That's a Wrap: Christmas 2022

We had a great Christmas 2022! I'm sad - and a little bit in disbelief - that it's all over! I go HARD for Christmas, and it never feels long enough. But I know that's part of what makes it so magical, that it's such a small window of time. We have a lot to pack in, and we did our best to make the most of our time.

The kids got out of school the afternoon of December 16 {the day I had Lasik} and Paige's party was December 17! So we definitely started our break off with a BANG. In our first few days off, we played with friends, made bath bombs {one of Paige's birthday presents}, celebrated Paige officially turning 6, went shopping in Salado with Nana, and went to look at Christmas lights in a town about 45 minutes away, also with Nana. 

Christmas Eve we went to my parents' house to open presents with my parents and my sister's family. We stayed until almost midnight! It was hard to leave because everyone was having a blast together.

Babs and Pops and #theSwopesix

Patnode clan

The Gurleys

The OG Swope 4

Cousins opening their gifts

Drew has wanted LED lights for her room - she was so excited!

Our annual Christmas wreaths picture

Babs hit a homerun with this Manga hoodie!

Christmas morning, we opened presents here. Then I wanted to go back to my parents' and the kids all wanted to come too, so we got more time with the Swope family, yay!

Santa got Paige an Instant Camera

Drew got a Cricut Joy - very excited to get her craft on!

And AirPods for the teen!

Lots of koalas for Paige, including a new Kate 

{her FAVE stuffed animal that got left in Hawaii}

She was so excited to get a bunch of fidgets, ha

Not sure where this came from but Trent asked for some Star Wars Lego sets!

Our matching pjs pic - what stands out to me is NO GLASSES!!

Already building!

We had to get new Baby Blues books!

He asked me to help him build, swoon!

We got back from my parents in the midafternoon and got ready to go to Brent's parents' house for dinner with his brother's family. I didn't take very many pictures, but we stayed there until midnight visiting. Paige's meltdown over macaroni prompted us to go home!

5/6 Gurley grands

All the Gurley grands! Branden came!

Trent was pictured out ha!

The kids all slept in on 12/26 - no one was awake before 10:45 AM! We had a great time but were WORN OUT!

December 2022 Reads

It's my final book review of 2022 reading! I'll post about my favorites of the year, but high level: I read 123 books! 1 less than last year, but I'm still very stoked! It was a great year of reading!! 

In December I read 9 books. Winter Break hurt my reading - we were having too much fun - but 9 is pretty solid for me. It wasn't my most challenging month of reading {I got suckered into more holiday reads}, but it also wasn't a super great month either. My average rating was 3.33 {compared to 3.9 for the year}.

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan - This was the Blog Friend Book Club selection of the month, and it's the first book in a YA fantasy trilogy about girls who are forced to be the King's concubines. I didn't like it quite as much as everyone else did, but it was pretty good.

By the Book by Jasmine Guillory - I read a lot that Jasmine Guillory writes, but almost everything I've given 3 stars to, and this was no exception. This was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and I liked it about as much as I've liked everything by this author.

A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy - This was an R-rated Christmas love story, ha. A porn star gets cast in a Hallmark-esque movie with a former boy-bander...and sparks fly. This was super cute, one of my faves from the month.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - I liked this but didn't LOVE it like so many others did, ugh. I think the hype got to me with this one, and I'm super bummed. This follows 2 friends who create video games {the worst but easiest description}, but it's also so much more than that! It was great...I just expected more, sigh.

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle - I loved In Five Years by Rebecca Serle, then didn't enjoy The Dinner List, so I thought I had set my expectations better for this...but it just was only okay. I like that all of this author's books have an element of magic to them, but I really didn't like the main character in this. Katy's mother has just died, and she goes on the vacation she and her mother had planned to take...but her 30-years-younger mother is there! The premise was neat, the descriptions of Italy were great, I just thought Katy's relationship with her mother was weird, and I didn't like a few of the plot points. It was good, and I'm glad I read it...but I'm not sure how much more effort I'll put into her books... 

Forgiving What You Can't Forget by Lysa TerKeust [audiobook] - My therapist recommended I read this, and there was a lot to appreciate from it {I want to checkout an e-book copy so I can write some phrases down I really liked}, but it also got a lot preachy for me, so it wasn't perfect.

You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky - M/M love story set during Christmas - the rich son of a famous author gets sent to his grandparents as punishment after buying an island and sparks fly with the college student staying with grandparents. This has great mental health representation and was a lot of fun.

The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary - This is another example of loving some books by an author and not others, ugh. I really enjoyed The Flatshare and The Switch but wasn't crazy about The No Show. I was hoping this would go back more to The Flatshare/The Switch...but for me, it didn't. Former lovers end up having to ride together to a friend's wedding. The timeline in this jumped from the present {and all the hilarity of their disastrous attempt to get to the wedding} and the past {the whole run of their relationship}. I enjoyed the ending but it took too long to get there and I just didn't care about a lot of the characters.

Forget the Alamo by Bryan Burroughs, Chris Tomlinson, Jason Stanford [audiobook] - As a native Texan, I'm learning there's a lot of history I have a slightly skewed perspective on. I learned a lot from this book, but it also felt very long and parts that could have been a page were a chapter, ha. Very interesting for sure though!

And that wraps up 2022's reading!