Weekly Wrap-Up #145 – November 26th, 2023

So last Sunday was another no-football game day. I actually spent the whole day at home blogging and reading, other than going to my mom’s for family dinner. I had trouble on another book I was reading for the Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon and so had another DNF for the month. We got some rain in the afternoon, nothing heavy, but we needed it. Watched a Hallmark Channel Holiday movie for the first time and really enjoyed the one I picked, Holiday Hotline. Loved not having to set an alarm before bed.

Monday woke up to a nice rainy morning to take the dogs out and then enjoyed going back to bed for a few more hours. Got up and did some reading and blogging, and backed up my iphone just in case I decided to go pay the remaining amount left and get a new one. Went to see a movie in the afternoon. Monday night was Chiefs football in a match up against their SuperBowl rivals last year, as well as another Kelce brothers game. It was a loss, sadly for us. But hey, when everyone goes on and on about how the statistics show they’ll win, I just see that it’s time for the opposite to happen of what has “always happend”. And sadly I was correct. Also, the wrong Swift was there, we needed Taylor but got whoever the player with the last name of Swift on the Eagles. lol And because some of us Chiefs fans can be good sports, gotta love this picture below.

Tuesday, loved sleeping in. Another chilly morning, but no rain for a change. Got some blogging done, some organizing and laundry. Went to have leftover tacos from Sunday night at my mom’s house for dinner.

Wednesday was also nice. I actually went to the movies with a friend about mid-day, then we went and had a late lunch before I headed home and attempted to make some fudge, it tasted okay, but would not roll up neatly like the recipe suggested, so wouldn’t be taking it to any Thanksgiving dinners. Watched my normal Wednesday night shows, even watched The Amazing Race all the way through which I usually don’t since I tend to go and read at 9 pm during a normal work week. Got my tree finished. Here’s what it looks like lit up and not lit up. Next year I kind of want to get the next size bigger tree.

Happy Thanksgiving! Lazy morning around the house. Then to my brother’s for lunch where he had some murder mystery thing planned for lunch.

Then to my dad’s house for dinner. A couple of my cousins also came, and one of my sisters.

Tried to sleep in past 8 am on Friday morning, but the dogs weren’t having it, plus my mom texted me too. So I got up. I’m kinda broke, so didn’t want to leave the house any more than I had to, to keep myself from spending money, even though we have a new romance bookstore opened this past week! It was a cold day! I also started watching the UK Ghosts tv show that they started showing this month here, and was suprised to enjoy it as much as I do the American version!

Saturday I slept in till after 9 am, but partly because the dogs kept me awake during the night. We had winter weather forecasted for the afternoon, so I tried to get out and do some small business Saturday shopping in the morning. And I might have done a bit too much of that! I went to the new romance bookstore that just opened and spent over $100 when I told myself I’d only buy one book. Oops! And then I went to a store with some fun Kansas City Chiefs t-shirts. Here’s a picture of my three new shirts, and two stickers I bought, but the stickers are kind of small and hard to see:

And it started snowing shortly after I finished up shopping for the shirts, so I headed home to bundle up and stay warm with the pups for the rest of the evening!

Books Finished

First was a free e-book novella I’d had for a bit and I switched in to read when one of my planned books for the Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon turned into a DNF. Second was a book I won from Anne at Books of My Heart blogoversary and I read it also for the readathon. Third was an ARC I got at AASL and I should have posted my review yesterday.

New Additions to My Library

ARCs:

I feel like it is rare for me to get a physical romance ARC, so I was VERY excited to get this one in the mail! It comes out in January, so expect a review then!

Audiobooks:

none

Bookish Stuff:

I’ve participated in the ornament exchange with author Tara Sivec’s Facebook group for the past three or so years, and these are the fun ornaments I got this year! One is Outlander themed and the other dachshund themed of course!

E-galleys:

First one is for a blog tour review in January I believe. Second one is for a blog tour in a couple weeks. I liked the illustrated covers that the author usually has but this is the only one to share at the moment.

Free e-books:

So, yeah, I already had the first one as a free e-book, but it must have been through Book Funnel or something, because when I clicked on the link in the author’s email, it wasn’t in my Amazon account. So I paid for it. $3.99. While I guess I could try to return it, I figured why bother, the author will get some money and I’ll be happy for that. Second was free though, the author shared about the freebie on Facebook. I’ve enjoyed the other books I read by this author for blog tours, but he hasn’t had any on tours for a while, and I seem to have only had time for those. Third and fourth were free on Amazon.

Physical books:

So I had to order the two Jiffy Kate books that they started the new half-naked men covers in the original beard covers from when they started with the Donner Bakery series. They came in this fun envelope too! Third picture is a book I found at Dollar Tree.

My goal was just to be a part of the Grand Opening on Saturday and buy one book. Well, I bought three books, one of which I’ve already read, but loved this newer cover, a t-shirt with the store’s name on it, a fun wall calendar, and a sticker! Can’t wait to visit this store again! They were so busy! Some other pictures I took while at the store:

What I’m Watching

The usual weekly shows of course. Then on Sunday night I watched the Hallmark holiday movie Holiday Hotline.

Then on Monday afternoon I went to see the new Hunger Games movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I haven’t read this book in the series yet. But the movie was sooooooo good!

Tuesday night I finally tried the tv show Good Omens. I’ve read the book, but just hadn’t thought I needed to watch the show. The first episode was good though, so I will be finishing it!

Wednesday I went to see the new movie, Next Goal Wins, with a friend, and it was a cute movie!

Lots of tv and movie watching this past week! Like I mentioned above, I also started watching the new Ghosts UK show, and was worried at first since I already liked the US version I would enjoy it, but it had me cracking up right away!

Coming Up Next Week on My Blog

The first two are e-galleys from being on the authors’ teams, and I might combine a blog tour blitz with my review of the second one. The third one is an e-galley I got back in August, but it is just now coming out in December, so just now getting to it.

Since it’s the last week of the month too, there will be my monthly L-L-L-Little Reviews post, which will probably have holiday book reviews from the Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon, unless I decide to give them their own post. And I’ll also post my November DNF Report, too many this month! Also an End of the Month wrap-up post should be coming. A few promos as well!

Final Thoughts

Wow, November has just flown by! I swear it just started the other day! And now December will be here at the end of the week which means my nephew’s birthday, my niece’s dance recitals, and Christmas, and Christmas break from school, so much to do! Not to mention that I’ll be picking up my friend’s dog to watch on Monday and have her for almost three weeks!

I had to take a picture of this unique looking leaf I saw on my back deck this past week! And then the snow Saturday night for an interesting change in the weather in one week.