December '25 Books

 Eight books read this last month of 2025 for a total of 109 books read this year. 

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon was sent to me by my friend Leslie. It alternates between present time and the teens and early twenties of 20th Century Ireland - the time of the 1916 Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence. I had read so many books about Ireland's history when I was younger - this book brought back all the feelings I had from that time. 

Not A Happy Family is the second book I've read by Shari Lapena. She does write very good whodunnit books.

the Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai is probably the first book I've read about India, its people and culture.

Two Alone is another Sandra Brown book.  I think this is the last one I had available to read until she writes another new book.

Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein is a Reese's Book Club pick about two sisters and their life  goals.

Happy Wife by Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores is a 'Read With Jenna' selection. When a young wife's much older, rich, husband disappears and is then found murdered, it must be the wife, right? She proclaims her innocence, but how to prove it?

The Survivors Club by Lisa Gardner is one I somehow missed when I was reading my way through all her books. 

Flashlight by Susan Choi is a very different book than I usually read. I might not have finished reading it if I hadn't noticed it was #2 on Barack Obama's list of favorite books for 2025.

I've already been to the library and have seven books to start the new year off right.

Happy reading and Happy New Year! 😊🎉

A Few Xmas Photos

Christmas at Preston & Shalea's was similar to Thanksgiving as far as beating the bad weather. Saturday was a very mild day, albeit quite foggy.

I didn't take a lot of pictures and missed getting ones of everyone but my camera always finds the young ones.

Kathryn and Henri. He is old enough to verbalize that he does not want his picture taken. "No" everytime I pointed the camera his way.

He has changed quite a bit since July. Still just as cute though.

Deise's 'ugly Xmas sweater' suggests that she is a 'repeat offender'.

IMO, the only crime she is guilty of is bringing way too many goodies to entice us. This girl does like to cook and bake.

Her oreo cookie fluff was stupendously rich, aka, yummy, with almost zero calories, I'm sure. 😋

We came home with some of her homemade peanut clusters and chocolate covered pretzels.

Louis has also changed. It's crazy how quickly they grow up. 

The nice part is that he is not as shy with me as he was.

Unlike his little brother, Louis willingly posed for a picture.

Bud and the boys - Travis (Kathryn's husband), our grandson, Ki, and our newest grandson, Zach (Deise's husband).

The bulbs on his Xmas sweater not only lit up they blinked off and on.

There were many presents under the tree but it didn't take long to hand them out and see them opened, though it was impossible to see everything that everyone received.

Preston watched as Ayden and Katherine opened gifts before opening his.

Unfortunately Dominique had to work so she and Ian weren't able to there.

The boys and their transformers was the last picture I took. Left to right, Greyson, Louis and Ayden. The older boys get along very well with their younger cousin. Seeing, being with them, is always a delight. I got a goodbye hug from each one of them. 

Back to the "beating the bad weather just like Thanksgiving" - the weather forecasters were warning of the cold, snow and high winds moving in, so instead of staying through Sunday as planned, Deise and Zach headed back east to Davenport and Kathryn, Travis and the boys headed north to Minnesota. It was a good thing they did because by Sunday I-35 in northern Iowa was closed. 

Our weather yesterday started out with rain, changing to sleet, changing to snow, with very high wind gusts and bitter cold. This was the sunset photo I took last evening - through the window - no way was I going outside.