At long last we reached the last month of 2020.

What I have read

I have made an effort to finish things that have been languishing on my currently reading shelf for ages, and I succeeded with one of those, and made some progress on another. I also decided to read some Christmas books as usually by the time I think about it I’ve hardly got time – and I find it weird to read them after December 25!

I read 14 this month and that means I read 166 altogether. (It did say 168 but I discovered one book had managed to be logged as read three times on the same day…)

• Baby-Sitter’s Christmas Chiller (Baby-Sitter’ Super Mystery #4) – Ann M Martin
• The Fun of the Fifties: Ads, Fads and Fashion – Robert Opie
• James and the Giant Peach – Roald Dahl (audiobook narrated by Julian Rhind-Tutt)
• Pocketful of Dreams (East End Ration #1) – Jean Fullerton
• A Ration Book Christmas (East End Ration #2) – Jean Fullerton
• The 1950s Scrapbook – Robert Opie
• Rivers of London: Bodywork – Ben Aaronovitch
• Hetty Feather’s Christmas – Jacqueline Wilson
• Christmas With the Teashop Girls (Teashop Girls #2) – Elaine Everest
• Five Children and It (Five Children #1) – E Nesbit
• The Missing Bookshop – Katie Clapham
• Winning at Life (When #FML Means Family #2) – Kathryn Wallace
• I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf – Grant Snider
• The Ordeal of the Haunted Room (The Chronicles of St Mary’s #11.5) – Jodi Taylor

The ones I didn’t finish are:

• Gender Rebels – Anneka Harry
• The Girls of Mulberry Lane (Mulberry Lane #1) – Rosie Clarke

Though there are some others that I’m yet to finish but haven’t picked up in ages, the less said about those the better.

What I have watched

• Hollyoaks 
• More of Mythbusters, Only Connect, Taskmaster and Tattoo Fixers
• We’ve continued with The Crown too (and I’ve done more reading on the royals!)
• Mulan the live-action remake
• Some Christmas things – Holiday Home Makeover with Mr Christmas, Jingle Jangle, The Christmas Chronicles (again as we had forgotten most of what happened) and Christmas Chronicles #2 which wasn’t as good, plus The Nightmare Before Christmas (breaking my rule and watching after Xmas)
• Some movies to amuse Brodie on cold afternoons – Shaun the Sheep, Despicable Me and Treasure Planet. 
• Can You Keep a Secret? This is based on the Sophie Kinsella book of the same name. I love the book and the film was OK but not particularly memorable.

What I have done

Not an awful lot considering the season!

• We decided as a family that if we wanted to spend some time together during the five-day window that the rules were to be relaxed for, then we shouldn’t risk being ‘tracked and traced’ which meant no cafes or anything in the 14 days before December 23, and then they changed the rules but we still got together on Christmas day to exchange presents and have a meal.
• We went hunting for fairy doors in the Botanic Gardens, and did a few other walks and trips to playparks too. 
• Elf on the Shelf has visited us every day and Brodie has loved looking for him every evening after his bath (our Elf is obviously time-challenged as I know most elves are there first thing in the morning when everyone wakes up). 
• I had my birthday and Brodie loved the cake
• We took a wander in the city centre to see the Christmas tree and decorations and posted Brodie’s letter to Santa, then went in again on Christmas Eve and bought hot doughnuts and hot chocolate from a stall.
• I helped Brodie make some reindeer Christmas cards and he helped me make lebkuchen. 
• Had a very cold al fresco lunch at my parents’, even with the chiminea going it was freezing!
• A scavenger hunt over Zoom which Brodie got really into; shouting “What’s next?” all the time and then running off to find the next item before it was even announced.

What I have bought

I bought myself some more issues of Enid Blyton’s Magazine from Sue Bell at Green Meadow Books.

What has your month looked like?