Better late than never, am I right? I haven’t done a monthly recap since January 2019 so it seems fitting to finish out the year with one since I started with one, lol. I’m hoping to become a LOT more consistent with these since my life should calm down QUITE A BIT in 2020 and my bestie Lauren taught me a much easier method for making photo collages 😉
This holiday season was a whirlwind since we moved into our new home shortly before Thanksgiving. Since Thanksgiving was also pretty late this year, Christmas really snuck up on us! We didn’t have a lot of time to decorate (most of our life is still all packed up in boxes) but my mom managed to unearth our Christmas tree and some ornaments and put up the tree for us when she was visiting one day. I had 12 days off work for the holidays so we spent it going to a few Christmas parties with Max’s coworkers and friends (so fun)! Any downtime we had was usually spent cleaning and trying to unpack as much as we could (it’s probably going to take years to fully unpack, since both of us have so much random crap from childhood and college to go through and organize).
Christmas day was spent in our new home in the morning and at my parent’s house in the afternoon. Max got me some really great bookish gifts, including the special edition of A Court of Thorns and Roses, the Embers of Memory game, the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars final season (that’s finally been released in an English dub) and some of the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition manga. He also got me the most adorable POP! figure, Sabrina from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix.
The day after Christmas we headed to Ikea to buy some new furniture for our new home, including two more bookshelves for my library (full post coming soon once it’s fully set up!) I also really got into Happy Planning toward the end of December so I spent a lot of time hunting down various Happy Planner supplies at local craft stores and even bought a new cart for my planning/craft supplies! The days after Christmas are honestly kind of a blur and a lot of time was spent on our new couch watching Netflix and Disney+ (the Imagineering Story is SO GOOD).
Books I Read This Month
3 Stars
Honestly December was a terrible reading month for me. I had kind of accepted reading was a lost cause so late in the year with everything else I had going on, so I only read 2 books (1 of which I had started several months prior). I enjoyed both of them though!
Books I Reviewed This Month
Twice in a Blue Moon (5 Stars)
This is Our Story (4 Stars)
The Beautiful (3 Stars)
Kingdom of Ash (5 Stars)
Stats:
Total Books Read: 2
Total Novellas Read: 0
Rereads: 0
Favorite Book Read This Month: Permanent Record.
Least Favorite Book Read This Month: None.
Book that Most Surprised Me This Month: I had no idea I would enjoy Permanent Record as much as I did (also, it really read like a New Adult novel to me!)
Reading Challenge Updates
Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge Progress: 51/50
Other Posts This Month
I chatted about where I’ve been lately.
I shared my December 2019 TBR (though I didn’t really follow it lol).
I recapped the first part of my Disney Honeymoon.
I revealed my favorite books of 2019!
How did your decade end? Did you get as much done as you wanted to in December? Did you read any last minute books that made your best of the year list? Let me know in the comments!
I’m very curious about this photo collage method! Max got you the best gifts! And I cannot wait to see your bookshelves once they’re set up!
It’s basically just using PPT to make your collage and then saving it as an image. That way you don’t have to upload things into online photo editors and you can make all of your edits/creations in one slide and use the grid lines to make everything line up! If you already use Photoshop this might not be a revelatory method but it’s been much easier for me!