Over the last few weeks I have felt, for all of you who watch “Stranger Things”, I have been in the Upside down! The days and weeks have flown by and although I have been getting things done from my usual To Do lists and ticking things off, they have never seemed to be reducing.
One of the Games at the Fun Gala involved inflateable Antlers and Inflateable Characters!
DH finished work on Thursday last and Friday, Saturday and Sunday we were moving the final things for Youngest & Fiancée out of their rented home an dinto storage or to our home. It is all now done and the keys handed back which is great to get it all done before Christmas. Sunday afternoon and into the evening it was the Swimming Club Fun Christmas Gala and the swimmers had a great event and Sue and I did not have to do anyting so we got to watch all the action. Yesterday we had to take the rubbish to the tip from our home and Youngest’s home and DH helped Eldest with the last few jobs he needed to do before he finished for Christmas.
We have had to change the stair lights this year because of our new lodgers! Last year DH and I bought new artifical berries which go on wth green garland and the lights. Well Blaze and Coco decided to eat some of them. They did not swallow them just picked them off, gave them a chew and then left the bits everywhere. So we decided to just put the garland and lights on. Well Gordon decided it was a good idea to chew through the wires for the lights, which fortunately were not on at the time! The new set of lights are now on the outisde of the stairs as you can see!!! I always say Christmas is about adapting things!
Tomorrow DH and I are out visiting family over in Nottingham and running some other errands and I will be getting everything preppred for Christmas Day where there will be eight for dinner and festivities. Boxing Day is a quiet and chill day and then Saturday Fiancée, Partner and I are going out for lunch as a little treat for Fiancée before the new arrival in January. DH, the Boys and Little Man are all going out and hopefully going on the steam train. Sunday is also another chill day. Next week will be DH and I getting back to the decluttering of our home and the garage as well as some other jobs which never get done in the normal work day.
New Year we have been invived out to some very good friends for dinner and to see the New Year in with them which will be lovely.
I know I am behind with things, one of which was to do a review of the Year with our Book Club but I will get it done over the holidays. I did manage to achieve and surpass my Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, which along with my Aim of 2025 to read more I set the goal at 50 books! I managed since January to read 55! I am going to set next year’s Challenge at 100 and it will also be another of my 2026 Aims! Look out for the Book Review.
I am doing well with my hip and now walking about at home without the crutch but still take it with me when I am out in case I have to walk long distances or navigate a lot of stairs. I will be able to, after Christmas, use our treadmill again which helped so much after I had my right hip done.
Anyway If I don’t get chance to post again this side of Christmas, I do hope you lovely and wonderful lot have a great Christmas and New Year. I would like to thank Sue & Suan for always leaving me a comment on my posts and to Judy who also comments and everyone else who follows me and reads my witterings, it makes it all worthwhile
Hugs & my Love, Susie & Coco xx
Who can believe that we have completed another twelve months of Book Club? I certainly can’t and when I looked at my Diary on Tuesday could not believe that we are only two weeks away from Christmas!
Reading for me has been a bit haphazard these past few weeks and I did not get Jayne’s and My Book Club book finished either before we have the new one for December!!!
This is our Book Club Book for November and is a realy Christmas Novel. I probably do not need to tell you about the story (it is very Hallmark Movie territory) but it is good and I have enjoyed it as it was very light.
Neve manages the family Hotel, Stardust Lake on a very snowy island in Scotland. However her heart is broken after the love of her life, Oakley Rey, left to go to the other side of the World chasing his dreams. However Neve has a secret she is trying hard to keep from everyone and then Oakley arrives back on the Island for Christmas. Should she get attached to him again if he is only going to go away after Christmas, will she ever get her happily ever after?
I am on Pag 90 and really enjoying it so this gets Five Stars!
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I listened to this book on Book Beat and it was okay but!!!!! A girl is working late at the diner in their little town and after a very long day she walks out to her car to go home when she is grabbed from behind and that is the last thing she remembers until she wakes up im a room which is, she believes, under ground. There follows chapters on her captivity which as she loses all sense of time, is a year, are they looking for her or have they given up, until one day the door opens and a woman appears at the bottom of the steps, is this her rescue or her captor?
It was okay but the ending was a bit blah there was a bit of a twist at the end and it was quite obvious so no I would not read or listen to this again! It got two stars from me.
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I also listened to this whilst I was working a couple of weeks ago. Again it was a bit blah and I worked out who the baddy was by the middle of the book, so I got to the end without any strange twists and a bit of anticlimax as I had worked out who done it!
The city they live in is getting worse for crime, all sorts of different crime but especially murder by one particular person who has been given the nickname of Abel, as in Cain and Abel! Dan and Olivia are modern parents with modern parent problems with their children added to which they are scared about the local crimes and the strain on their already rocky marriage is making it worse. Dan hates Olivia’s boss and who he suspects might be Abel, Olivia hates Dan’s best friend who she thinks might be Abel and then they both don’t like their postman, milkman or their neighbour; one of the three might be Abel too! Can they survive Abel’s reign of terror and will their marriage survive?
It was another one of those hmm books it was okay but not terrifc so I gave it four stars.
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Now this is definitely a quirky book. It is about a provincial small town in the Deep South USA and the fact that the local women’s committee do not like some of the books which are at their local Library so get them banned. The main instigator of this plan is none other than the Chairwoman of the committee Lula Dean who was born and raised in the town and who’s family were once very prominent, they are not now! However Lula still behaves like they are. She decides that to counteract the disgraceful books at the Library she will open her own little Library on her property and put in some very appropriate books. This is when one of the locals decides that it is not up to Lula Dean to decide who can read what, so swaps the very suitable book covers and puts them on some very thought provoking books! As the locals stop by Lula Deans little library she is so pleased to know they are reading proper books, if only she knew!!!
The story goes along in that vein and ends with Lula Dean being put firmly in her place by her family but the thought provoking books help more people than can be imagined! I sort of liked the book but I was too sure about it, I don’t think I would read it again though so I gave it Three Stars.
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This is my Five Star read for December. It is a well written book, the dialogue flows well and the characters are interesting althogh you do not get bogged down with too much detail about them, so you do not have to go back and re-read anything to remember who they are or what they are doing!
D I Walker was a cop in London who was faced almost daily with intricate cases including murder, armed robbery and many other crimes. However his wife, Annie, wants to move back to the little Cumbrian village that she was born in, Kirkby Abbey, as it is so much safer there.
However an early Christmas present is left on their doorstep after the move and when he opens it there is a gruesome sight and with a note which says there are twelve days left to Christmas and there are going to be twelve murders, one a night, expect the first that evening! The snow starts to fall and James Walker is told to expect the Village to be cut off, how is he going to deal with a murder or more than one with no resources and a killer loose in the Village?
Yes I really enjoyed it, no I did not know who the murderer was until the end and so this got five stars. It is also the first book in the D I Walker series, the rest being : The Killer in the Snow, The Winter Killer, The Night Before Christmas, The Killer in the Cold and finally Cold Blooded Killer.I am definitely going to get these other books and may even listen to one or two of them!
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I did listen to this one and it is in the Cosy Crime section on Book Beat. Christmas has arrived in Penstown and the Penstown Players are busy rehearsing “Aladdin” for their upcoming pantomime season. DCI Nathan Withers has avoided getting a part and so has his wife Jodie, who also used to be a detective but now runs her own catering business. She was allowed to not have a part if she did the catering for the opening night party. During the first performance the Mayor’s husband, Tim, who is playing Widow Twankie is waiting in the wings for his big entrance when he trips over what he thinks is a bundle of costumes but which is, in fact, a dead body! Who would want to kill someone and who has a terrible secret?
I loved it! I actually listened to it on Book Beat and the narator, Zara Ramm, was so good! It is very much a tongue in cheek book but the writing is light, enjoyable and very funny in places and they do get their man or woman at the end. It is another series of books and I will be looking out for more of them.
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So that is December done and dusted and another year gone by. I will do a review of all the books this year next week and my thoughts on my reading year, which I can honestly say I have achieved that Aim this year with reading more!
I hope you lovely lot have a wonderful weekend and get some time to read in this very hectic period of the calendar.
Hugs & Love, Susie, Coco and now Gordon & Blaze
Well I had a look at the calendar at the weekend and suddenly realised that there are just two weeks left before Christmas! I do not know how it has managed to sneak up on me, but I suppose having had six weeks out recuperating from my Op has not helped!
So we have moved back in Youngest, Fiancée, Blaze and Gordon with their clothes, books etc and the rest of their home is going into storage over this weekend and next. They have done well to get their old room sorted at home and at the weekend we took their family picture for their Christmas cards.
They went to Youngest’s Dinner and he came Third in the L2 Technician of the Year 2025 Jaguar Land Rover UK Awards and was presented with a Trophy, Certificate and some other goodies. We are so proud of him.
These are our Christmas Cards this year and I always get them from the “Help For Heroes” Charity. I managed to get them all written, addressed and stamped on Sunday and posted them off yesterday!
I also managed to get all the presents wrapped and put into their various Sacks!
Friday evening The Girls were involved in the Lantern Parade in their home town of Ashbourne. Little Man and Eldest walked along the side of the parade and they walked from the Church into the Market Square where Carols were sung to kick off the Christmas period.
It has been very hectic and the next two weeks are going to be busy too. This week we have work to do of course, quite a lot of our customers are trying to get things delivered before Christmas so they are ready after the shutdown for work in January! Today I am doing home jobs, going to Eldest’s tomorrow for work. Friday morning DH and I are taking the morning for ourselves and then in the afternoon Fiancée and I are having our hair cut and coloured, her auburn and me blond! Then it is grocery shopping and a night in. So we may be watching a couple of Christmas films!
Saturday evening it is the Swimming Club Presentation Night but DH will be going up at about 2.000pm to set up and help. I may have to go up with him as I do not still have my vehicle (!) and it will be a late finish and then DH has to pack everything up! Sunday will be a day off although there are always jobs to do!
Next week I have work to do, home jobs to do and try and finish some quilting if I did not get it done on Sunday! DH has a couple of business Christmas lunches to go to and that weekend will be the final push to get everything into storage for Youngest & Fiancée. SO it will be all tucked up before Christmas. On the Sunday afternoon we have the Swimming Club Fun Gala! Then, of course, we are into Christmas week!
Monday will be a sorting out day, Tuesday I have the Christmas food shop to do, DH is out at his final Christmas lunch and I will be cleaning! Christmas Eve we are picking up the meet from the Butchers and also see DH’s cousin and taking her for lunch in their home village where they were born. We will be visiting the Church also with the wreath and then looking at all the Christmas lights on our way home.
Christmas Day we have Eldest & Partner, Little Man, Youngest, Fiancée, DH and I, Coco, Gordon, Blaze and Honey at home for dinner. I am so looking forward to it. Boxing Day is always a laid back day with food being put out buffet style and everyone helps themsleves when they want to eat.
Between Christmas and New Year we have a few other things happening which I will tell you about soon. Tomorrow I will be doing a post about Christmases Past!
I hope you are all having a wonderful time in the run up to Christmas and all organised. Don’t forget my Christmas planner on my side bar to help with all that organisation.
Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx
