaned my copy to my dad, who loved it as well, and told me that he thinks I embody a few characteristics that Zoey does, which was a very nice compliment to me, in my opinion! My dad is the one who got me started loving southern fiction, I knew he would love it as much as I did but I wasn’t expecting the comparison. This book also inspired me to cook a whole meal, one that took me hours and hours to make. (Full Review) (Magical Realism)

I have been exploring other lists like this one on other blogs and YouTube channels and Instagram and jotting down titles; I have a good feeling about next year’s reads already!

Have you read any of these? What were your favorite reads this year?

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday! Ours was crazy, chaotic, loud, full of laughter, full of food, and full of cheer. We had a blast and have decided that today will be devoted to being super lazy, or as lazy as we can be. Our house is trashed, with piles of gifts scattered about, bits of wrapping paper, empty boxes, toys, cups, just all sorts of detritus leftover in the wake of a few busy days.

Christmas Eve was a day spent cleaning, as Billy and I were hosting Christmas Day for my family. We cleaned until mid-afternoon when we declared ourselves done and everything was sparkling and ready. Gifts were wrapped and ready to go, gingerbread cookies and cranberry cake made, just everything in its place. We headed over to Billy’s parents for a relaxing evening with them, where Wyatt opened his gifts and the adults exchanged our small gifts as well. I had gone to The Conservatory, my favorite plant store about 45 minutes away, a few days before, to pick out gifts for my MIL and stepmom, and gotten my MIL a beautiful monstera. I was excited she got me paints and brushes! After a very nice quiet evening, we stopped for a short time where my family was celebrating Christmas Eve for a quick little visit before heading home and getting ready for Santa. Wyatt was extremely excited. I didn’t think he was ever falling asleep! But he did and all too soon it was Christmas morning! Wyatt seemed thrilled with what he received, and Billy surprised me with the boots I have been wanting for a year and a half but would never pull the trigger on because I always think of something that is needed more. I literally teared up when I opened them. They remind me of a little elf boots.

Unfortunately our morning had a bit of an interruption. Billy got a call around 9 am that two water mains broke at work and flooded the server room, which is Billy’s domain. So, off Billy went. Thank goodness he was only gone two hours and we got back on track fairly quickly. My mom, brother and fam, and my SIL’s mom were due at our house at 4 and I was nervous Billy would miss it all. He didn’t though, and we had a fantastic night and the kids were cracking us up all evening. After everyone left for the night, the three of us plopped into bed, happily exhausted.

Monday morning we all slept in before hitting the road for my dad’s family Christmas. It was another relaxing day with family, where the kids were spoiled some more (but dang it they are good kids who deserve it), we ate so much food, and had another wonderful day.

As for today? We plan to spend most of it enjoying being lazy, reading our new books, playing Wyatt’s new games with him.

I hope you all had a great weekend.

See you soon everyone!! Thanks for all your kind words, support, encouragement, and stories throughout the year! Have a safe and wonderful holiday!

There is a snowstorm on the way! It looks like we will have a very snowy Christmas – and also a very very cold one.

Today the coffee is a special brew! My brother gifted us this bag of beans from Leelanau Coffee, in Home for the Holidays blend, and I have been holding onto it since Thanksgiving for us to drink this week. And…I am enjoying a Christmas sugar cookie with it. My bestie’s husband spent the weekend baking 200 cookies with his daughters for the holidays and we were lucky enough to get a drop off. They are delicious, and so is the coffee!

Where to start today!

Let’s start with what we did Saturday – Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village, one of my very favorite events of the season. The village is decorated for the holidays, there are caroling groups, sleigh rides, roasted chestnuts and toasted almonds and hot cocoa, ice skating, Santa, and so much more!

It was a cold one, bitter cold, Saturday night, in the low 20s with a bitterly cold wind. We were all bundled up as well as we could get, and felt cheery despite the chill. We joined the mass of people funneling through the gates into the bustle of the yuletide wonder that is Holiday Nights. And it was a beautiful night. Lightly snowing, glowing lights, it was simply magical.

We wandered around drinking hot chocolate, munching on snacks, taking in the sights, warming ourselves by the fires as needed. We were having a blast. Until..we weren’t. Or rather, Wyatt wasn’t. My normally cheerful child had a major meltdown. At first, I couldn’t decide if something was actually wrong, like pain of some sort. After a few minutes though, I made the decision that he and I were going back to the car to wait for the rest of the night while my mom, Billy, my brother’s family and my SIL’s mom continued with their evening. Billy wound up taking him but I of course couldn’t stop wondering if he was ok. So after 20 minutes I headed out as well, taking my mom, who was freezing and a little tired, with me. Later that night we decided it was just a combo of things that caused his meltdown. The bitter cold, the fact that he wanted to be on the move and we were instead eating doughnuts by the fire, he was getting tired.. all contributed. The wheelchair has been a huge blessing and given Wyatt a sense of freedom and independence in mobility he hasn’t previously really had at something like that. In previous years he would have been either carried or trapped in a wagon. Now he can go where he wants (or at least he thinks) and he can move a lot faster than with his walker. So this will be an adjustment for us all as we learn how to navigate this new way of life.

Today Wyatt and I are going for a ride, to my favorite boutique plant shop about an hour away. My mom is coming with us as well, so it will be a nice family road trip. My goal is to pick out two plants, one for my mother in law, one for my stepmom. for Christmas.

Tomorrow we will have a special meal for Winter Solstice, which makes me sound very pagan, but in acutality we started doing something on solstice when Wyatt was born, as a response to the chaos of the holiday season. I love all the craziness of getting together with our families and running this way and that, but I wanted to find a quiet space for just Billy, Wyatt, and I as well. A special night for the three of us as a respite from the madness, and the longest night of the year seemed like the perfect fit. We usually have a simple but good meal – this year we are having a hearty beef stew followed by a minty chocolate cake roll for Wyatt. We will also probably enjoy the gingerbread cookies that I am planning to make tomorrow morning. We will play music, turn the lights down, maybe put some extra nuts and fruit out for the neighborhood squirrels and our backyard possum. If it’s not too cold then we will take a little walk around the neighborhood, this time with blankets for Wyatt. I am looking forward to it.

And that is all the time I have this morning! I hope you are all having a great week!

We are still waiting for snow around here! The mornings are chilly, the skies are gray, but… still no snow. However, our Christmas still marches on, despite the lack of white stuff on the ground.

This past week Wyatt and I talked a bit about Hanukkah. I always want to make sure I introduce him to different cultures without being appropriational, and one of the ways I feel we can achieve that is through books, discussion, and food. Latkes featured prominently in the books we read (Hanukkah in Alaska and Little Red Ruthie) so, Saturday night I attempted making latkes. I didn’t do too terribly, I don’t think? They were not super attractive, but they tasted ok. I wasn’t sure what to have them with (other than sour cream) so we ordered pierogi from the Little Pierogi and Crepe Cafe downtown. Billy and I had pierogi, Wyatt had a cheese crepe, and everything was delicious. I had a bacon blue cheese pierogi, loaded potato, and a jalapeno popper one which was so good but also my mouth was on fire.

In fact, it was so good and we were so full, we needed a walk after we ate. We bundled up, tucked Wyatt into the wagon with three blankets, and headed off into the night and cold. We looked at Christmas lights and I played Christmas music on my phone as we walked – we had a ton of fun!

Sunday was round two of Christmas cheer and food.

In the morning Billy and I barely had time to drink a cup of coffee before it was time to leave for Wyatt’s appointment with Santa. Our favorite nature center hosts a a few different Santa events, with a small sing-a-long, a story, snacks, crafts, and a visit with the big man himself. Santa sits in his own little room, and families get called in one by one. It is really neat, and Wyatt had a blast. He was really into singing Jingle Bells and shaking the bells they gave us all.

I try to keep Wyatt’s childhood as innocent and magical as I can, knowing he will grow up way too soon. Childhood and it’s magic is just not long enough, so I try with all my might to make his as wonderful as possible. As I watched him with Santa, and saw the joy on his face, I knew for now he was living what I wanted for him. I also knew in my momma’s heart that this might be the last year we experience this particular moment, as he gets older and maybe loses the belief in Santa. So for now, I enjoy it while I can.

We continued on with our cozy little happy day all day. My mom came over for dinner, and I made a chicken pot pie for the first time. The recipe was for a “French inspired” version, and was sort of a semi-homemade variety. I felt like it was a good place for me to start, and it was freaking delicious. My tiny mom even ate two pieces! It was easy and the hardest part was waiting for it to rest ten minutes. Mine was not as artfully arranged or pretty, but dang it tasted good. I’ll nail the presentation next time maybe.

And after dinner – more lights! This time we drove though, my mom would have been an icicle if we had walked again. We saw some pretty cool displays – one was even in multiple yards and had music!

It was a really nice weekend, full of good food and holiday cheer.

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hey all! Today I am writing this up as fast as I can – I have little boy here who has an appointment with Santa this morning! And trust me, he is very excited. So I have to move quickly this morning!

Read Last Week/This Week:

I am still working on the same books I was last week. All Creation Waits is a book you read everyday, a few pages, and I am loving it. Midwinter Murder is a collection of Agatha Christie short stories, which frankly is all I have the attention span for these days! My December reading is always so slowpokey! And then when I need a break from murder, I have this one!

My mom gave me a bunch of these back in the 90s. Every Christmas I had a new Regency Christmas romance in my stocking and I still have most of them, although they are tattered from being so well read. They are such delightful little stories – and what is happier than Christmas and romance together?

Posted Last Week:

Homeschool Journey: Alaska, Cranberries, and Evergreens

Hello December!

Wednesday Morning Coffee Catch Up: Embracing the Imperfect

‘Tis the Season Cinema: Holiday Inn

10 on the 10th!

Watching/Listening:

I’ve fallen into Grantchester and seem to be stuck there! It is so good! So much drama mixed in with crime in this one – and Sidney Chambers is a bit different as a vicar, eh? Sidney Chambers is also pretty nice to look at as well. I did see that he eventually leaves the show, but I will deal with that as it happens.

We are also watching Rings of Power, when I can separate myself from the angsty drama of Grantchester, and Three Pines.

In movies, it is Emmet Otter night everyone! I absolutely can’t wait! I am having my mom over tonight for homemade chicken pot pie (cross your fingers for me everyone, it is my first attempt). Then we will take a drive to look at lights before dropping her back off at home, and we will come home to watch Emmet. It is my favorite holiday movie so I am super excited.

And that is it from my corner of the mitten state! How are you all?

It’s time for 10 on the 10th again! 10 on the 10th is hosted by Marsha at Marsha in the Middle.

1. How many gifts do you usually purchase in the holiday season? Gosh, I am not sure! I always start with the kids in the family – so that is … 7 kids. Then I move on to Billy and parents. After that I finish everyone else up, from friends other family members, and therapists, etc.

2. Who is the hardest person for whom you buy presents? Ugh my dad! My dad loves to shop so he is always buying stuff he wants already. Plus he is picky. Not that he would ever say he didn’t like his gift, but I just want to make him happy with what I do pick out. He is always grateful, it’s more on my end, wanting to please him.

3. How do you respond to a gift you really don’t like? The same way I do to a gift I do like.

4. What gifts do you consider to be the best to give or receive? Books!!! I love getting books, I love giving books! Every kid I buy for gets things I know they want/like, but they all always get a book too. I also love to give handmade, unique gifts as well, or gifts that really hone in on a person’s interests.

5. What kind of gifts do you consider the worst to give or receive? I am not a fan of “joke” gifts. I feel it is sort of a waste of resources.

6. What gift would you never give ever? Hmm. A giant wall sized portrait of myself.

7. What is your process for selecting a gift? I am a list maker. I make a list of all the people I buy for, then think about who they are, what they like. Then I brainstorm different ideas and browse the internet, especially Etsy. Which is how I always end up with themed Etsy lists. LOL.

8. What is the best gift you have ever gotten? I have always loved my gifts, but a very special and memorable one was the dollhouse my grandpa made me. I loved that so much. I remember my cousin got the Barbie Dream House that year but I loved my dollhouse more.

9. What is the best gift you’ve ever given? I am not sure! Wyatt really loves his Henry (photo above). He also really loved his little toy kitchen. The day we got rid of that almost made me cry, that he had outgrown it.

10. Would you ever or have you ever re-gifted something? I have not. I might if I had a gift card that I had gotten and then realized I needed a last minute gift, then I might grab that to give.

This month Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I, along with newcomer Katja from Breath of Hallelujah who is joining in, are having fun watching the same Christmas movies and then posting our thoughts. This week’s movie, Holiday Inn, ended up being not quite what we expected or remembered!

Before I begin let’s just address the elephant in the room. Some of you may have known this already, but I wasn’t aware and Lisa had totally forgotten about it, but this movie has a very problematic scene. It has a scene in blackface. I do not condone racism; in fact I am vehemently opposed to it. We are all aware now just how inappropriate and wrong this scene is, and there are versions now available to watch without this scene. However, this scene needs to be acknowledged. To not address it is to smooth over the fact that this and other scenes/acts in show business history had acts like this, and we can’t move on without talking about these things.

So, with that out of the way let’s talk about the rest of the movie a little.

It is very similar to White Christmas in some ways, especially considering the movie is filmed on the same set that White Christmas was. Bing also croons away on that old favorite Christmas song in Holiday Inn, which was filmed before White Christmas. Bing has a partner in entertainment, Fred Astaire this time, and Bing decides to retire away to the country and work his farm. That sounds good to me. However, he also chooses to do this after his fiance tells him she would rather be with Fred Astaire! Um, that sucks. So off he goes to his farm in the country, brokenhearted. He learns though that he can’t just leave show business behind, and turns his place into an inn that is only open for the holidays, complete with musical numbers. Fred Astaire does kind of steal the show in my opinion in this one. Sorry Bing.

Two examples of how?

First off, the famous firecracker scene. Super dramatic honestly. I loved it. I sort of wish I could just throw down a firecracker before I left a place or something for extra emphasis. Tap dancing is so cool too. I have always wanted to do it!

Then, the famous drunk dancing scene! In this one Fred Astaire is actually drunk – in order to pull it off, he took drinks between takes. I’ll tell you, if you look back on my wild youth, my dancing under the influence was not this graceful…

It was just cute and rather funny.

The movie itself is a more of a vehicle to show off the talents of Crosby and Astaire, which are considerable, and while it does have Christmas scenes, it is more of a musical that celebrates many different holidays.

This was an unusual one, that is for sure! But, it did have some good scenes and Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby are like a power couple. Did it have situations that were jarring and uncomfortable for someone of our time? Absolutely. But it does give us the opportunity to talk about them and talk about how it is wrong.

Moving on!

Yes! Next week we are talking about my very favorite holiday movie – Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas!! We are also going to be talking about A Charlie Brown Christmas, which is another holiday favorite. Both are so wonderful and I am so excited to watch them both!!

You can find Lisa’s thoughts here.

You can find Katja’s thoughts here.

Good morning! Or afternoon or evening or whenever you are reading this! I am embracing my inner goblin this morning, drinking my coffee in bed while writing this. I just read this morning that the Oxford word for the year is “goblin mode” (although isn’t this two words?) and it is the anti-becoming a better person movement. Like instead of waking at 5 am and drinking a green smoothie, you would sleep in and have heaps of black coffee. I never get to sleep in, which should be a perk of homeschooling, but no matter how many times I explain that to Wyatt, he is an early bird. So heaps of coffee for me please, and goblin mode I guess.

Anyway, today I am drinking the Aldi Fair Trade Columbian because it has cute little turtles on the packaging. I am a sucker for packaging darn it. It’s not bad though so my impulsivity worked out.

Looking back over my weekend, it was apparently all about trees. I had no idea. I guess our conifers unit study seeped into my subconscious!

I made a little tree pillow! I think it turned out super cute. And jeesh, why is one pillowcase so wrinkly? Lol. Don’t look over there. That must be the goblin side of the bed. I like my little tree pillow though! I also attempted to make shower steamers. You are supposed to be able to throw them in the shower where they melt, releasing a scent like mint or evergreen, which will help if you are congested. They did turn out, just a bit roughly. I put them in a jar in my bathroom, where we can access them as needed. Tomorrow I plan on making tree soap, to continue my tree related projects.

And the most important tree of all! The Christmas tree is up! I love sitting in the den in the evening by the light of the tree. This year no matter how hard we tried we could not get Faye (the tree’s name) to stand up straight! So we have a bit of a tipsy tree this year. I think the Faye that we named the tree after would approve. She was a fun loving woman with a big quick laugh and an even bigger smile. She would definitely have had a good laugh watching us try to straighten it. Despite its lean though, it is covered in ornaments that are special to us. You know those ornaments. The ones you exclaim over as you take them out. “Oh look, the ornament we got in New Orleans on our honeymoon!” and “Aww, this is from when I was a little girl”. Or, “Wyatt, we got this ornament the year you were born, our little blue jay!” Ornaments we bought on a family excursion to Bronner’s in Frankenmuth. Ornaments that Wyatt has made. The ornaments that are really just memories of moments and Christmases past.

We put the tree up Sunday, listening to the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, and afterwards made homemade pizza. Or rather, Billy did. It was so good y’all. So good. We followed that up by bundling up in heavy clothes and trundling out to the porch, where we covered up with blankets and drank cocoa enjoying the cold evening. We didn’t stay out too long, before heading in and changing into pajamas and tried movie night with Wyatt take two. This time we watched Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas and he LOVED it. So success! It is so far safe to say that it is his favorite Christmas movie of the season. We will see if Mickey gets dethroned – my bet is no though.

It was a pretty low key weekend, but a very very good one.

Hello December!! And it sure started off busy – it took me six whole days to even get to this post. It’s all been pretty good stuff though.

I also can’t believe it is December already – wasn’t it just December a minute ago? Where did this year disappear off to?

Around here, it feels like Christmas. We have our house all decorated, the tree is up, the calendar is full of fun things we hope to do, the gifts are piling up in my special secret storage area away from little eyes – all that is missing is the snow! However the latest news says that the snowfall prediction for Christmas in our area “screams” snow. Which is good, I am tired of gloomy rainy December days. Yuck.

I am reading an Advent book right now called All Creation Waits, and I am loving it. I read most of the introduction and part of day one out loud to my husband in bed last night before I realized he wasn’t quite as excited about it as I was. The author, Gayle Boss, combines advent and solstice and the rhythms of nature with faith. Each day is a different animal, and the author asks the reader to think about what catches their attention in the passages for each day. So far, day one has been the one that has spoken to me loudest, all about a little pond turtle. How at some point they know it is time to start their brumation, and dive to the bottom of the pond and start their transition. Their bodies and hearts slow down, they snuggle down in, and wait. Wait in a certainty that eventually the sun and the warmth and the spring will return, and they will end their sleep and rejoin the world. I was also sort of tickled to learn that the author is a fellow Michigander!

I do feel like the winter is the same for humans, if you live in a snowy cold area. We sit in our snug homes, looking out at the darkness. We know that in a few months we will be rewarded with the longer days again, flowers will be blooming, birds will be singing in joy again, butterflies will be floating in and out dreamily. It doesn’t mean we have to simply endure the winter like turtles though. We can find joy in winter – in shared hearty meals, frosty adventures in the chill and the snow, quiet moments with your books and tea and cats (and lizards?) Family nights and nights with friends. The crunch of snow underfoot, the silence of the night.

I have some fun things ahead for Wyatt – a visit to Santa (will this be the last year?), Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village, an afternoon at the Immersive Nutcracker Experience, afternoons of baking and then eating what we made, making special gifts for loved ones.

The full moon is tomorrow night, the Full Cold Moon. When Wyatt was really young, I signed up for the Kids Moon Club. I thought it would be a fun way to learn about nature and the moon cycles and do it with a virtual community of like-minded families. He was really a bit too young to do a lot of it, but he did develop a love for the night sky, which was fine. He said one of his first words, snow, because of the moon club. When the year ended, the creator of the group offered lifetime memberships to our group as one of the first groups to go through the club. I signed up and really haven’t participated since. I think this year though, we will. Wyatt is at a good age to really do a lot of the activities and be interested and it will be fun to return. And I think we will start with this month, the cold moon. This moon is about quiet and peace, about shifting into a different season. I love the quietness of December’s moon, as it is followed up in January with the Wolf Moon. (incidentally if you ask Wyatt what the full moon of January is called he will tell you. It’s his favorite) I think finding this space of peace and solitude is important this month especially, when we can get lost in all of the commotion of Christmas. We need the balance. Have our fun but also take the time to find some quiet.