Happy New Year! December wasn’t our best month health-wise, but we had much to be thankful for, from library books and abundant food to fun activities with extended family, and most of all God’s love and care for us.

Read

I’m a little disappointed in my reading over the past few months, but when I look back at the year I did complete half of the Books of Centuries challenge like I wanted to; I think I can reasonably finish it in 2025. We ended up reading only two Pulitzer winners aloud (rather than six) and haven’t decided on reading aloud plans for the next year. My monthly library book club continued with A Christmas Carol for December. I’ve read it before but quite enjoyed it and the discussions I read and had about it.

The Giant Jam Sandwich is a silly, rhyming picture book that I just learned about in December (published in 1972).

It looks like we’ll end up reading some Christmas picture books in January because I didn’t order them from the library early enough, but even so I’m looking forward to checking out some that were recommended on the New Mason Jar podcast. The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree and An Early American Christmas were two that we did get to read.

Do

• Andrew’s dad retired as a pharmacist at the beginning of December and we enjoyed surprising him with a party (cookies and hot chocolate for all!).
• Update: I forgot to mention that I took the older kids to a concert of the Northern Lights Orchestra and had such a good time listening to classic carols, Christmas movie music, and even a soprano singing “O Holy Night.” (Bonus: it was in walking distance of our house).
• We had lots of visiting with various cousins over Christmas and fit in karaoke carols, snowshoeing and cross country skiing, bowling, and board games.
• We transferred our church membership and had Tristan baptized with a celebratory meal afterwards.

Eat

• When I had a bad cold, the older kids brought me breakfast in bed!
• I made this hash with sweet potatoes, apple, and sausage many times (good with fried eggs on top)
• The four oldest got free personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut for the Book It reading program.
• I made Detroit-Style Pan Pizza after Andrew ordered me a five pound block of brick cheese all the way from Wisconsin!
• I didn’t really feel like Christmas baking this year, but we did make fruitcake and maple crinkles (for Andrew’s co-worker — very similar to molasses crinkles but not something I’d ever tried before).
• Eleanor made these mocha roasted almonds for Andrew for Christmas (so easy and tasty, though next time we may try toasting the almonds before coating them for extra crunch).
• I roasted two turkeys on Christmas day and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly they cooked and well they turned out (after my worries that they weren’t thawing fast enough).
• Of course we had to hit up the Asian buffet while the cousins were visiting.
• I made my traditional New Year’s Eve cheesecake. This year I wanted to make it amaretto and coffee flavoured and ended up combining three recipes, because I love a culinary project! I used the crust from this recipe, the filling from this recipe, the topping from this recipe, plus a layer of chocolate ganache that was leftover in our freezer.

Drink

I drank an unprecedented amount of this elixir when I had a cold (maybe more than one cold!) in December:

To one cup of hot water add 2 Tbs apple cider vinegar, 2 Tbs lemon juice, 1 Tbs honey, 1 tsp cinnamon (I prefer a cinnamon stick), 1/4 tsp ground ginger (I add slices of fresh ginger), and a pinch of cayenne. (Thanks for the recipe, Marilee!)

Play

Andrew’s youngest brother is more into board games than anyone I know. He gets most of them from FB Marketplace but he also picked some up on a trip to Japan. Whenever we see him we try a few new games.

• Keyflower is extremely complicated and kept us up nearly till midnight
• New York Zoo has adorable animal pieces
• Scout is a colourful card game
• Deep Sea Adventure involves trying to collect treasure and return to the submarine without running out of oxygen

I’m most likely to play New York Zoo (below) and Scout again, if I get the chance.

Listen

Andrew made a playlist of sea shanties and I’ve been really into them lately. Here’s one example.

Watch

On New Year’s Eve Andrew and I watched The Big Year, a comedy about birders.

Meditate

I finished reading the Bible in a year! The last books completed were Esther, Malachi, Psalms, Nehemiah, Job, and Revelation. This year I’m planning to slow down and study some books in more depth, starting with Philippians. My kids have started their own Bible reading plans; we went with these ones, which have four different levels.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
    or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
    and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” – Job 38:4-7

Then Job answered the Lord and said:

“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
    I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
    twice, but I will proceed no further.” – Job 40:3-5

What were your favourite things in December?