December brought us our annual book club cookie swap, the Pioneer Valley Ballet Nutcracker at the Academy of Music, and Hanukkah! We also played our annual homemade New Year’s Eve bingo, plus homemade trivia.
What we’ve read
Check out my 2023 reading wrap-up over on my library blog.
With the kiddo
- Chester Van Chime Who Forgot How to Rhyme by Avery Monson
- Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots by Michael Rex
- Flower Girl by Amy Bloom
- Hanukkah Upside Down by Elissa Brent Weissman
- Scroll by Hui Li
- How the Cookie Crumbled by Gilbert Ford
- How to Eat in Space by Helen Taylor
- I Am Stuck by Julia Mills
- How This Book Was Made by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex
- When Moon Became the Moon by Rob Hodgson
- Lolo’s Sari-Sari Store by Sophia N. Lee
- Snow & Rose by Emily Martin Winfield
- No More Ear Buns! (Dagfrid, Viking Girl!) by Agnes Mathieu-Daude
Adult
- Eb & Flow by Kelly J. Baptist (middle grade verse novel, for Heavy Medal)
- NewsPrints by Ru Xu (MG graphic novel)
- You, Again by Kate Goldbleck (romance)
- How to Fake It In Hollywood by Ava Wilder (romance)
- White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link (short stories)
- Maker Comics: Design A Game by Bree Wolf (GN)
- The Museum of Lost and Found by Leila Sales
- Remember Us by Jacqueline Woodson (MG)
- The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff (historical fiction/survival)
What we’ve made in the kitchen
- Kabocha squash with sage
- “Grandma Pizza” (Smitten Kitchen)
- Green pasta
- Vegetable potstickers (from Let’s Make Dumplings!)
- Cinnamon swirl bread in new Pullman loaf pan
- Ciabatta (Pastry Love)
- Ginger cookies
- Sparkling dark chocolate cookies
- KAF almond flour pancakes
- KAF Gingerbread Cookies with royal icing
What we’ve grown/made
We made watercolor cards for family and teachers, and kept most houseplants alive. And we made a gingerbread version of Castle Glower from “the Celie books” (a.k.a. the Tuesdays at the Castle series by Jessica Day George), where four rooms revolve around a central tower on a cardboard cutout. That’s about it for December!
The kiddo has been into the Geronimo Stilton Kingdom of Fantasy series, and re-reading Phoebe and Her Unicorn and the Mysterious Benedict Society novels. She also inhaled the first three Katie the Catsitter graphic novels. We both loved The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass (the audiobook has three narrators). We shared the classic The Cricket in Times Square with a book club friend, reading a couple of chapters a night over the course of two weeks, and then read the prequel. Corey Tabor’s three Sir Ladybug early reader graphic novels are super cute and funny, and middle grade graphic novel Nell of Gumbling is sweet and magical. We also liked The Story of Gumluck the Wizard by Adam Rex, even though it has no raccoons.
What We’ve Made
We made the most of our last month of summer! No major travels, but a few day trips (and one overnight) to see friends, including a visit to Saratoga Springs, which has a wonderful carousel. The kiddo was in a production of Beauty & the Beast with Starlights Youth Theater and enjoyed another week of Kids, Art, and Nature camp; we also visited the Springfield Science Museum and a LEGO convention. And closer to home, we swam, climbed, ate ice cream, and hiked Mt. Norwottuck. Now it’s back to school (and work)!
I added a few plants to our pollinator garden: astilbe, artemisia, delphinium. We harvested a few handfuls of blueberries, largely from the Jersey Highbush, and a few raspberries. I weeded a LOT and put in two new abbotswood (cinquefoil) shrubs. I pulled out the remainder of the pea plants and got some late-season annuals (coleus, celosia, lantana) to put in their place until the first frost. The little bay tree has grown a lot this summer, so I repotted it, and will bring it back inside (along with the lemon tree – four lemons!) when the temperature starts to drop at night.
We cleaned and reorganized the art room/office so that art supplies are labeled and accessible (everything has a place!). A new storage cart from Michaels and some storage frames (to store and display art) helped. We rediscovered some forgotten supplies (e.g. the Spirograph), let go of some others, and made a lot of watercolor and pencil art. I made new Elephant & Piggie flannels for my flannel board, as well as a new yellow house for the ever-popular “Little Mouse” game. And, I mended and patched a witch’s hat to make a Sorting hat! Halloween, here we come.
Even though April is a “short” month, we did a lot: went to a Passover seder, hosted a Passover seder, visited our old town and met up with friends, ate ice cream, tried roller blading, enjoyed the Starlight’s Youth Theater production of Matilda Jr., did lots of gardening, earned Daisy petals at Girl Scouts, went to the Carle Museum, started building up our monkey bar calluses (well, one of us), went to a quilt show, and enjoyed Independent Bookstore Day.
We have been racing through Jessica Day George’s “Celie books,” starting with Tuesdays at the Castle and followed by Wednesdays in the Tower and Thursdays with the Crown. Thanks to my old co-worker Emily for the reminder about these books, and to Suzy Jackson for wonderful narration of the audiobooks, and to the library for making them available through Libby.
I fell head-over-heels for Erin Bow’s Simon Sort of Says, and loved Dan Santat’s graphic memoir A First Time for Everything. Scott Chantler’s Three Thieves series is so much fun, I’m kicking myself a little for requesting them one or two at a time instead of the whole series at once. My favorite books for adults this month were Jenny Jackson’s Pineapple Street and Clare Pooley’s Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting, which is the book I can hold up in defense when someone asks, “Don’t you ever read anything happy?!”
I did some spring repotting, making a new succulent bowl with an aloe from my mom and a few smaller succulents from various small pots around the house. I repotted three pothos plants and the smaller Norfolk Island Pine, and a new orchid. It’s nice to get my hands in the dirt again! Well, potting soil.
It's Okay, I Have A Book 