Hello everyone!! It’s that season again, to get all settled in with a bowl of peppermint popcorn and some tea, and watch holiday movies! (well, maybe not everyone needs the peppermint popcorn but I sort of do)

I always feel there are so many from my childhood that I want to share with Wyatt. He is not a kid who has many television shows he likes, or is even super interested in movies most of the time, but when Christmas rolls around, he will snuggle up between Billy and I and watch them with us. I of course have a giant list and I am not sure we will get to them all, but I am making sure to hit some of our favorites off the bat.

We started with Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. I was surprised when I mentioned this earlier that it wasn’t widely heard of. I adored this movie as a child, so much so that my favorite Christmas song that year was Feliz Navidad and I even asked for the er..record.. for Christmas. My parents also surprised me with a version of the movie on record, and I would fall asleep to it, in my little yellow Holly Hobby bedroom. As an adult, I can’t make it through this movie without tears. I just remember all my Christmases as a child, with my parents and my brother, being little and the magic of it all, and I just feel so much love in my heart, thinking of it and my mom and my dad, watching this movie and singing along with my mom. My husband says my mom has an encyclopedic knowledge of songs and jingles and rhymes and he is not wrong, she totally does. I am sure she could sing along today, if I mentioned them to her. I know I could, and did. This song in particular, tugs at my heart and makes me teary.

Sesame Street was just such an amazing show, it really was. I don’t know what it is like today, but as a child growing up with it, I loved it. (and Oscar and Grover were my favorites!)

That was Friday. On Saturday we revved things up and went modern and new with the new Amazon Prime movie, The Red One. And we loved it! Wyatt watched it with us until he fell asleep about midway through, and Billy and I kept watching because we were hooked. I have to admit, I love The Rock Dwayne Johnson and also Chris Evans. so.. that worked for me. It was just a fun movie, a bit cheesy, but overall, it was really just pure entertainment. Every actor in it gave a good performance, from the two I already mentioned to Kiernan Shipka as the evil villain to J.K. Simmons as a rather athletic and buff Santa. I also really loved Bonnie Hunt as Mrs. Claus. I thought it was very imaginative and Billy even said he hopes that they do more with M.O.R.A. and make more movies. (and although I love Chris Evans, I could also see Sam Rockwell, one of my all time favorite actors, playing his role. I actually almost felt like Chris Evans was playing Sam Rockwell playing Jack)

After all that flash and pizazz, we switched it up again on Sunday, an appropriate day to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. Billy and I had such feels watching this one. Billy said he remembers thinking that Charlie Brown was new to us, when it had already been around at least a decade before we watched it. This movie is just so charming in its simplicity and message; to remember the reason for the season, and for peace on Earth and goodwill to men. Not the flashy glitz of bright pink aluminum trees! Or in our day and age, all the technological and digital presents, the social media aestheticism for those picture perfect holidays (and homes!) piled high with gifts.

We have enjoyed such great classics already and I know we have a few more left to watch. I also added two movies to our lineup we don’t usually watch, one that might be fairly unconventional as a Christmas movie, and another that I was recently reminded of by a fellow blogger.

Before I go, I also wanted to share that I was asked to give a quote about my favorite movie to an article published in an article on Rent. It is a super cool article, with lots of suggestions that pair some of your favorite Christmas movies to interior design styles.

I was named an expert in a Rent. article.
Read the full article here: Design Styles to Try, Based on Your Favorite Holiday Movie

Rent. is a subsidiary of Redfin.com

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This week’s prompt: Books on My Winter 2024-2025 to-Read List

I might have more than ten! We will see at the end since I didn’t bother counting. Lol.

First up, the middle grade picks.

Caddie Woodlawn and Heidi! Two different tales of two different girls, but both are classic. I can’t believe I haven’t read either of them before.

Then two modern reads, Ghosts of Greenglass House and Dead Voices. I can’t wait to dive into these two. I have both of them at the top of my list!

A couple nonfiction reads:

The Book of the Barn Owl, A Mudlarking Year, and Wolfish. I just think these three books look interesting. Not really much more to add there!

A few witchy reads, because I love a good witchy story.

The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells and Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. The Grady Hendrix is going to be a scary horror read, I know it but I think the Rachel Greenlaw book is less scary and more… fantasy, romance, and magical realism.

I will definitely need some cozy fantasy as well.

I have both The Crescent Moon Tearoom and This Will be Fun waiting on my shelf! I got one for my birthday and the other at a really cool book store in Cleveland on a trip.

And of course, I will need something atmospheric and creepy, something soothing, and maybe some academia.

I really have high hopes for Darcy Coates. I have so many of her books marked to read, but I am going to start with Dead of Winter, hopefully. And I love soothing healing fiction like Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, another birthday book that is on my shelf, along with A Study in Drowning. I actually have one of those cool versions of the Ava Reid book, with sprayed edges. I want to try to collect more of those this year, they are just so pretty!

And there we have it! I am sure this list will change as the weeks go on. I am not good at sticking to a reading plan, as I am a mood reader. As of now though, this is what I am hoping to read in the next few months!

Hello everyone!! I am so full right now… both from good food and from the good moments I have had this weekend. We had so much fun, just being together, making cookies and hanging out and playing and reading and watching movies. It was just a wonderful little weekend.

I need more cozy in my life guys, and winter has two more months, at least, here in Michigan and in Pennsylvania, where Lisa from Boondock Ramblings hails. We have decided that we needed a little something to help us get through those long months, and we thought it would be so fun to have a few cozy crafternoons with whoever wanted to hang out with us virtually!

It’s a bring your hobby of choice kind of thing to a zoom craft together, complete with whatever else you need to get all cozy. I will probably be working on my embroidery projects, with my cat Miso asleep next to me (or batting at my floss!), probably a cup of tea as well. We will be chatting as we work on our projects, whether it is sewing or coloring or jewelry making or painting or whatever you want to do.

Our goal is to have two meetings a month, and in January we are thinking about having them on January 11th and January 25th, both starting we think around 1 pm EST in the United States. We do have some bloggers participating from other countries which is very exciting so we are playing with times to make it work. The plan now is 1 pm, but if you are interested in crafting with all of us, send me an email at crackercrumblife@gmail.com so that you are on the list for final details, including the zoom link!

I am super excited! Now, we do want to keep things light, so we will avoid potentially not fun topics like politics (ugh!!) No one needs that during relaxing time if you know what I mean. Lol. I am really looking forward to chatting with everyone and meeting you all virtually – although I should warn you I can be a bit awkward at first. Lol.

Again, I am really looking forward to this, to an hour or two hanging with fellow bloggers, chatting and crafting and talking about books and movies and what we did over the holidays or just whatever!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Today’s Prompt:  Books to Read During a Storm (these can be cozy/comfy reads, books with storms in them, atmospheric reads for dark and stormy nights, light reads to combat the heavy weather, etc.) (Submitted by Astilbe.)

Since it is December here in the mitten state of Michigan, I decided to make my storm a snowstorm! I have done posts like this in the past and I always enjoy finding snowy reads.

My list today is made up of books that I have both read and that are on my TBR for this winter. First up, the books that I have read.

Let me begin by saying City of Thieves is one of my favorite books ever. The year that I read it I recommended it to everyone, and I still recommend it to everyone. I could not put it down, and I still think about it all the time. It is just an amazing book.

The Hunting Party puts me in mind of an Agatha Christie, or Knives Out scenario. It was my first book of the year a few years ago which I had planned because the book takes place on New Years in Scotland during a snowy winter. It was also another five star read for me.

Night of Cake and Puppets has one of very favorite scenes in a book ever – and it involves snow and cake and violins and just all the things. It was so atmospheric and I loved it. It is a stand alone book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series but I loved this one so much – probably because I really loved the characters Mik and Zuzana. (link is to my review on my old blog)

Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw sort of spoke to that part of me that loves the moon and magic and the woods at night in the winter. And that is enough said there!

Welcome to Fox Crossing is the first in a fun, light series by Melinda Metz. It is about a little town in Maine, right on the edge of the Appalachian trail, that caters to hikers and has quirky, eccentric locals. Sort of like Northern Exposure but on the other coast. Plus, there is a mythical fox! It is also very snowy there.

Greenglass House by Kate Milford is a middle grade that I read last year and fell in love with. It takes place during a terrible snowstorm, and the Inn that main character’s family runs begins to fill up with some suspicious guests. It is mysterious and has wonderful scenes of the characters sharing stories at night. I have the second book in the series waiting for me on my shelf to read this year. I can’t wait but I want it to be snowy first!

Finally, A Woman in the Polar Night. It sort of made me chuckle before it horrified me, but it definitely puts life in perspective! The author spent a year with her husband in the Arctic, and she thought she was going to have all this time to sit around and read and paint. Which does sound like a nice time right? However, that is not really what happens!

And now a few on my TBR!

Dead of Winter, Dead Voices, and The Vanishing of Aveline Jones just sound like the perfect reads for a cold snowy night. Now, I just need some snow around here!!

If you want to see my previous lists, here they are!

Books for a Blizzard

Books to Read When It’s Cold Outside

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

Hello everyone! I hope you had a good week last week! We had a sort of meh week but it was still good. Meh can be ok sometimes.

Read Last Week:

These books were both excellent! I checked them both out from the library, but they are both on my wish list now to own. They were perfect reads for this time of year! I had planned to read The Book Hotel, but.. it was too normal. Apparently I have been reading way too much fantasy and I am not ready to stop. I was like where is the magic? Where are the elves or trolls or whatever? So yeah.

Reading This Week:

I’ve been looking at this book on my shelf for a little while now, and it is time to get reading.

Posted Last Week:

Hello December!

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Top Ten Tuesday: Gingerbread Books!

Watching:

Billy and I finished up Spiderwick, and have been watching Murdoch Mysteries and The Great British Bake Off. I am feeling so ready to bake after all these books I have been reading and now this show! We have also started watching Christmas movies with Wyatt. So far we have watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and I think tonight we will watch Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. That is actually Wyatt’s favorite of all that we watch. He is a big fan of Goofy.

I am off to the Potter’s Market with my friends this morning, and I need to get ready!

And just a reminder, Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I have launched the linky for our Comfy Cozy Christmas link up. You can find it at the top of my page. Post anything seasonal, it doesn’t need to be Christmas – it can be a post from all and any walk of life for this time of year! And when the holidays are over, Lisa and I will hosting Cozy Crafternoons over Zoom in the months of January and February!