A Thursday List

1.  Farmyard Beat, by Lindsey Craig and Marc Brown is seriously adorable and fun. Even when you are asked to read it " 'gain!" about 30 times in a row. 

2. I started Queen of the Tearling last week, continuing my streak of reading books that were popular and recommended to me so long ago I can't remember who recommended it. Haven't gotten very far yet, but so far, so good. And isn't that an awesome cover? The downside to reading the ebook.

3. For most of the years we lived in North Carolina, we had a tradition of sharing a New Year's Day breakfast with our friends (the ones we'd partied with the night before, of course) where we'd all sit around and talk about the previous year and our goals and dreams for the coming year. So I'm in the habit of participating in the traditional end-of-the-year reflection and contemplation, and I've been thinking about it off and on the past week or two. And I'm sure I'll talk about it more some other time, but meanwhile....

4. Now that it's December, I'm ready to embrace the Christmas season! Our calendar is about maxed out on planned activities -- Christmas party, family tree-decorating-movie-watching, cookie exchange, lunch with Santa, and a plan to drive around and look at Christmas lights. Now I've just got to fit Christmas shopping in there somewhere, and we live in Houston so...the lawn really needs to be mowed (thankfully that's Jeremy's job still). And hopefully we'll have time for a little spontaneous fun and/or relaxing on the couch to a Christmas movie or two.

5. And speaking of Christmas movies! I love hearing about everyone's favorite Christmas movies. From Elf to Die Hard, White Christmas (this girl's favorite) or It's a Wonderful Life and all the many versions of A Christmas Carol or Santa Claus or your very favorite made for t.v. holiday cheesefest.