Weekly Wrap-Up #100 – January 1st, 2023 – Happy New Year!

Posted January 1, 2023 by Lisa Mandina in Weekly Wrap Up / 38 Comments

Happy New Year everyone! Can you believe it’s 2023? I’m hoping for a better year. And I already have planned at least one thing to make this year stand out from every other before it! I hope you got to spend New Year’s Eve the way you wanted, whether that’s out at a party and all dressed up, home with the family enjoying good food and maybe some board games, or at home on the couch snuggled up with pets and watching the ball drop on TV or just reading a good book!

Christmas day was home and relaxing with the dogs most of the day. I did go to my brother’s house for their annual tortellini soup that they have for Christmas Day dinner, along with homemade cheesecake.

My poor nephew is allergic to eggs, so he can’t have the soup because of the tortellini or cheesecake. 🙁 However he did get to have chicken nuggets, always a 5 year old boy’s favorite meal, and a special chocolate pie that we get because it doesn’t have eggs in it. Then I went over to my next door neighbors who have dogs that my Argyle loves to run back and forth barking at the fence between our houses and gave them the toys I bought for their dogs. She had bought a bag of treats for Argyle and Dora. Big biscuit treats which means I have to break them in half for my two little dogs, lol.

Monday I did have to get out and about because I was out of the cooked chicken I get fresh from our local grocery store that I use for my dogs’ treats. Also, I only got ONE Reese’s Peanut Butter Christmas tree and I needed more of those. While I was out I did stop and have a nicer lunch by myself at Applebee’s. Sometimes I like to do that just to be able to sit and read without dogs begging for food. I also went through my bookcase that is just TBR books. I think I found 20 to maybe either donate or take to Half Price books, and about 4 or 5 to take and put in my school library. There shelves are still full of the books I just can’t/don’t want to get rid of.

Tuesday was another day at home. I did decide to run out to IKEA though. I’ve been interested in a corner bookcase since seeing some on TikTok, so I had to go see if it would fit in my house where I wanted it to go. I wandered around IKEA, but they did not have it set up, so I’m going to wait on purchasing it. Even though if I had, I would have taken the shelves it replaced to help organize my laundry room and my second bedroom.

Wednesday I went to lunch with a bunch of my sorority sisters because one of them who now lives in California had come home to visit her family for the holidays. We went to a restaurant called Brio, a chain Italian restaurant. I rode with one of my friends and afterwards we went to the Three Dog Bakery and then the Better Cheddar stores nearby. I also used my counter top ice maker that I got for Christmas. I like it, although it doesn’t make the Sonic ice like I’d wanted. And I have to figure out how to keep the ice from getting all stuck together once I put it in the freezer.

Thursday I went to lunch with another friend, my friend who breeds dachshunds. We had a nice lunch at a local Indian restaurant. Lots of talk about the crazy people who are out there today. She gave me some goodies she got from someone because she doesn’t eat a lot of stuff like sweets, and even though I’m trying to stop, I still do, lol.

And I had to finish a 400 page book that I just started Wednesday but didn’t have a lot of time to read, and had over 300 pages to get read. The blog tour review was due on Friday morning at 8 am.

Friday was spent taking down the tree and reorganizing and putting away the rest of the Christmas decorations. Also had to return something to Target, take some things to Goodwill to donate, mail a prize, and also buy some Mega Millions tickets since the jackpot is so high right now!

Saturday night my niece had her annual NYE restaurant that was called Elevation this year, because they “elevated” my 5 year old nephew’s current favorite food – cheeseburgers – into a cheeseburger meatball on a skewer, with crispy crowns (tater tots) also on a skewer. Here are pictures from our evening.

After dinner I went down and watched my niece and nephew play on their Nintendo some of the games they got for Christmas and then they also wanted to show me their houses on Animal Crossing since they know I used to play it a lot too. So I had to get pictures with them! My nephew was our “waiter” at the restaurant, although he probably wouldn’t have gotten much of a tip, he was a little off, lol. My niece has kind of put it all together, she designed and created the menus and made the cake pops which were delicious!

Books Finished

All of these were sent by publisher, the first one was a Bookish First win, the second was an ARC from the publisher, and the third I only got a PDF file from Rockstar Book tours. I reviewed all this past week, and the first two come out this week, the third has just come out in paperback.

New Additions to My Library

ARCs:

None

Audiobooks:

The Simon & Schuster newsletter was offering one free ebook and one free audiobook for subscribers, and I chose this audiobook even though I do have an ARC of this one.

Bookish Stuff:

None

E-galleys:

Technically Lore isn’t an e-galley, but it is an e-copy for a tour. Supposed to get a physical copy of the paperback, but since I have to read it and post my review by Friday, I went ahead and downloaded the PDF file. The second two were from book tours/author review teams and are for reviews the second week of January.

Free Ebooks:

So a blogger I follow on Facebook shared a TON of free ebooks on Kindle, and I probably only got 10% of them, but still, downloaded a bunch. And then there was a big 800 free ebooks on December 26th, which I grabbed a few more. The Christmas ones I will not get to till this time next year at the soonest though. The last three are from authors’ newsletters.

Physical Books:

So I am going to put myself on a bit of a book buying ban for 2023 in order to save money for my Scotland trip in July. I mean while I’ve put a deposit down, I still have to pay the full amount, as well as buy a plane ticket which right now the lowest is $1200. Plus I might want to go a day early to see some sights not on the tour, so I’ll need hotel and other food money, spending for souvenirs, etc. I’m not going to cut myself off completely, probably allow $20 a month. So the first two I did buy before I decided on my trip. The second one in that picture is because I’m hoping to meet the author at a nearby library in February, and I haven’t read her books yet. The second picture is another purchase made before the end of the year. I needed to complete my Green Valley library collection, I’ve read it, but needed it for my shelf. And the other is a novella that I can’t wait to read as I loved the book it is connected to. The last picture is one I bought because I just found out one of the authors is going to be at the convention in February here in my town too!

Both of these came from the publisher. I think I signed up for a tour for the first one, but not sure if that’s where it came from or a giveaway in the Shelf Awareness newsletter. The second one is a middle grade book, which I don’t read, so I’ll probably reach out to the middle school librarians in my district to see if any of them want it.

What I’m Watching

Of course I watched all the standard Christmas movies, including the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story off and on all day over the Christmas weekend. As well as there seemed to be a Harry Potter marathon on almost every day as well. I finished the Kindred mini-series on Hulu, man was that a cliffhanger and I NEED there to be a season 2. I started Invasion on Apple Plus TV since I have my three free months.

Coming Up Next Week on My Blog:

These three books are all ARCs or egalleys. Tuesday I’m back to work, students then come back on Wednesday. So that will cut back on some of my reading time sadly.

Giveaways

Don’t forget that I do now have the nice little box on the right hand sidebar so you can check out giveaways all the time!

Final Thoughts

How was your week? Did you read or watch anything good? Get any good books? I hope you got to spend time with family and friends if you could! What goals have you set for 2023, if you do that kind of thing?

This week I’m sharing a picture of my dogs with the first Christmas gift they unwrapped this year!

And, I think I’m going to start ending my posts every week with a meme as I do love a good meme. Some will be book related, but maybe not all. They could just be about how my week has been. This one kind of refers to when people who aren’t big readers have to share a book that I NEED to read, lol.

Please follow and like us:
0
fb-share-icon0
Tweet 0
Pin Share20

Tags:


38 responses to “Weekly Wrap-Up #100 – January 1st, 2023 – Happy New Year!

  1. Glad to hear you had a nice round of holidays! Ours were pretty good too! A little quiet, a little active, but overall very nice! Hope you were able to find your Reese’s trees! I love the holidays shapes as well since they are loaded with peanut butter! The other day I was at Target picking up a few things and not only did I find candy my grandma likes for 70% off, I found the large 1lb or however big they are, Reese’s cups for 70% off! I was like HOLY. COW! Lol.

    Nice new reads! Those are new to me ones but I hope you end up enjoying each and every one of them!

    Here’s my StS

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower 🙂

    • Lisa Mandina

      I did find a package of the Reeses’ peanut butter trees, but I held myself to just one package. I’ve got to get all this candy out of my house. I’ll be adding it to the bucket we keep for the students in my library when I get back this week, lol.

  2. It sounds like you had a good holiday break with a balance of things. That’s so cute with the NYE restaurant. You got a LOT of freebies! Also if you are going to cut back buying, you could use your library more! I don’t actually buy many books between ARCs and library and freebies. I tend to buy audiobooks more since they are sometimes less available at the library.

    Happy New Year and happy reading!

    Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post

    Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: 2022 Library Love Year End Results
    • Lisa Mandina

      Yeah, most of what I buy is books I’ve already read or because I want to get them autographed. Unfortunately library books don’t help with that. I only read e-books when they’re e-galleys usually. Thanks for visiting!

    • Lisa Mandina

      While I didn’t find what I was looking for at IKEA, I did find something else that I will have to make another trip to get I think! Thanks for visiting!

  3. Lisa, it sounds like you had a glorious holiday!

    And, wow, oh wow, did you ever haul in the freebies?!

    And to celebrate the new year…
    Here’s a bit from a lovely old (1850!) poem:

    “Ring out the old, ring in the new,
    Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
    The year is going, let him go;
    Ring out the false, ring in the true…

    Ring out a slowly dying cause,
    And ancient forms of party strife;
    Ring in the nobler modes of life,
    With sweeter manners, purer laws…

    Ring out false pride in place and blood,
    The civic slander and the spite;
    Ring in the love of truth and right,
    Ring in the common love of good.”

    And a toast: Here’s to a year of wonderful reads and small joys!

  4. I imagine the 5 year old was happier with chicken nuggets anyway. 🙂 I keep looking at the countertop ice makers that make ice like Sonic. My boss has one and loves it. It’s hard to justify the cost because it’s so unnecessary. I love that the NYE party even had menus… nice touch! 🙂 Meghan Quinn is always dependable for a fun read.

    Tanya @ Girl Plus Books recently posted: The Sunday Post #319 | January 1, 2023
    • Lisa Mandina

      Yes, I think he was. He was finished with his dinner first for a change, lol. Unfortunately my ice maker doesn’t do the Sonic ice, but I’m just happy to be able to make ice at home now!

    • Lisa Mandina

      Thank! It is a favorite tradition of mine now, and I am going to be sad when my niece decides she’s too old which as she gets into her teen years in a few more years may start!

    • Lisa Mandina

      It’s one of my favorite shirt. It has a little hole in the bottom, and I bought a new one, but the new one doesn’t fit as perfectly as this one, so I don’t wear it. lol Thanks for visiting!

  5. Happy New Year Lisa!

    It seems as if you had a good week between Christmas and New Year and got to spend some quality time with friends, family and yourself. That’s a good investment!

    Oooh just look at all your lovely books. But I’m only watching. No browsing! I need to get my Netgalley cleared and all my outstanding reviews as well!

    Thanks for stopping by earlier and have a nice rest before school starts again!

    Mareli Thalwitzer recently posted: The Christmas Party by Mikayla Davids
    • Lisa Mandina

      I know, I have so many free e-books! I’ll probably never get to most of them, but when they’re free and don’t take up any room in my house it’s hard not to get them, lol. Thanks for returning the visit!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I assume all dogs open presents, but we’ve always had dachshunds and they do pretty good with it. I think it is the whole digging thing they were bred to do.

  6. What a great week you have there. And yay for a Meghan Quinn, her writing is so delightful! there is nothing better than a Harry Potter Marathon so I am happy that it was a wonderful turnout. Glad you had such a fun Christmas week.

    Happy Reading and cheers to a wonderful 2023!

    • Lisa Mandina

      It’s been a pretty nice holiday for sure! Too short and went by too fast though! Thanks for stopping by!

    • Lisa Mandina

      Yeah the book buying ban will be hard! I’m debating about my Book of the Month subscription since that is now $17 a month. But I guess if I don’t find a book they don’t charge me that month, so maybe that will work.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Not sure it was productive in the sense I didn’t actually get a lot of things I’d hoped to do done, but it was at least relaxing and I got to spend time with family and friends.

    • Lisa Mandina

      I was thinking I’d leave it up for awhile, but it is nice having my living room back to normal now.

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.