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Little Whale Cove
Depoe Bay, Oregon
December 2022
Well, that was a busy, yet fun month! We started off with Rod's book launch party, which was so much fun. The following weekend, we attended our neighborhood Christmas party. After two years of cancellations due to Covid, it was great to celebrate the season with friends & neighbors. The celebrating continued the following week when I turned 61 (!) and had a lovely dinner at a favorite restaurant with Rod and some good friends. Later in the week, we hosted a small cocktail party, and everyone brought either an appetizer or dessert, which is my kind of entertaining. :) We attended a Christmas chorale concert and then had another birthday dinner out with my mom. None of our family came out for Christmas, so we invited some friends to join us for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a lovely evening and the following day we opened our gifts, then relaxed for the remainder of the day, watching movies, eating popcorn, and sipping hot cocoa. The weather (ice & snow in the valley) wasn't the best for travel, so I'm glad nobody tried to come out to spend the holidays with us! Plus, we had a couple of power outages (one day it was out for over 6 hours), which is always annoying and stressful. We wrapped up the month by joining our friends for a New Year's Eve party, which began at 8pm. Yes, we actually stayed up until after Midnight (PST). Haven't done that in decades!
With all the happenings and excitement, I still managed to finish six books. I loved two, enjoyed two, and liked two. I'm in the middle of a 900+page saga, so January may be pretty light in the way of book news. I may start posting travel essays from our Glacier NP trip in order to keep things active on the blog.
Books Read (click on the title for my review):
The Guncle by Steve Rowley (4/5)
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett (4.5/5)
Garden of Lamentations by Deborah Crombie (4/5)
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell (5/5)
Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin (3.5/5)
Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl (3/5)
Knives Out - We rewatched this one on Christmas Day. It was just as good as the first viewing!
The Glass Onion - After watching Knives Out, we watched this one, which really isn't a sequel. I might have liked it even more than Knives Out. The cast is marvelous, but I especially like Daniel Craig.
Puzzlemania
Holiday Party:
Prepping the risotto cakes. So good!
The table before everyone arrived and added their goodies.
Stormy Weather:
Love our Rocksolar Power Station!
High winds (75-80mph) on the
Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport, Oregon
Power outage snacks!
I'm working on my Best of 2022 list and should have it posted in the next few days.
Thanks for reading this far and for all your comments. I love hearing from everyone! Happy New Year!
Sounds like you had a great month! I was going to watch Knives Out but didn't for some reason, so now I want to watch it and Glass Onion. Your food looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteVicki, everyone seems to have enjoyed Knives Out and Glass Onion, so enjoy!
DeleteLes, I'm so sorry I'm so behind in reading your blog. I've been very distracted with our home sale process, but I don't want to lose touch with you. ❤️ Your December sounds wonderful—so many gatherings with friends and beautiful celebrations. By the way, happy belated birthday!
ReplyDeleteIt looks as though you read a lot of good books in December. Thanks for the ideas...the only one I've read is Save Me The Plums. We enjoyed Three Pines, and we loved Knives Out. Glass Onion is high on our list, so I'm glad to hear you liked it. Happy New Year, my friend! May this year bring you all the best of everything. OX
Laurel, please don't apologize! You have a lot going on right now. I'll be here whenever you get a breather! Happy New Year to you and Eric.
DeleteI saw Coming Home on your sidebar and I wanted to say that was one of my favorite books by Pilcher. I loved the Shell Seekers and the followup to that called September, but Coming home is an epic story. In my opinion, of course!
ReplyDeleteI am hoping Glass Onion is acquired by our library, maybe Redbox will get it. We enjoyed Craig in Knives Out. Great puzzle you did there. I haven't puzzled in a few weeks.
Tina, I am so enjoying Coming Home! I have finally passed the halfway mark and stayed up far too late reading last night. Yep, I've read The Shell Seekers, September, and Winter Solstice. They are all such wonderful stories.
DeleteYou did have a lot going on in December and I loved the pictures of your family, the treats, etc. So, we watched Three Pines as well. My hubby has not read the series and so was asking a few questions about how the storyline went. I liked it well enough, though I do agree that it was an adaptation for sure. Louise herself said in her monthly newsletter that the TV Three Pines and her Three Pines are not the same. The series is darker I think and I also think that Gamache himself is darker in his viewpoint. However, that may be something that changes over time or it may just be how it is. It's interesting how authors feel about the filming and changes made to their characters. Some are very 'go with the flow' and some not as much. We'll see how this series progresses if there is another season.
ReplyDeleteKay, I'm trying not to be too negative about Three Pines. Now that we've watched the first season, I've grown used to the characters and setting (not at all what I envisioned). With the final scene of the last episode, I can't imagine that they wouldn't have a second season!
DeleteI'm glad to see how much you liked The Glass Onion.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you were able to read six good books even in such a busy month.
Deb, this month isn't quite as busy, but I'll be lucky/happy to finish the two books I'm currently reading. They're both very long!
DeleteDecember sounds like a fantastic month of reading and celebrating! I love the photos. Happy New Year
ReplyDeleteHelen, it was a fun-filled month! Glad you enjoyed all of the photos. I tend to include quite a few in these monthly summaries. ;)
DeleteI am glad you had such a nice December! It was a nice way to end the year. I think I liked The Glass Onion more than Knives Out too (both are great). I hope you have a good January!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Wendy. It was a lovely month with lots to celebrate!
DeleteHappy New Year! Sounds like guys had such a fun time (power outage and yucky weather aside!). How nice that you were able to get together with friends. I'm really looking forward to Glass Onion but currently we're still working our way through Breaking Bad. Love the show! And, while I love your book talk of course would love to hear about the Glacier trip! Hope this year is filled with all the best!
ReplyDeleteOooh, Breaking Bad is such a good series! We may watch it a second time some day. Maybe in the RV while on a road trip.
DeleteBeautiful table & holiday decorations. Isn't Oregon wonderful. I always feel like moving to the state after your posts! Like the puzzle mania. I have several to do after we move. Is there no Toni Collette in Glass Onion? Uh-oh. We too liked the Slow Horses series. Enjoyable. And we might have to try Three Pines though I haven't read Penny. We finished Season 1 of The White Lotus which is sort of a raunchy show of people behaving badly. Might try the final season of Your Honor this month, which will be violent & nuts. You had a great December!
ReplyDeleteNope, no Toni Collette in Glass Onion. But it's such a good follow-up. Really, a stand-alone rather than a sequel, though. I'm interested in Your Honor and may give it a try later in the month. My mom and I have finally started watching The Crown (most recent season). I also want to try Rizzoli & Isles, which someone else mentioned recently. It's amazing how many shows we watch every year!
DeleteI'll be adding The Guncle to my 'want to read' shelf on Goodreads as I love the sound of it. I've read one book by Ruth Reichl but can't now remember the title. Think it was all about good places to eat in NY. We've started watching Three Pines, just part one so far. I was quite surprised that the feel of it is so different to the books. And also Alfred Molina doesn't feel like my Gamache, but there you go. Our main 'crime series' watch at the moment is Rizzoli and Isles but we also have Shetland to catch up on and a couple of others. Enjoyed your post very much.
ReplyDeleteThe Guncle was a pleasant surprise, Cath. Hope you enjoy it. I agree with you about Three Pines. Molina isn't at all how I pictured Gamache. Actually, none of the characters look how I envisioned them except maybe Ruth. And Rosa. ;) Thanks for the recommendation for Rizzoli and Isles. I looked at the description and think it's something we'd enjoy. Thanks for visiting!
DeleteWe really enjoyed Glass Onion. I like the aesthetics of Knives out much better. I'm more of a moody, book-filled house person than a beach person when it comes right down to it, but the film itself was great, and great fun. We haven't watched Three Pines yet, but it is on our watchlist.
ReplyDeleteCarl, Three Pines isn't nearly as good as the books, but if you go into the series knowing that, you will probably enjoy it. Don't expect the characters to look anything like you envisioned.
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