Christmas party, Christmas and Post Christmas

Wow the past couple of weeks have flown by! My book club got together for the annual pot luck dinner and Yankee swap party. The book was Anne of Green Gables which was actually well received and we had a pretty good discussion in spite of all the distractions- holiday stuff, food (lots of it and all delicious) and presents. Our Yankee swap was loads of fun and the gifts were really thoughtful. No one wanted to swap - which is half the fun. This is our group now. We have lost a couple of members (illness, moving) but still keep in touch.

Here I am in my gift- an apron. So cute I don't want to wear it and get it dirty!

Our next book for book club is The Orphan Train. I read this during the summer and really enjoyed it. Christmas was a nice holiday for the family. My daughter, her girlfriend and I went to the late church service which was very moving and really got me into the Christmas mood. Christmas day had a quiet start. We opened our stockings and then had breakfast and opened gifts. Before going to my brother's for dinner we watched A Christmas Story- one of my holiday favorites. Every year I make a chocolate house decorated with candies and use that as a centerpiece. It takes about 10 minutes to be demolished!

It gets very noisy at my brother's with all the kids who are so excited. I am not a big fan of New Year's Eve so will be celebrating with my family and a few of their friends in Rhode Island. I plan on doing lots of reading. Just trying to figure out what books to bring with me. Looking forward to some quiet time. Happy New Year to all! I wish everyone a healthy and happy 2015.

Post Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is over and all of a sudden it is Christmas. Our book club met the Monday before Thanksgiving. It was a small group but we had a really good discussion. The Invention of Wings was really good, maybe one of the best books I have read this year. Again, my favorite genre- historical fiction. Well researched and thoroughly enjoyable. I had a smaller group for Thanksgiving this year. Only 14! Plenty of food as usual. My son's new dog, Nellie, seems to be settling in nicely. She is only 6 months old and still a puppy. Very sweet. Our next book is Anne of Green Gables- a classic. One of our members is from Korea and is not familiar with many American classics so she requested that we pick one this year. I don't remember ever reading this one. Will be interesting. Currently I am reading the latest Jacqueline Winspear novel- The Care and Management of Lies (another historical fiction book) set in England at the beginning of World War I. A different story from the Maisie Dobbs series. Here is a picture of Nellie and my son are her first hike to a local state park- Sleeping Giant.