Weekly Recap #133: Week of 12/1 – 12/7
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
This past week has been kind of a blur. Work was slow, which was good, but holiday preparations are now in full swing, including me finally starting my Christmas shopping. Thankfully we don’t exchange gifts with many people so it shouldn’t take me long to get all of my shopping done, but it’s just so hard to find good gifts. With the exception of the kids on my list, everyone I know is at that stage of life where when they want or need something, they just go and buy it. Aside from the shopping, I also finally finished decorating. I kept getting distracted so it took me about three days to finish it, but here’s our tree. We usually like to put it in our family room but to keep the puppy from knocking it over, it’s baby-gated in my office this year. I think I’m the main one who enjoys the tree anyway so I think that’s a perfect spot for it, lol.
Not much else to report this week. I think seeing Hamilton with my family last Sunday was the highlight and it pretty much was a downhill slide from there. I had already seen Hamilton once in New York, but I have to say it’s an entirely different experience watching it in Virginia. The characters who were from Virginia – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison – played to the audience in a completely different way than they did when I saw it on Broadway. Thomas Jefferson, in particular, really stole the show several times. After the show, the actors even commented that they had no idea they would get the reaction they did from their Virginia audiences. I guess they didn’t realize that we take our history very seriously here, lol. It was such a fun experience though. I definitely recommend seeing it if you can. It’s one of the few shows I’ve watched that fully live up to the hype.
On the blogging front, as usual, today is my catch up day for commenting so that’s number one on my agenda. I’m also trying to sort out what I still hope to get read by the end of the year. I’m starting off the year with way too many January 7th ARCs so I’m starting those this week, but I also have a few more backlist books that I really want to finally knock off my TBR. Some of my reading/blogging challenges have been failures this year, but I think I can meet my goals for my backlist challenge and possibly my retellings one. We’ll see how the next few weeks go.
Oh and before I forget, today is the last day to enter my Instagram giveaway so if you’d like to win a free book of your choice, be sure to check it out! —> IG Giveaway
Anyway, I think that’s about it for me. Have a great week, everyone!
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [1 Dec] Weekly Recap #132: Week of 11/24 – 11/30
- [3 Dec] Top Ten Tuesday – My Ten Favorite Movies to Watch During the Holiday Season
- [4 Dec] Can’t Wait Wednesday – THE NOBLEMAN’S GUIDE TO SCANDAL AND SHIPWRECKS by Mackenzi Lee
- [6 Dec] Mini Reviews for Reputation, Meg & Jo, and The Dead Girls Club
- [6 Dec] Reputation by
- [6 Dec] Meg and Jo by
- [6 Dec] The Dead Girls Club by
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM
Beautiful tree, Suzanne! (And I love your rug.) Glad to know I’m not the only one who is just starting my Christmas shopping. I see posts from people who say they finished last week or something and I’m like, who are you and how do you manage such magic? LOL Interesting how seeing Hamilton in VA was such a different experience. Nice that you got to see it twice!
Thank you! Yes, that rug was such a great find. It’s meant to look like Queen Anne’s Lace but I just love all of the shades of purple, lol.
Your tree is beautiful! I have never seen Hamilton, but your experience in Virginia sounds wonderful😁
Thank you!
YOUR TREE LOOKS AMAZING!! I wish I had the space for such a big tree 🙂
Mine is a tad smaller, lol.
Have a great week!
Thank you! 🙂
Your tree is lovely, Suzanne💜 I’m from Virginia and would have loved seeing that Hamilton performance!
You’re from Virginia? Cool! 🙂
I haven’t really started shopping or decorating much. We mostly don’t exchange gifts now that everyone is adults now. I have gotten some small things throughout the year for my daughter. Mostly we just get things at the time we need them, as you pointed out.
Your tree is lovely and I hope you enjoy your holidays and relax too! Happy reading!
Anne – Books of My Heart Here is my Sunday Post
Thanks! Happy Holidays to you too. 🙂
Suzanne your tree is so beautiful! And I love going to a good show so you were lucky! By the way I am still green with jealousy on seeing Chosen on your blog!
I’m really excited to start Chosen. I just finished Slayer last week and thought it was so good!
Your tree is stunning! Looks like it’s straight out of a magazine. There are a lot of books coming out on Jan 7. I still have three to read, but I made a good dent in my January ARCs, because December was so light. Hope you like The Map from Here to There. I am really enjoying it, even if it is stressing me out.
I have several days off coming up next week, so I’m really hoping to get a jump on the ones I have.
I bet Hamilton was awesome!! Your tree is beautiful!
Thank you!
Some people are tough to shop for – but I’m happy to help brainstorm if you want ideas!! I love your tree – very pretty. I’m happy to hear that Hamilton was great the second time around too. That’s one musical I really really want to see sometime in the near future. Omg, I need The Dark Corners of the Night. I love the Unsub series.
The Unsub series is amazing and I feel like we’ve been waiting forever for book 3. I’m so ready to dive in.
I love your Christmas tree, Suzanne – it’s lovely:)). Thank you for the recommendation regarding Hamilton – I’d love to go and see it – my grandson loves the show and knows all the words. Have a great week – and I hope you find those perfect gifts.
My son hasn’t seen Hamilton yet but he has the soundtrack memorized as well and one of his Christmas presents is that we’re taking him to NYC to see it when he gets out of school this summer. I’m so excited to share the experience with him.
Hope this week ahead treats you well! And ooh what a relief that you don’t have too much gift shopping to do!
Thank you!
Omg, I’m so jealous! One of the items on my bucket list is to see Hamilton 😍I don’t know when if ever I’ll be able to but my gosh, I’m dying to! I am 100% obsessed with the soundtrack and know all the words despite not watching it yet 😂I really hope that they make it into a movie like they did for RENT so then the whole world can experience its awesomeness (it would be amazing with the original cast)! By the way, your tree looks so so pretty! I hope you have a great week ahead!
I hope you’ll get to see Hamilton some day and I agree with you about the movie. It’s a show everyone should experience at least once.
Your tree looks gorgeous!
Chosen is on my TBR list, I’ll be interested to see what you think
Wishing you a great reading week
Thank you!
I agree, Christmas shopping is so hard, especially for adults! No one wants anything, yet I’m expected to come up with gift ideas for other people to get us! Amazon wishlists can be so helpful.
It’s such a struggle. My mom, sister and I have gotten to the point where we don’t actually exchange gifts anymore. We just save our money so that we can do things together throughout the year (movies, shows, etc.)
I’m having the same gift problem! Kids are easy to shop for, but I have no idea what to get my dad. He buys whatever he wants. Your Christmas tree looks awesome. Have a great week!
My dad is the hardest one on my list to shop for too. I think I make it harder than it needs to be because I’m sure he’d be happy with anything.
Beautiful tree, Suzanne x
Thank you!
Your tree looks beautiful. I love the red though I don´t want red on our Christmas tree *smile* We will decorate our tree on the 24th and keep it until January the 6th. Then everything goes back to normal – hopefully *lol* Have a great time and enjoy your gorgeous tree.
Thank you! And normal sounds good, doesn’t it? LOL.
I agree that’s how I feel if I can’t get to reading a book for a long while. I am glad it was a steady week for you and I hope all the Christmas preparations go well. It seriously does get harder to buy for people the older they get DD: I am also trying to work out how to fit in everything I want to read for the end of the year before the end of the year… let’s see how it goes for the both of us!