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Sunday Salon: January 1, 2023


Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon. 


This is the last week of my holiday. It has been fun, but it also feels really good to be home.
  • Sunday--Christmas day! I hope you all had a wonderful time with family and/or friends. We took a couple walks, ate a yummy dinner, and worked on another puzzle.

  • Monday--My daughter left at 7:30 this morning to fly to Oman to spend time with her dad's family. I am a bit jealous since she is headed to perfect warm weather and delicious food. I drove with my brother and his family to Gatwick where I was picked up by my cousin Helen and her new husband (yes, we have the same name). I haven't see her in 10 years so am really looking forward to spending time together. We drove to their house in Lymington, England, took a walk through the town and had a drink at their local pub. The gold postbox is cool. After the 2012 London Olympics, each town that had a hometown person earn a gold medal got a gold postbox with a plaque dedicated to the athlete. Lymington is home to Ben Ainslie who got gold in sailing.

  • Tuesday--My cousin lives in the New Forest. There are wild ponies and donkeys that wander freely in all the towns and it is not uncommon for cars to have to wait while they cross the street or just stand in the way. We drove around the neighboring villages and wandered around to see a couple little museums, walking paths, and scenery. Later in the afternoon, Helen's brother Rob and his wife drove down from the Cambridge area to join us for a few days. It's such fun to be together after far too long!
  • Wednesday--Well it bucketed rain all day so we stayed inside mostly. We did, however, brave the elements and go for a walk to a local pub at the end of the afternoon, which was fun. In the evening we had a late dinner and played "Who Am I?" where we had to wear these ridiculous paper glasses. Super fun.



  • Thursday--There was a break in the rain and so we walked in the New Forest and had a lunch out. We planned on a dinner out, but by the time we got home all decided eating in and having a last night chatting was a much better plan. As we were walking this adorable tiny pony and his mate showed up.
  • Friday--As I was carrying my bags downstairs at my cousin's I slipped (wearing only socks, no shoes) and I've bruised my tailbone. That doesn't bode well for a long flight tomorrow. I was hoping to see another cousin today, but it fell through so Rob and his wife drove me up to Heathrow airport where I spent the night in preparation for my flight home Saturday. 
  • Saturday--I spent the day flying home (and adjusting my seating position every hour to accommodate the bruised tailbone). It is such a long flight going west. At least I was on Virgin Atlantic and I used a voucher to bump myself up to premier seating (like business class). We ended up landing over an hour late so I had to run to catch my bus up to Santa Barbara. After a 2-hour bus ride, my dad picked me up and took me home. I was so tired, but also wired so did laundry at 8:30 at night, crashing around 10:00pm.
Happy New Year everyone!

I posted my reading challenges wrap up (see the post here) and my 2022 reading wrap her (see the post here).

This image is the books I hoped to read in December. I read 5 of them, not getting to 3. But I read one not on the stack.

This image is the books I hope to read in January. The stack is smaller than usual since I will also read 14 graphic novels as a round 2 judge for the CYBILS.


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