I’m connecting up once again with Kimberly at Caffeinated Reviewer.
Last Sunday started out a little warmer than it had been the week before. I didn’t really need my coat to take my dogs out and it got up into the 60s. We had our first Chiefs game after the first loss of the season, and we won, at the very end. I was prepared for our second loss. I pretty much spent the whole day at home blogging and doing stuff around the house. Then went to my mom’s house for dinner. I came home and tried watching a movie called Apocalypse Z on Prime instead of rewatching Outlander. It started out good. Then I got bored a little over half way through, and switched over to rewatching season 4 episodes of Outlander.
Monday was a lovely sleeping in morning. I was supposed to take my dogs to my friend’s house and have her do their nails before she and I had a lunch/writing date. I decided I didn’t feel like hauling my two all the way over there, but still went for lunch. She did some work she needed to do for the dog food nutrition research study she is getting ready to start, as well as reaching out about a contract for one of the puppies she currently has. After lunch I stopped by her house to play with said puppies. I drove home, stopped by Target, and then just came home to hang out with my dogs for the evening, and finish one of my holiday reads.
Tuesday it was so hard to get up in the morning! But I’d decided to take my two to Petco to get their nails done first thing in the morning. So we did that. Then I came home and blogged a bit. My mom and I went to see Wicked. I dropped her off and then ran by the grocery store on my way home. When I got home my mom decided she wanted to go do dinner too. So she came by and picked me up. After she brought me back home I finished up some blogging and then watched tv.
Wednesday I had planned to stay home all day. But then I got the notification that my birthday free item at Bath & Body Works expired on Thursday, so I decided to get out and about. Of course going in for that I ended up also spending another $50. But to be fair, over half of that was on Christmas gifts. Then I stopped by Crumbl cookies because they had little pies this week! I got a keylime pie in the regular size, then because they were out of the regular size French Silk, I got the mini-pie of that, the cookies and cream pie, and a mini-Key Lime pie. I had planned once I got home to just stay home the rest of the night since it was Survivor night. But my mom texted about what my plans for dinner were, and so I went ahead and went to have dinner with her. When I got home my poor Argyle was now acting like his back is hurt. So I spent the rest of the night worrying about him.
Thursday morning I woke up still worrying about Argyle as he continued to act like his back was bothering him. I was glad that I would be gone most of the day because I need to make sure he has lots of rest and isn’t jumping up or down onto things. Fortunately while I was home in the morning, for the most part he just wanted to lay under covers and sleep. But when I thought he’d stay in the bedroom, I found him coming into the other room which meant he’d decided to go down the ramp by himself. He’s also what I call the “strong and silent type” because he never yelps or anything that would show something hurts, so it’s hard to know what is hurting him. I started one e-galley of a book I’d read over a year and a half ago, but couldn’t quite get into it, so started one of my other e-galleys I was unsure if I’d read right away since I didn’t request it and got hooked right away!
But it was the perfect day for him to get lots of rest since I had two Thanksgiving get-togethers meaning he was in his crate resting most of the day. First was lunch at my brother and sister-in-law’s house with my mom’s side of the family. We had a nice little tribute to my stepdad on the counter by the food. My mom gave a nice little speech about my stepdad and my brother and his wife and my niece and nephew all shared memories. I felt a little like Sheldon on Young Sheldon on the episode about his dad’s funeral, in that I have trouble sharing like that in front of people. After dinner they had planned another game/competition like the past two years. This year it was Family Feud. My niece made the cool set up for the game board. The team I was on won!
I had to leave there to be able to go by my house and let my dogs out and feed them before going to my dad’s house for another Thanksgiving meal. So I missed my nephew’s magic show. At my dad’s house it was just me, him, my stepmom and youngest sister. After we ate we did Facetime with my sister in Scotland and her boyfriend. It was funny because the Facetime camera kept zooming in on me even though I wasn’t even talking. I got home around 8 pm and rewatched more Outlander before going to bed and reading.
Friday morning woke up to really cold temperature still. My family has never been the type to go rush out for Black Friday sales. I got to sleep in again. Argyle was deciding to act like his normal self even as I’m still trying to keep him from jumping. For now I’m going to keep trying to carry him up and down the 5 steps to the backyard, but am letting him do the ramps to the couch and bed. I had been going to go help my author friend, but I just really needed a day at home. I wanted to get some blog commenting done and some reading. When you eat two of your three meals away with other people, it takes away some of my reading time. Ate leftovers from my brother’s house for lunch. Then watched the Chiefs game while putting up my Christmas decorations in the living room and deciding on some ornaments and stuff to get rid of that I don’t really use anymore, so don’t need to keep. My mom and I went to dinner, and then stopped by Hobby Lobby after all the craziness so that she could get some things to help with my niece and nephew’s Elf on the Shelf set up.
Saturday morning I woke up to more than the dusting of snow they had forecasted for our area the night before. It kept snowing for most of the morning, so I”m sure we got an inch or two. Because of it, my dad and stepmom canceled our usual coffee date for the day, which was find with me, I stayed home and blogged and read. In between shoveling little paths in the snow in the backyard when the dogs needed to go out. And the snow actually keeps them from wanting to go out every hour. I was able to finish the book I wanted to get a review post of by today. By the afternoon it had stopped and I gave it a few hours for roads to get cleaned up before running to the grocery store to make a casserole I had ChatGPT help me come up with. Afterwards I watched the Hallmark Chiefs movie, then went to bed and read before falling asleep.
Books Finished
First 3 were for my Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon which will be over on Tuesday. The audio book was for a blog tour next week, but also counts for my Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon. The last one is an e-galley I meant to read earlier but put off for the holiday reads.
New Additions to My Library
ARCs:
These two ARCs were from my contact at Union Square. One I requested after seeing on Edelweiss. the other I requested because I really liked the first one in the series.
Audiobooks:
None. And I put my Audible subscription on pause for the next 3 months because I don’t need to buy any with all the ones I have on my account already and the ones I’m trying to borrow from the library for the Gateway possible nominees.
Bookish Stuff:
So in 2024 there was some special promo PR box or something where there was a Meghan Quinn calendar in it, but it wasn’t anything you could buy. So all of her fans like me kept bugging her to make one for 2025, and as soon as it dropped a week or two ago I immediately had to buy it!
E-galleys:
I got all of these on Netgalley with links from a publisher contact. They are all for next year.
Free e-books:
The first three are little extras to go with the Christmas Notch series by Julie Murphy and Sierra, and they came from their newsletter as Bookfunnel links. The last one was also a freebie from an author’s newsletter.
Physical books:
This is a book I bid on in the Audio in Color “Fall Into Romance” Charity Auction earlier this year. Sharing it in this picture because it was for the Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon Bookstagram challenge, so figured I should use it here too, lol. Argyle was not happy to be woken up for a picture.
I won this from the author on Instagram. I’m still waiting on the book from the other author, since it was a dual author giveaway. There was a cute holiday bingo card with this one!
I almost forgot Helena Hunting had told her review team, which I’m on, that we would get the awesome PR box for this latest release. It came on Friday and it was full of so much good stuff, and how cool is the box? There was some NSFW artwork in the box, and I tried to strategically cover those pics in the second big picture of all the stuff.
What I’m Watching
Sunday was the 1st Chiefs game of the week, we also had a game on Black Friday. Two wins, again at the end of each game, and that Friday game wasn’t the way we want to win either. And there was some rewatching of Outlander even though the new season is out. And the new episode of that was Friday night and it was so good! Sometimes I think I wish I was caught up on the books, but then sometimes it is just nice to be learning it all through the show to enjoy it that way too. Wednesday night was a new Survivor. I remember the early days of the show when it was on Thursday nights and they’d show a “new” episode, but it was just little bits and pieces they hadn’t shown in filming so far in the season, so not really new.
Sunday night I decided to not let myself just rewatch Outlander, and I started this one. I quit with about 45 minutes left Sunday night, but went back and finished Monday night. It wasn’t bad!
My friend who studies nutrition and has helped me come up with a new diet, that might work if I actually followed it like I was supposed to, posted a link to this documentary she’d been talking about that was finally available on YouTube. It was good, but since she’s already told me about all the science and stuff behind it, I just think it would have been better if it had had more science and maybe less of some of the same images/transitions over and over. And now any science behind this is probably going to be ignored because RFK Jr is jumping on the bandwagon. Ugh.
Tuesday we went and saw Wicked, and I forgot to tell my mom it was going to be a 2 part series, so she was a little surprised when it said “to be continued” at the end, since we’d seen the musical. We also went to the theater here that has almost completely surrounding screens. Although that didn’t really do that much for it.
And Saturday night I had to watch the Hallmark movie that was Chiefs themed. I don’t watch a ton of Hallmark movies, but it was fun to see all the Kansas City things, Mama Kelce, and some of the actual Chiefs players, old and new!
What’s Coming Up Next Week
First is an audiobook for a blog tour on Tuesday. Second is an e-galley I requested, and third is an e-galley for an author review team to post the review on the 5th. Plus I probably will do one big Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon Review post.
Final Thoughts
And just like that we are in December! The year is almost over! Are you ready? I sure am! I am just hoping that 2025 will not have as many bad things in my life as 2024 did.
Also since it is a new month, check out tomorrow for my monthly wrap-up along with a new giveaway. Last month’s giveaway ended yesterday.
Tomorrow will be back to work for me after a lovely week away. But only 3 weeks till winter break. I’m so ready! How was your Thanksgiving if you celebrate? What are you looking forward to in December?
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Sounds like a nice week all in all! I hope Argyle is doing better though. It’s hard when a dog is hurting. I know it hurt my mom to see our old dog’s hips and backend always give out on him. He’d fall a lot and need help getting up. Sometimes this mean tracking out all the way to the back of the yard to help lift him up at 2 am when he wanted out to do his business. It’s hard and it’s sad. So I hope he gets better soon and that it’s just temporary pain. I really want to see Wicked myself! I loved the book when I read it however many years ago, the sequels continued to get harder to read, so I think I stopped after the third one. I did see the musical once and liked that. Seeing that there’s all this BTS specials on Peacock, I’m just hoping we will still have it whenever they get the movie. I want to see Moana 2 despite seeing some underwhelming reviews so far. I can always borrow my sister’s Disney+ for that one too, just have to make sure she’s around if I need the code and whatnot! Lol. She usually sets up Disney+ on one of our TVs for her kids to watch when they come over for long stays like Thanksgiving dinner.
Nice new reads! These are all definitely new to me ones. Your bookish calendar is cool! I keep eyeing a simple/basic one that I might pickup after the holidays if/when it goes on sale. Though I usually keep one under my notebook by my laptop, so not sure if I really need it. I might try just sticking to my planner to have less clutter. But I’m not good about going backwards to look at the whole month page so I can see when stuff comes up as the day to day stuff is usually for my blog posts or sale notices at bookish shops! Adding in “personal” things doesn’t leave me with much room if the timing isn’t right! Lol. We’ll see I guess! Hope you enjoy all the new reads!
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Argyle seems to be feeling better already. But I’m still trying to be cautious with his jumping and all that as much as I can. I saw that Peacock has a $19.99 subscription for a year, that’s a good deal if you want to get that! I haven’t had a wall calendar and actually used it in so long, I don’t even know where/if I’ll hang this one up in my office area. Have to figure that out I guess. I mostly just use my blog planner for everything these days.
Snow! It’s cold enough here but we haven’t had any. I read Studmuffin Santa a few years ago, along with most of the rest of the series I have been able to get a freebies. They are funny and I like them.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
I think I saw your review of that and decided to go ahead and read it myself this year. I liked it and will probably try the rest of the series at some point too. Especially if I end up getting any of them as freebies.
Great deal at Bed, Bath & Beyond. A gift for you and one for someone else. Sounds like a win!
The Family Feud board is so cute.
But we still won on Friday. It wasn’t like it was an illegal win. I think more people should be talking about how The Raiders lost. So embarrassing for them.
It was actually Bath & Body Works, oops, sorry if I said that wrong! lol. Yes, I mean how stupid of a way to lose was that? If it wasn’t for that, they’d have gotten a field goal and we would have probably lost.
I love the creativity of a Family Feud game with family. Maybe something to plan for Christmas! Have a great week Lisa.
My sister-in-law is very creative!
Omg watching a movie only to get bored halfway through and then switching over to your comfort show is something I have done very often 😂 We like what we like, why change that 🤣 Your Thanksgiving looked like so much fun! The game seems like such a great idea! And yay that you won! Lol. I’m so glad you have nice, relaxing week with family.
I got to thinking it was only men in this movie and got a little bored with that aspect.
Those puppies are so cute!! It sounds like you had a good mix of fun, family, and rest on your week off. I hope you are recharged and as you said – it’s only three weeks. We had a good weekend. Both kids were home from Tuesday night until today (Sunday). My daughter is done in just over a week, so I’ll have her home again soon. We love watching holiday romcoms and we watched two of the new Netflix movies.
That will be nice having her home for that long! Being with family is the best part of this time of the year.
I hope Argyle is ok! I love that he blocks you from watching TV, lol. Hopefully the next three weeks will go fast, I’m not ready to go back to work tomorrow either. Have a good week!
Argyle seems to be feeling better, although I’m still trying to carry him up and down the 5 steps to the backyard as much as he’ll let me.
Sounds like a good week with some delicious food! I hope Argyle feels better and doesn’t overdo it! Have a wonderful week, Lisa!
Argyle seems to be doing much better. Thank goodness!
That’s nice you got to play with those puppies, they look cute. And those pies you got look delicious! I hope Argyle is doing better soon, it’s always tough when one of your pets is not doing well I still remember that from when we had pets. Your Thanksgiving celebrations all sound good. Lots of Christmas themed reads you got through for that readathon. I hope you’ll have a good week.
Argyle seems to be doing better already! It was a pretty good week!
Gosh I sure hope poor little Argyle is ok! Him not wanting you to get excited while watching the game took me out! You’re a good mommy to force yourself up bright and early to get the babies’ nails clipped.
Thanks for telling me about Apocalypse Z!!!!! How did I not know about the book series or the series? movie? on Prime??? Both are now on my list. I hope I don’t get bored like you did.
What am I looking forward to in December…I am looking forward to a 5-day Christmas weekend. Using some PTO days because the thought of Christmas being on Wed and returning to work on Thur sounds terrible!!!
Argyle seems to be doing much better! Apocalypse Z was good, but I kind of bored I think because it was mostly male characters maybe? December is the best month usually because of long breaks!