Sunday, November 27, 2011

Sunday Salon: Holiday Fun and More

So my Thanksgiving was pretty great; we had our usual big day with my husband's family and mine, and a weekend filled with more family visits and traditions. Jeff and I did an abbreviated version of our annual post-Thanksgiving brunch; we had a smaller crowd than usual, and a tighter menu, but it was fine. Jeff put up our Christmas tree (although it's not decorated yet) and cleaned the house. Today after some relaxing I might bake a scone or a batch of cardamom-spice cookies for little treats for us.

I don't know when we're going to decorate, but Christmas has definitely arrived. We wrapped our first gift last night, and I've updated my iPod with Christmas music and bought my first new holiday tunes of the season- Jars of Clay's Christmas EP More Christmas Songs. What's your favorite music to listen to during the holidays? I used to make a point of buying a new Christmas CD (or two, or three) every year; nowadays I download songs and don't buy albums as much. Mistletunes.com is still my source for what's new and great in Christmas music every year.

I've been battling a cold all week but I think I won. I'm reading Days of Fear, by Daniele Mastrogiacomo, his memoir of being held hostage by the Taliban while serving as a journalist in Afghanistan. It's horrific but intense, incredible reading. And I'm still enjoying The Flight of Gemma Hardy; I'm about 3/4 of the way through this retelling of Jane Eyre set in 1960s Scotland and can't wait to see where it all ends up. When I finish that, I might have to start right in on Little, Big; I've just been hearing so many good things from friends that I can't put it off much longer.

This week at work was pretty busy. Black Friday and Saturday were quite busy; lots of folks came out to shop and buy. The store has a new owner with big plans, and lots of exciting things coming up. I hope to be involved in some of it!

Today? Who knows. Today's another one of those days that could end up being all errands and no time to relax. Besides grocery shopping I don't know what I have to do, so we'll see. There's always something that comes up! What did you do for Thanksgiving? What are you up to today? I hope you're having a great Sunday!

More Sunday Salon here.

7 comments:

bermudaonion said...

It sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Christmas spirit hasn't hit us yet, so I have no idea when we'll decorate.

rhapsodyinbooks said...

Today I'll be trying out another recipe for rum cake. I'm trying a few different ones to work my way up until Christmas. Very fun item on which to experiment! :--)

Anonymous said...

I've been fighting a cold all weekend -- a four-day weekend for me, but I think it's on the downward slope. At least, I hope so since I have to go to work tomorrow. Other than fighting the cold, I've been catching up on some reading with a challenge called Thankfully Reading Weekend. So far, I've read four books and now I'm on to a fifth.

Zibilee said...

Little, Big was such a strange and interesting read for me, and I will be glad you are going to read and post about it. It was a book unlike anything I have ever read before. I read it several years ago, before I started blogging, and it's one that I can't seem to forget.

I am glad you had a nice holiday with family and friends, and hope that your Sunday is wonderful too.

I am going to be writing and reading and just generally being a lazy butt today. I am looking forward to it after all the holiday craziness!

Anonymous said...

I was pretty busy all weekend too but today turned out to involve a lot of relaxing, so that was nice!

Kathleen said...

It sounds like you had a great Thanksgiving. Hope you have a good week this week, too!

Alexia561 said...

Congrats on surviving Black Friday! Hard to believe that Christmas is almost here...think I'm still in denial. Need to start baking!

I'm not feeling the Christmas spirit yet, so maybe I need to start wrapping gifts and listening to my CDs. I like collections of different artists, just to mix things up a bit. Have a great week!