Friday, January 3, 2020

Month in Review: December 2019


Let's get the bad news out of the way: after coming in first place in regular season fantasy football (11-2, baby!), Team Outlaw fell apart during the playoffs and we ended up coming in third overall.  Oh, well, it was a fun season anyway!

Now on to the good things!  December is all about the holidays and celebrating, and we did a lot of that!  We went to NYC one day with some of my family to see a Cirque du Soleil show, "Twas The Night Before," and it was very cool!  At first I thought maybe it was only going to be a lot of dancing, but then they broke out the acrobatics and it was amazing!  After that, we walked over to Macy's to check out the holiday windows and some of the decorations inside.  This was my niece's first time in NYC and it was so touching to see how excited she was by everything!

We typically spend Christmas Eve with my mom and while we normally do a more Italian Christmas (sit-down dinner with lots of fish), we decided to try something different this year with a "tapas" spread.  We each made a couple small dishes and so we got to try all these different things.  It was more casual but still fun!  We spent Christmas Day at my dad's house and it was a wonderfully relaxing day.  Tom's family came over the Saturday after Christmas; he cooked for them and we watched 6 Underground on Netflix.  Our New Year's Eve was very low-key - we ordered dinner in, watched a couple movies, and I fell asleep early!

A huge thank you goes out to Aj at Read All The Things! as I was the lucky winner of her generous end-of-year giveaway!  I can't wait for all my new books to arrive!


The Books


Royal Holiday // The President is Missing // The Rain Watcher (audio) // Circe

Thank you to Stephanie at Bookfever for convincing me to finally read Circe!  Loved it!


The Wolves of Winter // The Starless Sea // Fix Her Up (audio) // Dear Edward (review to come)


The Undomestic Goddess

The Posts and Reviews

30 comments:

  1. I’d love to see NYC someday. I’d probably be excited about everything too. I hope you’re having a great January!

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. I've been there many times, and I still get excited every time I go!

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  2. I read The Wolves of Winter and really enjoyed it. I have The Lost Man on my kindle now, waiting for the right mood to read it. Looks like you had a wonderful, relaxing December.

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  3. What a fun month! I'm dying to know your thoughts about The Lost Man.

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    1. I liked it! I did not see the ending coming, which is always good in a mystery!

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  4. NYC is one place I'd love to visit one day. Your month sounds like it was a good one! Happy New Year!!

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  5. When my daughter lived with me, we would go into the city for Christmas visit. I haven't been in a while though. That Cirque show sounds wonderful. I have only been to one, but it was pretty amazing.

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    1. Cirque shows are so great! This was at least our 3rd.

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  6. wow, so many good books here! I need to discover Harper!

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    1. My sister loves Jane Harper, she always recommends her!

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  7. Wow! What a great month! I'm happy to hear you guys had a nice holiday. I am curious about Bethlehem. It's on my TBR list. Also, Royal Holiday sounds so, so cute!

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    1. Thanks, Christina! I really enjoyed Bethlehem. Kind of a quiet read, but I think you would like it, too!

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  8. WOW! Sounds like you've got some fun reading ahead. Hope you enjoy all of these (I bought '25 Days' and "Christmas Shopaholic" this year, but read neither one). Your festive season sounds as if it was happy too! Glad you were able to enjoy some fun things. :)

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    1. Thanks, Rissi! Christmas Shopaholic was such a fun read and I hope you love it!

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  9. I saw your "shopping list" on AJ's site, and it looks like you won some fabulous books!! I hope you love them!

    You guys did Christmas this year the way my family usually does---we basically do all appetizers, and it's so much fun!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. Thanks, Nicole!

      We really liked the way we did Christmas Eve, maybe we'll continue with it!

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  10. I've only seen Cirque du Soleil once but they were amazing! I'm glad you had a good time! Enjoy all your books! How cool to win the giveaway!

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  11. Ooh your tapas Christmas sounds fun! It's always nice to do something different once in a while. And I love having a quiet peaceful New Year's Eve.

    I do need to read Circe. Looks great.

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    1. I'm so glad I finally read Circe, it was a great read!

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  12. I'm glad to hear you had such a nice holiday. That Cirque de Soleil show sounds fun. They always amaze me with their acrobatics. Congrats on winning AJ's giveaway! :)

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  13. A relaxed Christmas is the BEST! I'm so glad you and your family had such a lovely holiday. AND whew, so many good titles here!

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    1. Thank you, Verushka! Yeah, it was a good month, reading and otherwise!

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  14. Circe is one that I still need to get to! I can't wait to dive in. Happy January!

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  15. Cirque du Soleil! I have to go one day. I watched a kids/adult production of Nutcracker. The two kids I went to watch were my little cousins. Unfortunately their group didn't seem to know what to do lol. They were cute angels though.
    Did you like Christmas Shopoholic? I've never read a book in that series but I saw it around everywhere in December so it's been enticing me to read it at least for next year.
    Nothing fun for New Year's Eve. I was more excited for the last one. It always depends on what type of year I'm having at the end. Thankfully, I can see my year going better. Hope you have a great new year!

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    1. Thanks, Adriana, Happy New Year to you, too!

      We love Cirque, this was at least our third show!

      Christmas Shopaholic was such a cute holiday read!

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I'm so glad you stopped by, and I would love to hear your thoughts! Comments are always greatly appreciated!