The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimberly, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week, take a look ahead, and showcase our new treasures—I mean books!
Christmas Week
We had a quietly lovely Christmas with the immediate family: Robin, my mom and stepdad, and Mr. Bookwyrm and me. Yesterday (Boxing Day), we celebrated with the extended family, which adds my sister’s family to the mix. We’re going over to my sister’s again today, but I thought I could squeeze in this belated Sunday Post before we leave. [ETA: I didn’t quite make it, and am posting it around midnight.]
In general, our visit has been wonderful, and has felt surprisingly “normal” — although we have all avoided public spaces for the most part. We did feel relatively safe going to church here, since my parents’ town is highly vaccinated and transmission rates were relatively low. However, in light of the rapid surge of the omicron variant and in an abundance of caution (as they say), we decided to not to attend church services on Christmas Eve and minimize all outside contacts for the remainder of our stay here. That was a disappointment for all of us; we love the Christmas Eve service, and I had planned to sing in the choir along with Robin and Mom. But we all agreed that it just doesn’t make sense right now, particularly given the age and/or underlying risk factors of various family members.
If you celebrated Christmas, Yule, or any other late-December holiday(s), I hope your holidays were bright and joyful. And I hope that wherever you are, you are safe, warm, healthy, and happy!
Recent Posts
- Sunday Post – 12/19/2021
- Belated Sunday Post – 12/27/2021 – this post
Looking Ahead
- Best Books I Read in 2021 – Top Ten Tuesday
- My Reading Challenges for 2022
- Christmas Book Haul – tentative
- Happy New Year! Sunday Post – 1/01/2022 – very tentative
I will probably save my end-of-year wrap-up posts and looking-forward-to-2022 post until I get home and have time to pull everything together. Right now, family time takes priority!
The Backlist Reader Challenge
It’s not too late to sign up for The Backlist Reader Challenge again this year. If you’re looking to read the backlog of books on your TBR pile or To-Read list, come check it out! This challenge is for classics you never got around to, for all those ARCs you should have read a couple of years ago, for that series your bestie has been insisting you read for the past decade or more…for any and every book you’ve been intending to read for a while, as long as it’s on your TBR list and was published before 2020.
What I’ve Been Reading/Watching
Reading: I finished How The Scot Was Won, a novella by Caroline Linden, which was quick and relatively light. I started and finished my nearly-annual reread of Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. I’m just finishing up Sleigh Bells Ring by RaeAnne Thayne (ARC.) I’ve put The Conductors (Nicole Glover; ARC) and Ghost Killer (Robin D. Owens) on temporary pause, although I definitely plan to finish them in January. (They just don’t fit the season!)
Listening to: Christmas music, of course!
Watching: The Holiday; A Child’s Christmas in Wales
Playing: Evolution, and also the Flight expansion
Added to the Hoard (before Christmas)
Purchased (Kindle and audio)
Kindle: Ink and Sigil; His Majesty’s Dragon; Save the Cat! Writes a Novel; Sistersong; Map of a Lady’s Heart; Murder at Mallowan Hall; (Click title for Goodreads page.)
Audiobooks: Winter Solstice (Chirp) (Click title for Goodreads page.)
Anne - Books of My Heart
I’m glad you had a nice holiday with family and made choices to stay safe. Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…The Untold Story by Genevieve Cogman
Lark_Bookwyrm
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
I hope the rest of your Christmas visit is/was good! We had a nice relaxed at-home visit with family (luckily we live close enough together that it’s just an hour or so drive) but otherwise stayed home as well. Our area might be better than average, but it’s still too big a risk. (We all tested before getting together for extra caution.)
I hope you enjoy your book haul! Sistersong looks neat, but dark. (I know the original that it’s retelling, and that one is certainly dark.)
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday ~ Best Books I Read In 2021
Lark_Bookwyrm
I’m glad you were able to get together with your extended family. I’ve been really soaking up my family this month, especially Robin.
Testing is smart. We tested one member of each household before our Boxing Day get-together, because we were adding two new households to the mix (my nephew and his fiancee, and Robin’s best friend.) We would have liked to test everyone, but couldn’t get enough at-home tests, so we tested the person most likely to have been exposed in each household.
I know what you mean about Sistersong. I’m familiar with the ballad, and its very dark. I’m a bit worried about it, tbh, but it got some really good reviews, so I thought I might give it a try. But it may be a while before I feel up to tackling it.
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
We have a small enough group that we were able to test everyone. It helped a LOT for peace of mind!
Sistersong sounds like a book that I would really enjoy in other times. I enjoy dark books when I’m in the right mood for them. I just… haven’t been in the right mood much since 2019 (or possibly earlier — I wasn’t paying as much attention to book mood prior to COVID).
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Writing Wrap-Up ~ December 2021 recap
Katherine
So glad you were able to get together with family even though you weren’t able to go to the service. We’ve gone out to dinner a few times but only at off times in restaurants we’re comfortable with – large crowds still make me nervous. I hope you’re having a wonderful week!