Wordless Wednesday: Christmas lights

Teaser Tuesday: Snug in His Bed by Rhonda Nelson

Teaser Tuesday is newly hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker. To play along, just do the following:

- Grab your current read 

- Open to a random page 

- Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. 

My teaser this week is from Better Naught Than Nice: Snug in His Bed by Rhonda Nelson:

"I'm sentencing you to forty hours of community service at Bailey's Tree Farm. That should put you more in a proper Christmas spirit." 

Don't give up

This is a reminder I need for myself this evening! 

White Christmas

My favorite Christmas movie! We watched it tonight and will definitely watch it again this season. It's so joyful and all of the dancing is wonderful - especially the tap! 

Christmas with the Kranks

Christmas With the Kranks is one of my family's favorite holiday movies. There are so many scenes in it that make us all laugh out loud. I also quite enjoyed the book by John Grisham which is called Skipping Christmas. If you haven't read the book or seen the movie I highly recommend both.

Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas

One of my favorites! We heard it last night on the way home from celebrating Thanksgiving with family! My husband and kids know I love this song and actually they do, too. However, my kids started asking questions about the meaning and we explained to them the charitable reasons behind the song. We explained what the conditions were like in Africa in 1984 and the suffering that was (and still is in some ways) happening there. It made us all sad to think of the suffering but it also helped to know the there are good people - regular, everyday people and celebrities - who care and want to make a positive difference in this world. So a great song, turned into a history lesson and a great conversation as a family. It's something to definitely be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope everyone had a wonderful, blessed and happy day! We had a wonderful day filled with family, laughter memories - old and now new - and even some swimming. It was HOT here today. 

Gratitude

Teaser Tuesday: Chasing Christmas Eve by Jill Shalvis

Teaser Tuesday is newly hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker. To play along, just do the following:

- Grab your current read 

- Open to a random page 

- Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. 

My teaser this week is from Chasing Christmas Eve by Jill Shalvis:

She needed the company of some living and breathing humans instead of just Cinder and her own fictional characters. She'd been hoping to find Kylie or Willa or even Elle. Which meant she must be desperate indeed.

Actually, she secretly wanted to run into Spence. 

Musing Monday: Series

 Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by The Purple Booker that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

This weeks random question: Do you like or dislike series?

Generally speaking I do like series of books. I enjoy "seeing" characters throughout the series and watching them as they grow. My favorite is the In Death series by J.D. Robb. Right now I am reading the fourth book in the Heartbreaker Bay series by Jill Shalvis. Another favorite is Fools Gold by Susan Mallery. She brought that series to an end and has a new one called Happily Inc. I haven't read any of those yet but will be starting it within the week. 

The 2017 Christmas Spirit Challenge and readathon

The following info is taken straight from the Seasons of Reading blog post:

 

We are once again kicking off the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge over at Christmas Spirit, with the annual Christmas Spirit Read-a-Thon...and it's now two weeks long!

The Christmas Spirit Readathon has a twist this year! It's a Christmas and Scary Readathon. Personally, I read scary (horror) books all year round, but I know many people reserve that kind of reading to October. But that's just ONE month! So, I decided to create this twist to give people the excuse to read scary for at least a couple more weeks (if no more!).

What does this mean? Well, you can read Christmas, or you can read scary, or you can read both. For example, A Christmas Carol could also be labeled as scary/spooky because of the ghosts. Dickens also wrote other spooky Christmas tales (check his "Christmas Books"). However, don't think your scary has to have a Christmas theme. You can read non-holiday scary, or you can read a Christmas themed mystery (which can sometimes be scary), or you can choose all Christmas books. It's entirely up to you!

Details:

• Read-a-Thon dates: Monday, November 20 at 12:00am CDT until Sunday, December 3 at 11:59pm CDT (adjust your time zone accordingly...there's a time zone converter in the blog menu) 
• You do not have to be signed up for the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge to participate (but I sure would love for you to join us!) 
• I am not requiring that you read only Christmas/holiday books during the read-a-thon, but I hope you will pick up at least one holiday tale, even if it's just to read some children's books with your kids or some holiday short stories...and perhaps some scary fare...
• to check in on social media, we'll use hashtag #CSreadathon 
• as usual, you do not have to have a blog to participate...feel free to link up and check in from Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc. AND interact with us in our Facebook group.

I will be participating in this readathon and the Christmas Spirit reading challenge. I LOVE reading Christmas themed books - for myself and to my children - and look forward to it all year! So, if you'd like to join in the fun then please do so!

I will certainly be reading Chasing Christmas and Holiday Wishes both by Jill Shalvis. They are part of her Heartbreaker Bay series which I love. I will also read A Very Merry Princess by Susan Mallery. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is on our family reading list for the season along with favorites like The Polar Express (the book AND the movie!) and The Night Before Christmas. 

We will also listen to plenty of Christmas music and watch Christmas movies! As mentioned above we'll watch The Polar Express. I know for a fact we'll also watch Elf, Home Alone, White Christmas (my favorite!), Miracle on 34th Street. Also, my children will see It's A Wonderful Life for the first time. As you can see, we're huge fans of Christmas around here. LOL!

Last Christmas by Wham!

My kids LOVE this song. This morning while out running some errands this version played on the radio. My daughter was surprised by how much she liked it because the one she's more familiar with is the Taylor Swift version. I told her this is the original and that there is a video for it that I think she'd like. So, I'm putting this here to share with all of you but mostly to remind myself to shar it with my kids later this evening. 

'Tis the season

We had a tap dancing rehearsal this evening and it was followed by a potluck. My girls asked me make green bean casserole so I did. It was a hit and we didn't bring any home because it was gone! It's safe to say that we started Thanksgiving early tonight. :) I am grateful for my wonderful family and the extended family we have made through tap dance.

Stay positive

Wordless Wednesday: Stunning sunset

Teaser Tuesday: Midnight in Death by J.D. Robb

Teaser Tuesday is newly hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker. To play along, just do the following:

- Grab your current read 

- Open to a random page 

- Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. 

My teaser this week is from Midnight in Death by J.D. Robb:

She'd said he wasn't connected to this, and that she expected him to back away when Peabody was on duty again. But she was wrong. Her name on the list meant he was more involved than he'd ever been before. And no power on earth, not even that of the woman he loved, would cause him to back away. 

Monday motivation

It was a bit of a hectic and busy couple of days Friday and Saturday. So yesterday we slept-in then spent a relaxing day in our pajamas. We ate left overs, wrote a little bit, read a lot and watched Cars 3 (which is amazing, by the way) and just RESTED! As a result we are all doing well at the start of this week. I hope you all have a wonderful week, as well. 

Cars 3 - family movie

This is a great movie! I watched this tonight with my kids and a couple of their friends. 

NaNoWriMo write-in

We had a NaNoWriMo write-in this evening in our recreation room. It was small but also very nice and relaxing. It was also productive and we all got words written. One of the attendees reached the 25.000 word mark in his story so that was a lot of fun! I wouldn't mind hosting another write-in in there!

Happy Veterans Day

Crochet

I love this quote because it is so true! I'm in the process of crocheting blankets for my kids. They are designs and colors that they chose for themselves so I know they'll like them. Now, if I could just finish them in time for Christmas. Actually, I do think I'll be able to do it, though.

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn roses

If it's important...

Pretty sky

December Daily

I know, I know, it's only the beginning of November. However, I want to share this now in case anyone wants to participate. That way you'll have enough time to prepare. December Daily is a memory keeping, scrapbooking, journaling adventure that takes place in December. I discovered it last year but not in time to take part. I guess I could have but I wasn't prepared at all and adding something else to my to-do list felt stressful. This is meant to be fun and something to be made to enjoy now and for years to come. This is something I hope my kids will love now, in the future and always. In fact, I'm hoping my kids will take part in the memory keeping with me. Then share the tradition with their kids (my future grand kids - whoa!). 

Love more

I love this quote so much! I think it is always true but very much so in the world we live in now. 

NaNoWriMo 2017

National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo - 2017 is underway! I'm off to a good start and so are my children. For the first time my kids are writing stories through NaNoWriMo's Young Writers Program. It has been wonderful to embark on story telling together! My kids are writing creepy stories while I am writing a love story. Each day they have shared their day's writing with me and then again with their dad when he gets home. We're only three days into NaNoWriMo 2017 but I can say, without a doubt, that this is my favorite year of doing this writing adventrue! I can't wait to see how all of our stories turn out!

Spooky moon

Wordless Wednesday: Creepy Halloween eyes