Sunday Post/Sunday Salon - December 28, 2025: The Last One of 2025

Wow. Looking back, I feel like 2025 kind of flew by. On the one hand, it feels like a succession of similar days, over and over. In reality, our daughter graduated from high school and moved away to college, my husband changed jobs and had major surgery, and our son started hanging out with a great friend group and seems more content and happier than before. I never finished a goal list or word-of-the-year or anything like that last January, so I supposed I can't much comment on it. I do remember I wanted less confrontation, more NPC energy, and just discreetly support those around me who need it. I feel like I've mellowed out and done a lot of that. Don't get me wrong - if you live in the U.S.A. and you're not regularly angry, you aren't paying attention. But I've tried to do less of taking that rage out on my own life.

While they were not listed apparently, one of my goals was definitely to blog more, and joining more regularly with Sunday Post with Caffeinated Reviewer, and Sunday Salon with Readerbuzz definitely was the best of that! Thanks so much to Kimberly and Deb for opening their hearts and (online) homes to us weekly (and more) to build such an enjoyable community. 💖

What I'm reading this week:

I successfully finished A Jingle Bell Mingle by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone and My Favorite Holidate by Lauren Blakely for the HoHoHoReadathon! I just realized while finishing up another review yesterday that I forgot to review My Favorite Holidate - I'll get that written and over to Books I Think You Should Read soon.

But for now, I'm reading two multi-timeline historical-ish books and really enjoying both. I just passed the halfway mark in The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia on my kindle, and am enjoying The Secret Courtesan by Kerry Chaput in print. 

My Goodreads challenge says I've finished 77 books, but this didn't update? I dunno. Plenty of reading :)

Has anyone tried Fable? Advice? I tried Storygraph another time and left very soon. 

Three Good Things:

1. LEGO! We finished the Home Alone House as our family advent calendar (since the set has 24 bags), and everyone under our roof got more LEGO for Christmas. Our son got The Nightmare Before Christmas set he wanted, and is almost half way done. Our daughter got the Happy Plants and the Wall-E and Eve blockheads. Hubs got a technic construction vehicle, and technic Gravedigger. I got the botanical Orchid set, the 3-in-1 Camera, and the Up House!
2. I got an offer for a new job! I chose not to take it for several reasons, but after a couple years of applying within and outside my current company, it felt good to be acknowledged. I'll leave it at that.
3. Things feel pretty good. I've got fun plans, our daughter is home for almost two weeks more, and everyone had a very good Christmas. We've all got plans for New Years' Eve (even if our son comes with us instead of going to his own friends), and 'normal' is back on the radar. LOL I love the excitement and joy of the holidays, but I also like to just meander through my life as I've set it up, mostly.

Three Goals for this week/month/whatever:

1. Speaking of New Years' Eve, we're going to a friends' party and need to bring an appetizer or dessert. I need to decide and get ingredients for whatever that will look like.
2. Get the office back under control! Two steps forward, three steps back. The holiday presents are now almost all cleared out, so I've got some empty boxes/packaging that will easily clear out and look a billion times better.
3. 
   Decorate my new big present! When hubs was between jobs, he said he'd have less money to spend on presents, but more time if I had any ideas. LOL "If I had any ideas..." I have always had a thing for shelving units, of course, and saw a version of shelves framing a bed, if you will. So, thanks to my hubs' creativity and some base pieces from IKEA, this is mine. I've just started the decorating, but I'm excited for my evening 'me-time' curled up in my cozy bed, surrounded by some of my favorite things (which I can also see in the mirror over the dresser, opposite the bed), with my kindle and nightcap on the handy shelf right next to me. Hubs really delivered this time :)