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| Hosted by The Book Date |
Life
Whew, where to start?? We're still dealing with the longer-term crisis at our house that I mentioned before Christmas and also celebrating our younger son's engagement! We were rushing to get ready for Christmas last week when ... my husband tested positive for COVID on Tuesday. We texted the family members that were planning to be here Christmas Day to cancel and found out that our older son's girlfriend had just tested positive for the flu!
Luckily, we finally found some Paxlovid for my husband (it was out of stock everywhere), and our son's girlfriend got on Tamiflu (flu antiviral) immediately. My husband, our younger son and his girlfriend (oops - fiance!), and I had a quiet Christmas here, masked and with my husband in his quarantine corner! Given my immune disorder, we've been very careful here, wiping everything down with antiseptic wipes obsessively and wearing KN95 masks.
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| My husband trying out his travel guitar |
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| Our son's fiance was thrilled with tickets to Kinky Boots! |
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| Our son's fiance fund a replacement for my old favorite lounge chair! |
By Friday, our son's girlfriend was feeling better and (probably) no longer contagious, so they arrived in time for Christmas dinner #2. We were delighted when an old childhood friend of our sons stopped by and joined us for dinner (all still masked and separated at a long table, with my husband in another room). He is affectionately known around here as our 3rd son, and it was wonderful to see him again and see the three "boys" reunited.
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| Old friends are the best friends! |
Saturday, we celebrated Christmas Day #2 with our traditional pancake breakfast and exchanging gifts.
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| Love my new Grinch cookie jar! |
And Saturday evening, our older son proposed to his girlfriend! Yes, two engagements in our family in one week! We were thrilled to officially welcome her to the family.
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| Our son proposed at beautiful Longwood Gardens! |
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| Newly Engaged! |
As you can imagine, it was a pretty exhausting week for me. With my husband down with COVID, I've been struggling to do everything I usually do, plus everything he usually does (which is a lot, given my own illness!). Thank goodness for our sons and especially our younger son who lives nearby. I couldn't have done it without him. Besides, all that work was well worth it to have our family together to celebrate all this happy news!
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The Christmas Colors Tag: A Fun Holiday Book Scavenger Hunt! - I enjoyed making this quick, fun holiday-themed video and sharing some books I hadn't previously shown on my channel.
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We are enjoying the fifth and final season of Stranger Things. This season is even bigger, stranger, and more gripping than the previous ones, and the fight between good (the kids) and evil continues. My review of season 1 at the link provides a detailed description of the set-up, and every episode is full of twists and surprises as secrets are revealed and the suspense builds. Our son gave us a 65 " TV for Christmas (!!), and it is even better on the big screen. Speaking of big screens, the final 2-hour finale will also be shown in movie theaters.
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I finished reading You Only Call When You're in Trouble by Stephen McCauley, a beloved author I met at Booktopia in 2018 after reviewing his excellent novel, My Ex-Life, and interviewing him for Shelf Awareness. I knew Stephen was good for an engaging story filled with warmth and humanity and plenty of wit. This one is about a 63-year-old gay man who's an architect, struggling with his own life, who is trying to help his beloved niece and chaotic sister with their problems. As expected, it was moving and funny, with wonderful emotional depth and an engrossing narrative. I loved every minute!
Still in the same mindset and with only 3 days left of 2025, I looked for the shortest book (with the biggest font!) on my TBR bookcase and chose The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. This one's been on my shelf for ages, since I got it as a prize in my library's summer reading program (7-10 years ago!). It was published in 1999 to great acclaim, and I had heard good things about it, which is why I chose it back then. It follows a young woman's life. So far, in the early chapters, she is fourteen years old, so it has a coming-of-age flavor. I'm enjoying it very much.
I finished listening to O Pioneers by Willa Cather on audio, the first of her prairie books, about a family of Swedish immigrants trying to carve out a life on the harsh Nebraska prairie in the early 1900's. It centers on the daughter, Alexandra, who takes over management of the family farm after their father dies. She has two teen brothers at the beginning and one 5-year-old brother, as their father is dying. This classic novel, recommended to me for many years by my friend Chris Wolak, one-half of the Book Cougars Podcast, was wonderful! It's a gentle story (though there is some tragedy) that is beautifully written, and it was excellent on audio.
My last audio book for 2025 is You Only Live Once, David Bravo! by Mark Oshiro, a middle-grade novel (again, trying to fit in one last book this year!). It's about a boy who has a terrible first day of middle school and is given a chance to go back in time to any moment of his choosing and make a different choice. I love any novel that plays with time, and I'm enjoying this so far.
My husband is reading Never Flinch by Stephen King, the next book in the Holly Gibney mystery series, though he hasn't been reading much. It's football (and now basketball) season!
Our son, 31, is just starting one of his Christmas gifts from us, Sorcerer's Edge by David Hair, book 3 in the Tethered Citadel series, which he's been enjoying in recent months.
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What are you and your family reading this week?
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