And 2020 is done—I can’t even whoop, it’s mostly just a long sigh of relief. December was incredibly busy with year-end fundraising at work and then we were unexpectedly given an extra week off in the last two weeks! So, like the rest of the last nine months being stuck at home, time continued to fly by for me!
It was a quiet month for the most part since we didn’t travel to see family, but we had plenty of Zoom and Google Meetups to see everyone and for the most part it was fun and hilariously entertaining. My birthday passed without much fuss, but a deliciously wonderful cake (see end of post) and we had a quiet Christmas just the two of us. We went to see Zoo Lights at Stone Zoo the day after Christmas and were disappointed (photo above). Franklin Park Zoo does it so much better, so we’ll stick with that one in the future.
We had an even quieter New Year’s Eve with the two of us watching movies until midnight—and by that, I mean me watching and Tim napping beside me. We would’ve gone to bed early, but I was begrudgingly staying up to make sure the clocks and calendar changed over. Call me paranoid but I wasn’t sure some Y2K predicted level crap wasn’t going to happen. Thankfully the clocks ticked over and it was a quiet night and we both actually slept in on the 1st!
Books and Bookish Things
I read A LOT in December. This was mostly due to the 14 romance novels I plowed through in a last minute 12 Days of MM Holiday Romances at the end of the year. I mean why not lean into it right? I can read one a day basically and the biggest challenge by far was keeping up with the blogging.
However, the two highlights of the were the first two books: Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo and The Extraordinaries by T.J. Klune. Oluo’s second book was just as eye opening and educational as her first and Klune’s was adorkably wonderful and I cannot wait for the sequel, Flash Fire later in 2021.
- Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America – Ijeoma Oluo*
- The Extraordinaries (Extraordinaries #1) – T.J. Klune
- Mistletoe in the Marigny (Five Points Stories #3) – Kyle Baxter
- All I Want – Stella Starling
- Naughty & Nice (Love Notes #2) – D.J. Jamison
- A Guy for Christmas – K.C. Wells
- Tic-Tac-Mistletoe (Hartbridge Christmas #1) – N.R. Walker
- Merry Cherry Christmas – Keira Andrews
- Christmas Angel (The Christmas Angel #1) – Eli Easton
- Eight Nights in December – Keira Andrews
- The Chrismukkah Crisis – Ryan Taylor and Joshua Harwood
- The Remaking of Corbin Wale – Roan Parrish
- The Christmas Deal (Festive Fakes #1) – Keira Andrews
- Winter Wonders (Holiday Romance #1) – Leighton Greene
- Taming Tristan (Holiday Romance #2) – Leighton Greene
- Star Spanked (Holiday Romance #3) – Leighton Greene
I picked up quite a few books this month with my birthday (Cain, Oseman and Panetta/Ganucheau) and Kindle sales (Mantel and Miller). I restricted myself to one galley/ARC (*) which sounded really interesting.
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain
- No Blanks, No Pauses – Shelly McNamara*
- The Mirror and the Light (Thomas Cromwell #3) – Hilary Mantel
- Circe – Madeline Miller
- Heartstopper, Vol. 2 (Heartstopper #2) – Alice Oseman
- Bloom – Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau
In addition, I got some Jane Austen inspired teas, Pride and Peppermint and Sense and Senchability, for my birthday which were lovely. I haven’t tried the Senchability one yet, but I will soon I’m sure.
What’s Next?
I’m working on my 2020 recap and the stats are pretty astounding for what I read. I mean sure I read a lot more than the 52 books I projected, but looking at ARC/galley requests I was BLOWN away at the sheer quantity. I’m glad I track stuff like that. I’ve already finished my first book of 2021, Penelope Peters’ Ben’s Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle, which was a letdown and am most of the way through my next, Timothy C. Winegard’s The Mosquito:Â A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator, which I actually started first back in late December and is FASCINATING. I’m looking forward to more MM Romance throughout the year, but will need to pace myself and use it as a treat as I attempt to clear off and read some of the other books on my TBR shelves!
And as promised here’s my birthday cake! After watching all the British Bakeoffs over the years and the most recent season, I realized I’ve never actually tried a Black Forest cake! Cherries and dark chocolate are two of my favorite things so that is what I asked for as a birthday cake this year and it’s what Tim got me 🙂
How were your December and 2020 overall? What are you looking forward to in 2021?