The #Christmas Songs Book Tag - #AmReading

Cat over at The Strawberry Post did this tag right before Christmas last year, which I'm pretty sure I haven't done - I couldn't find it when I took a quick look in my old tag posts, and didn't remember having done it anyhow - which I wanted to do, since I love doing these things.  But I didn't have time to do it when Cat posted it, and by the time I would have been able to do it the holidays would have been over.  So, I decided to keep it to do in the run up to this Christmas instead.  Since it's now only a month until Christmas Day, I figure we're close enough to Christmas that I can do it now.

You can read Cat's post here.

If you want to do this tag too, either post your answers in the comments section below - whether via my blog, or via whatever social media platform you're reading this through - or do it on your own blog.  If you do the latter, please drop a link to your actual tag post below, so I can be sure to come check out your post, since I'd hate to miss it.  Either way, I'd love to read your answers.

For now though, here are the songs you need to match a book to, as well as my answers.

~

‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’: Favourite Bookish Couple
 

Jamie and Claire from Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series.

 

‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’: Name a book where a character is away from home (school, vacation etc)
 

Anyone who knows me knows I had to get this one in here somewhere.  And, hey, it does fit.  So I'm going with J K Rowling's "Harry Potter" series.  Though I love them all, my favourite of the series is "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" - just in case you want to know.

 

‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’: Name your favourite ‘little’ book (Children’s book, short story, novella, etc)
 

I'm sorry, but I have to pick two.  First, even though it's a sad one, I love "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Anderson.  For a more cheerful holiday story, it's got to be "The Bear Father Christmas Forgot" by Diana Kimpton.

 

‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’: What book(s) do you hope Santa brings you this year?
 

Any book I don't have from my to-read list.

 

‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’: Which book turned your nose read (made you cry)?
 

"Wolfbane" (Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness, #9) by Michelle Paver.  There were a couple of points where the book had me in tears for one reason or another, especially near the end.

 

‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ Your favourite book/kind of book to read during the holidays
 

I love reading any kind of book at any time of the year.

 

‘We Three Kings’: Your favourite trilogy
 

Terry Pratchett's "Bromiliad" trilogy is one that's been a favourite of mine since I first heard of it when I was a child.

 

‘Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow’: A character you would love to be snowed in with
 

Aeson from Vera Nazarian's "Atlantis Grail" series.

 

‘Last Christmas’: A book that seriously let you down
 

"The Nox" by Joe White.  I thought it was going to be a great spooky Halloween read, and it wasn't at all what I hoped it would be, or expected it to be based on the reviews I read of it on Audible.
 

 ‘White Christmas’: An upcoming release you’re dreaming about
 

I'm not really dreaming about any specific upcoming release.  I don't tend to necessarily get excited about upcoming releases unless it's a new book by an author I know I love, and none are springing to mind right now.

Of Birthdays And #Pets

This past Sunday (November 13^th) was my birthday.

 

I wanted a birthday cake, but with how difficult – and expensive – it is to get any vegan birthday cake that isn’t chocolate (I don't like chocolate cake) I decided I’d just make my own.  This isn’t the first year I’ve done it, and likely won’t be the last.  Anyway, this year I made a two layer lemon cake with lemon butter icing between the layers.  Yes, despite the word “butter” there, it was all 100% vegan.  It was also very tasty, if I do say so myself.  LOL! You can see the cake in the below photo:

 

 

Also in the photo with my cake are some of the things I got for my birthday: a cuddly Hedwig the owl, a large ball of rainbow coloured wool, a tube oof Fruit pastels (which are vegan –friendly these days) and two packets of gummy Kevin the carrot sweets (which also happen to be Vegan-friendly, even though Kevin is a promotional figure for one of the supermarkets rather than something specifically aimed at vegans).  There’s another cuddly toy Kelly ordered for me that hasn’t arrived yet due to delays caused by international shipping timelines, which I’ll show you when it gets here.  I also got some money, and a couple of cards.  The cards from my Dad and Rita are in the below photo.

 

 

There were fireworks that evening.  My friend Kaila from the ACB Crafters calls was telling me she'd arranged them especially for me for my birthday.  Kelly says otherwise, and insists it was just a coincidence that someone was using some of the fireworks they got for Bonfire Night on my birthday.  I think I like Kaila's answer better.  I think you can figure out which is true yourself.  LOL!

 

Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who sent birthday messages, cards, money, presents, or some combination of those things.  I want you to know that every single one of them is very much appreciated.

 

*~*

 

We had a sign made for Artemis’ vivarium as an early Christmas present.  It has a picture of a tortoise on it along with the words “Artemis’ House” and is now hanging up in his vivarium (we decided not to wait until Christmas to hang it up).  Here’s a photo of it:

 

 

Artemis isn’t in the photo due to being dug in asleep at the time it was taken.

 

*~*

 

When Mam was here during my birthday weekend she took these photos of the dogs:

 

One where Logan is cuddled up against me while I was sat on the floor, and Lilie is beside us on the floor with a great big doggy grin on her face that makes it appear she’s laughing at us for some reason…

 

 

And one where Logan was just sat in front of my Mam staring at her and looking adorable…

 

 

*~*

 

Other than the fact I finished the first of a pair of loom knitted socks (as in, finished the first sock of the pair; still need to make the other one to complete the pair) and moved my other craft projects along a bit, there’s not really anything else that happened during the past week besides the usual day to day routine of housework, petkid care and playtime, Zoom calls, etc.  So I’ll let this do for today.

 

I hope you’ve had a great week.

Lilie The #Westie Shares A Photo And Discusses Balls

 

Hi everyone.  This is Lilie the Westie.

 

In fact, here’s a photo of me standing in the hallway, which Daddy took at the end of last month:

 

 

~

 

Mummy was playing with one of those orange ball things she says is called a pumpkin again a couple of weeks ago, and she wouldn’t share.  I don’t think it’s fair.  I’m always willing to share my balls with her, but she won’t share hers.  Instead, she keeps it all to herself.

 

Plus, she always says I shouldn’t chew up my balls, but she was sticking knives in hers and making big holes in it.  What’s that all about? Is she just jealous because she has to use a knife, where as I have teeth and claws to do the job?

 

I tried telling Daddy, and seeing if he'd help me get to play with the ball.  Or at least explain why I couldn't play with the pumpkin ball thing.  But he just told me I should listen to Mummy about leaving it alone.  That was no help at all, so I gave up on him.

 

Humans are so confusing sometimes.

 

~

 

Lots of licks,

Lilie

Celebrating #Halloween 2022

Halloween.  Samhain.  Nos Calan Gaeaf.

 

Whichever you prefer to call it – or even if you have another name for it - it happened this past Monday, as anyone who hasn’t been hiding under a rock, or isn’t newly arrived on the planet, could tell you.

 

~

 

I put up a few of my Halloween decorations on Saturday.  Not all of them, because I didn’t feel like going all out this year.  But some of them.

 

The bat Kelly and I painted together a few years ago…

 

 

The ghost I crocheted a couple of weeks ago…

 

And some of my hanging decorations (a ghost, a skeleton, and a “BEWARE” sign) which are pictured here first during the daytime and then during the evening when it was getting dark:

 

 

On Sunday, before the second of the above photos was taken, I carved this year’s jack-o-lantern, who was in the window by the time the evening photo of the window decorations was taken.  Here’s a closer shot of 2022’s Mr. Pumpkin-Head:

 

 

And here’s Artemis the tortoise with Mr. Pumpkin-Head:

 

 

Lilie and Logan’s holiday photos were in last week’s post.

 

~

 

Monday’s dinner (for me anyhow; Kelly had something different, and I'm not sure what he had) was pasta with pumpkin sage sauce, followed by baked apple with homemade caramel sauce.  Followed by some of the candy left once I knew it was late enough that we’d get no more trick-or-treaters, which I ate while curled up with the dogs and a book, and listening to the storm that arrived during the evening.

 

It was an awesome storm with a lot of rain and a fair bit of wind.

 

We had about 15 trick-or-treaters this year, in case you’re interested.  Including one little one who was utterly confused about the whole thing, though delighted to be getting some treats – even if he wasn’t sure why.  LOL!

 

~

 

So, did you celebrate Halloween? If so, what did you do? And did you get any trick-or-treaters?