Happy December, my sundrops! I know, I know, I say it basically every month, but I really can’t believe it’s already the last month of the year. I love this time of year and am really excited to close out 2024 in a great way.
Let’s chat all things December!
I’ve been in a major reading slump for the last month, but I’m at 171 books read (which is obviously an amazing number and 21 books over my goal). I would love to hit 180 books read by the end of the year. I won’t be upset if I don’t, but what I really want is to get out of my reading slump and finish out the year strong!
The most important thing for me reading wise this month is reading my January ARCs. I’ve got ARCs of some of my 2025 anticipated reads – The Rival by Emma Lord, I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang and Yin Yang Love Song by Lauren Kung Jessen, and I want to read all three of those this month. I have a few other books left to read from my 2024 Anticipated Reads list, so I want to get those read as well.
Winterween is next month, so I’ll be figuring out my TBR for that! With the new year right around the corner, I’ll be setting up my reading spreadsheets/digital trackers and my 2025 reading journal spreads. I love making spreadsheets and working on my journal, so I’m super excited about that. I’ll also be working on all the blog posts I have planned for this month, which is actually quite a few, but as it’s the end of the year they’re mostly list type posts so they’re much easier to work on than reviews. I think I’ll be saving more reviews for the new year and focus on the easier posts to give myself a bit of a break at the end of the year.
This first week of December is legitimately one of the busiest weeks of the year for me. I have rehearsals/tech/performances for one show and then auditions for another. I’ll be on the go pretty much 24/7 and will be juggling a lot of different things work wise. It’ll be busy, but I’ve done it before and no matter all the stress I’ll feel, it’ll all be worth it in the end because I really do love my work. Work doesn’t really slow down this month, even with the holidays, but it will be at least a little calmer after this first week!
I’m going to the Dickens Fair the day after my show closes and I can’t wait. My Mrs. Lovett cosplay costume came together really well, and I’m looking forward to wearing it and visiting the Dickens Fair again. Last year was so much fun; I got some delicious loose leaf tea (I will be buying more), had some really good food, solved a mystery for Sherlock and found some amazing Shakespeare related items at the little bookstore, so I can’t wait to see what gems I find this time around.
Christmas is my favorite holiday, so I’m really excited about all the things that come with the holidays!I love buying gifts for people (it’s one of my love languages), so Christmas time really is perfect for me and I’m looking forward to Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts. December through March really is my baking time, so I’ll probably be doing a lot of baking soon. This time of year I always make maple pecan cookies, and it’s probably my favorite cookie recipe, so I’ll definitely be baking those and I have some other recipes that I want to try.
I love Christmas music, so I’m excited to pull out my favorite Christmas albums. Carrie Underwood’s My Gift and Sabrina Carpenter’s fruitcake are my favorite recent Christmas albums, and then for Christmas albums that I grew up with I always love listening to Aly & AJ’s Acoustic Hearts of Winter and Jump 5’s All The Joy in the World and Christmas Like This. The holidays are peak nostalgia times, so I find myself listening to a lot of Christmas albums from my childhood. I can’t wait to watch A Nonsense Christmas; I just know I’m going to love it, as I love anything Sabrina does, and of course, all my favorite nostalgic and cheesy Christmas movies will be on rotation!
And of course, I’ll be working on setting up my 2025 bullet journal! Bullet journaling really does soothe and relax me, so I’m excited to work on brand new spreads and hopefully try some new things.
While cold and rainy days are not my favorite, December is one of my favorite times of the year, so I’m very excited for the holiday season! I’d love to hear about what you’re looking forward to and any traditions you may have. Let me know in the comments!
Until next time