Now the last round up of 2024 – or the first of 2025?

What I read

Last month I was 5 books ahead of schedule, and was glad as I wasn’t sure 12 books would be doable to make my 150. Well, I actually did read 12 books in December, ending up on 156.

Without thinking I set this year’s goal as 150, so I’d better get reading…

What I read:

• The Caravan Family (Brodie’s thoughts to come, eventually.)
• The Book of Lost Enchantments – Jessica Dodge
• Collin’s Children’s Annual – Review part one, and part two
• The Christmas Book Hunt – Jenny Colgan
• The Accidental Actress (Heather Bay #2) – Amber Eve
• Five on a Treasure Island (Graphic Novel #1) – Beja. Reviewed here.
• Enid Blyton’s Christmas Tales
• Death in Fine Condition (The Paperback Sleuth #1) – Andrew Cartmel
• The Ghostwriter of Christmas Past – Amber Eve
• Lights! Camera! Mayhem! (St Mary’s #14.6) – Jodi Taylor
• Poyums – Len Pennie
• Santa Grint (The Time Police #4.5) – Jodi Taylor

I ended the month still working through:

• Christmas is Murder – Val McDermid
• Charlie and the Christmas Factory – “Roald Dahl” but actually various authors
• The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society – CM Waggoner
• The Secret Mountain

What I watched

• The usuals – Only Connect (and the many Christmas specials) and House of Games (and the Christmas special week), plus we finished Lego Masters Grandmasters and moved on to Lego Masters New Zealand series 2.
• Lots of Christmas movies – Brodie loves Home Alone and Home Alone 2 so we watched them together, I chose The Muppet Christmas Carol for us, and we showed Brodie Jingle All the Way for the first time. We also watched That Christmas. On Christmas day we watched Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl which had lots of wonderful call-backs to The Wrong Trousers and even more hilarious new jokes.
• I watched the original Miracle on 34th Street by myself (I’ve seen the 1994 film a few times but never the 1947 one), and Ewan and I watched Scrooged and Die Hard.
• My sister and I watched Our Little Secret (Lindsay Lohan’s new Christmas movie) and Is It Cake Holiday.
• I also watched Christmas At… which showed how how a different historic residence (like Chatsworth and Warwick Castle) prepared for the Christmas season in each episode, and Lighting Up Christmas a one-off show which had a similar premise. And of course I watched the Call the Midwife Christmas Special.
• As we had time off over Christmas we also had time for Raiders of the Lost Ark (Brodie’s first time watching Indiana Jones) and the “live action” Lion King.

What I did

• Elf made his usual reappearance and caused havoc every evening.
• We did the Hooley again and watched the fire dancers, the bubble blower and the huge parade.
• Our yearly trip to see Glendoick’s Christmas hall and have hot chocolate.
• We built a lot of Lego. For an advent calendar this year I bought a big set (Holiday Main Street) which had two shops, a tram and a little bit of snowy street with a Christmas tree, and divided it into the drawers of an advent calendar. We (mostly Brodie) built a bit more each day until it was all complete. We also all got lego for Christmas, Brodie got a couple of jungle explorer sets, I got some Harry Potter ones and the cockatoo, and Ewan got the Jaws set.
• We saw The Wizard of Oz on Ice (last year it was The Little Mermaid, so can’t wait to see what it is in 2025!).
• We fitted in a few (chilly) walks mostly along our favoured woodland and coastal routes (no new geocaches found as we’ve got them all in those places.)
• The 17-21st were more or less a write off as I had the flu and so did Brodie, though he recovered for a few days then got ill again and needed antibiotics for an ear infection.
• I completed my Lego minifigure rainbow and started a Harry Potter one.
• We had two Christmases, one with Ewan’s family and one with mine, and also got together with other relatives for a games morning.

How was your December?