Depends on the setting but I can normally be counted on for brownies or a similar tray bake. Because my family is picky I bring something else to get them through the main meal. 3” or so pizza has been my go to for years with assorted toppings. I also do chicken legs in large quantities when my husband asks.

Quickly posting this quick sock pattern that I just spotted http://www.molliemakes.com/home/mollies-12-days-of-makes-day-7-knitted-socks/. It truly appears to be more slipper than sock.........chunky yarn, big needles, and a big seam down the back. This pattern is only available for free until tomorrow so make sure to download it if you want it. I don’t knit socks but this pattern is tempting......... @Quill your blanket is lovely! Very masculine, the boy will love it! @moonflower Your candy sounds yummy. Just in case you ever decide you want to knit again, learning to knit is easier with experienced support. Those teach yourself books did not work for me. Maybe a group at a yarn shop or library. I had an elderly neighbor who saw a great deal of me when I was just starting! I also had my BF’s mom and her yarn shop buddies.

I love my Garmin! My kids were absolutely terrible at reading the Garmin at first..........so many wrong turns! in terms of giving up the smartphone............I don't have one. so easily. As long as I get to keep my Kindle reader no problem!

I love this idea.......I may adapt it as a best friend book club and as a birthday gift as her Christmas gifts are already on the way to her! I am wondering this too. But I still like these books every single time and don’t care that she has such a formula going on......Stephanie borrows Ranger’s car because something hilarious happened to her’s......waiting for what goes wrong while driving Ranger’s so he can save her. I flip those pages every single time! I am rather hit and miss with all those other series she is writing with others but enjoy her fluffy romances from the 80’s and 90’s. I have a bad habit of forgetting to put books on Goodreads if they aren’t listed in my currently reading section partly because many of my books are being finished with WiFi off. They disappear and get forgotten in terms of Goodreads. 😉. I have started listing my stack as my currently reading every few weeks then putting the unfinished ones into abandoned and want to read for permanent shelves. I like the read another time shelf and think I will add that as a sub shelf for my abandoned books. Currently Abandoned is mix of books I doubt I would ever wish to read and ones that I don’t want to read now. Since we have been talking about gifts of books I have to say I have no room. I buy myself crafting books in hard copy because they are easier to work with but try to limit the other hardcopy books that are for me. Love my Kindle and libraries. I try to donate or pass on as many purchases as possible because I am the one who has saved many home ed books which is our household book problem. One of my new year’s tasks is to take another look at my boxes for elementary and hopefully gift quite a few textbook type things to a young family we are just getting to know. I want to get myself down to sort of a best of smaller box. That will work for text books but not my fiction saves which I do not wish to give away and loaning beloved books generally does not turn out well for me. Wish lists, my wish lists are disaster’s, especially my “want to read” on Goodreads. I have noticed that duplicates seem to be happening frequently so I have read some of the wish list. Duplicates can be hard to clean up because of the Brit Trip list which I am not complaining about, I just can’t delete without effecting my reads or Brit tripping want to reads. Good tv watching activity! Great categories! Like you I feel the urge to revise my list every time someone else adds a list. You are all so creative. I will wait for next week to refine mine!

I remember your ponies.....

I like these categories. I also like how you used the book chain and The new Sound of Silence theme as their own categories. The Sound of Silence is great btw. More planning to be done! Before I forget, I have a question about Scavenger Hunt “the tenth page, every tenth word” challenge. Thanks to the ease of highlighting on the Kindle I have tried a few books and every time I seem to get about four what I will term as little words....dd pointed out that they are not just conjunctions, true 😉 .....anyway should we discard the “a, to, the, am, did , etc” and move on to what I consider interesting words. I am happy to use the common words ( and they may be a relief considering the potential for obscure words) but wanted to clarify. I just finished Treacherous is the Night by Anna Lee Huber (good book, btw) and my notes show these are the scavenger hunt words ( my most interesting experiment so far)...... ring, cab, shall, entry, our, newspaper, to, legs, was, white I just want to say we seem to be generating an incredible number of great reading ideas! My trusty notebook needs to come out and start taking notes so that I can find ways to combine books (maybe overlap is a better term) because this year’s challenges all look so fun. I have been following links this morning and had a bit of a chuckle when Sharyn McCrumb’s Elizabeth McPhearson Cozy series popped up on the list....the books set in Scotland in this series are some of my favorite cozies ever.......but the one set in England, Missing Susan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/471516.Missing_Susan, probably inspired my part in the creation of Brit Tripping. I have no idea how many times I have read that book over the years, but somehow I haven’t read it this year, the year of Brit tripping. I might need to rectify that! 😉

These look interesting. I will have to read paper but my library has them! Actually they do have Cd's for one 😀 but I think they might be more work then paper as we no longer own a CD player. They are also available in the kindle store but I will try the paper first as they are 't huge.

Wow, you are really trying to up my game. I had been thinking Ian Rankin! When I have a chance I will go through your list ........ If you want to make a recommendation suited to my reading habits beyond Doyle.......

Kathy, All I can say is hugs.............

Oh my, she would have loved that death! I just took a look and there are a few Ngiao Marsh's available on my Overdrive in audio so will give one a try...... @Lady Florida. Beautiful picture!

Yes,. I would love to! Tuesday, I hope your comment means you plan to join us! 😋 Ngaio Marsh.....really happy you don’t love those.......I made it through the first two, I believe, when Dd was maybe 12. This was the height of her passion for AC and the girl can read read really fast. I was miserable and trying to preread before her. She was allowed to read them but partly because it was Christmas and our library closed for two weeks so nothing new available through the library. She was also determined and I had read them.......fortunately she never asked for more! My current intention is 10 of each category. I am reserving the right to switch some categories out if I need to. 😉 I have no intention of suffering through several books that I hate or ignoring a new reading passion in the coming year! That being said I do want to give it a go and think those categories have the most potential.

First confession time..... I went through my wish lists and actually have lists with close to ten books for each category just to make sure they can be done! Also I have checked on Ten Chain potential and actually created a couple! 🤣 Overplanning! Sci Fi is the reading area I want to grow in next year. I really like the James Corey series I have been reading https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8855321-leviathan-wakes and expect to finish it. I will probably have 6 left for 2019 by the time I wade through the hold’s lists....... I have several other series marked that all seem to involve space travel so this category is achievable. So my thought is this category will be defined as people originally from Earth exploring outer space, spaceship or living on planets. Other Worlds......My track record with Fantasy Worlds is not great unless they are populated with paranormal creatures. I decided to add time travel to my definition just in case I get stuck, plus my wish lists had some intriguing ones. My intention is LotR and Narnia could exist in this category......no rereads planned but those are books I love, as I said I don’t seem to stick to books in this area. I really want to....... Because of Brit Tripping I have been setting aside books set in Scotland all year. This is going to be a real mismatch of genres but will allow me to go back to several series that I enjoyed. Honestly that is pretty much what all my categories are about, series I have started and liked. Cozies I just want to give some of the huge variety a try and see if any stick. The Alfred Hitchcock category has me a bit worried because I would prefer not to have to do rereads. It might get a new name like rereads if I abandon the first couple I try.

My son has that dragon T-shirt. It happens to be one of my favorites!

Hugs !

Waving....glad you popped in. Both of those books are on my want to read lists, just waiting for the holds line to go down a bit! Kafka on the Shore was definitely one of Murakami’s best books. I like 1Q84 the best, but it was my first one so...... I hope you enjoy Verity Kent! 🙂 Ngaio Marsh is one of the greats that I don’t seem to enjoy. I will mark Artists in Crime and try and read it soon......probably when I need an A. 😂. I have only read the first couple...... I have been planning for those challenges too. I love your categories.....mine are a bit more mystery oriented, ummm, really mystery oriented😉 This is what I have been playing with...... 1. Agatha Christie 2. Scandinavian Detectives 3. Science Fiction 4. Alternate Worlds....Fantasy including time travel 5. Steampunk 6. Asian Detectives 7. New to me Cozy mystery series 8. Books set in Scotland 9. Alfred Hitchcock ...... the books that the movies are based upon 10. Either a category for rereads (several planned) or the detectives from Robin’s challenge or paranormal romances My first book for 2018 was Animal Farm on Audio, it counts!

I finished Murakami’s latest, Killing Commendatore, yesterday. I didn’t post because I wanted to think about it. Overall I really liked it but it wasn’t as .......I guess, odd.....as many of his other books have been for me. I am left wondering if I just have read so many of his books that I am no longer overly puzzled. It had lots of magical realism, little people, and wells. 😂 So lots of odd, but it also had an ending that made sense and was good. I read several reviews and one said it needed a hundred pages edited out at the end, I agree but would have taken them out of the middle! I am getting close to done with my latest Shardlake mystery, Lamentations, on audio. It is fascinating just because it is set in an unusual period of Tudor history. Very near Henry’s death when the entire country was waiting to see what happens next. I have a growing affection for Catherine Parr. I plan to start listing to The Benedict Option which Texas recommended last week when I finish. Currently reading Treacherous is the Night by Anna Lee Huber which is the latest in the Verity Kent series. Off to make my hubby happy and get the Christmas cards done that need to cross the pond. Yes, we still do snail mail cards!

I just discovered a really pretty English Paper Pieced ornament pattern that is currently free from a blogger I follow. It’s fussy but we have done similar at the patchwork group I belong to in England and they look so lovely when all done. I need to buy some beads but think I will try one. http://www.mudpiesandpins.com/2018/12/a-handmade-christmas-beaded-epp-ornaments/

I don't have the energy to sort my Goodreads categories out (short stories, audio, and books) but a huge majority of my reading has been set in England. Lol I have been a bit osessed........ Ummmmm, I update Goodreads daily too............ 😉

My good friend lived in Seoul several years ago and going to Costco was a big deal.....peanut butter among other delicacies. Actually real good peanut butter is one of the highlights of Costco in England too. Anyway I hope your daughter lives near enough to go regularly. My friend lived about 90 minutes away. I wondered if everyone had the day off, post Thanksgiving and pre Christmas. Someone had samples of antibacterial wipes......🤣 The horror! So books.........I am now in the second section of The Cross. I will finish KL this year! So happy to be back to reading on the Kindle. Chunky paper books and I do not mix well. Killing Commendatore https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38820047-killing-commendatore is really long but getting interesting. I am around 20% done. This could have been my art Bingo square. Since I don’t want to do spoilers I am going to say there seems to be an owl but no cat yet. I feel a bit cheated. At least the owl is cute! 😋

Just Wow!!! So impressed. I hope I lose five pounds from this!!! I think we are hovering close to the five mile a day mark. We are varying routes but all under two hours. Not measuring officially because it will become an obsession for us. I am not a speed walker.....Dh has been very patient. I started very slowly, very slowly as in a block, over the past few months but decided to leap from the mile or so up to the four or so level because I wanted to do circular walks. Plan to stay at this level until it no longer exhausts me. Oh, do I understand! Dh has the bad shoulder. He is trying the resting it strategy finally (after much nagging) and it might just be working. We have been dealing with this for about a decade and he refuses to have the surgery. Yesterday he loaded us all in the car and went shopping at Costco for all the things that are too heavy us (parents)to lift....cases of water etc. The kids had to push the cart and load and unload it. We managed to go when none of the sample people were out which made our kids really sad......seriously one sample person in a place that normally has about 15! They could not believe it!😂.

Woot! The first to be done! I love looking at your list.......such fun. 😘. Yes, Amy and I are consulting......we didn’t get that far with planning! 😎 I still have the first in the Beatrix Potter series by Susan Wittig Albert to read for Cumbria which I have been looking forward to. I figure a cozy will be the perfect way to end my time on the Dectective bus......... I will try and update the list tonight. I am exhausted and sore because Dh and I have started walking serveral miles a day again after almost two years of very sporadic walking due to a foot injury (me). I know I have to do this but it is making me feel ancient! It might be an early night but I just drank a cup of coffee to try and stay awake another couple of hours so I don’t shift my sleep schedule accidentally . Thanks for posting. Interestingly, I remember thinking from when I put Roberts book on hold that there were lots of other books in my Overdrive with Blood and Bone in the title......like 5 at the library I picked. I guess I was timely in my observation. 🤔

I just read this blog post and thought it was really interesting. The tree ornaments are pretty and apparently traditional Irish. If you follow the link in the blog post there are some fairly basic crochet snowflake patterns that I might be able to manage ( and I find crochet to be hard!). http://www.mudpiesandpins.com/2018/12/a-handmade-christmas-liberty-tree-ornaments/

@Matryoshka said (my quote via copy and paste didn’t work this time)- La fiesta del chivo/ The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa (ebook) - I'm finding this quite readable, which is good because it's around 600 pages and I have to finish - ebooks have a hard deadline of 21 days to return them before they go *poof* off my phone. Can you put it on a Kindle too and turn the Kindle’s WiFi off? I have never checked a book out for a phone so I know I am clueless but I just made sure my kindle reader has all the long books I have started and turned the WiFi off for the next who knows how long! I download on multiple devices with no problems.

Thanks for the detailed review! 🙂 It looks like just the type of book that I will find helpful and useful! I just went into another Overdrive library that I can use and found the Benedict Option as an audio so I will read it that way. The book was only ePub there too. I have so many craft projects to finish so being able to listen is great! Thank you so much for the offer to loan the Kindle version, I believe you can loan a Kindle book but no experience. For my family, I need to read it then we buy a hard cover for Dh and family. Somehow I have became the book reviewer for Dh. The kids will pick it up if it sits on a coffee table. DH actually works in Church planting so has many opinions on this subject. Our family spends a great deal of time in what I privately nickname his fledgling churches which means I am always in need of conversation. A good book to recommend is a wonderful thing! I like the books I talk about to have a bit more of a broad appeal than those written by just people within our denomination. Lots of conversation starters needed...........😉

It's one that my whole family should read. That being said I just looked in my Overdrive and they have it but it appears not to be on Kindle. I will read a bit in the browser..............