@tuesdayschild The comment that I found most interesting post meal is he can’t trust that what he takes will be a sweet item. Many are savory and include meat filled items in a yummy looking pastry. He is not American and I think has only had my pretty traditional Turkey day fare which is the British equivalent of a roast dinner, with yeast rolls substituted for Yorkshire’s. He had been looking forward to a roast dinner and got food he couldn’t identify. I am almost positive he dislikes pumpkin pie so was probably thrilled to see those pastries until he got one filled with mystery meat. 🤣 Great book selection from your guys Robin. I didn’t know you liked Lee Childs. That is one of my series to read in 2019. What books am I thankful for.............well obviously the fact that I find many great reads because of this group. Since I joined my reading choices have expanded hugely and I enjoy my friends here, hugely. You all have become very important to me. During the past year I have loved Brit Tripping, both the planning and the participating, so thank you to Robin for hosting Amy and Sandy’s Brit Tripping adventures. I am also grateful it worked....Amy and I tried so hard to make something that could be done no matter your reading tastes and it makes me so happy to have VC using more classical works while others are reading cozy mysteries and historical romances! You guys using it to read really diverse lit makes it really worthwhile! Looking forward to.........Planning to finish or at least read more of several series I have stumbled into this year. I also plan to give some in new settings for mysteries a try, I have a list. Honestly planning to dive a bit more enthusiastically into some of Robin’s challenges, sort of shake things up a bit. In 2017 I discovered Scandinavian Mysteries, 2018 I learned to be a bit of a Sci Fi fan girl, and in 2019..........yet to be determined......😉

🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃Happy Thanksgiving🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃 Now to see if the turkeys work! I do realize that it isn’t Thanksgiving everywhere but since our friend who is traveling for work in Pakistan just ate an unusual Thanksgiving banquet I decided it was appropriate to post!

Sending hugs and prayers. Being homesick is totally normal, I certainly was.

Pizza.......I or dc’s make quick pizza on flour tortilla’s, add prepared sauce or pesto and sprinkle with cheese, we put it in the oven for a few minutes. Electric kettles are great for things that are just add hot water like oatmeal packets. Ds has made his own oatmeal every morning for years.

I just read a book that I never would have read if I had known what it was about but I kept going and read it all this morning...... So I had the author confused with someone who writes romances about young adults, I thought I was getting fluffy angst and instead found myself reading a book about infertility. That is a topic I avoid because too many bad memories. All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover is a painful read if you have been through infertility but I am actually glad I read it, I think. It was a good reminder of what it felt like to be part of that couple. Someone I care about is suffering and I know she has a hard time relating to me because 20 years later I am a retired home ed mom with not one but two dc. I actually got my babies and she has no idea if she will.......Anyway I think I needed to read that book.......maybe it will help me say something wise and helpful.

He is so beautiful! That picture with Mr. Five is So very precious! Congratulations!

Robin, Wishing you a happy early birthday!!!!!!

Elliot the Moose was one of my kid’s favorite characters. We even have stuffed animals from those books/shows. The books that started it all are by Andrea Beck. Here is a YouTube with the show. I think they had an animated version of the show too. Eta......just realized that Elliot that you need a female Elliot. Sorry! This is the only Elliot or Ellie I can think of.

Some mystery series that I reread when looking for a light comfort read: The Cat Who.........by Lillian Jackson Braun The Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/545766.Murder_With_Peacocks Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries If you enjoy romances: Susan Mallery’s current series Happily Inc. seems to have fun page turners with escaped zebras and lonesome giraffes.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32905312-second-chance-girl Mary Jo Putney and Mary Balogh write great historical romances. I love Julia Quinn’s too, which are possibly a bit more humorous.

I can’t wait!!!!!!!

Hugs, glad you called but it sounds like it might be related to increased activity so don’t worry too much. Now the only distracting thing I can think of......my kids are really excited to go Black Friday shopping, which cracks me up. Neither are shoppers but they want to see the nutty lines and masses of people for themselves!

Just reading this and sending prayers.

You are not being unreasonable. I have to say I wonder if an elective surgery will actually happy on Christmas Eve? So many things could bump it.

Tyne and Wear is very exciting! I finally found and Anne Cleeves that was set there. I will update the Goodreads Brit Trip with your find since Robin has decided to leave Brit Trip up on 52 Books. Just in case you didn’t see the Christmas in London update: @JennW in SoCal Those Christmas socks are too cute! Please post a picture somewhere when you are done.......I actually attempted to start a holiday craft thread last week but it hasn’t seen a whole lot of action. ?? I tried! I think the flower prints will be adorable on all the odd socks.....I am considering trying good old wonder under on one of the small wall hanging and seeing how it goes. I have started a few other projects in it’s place because I can’t decide.

@JennW in SoCal I have to ask about that Christmas wall hanging because I can’t help but wonder because I recently purchased the pattern for Welcome to North Pole https://pieceocakeblog.com/welcome-to-the-north-pole/ . Silly me I actually thought I could start it in October and finish for this holiday season but learned after my purchase it’s all hand appliqué. I now own the fabric .........maybe next year. Off to look at Kareni’s links.......

I also want to thank Robin for this read along. I am still plugging away with a few pages a week so I don’t forget the storyline. At this point KL has been set aside somewhere in the middle of book two while I complete Bingo and tweak Brit Tripping a bit. Also the Flower challenge...........I will finish in 2018. But I just have to say that the thing that has surprised me the most is KL was written almost a century ago in a foreign language and I am down right furious at times with those over privileged characters doing unthinkable things. I could be watching a modern day soap opera.....These characters are readable, I just really dislike Erland and frequently have an urge to shake Kristin! I think I consider her approach to many of the religious topics to be quite conservative even if on the surface her storyline is not. She writes a book that lets the reader be appalled by Kristin’s and Erland’s behavior over and over again. They know they did wrong but find asking for forgiveness very hard. I think their need to confess is growing in the section I am reading. I still have quite a bit to read but that’s my view for now!

? I Love Stephanie Plum.......just put a hold on Twenty-five....think it’s Twenty-five.

Lol, yes, I have a list to pull out when at a dinner party (which I have done my very best to expose my children to) and another of what I would class as thumping good reads which my kids were also exposed to, and some where the historical romance covers are safely hidden on my Kindle. I keep peeking at this thread and wondering which list is appropriate. In my life I tend to need a good book to pull out for the what are you currently reading in the meet dh’s Business friends list. I try to be different but interesting. ? Last year BaW gave me War and Peace, which amazingly was a thumping good read. This year BaW has given me Kristin Lavransdatter which isn’t so thumping because the characters irritate me ? but I am still reading on...... I read for pleasure and have read Narnia and Harry Potter many times. I adore all things Pooh. Love The Hobbit......and Oz. Actually contemplating a reread of Oz for my own pleasure. I will confess to reading Wurthering Heights and Jane Eyre far more than once but currently dislike WH, so let’s not go there. Agatha Christie has become a close friend in the last decade. I like Dorothy Sayer’s Harriet Vane and tolerate Whimsey..........I love mysteries and have developed a particular love for Scandinavian ones. I recently finished a CS Harris reread and could start again happily....... So no real list from me but wanted to say I am enjoying the thread!

I really enjoyed the Great Library series and didn’t connect the dots to Stillhouse Lake. ? Wouldn’t be surprised if my ds didn’t watch the same YouTube’s! Since I read reviews I assume he reads reviews.....I learn a whole lot from my kids on “how to” these days! I won’t even start on my new Instagram knowledge.......? I am glad to have a recommendation for both Last Jedi and Solo because Dd wasn’t pleased with DS going thumbs down on two movies she wanted to see! I think they ended up getting one of the new Marvel’s that night. It’s hard to believe that it’s possible to buy a pretty current movie for less than the cost of the 4 of us going out to one, even the cheap times cost about the same as the dvd. @Kareni I have both Phoenix Unbound and Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating on hold. Glad to know you enjoyed them!

I am looking forward to the final review on Stillhouse Lake. I keep looking at it but never check it out......I probably will now. ? My son said the same thing about The Last Jedi. He hasn't seen the movie and actually said no thanks when Dh offered to buy it for a movie night. He read the review somewhere.......... I used to only put books on the abandoned shelf of I had read like 20% and recently started putting them on if I had read even a couple of pages. This way I know that I really have read those first pages before........ Which brings me to Shropshire...........I managed to find an alternative to Cadefel but do not care for it https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1151989.The_Smile_of_a_Ghost. I just marked it as abandoned. My Cadefel appeared this morning and I decided to try it before I reached a final decision and it is a good read, as in 10% done before I could make myself put it down! I may have wanted new but I didn't like it! For Cheshire I am using the first book in Andrew Wilson's new series about Agatha Christie, A Talent for Murder was a book that visited many counties including Cheshire. I actually have the second in that series in the stack even though the first was marginal. I decided writing a story about an event that all Christie fans know about (her disappearance/reappearance in Harrogate) was setting the bar a bit high for reader satisfaction so one more try! . A Different Kind of Evil apparently takes place in Tenerife so it won't be great for Brit Tripping.

I am so happy that everyone had as much fun as I did! I have to admit that I was wondering what to do with my mammoth Goodreads shelf, now I can just keep adding to it! Next year the plan is to finish some of my series and see how close that takes me to completing the counties!

I have really clear memories and like you moved a lot, mainly between two fixed places so that probably makes it easier. Many years I had three teachers so many of my memories are fixed on who was my teacher when x happened. I kept my mom’s diaries when she died mainly in part because my brother’s tell me I am wrong frequently.......mom defended me with the diaries. ? In most of my earliest memories I am 3. DH’s memory is pretty bad about childhood. He can remember things about specific big events like his trip to Disney World when it first opened (We may have been there the same day, weird) but he has never been able to tell me the name of his one second grade teacher. Only important because I knew a woman who swore she had been that teacher......had great hubby stories that sounded right. His personality is not at all like his brother’s and we met at 14. He didn’t think he knew her, none of his family knew. Three boys all going to the same neighborhood school and a teacher who taught there for 30 plus years, same grade.....no one knew if they had her. His mother was clueless if anyone had her.....His dad remembered her at least but was deemed not creditable by everyone else because he hadn’t been the one to go to school things. ? My kid’s childhood memories are not what I had hoped for. I am so glad I have tons of pictures. @Margaret in CO So sorry about the alternate memories. My Dad had memory issues related to his strokes that produced an alternate history of our life and I am sending lots of hugs. A humorous example....... One day he had a long conversation with our neighbor about breeding Westies. My parents were babysitting my brother’s dog who my dad had previously sort of tolerated, not “a real dog” comments were frequent from him regarding that dog. Suddenly he loved Westies and knew a whole lot about them, neighbor believed every word. He was a new neighbor btw. My dad was an avid outdoorsman and had many hunting dogs, big dogs, and never intentionally breed them and suddenly we had lived with a house full of westies for years. The alternate dad was hard on everyone but especially my mom. Big hugs......

I agree with pp’s Vangard’s index funds are good. When you decide where you want to put your money you want to put it into the fund over several months to dollar cost average, not in one big chunk. That will give you the best average price over time and let you start investing immediately. People tend to wait for the optimum moment and may totally miss it while they decide. This way you are actively investing........For instance you deposit that month’s amount in your investment account on the first day of each month over a year, so divide your money by 12 and move it to Vangard over 12 months.

We live in a pretty out of the way place in England and were surprised to discover that our across the street neighbor is from the exact same town we lived in for 10+ years before moving to England. She is the only other American in the village. Her parents stil live really close to our old house so I may have known them to say hi to, she is just enough younger that she was probably in college or married in another city when we lived there. We were attending a small (like 30 people) church in a large town in England where a visitor would appear every three months or so that wasn’t local. One week a couple came from our former church in the American town mentioned above.

I don’t remember knowing the translators were different but I think the search for understanding the quantum was what pushed me on. I listened to them close to back to back and the second book simply did not pull me in as much and the translator difference could explain totally explain that. The parts about the Cultural Revolution were not completely new to me so apparently I should have considered the first book to be a bit long too. ?. One of my Scandinavian mysteries changed translators I believe and I didn’t mesh well well with the new voice. It’s hard for me the believe that it really makes that big of a difference but obviously it does. Do you plan to read the second book? Btw, I loved The Three Body Problem so much I got Dd to read it also! Jenn, are you the person who recommended Leviathan Wakes by James Corey? I think I am hooked and just discovered there are 9 books and several novellas. I guess that may be my Sci Fi for the coming year....... @Kareni It’s good to have you back! Glad you had a great time! @Robin M I am glad the spelling challenge is returning!