It happens every year ...

Every year around this time. I get introspective.  I think about the year just gone and the year yet to come. I make lists.  I make plans.  I may start these lists and plans.  I may carry them out for a week or two.  I certainly lose focus on them.  I certainly lose my grip. I definitely forget them, maybe for a moment, maybe for a month.  I come back to them and bemoan my inability to follow things through.  I hate myself for a while.  I get introspective.  I write another list.  I hate this journey.  I want to get off.

Seven more sleeps!

We track the countdown to Christmas through the number of sleeps that are left.  My eldest, Cornichon has been counting (on and off) since 364 sleeps.  There are now seven left and that magical night is all the more'touchable' now!  We celebrated the countdown today by watching Christmas films.  We went to the cinema to see Arthur Christmas and really enjoyed it.  I love the way the whole Father Christmas story is depicted as a massive NASA-style operation!  We then found a new episode of Prep and Landing Naughty Vs Nice.  It was good but not quite as awesome as the first one which is a constant Christmas reminder all-year round in our house.  My two boys were wide-eyed during the films and totally stoked for Christmas!  1 more day for Little Pickle and 2 more for Cornichon and then Christmas Holidays!  Whoopee!

So I'm being naughty but I just don't care

4 weeks ago my friend gave me a Christmas present in 2 parts. One in a box and one to be kept in the fridge. Obviously I guessed they would be foodie gifts and tonight I opened them.

I am looking after the kids whilst Mr Gherkin is out on a Christmas night out and I just had to open the box (posh black olive crackers, cornichons-she knows me well, chutney) and the packet (3 flavoured cheddars). Well the crackers ORDERED me to serve with white wine. So I did. I am smashing my way through all of the above and have given up on a shit Catherine Zeta Jones film after 19 mins and have put on the Royal Variety Performance.

Get in! Be naughty!

Blog Clear Out

Just had a clear out of 20 blogs that I don't read any more and have got my subs down to a more manageable 132. I will try to get to 100 in the new year. This cleaning lark is cathartic! Books to read lined up for next year, blogs reduced by 14%, lets see if I can use up my fabric stash some time soon too!

To Be Read 2012

I have shelves full of books in my house many of which I have read but many of which I have had on my To Be Read list for years. I saw this challenge for 2012 and thought it was right up my street.

Here is my pile

31 Songs - Nick Hornby

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Marquez

Paula - Isabel Allende

Big Stone Gap - Adriana Trigiani (oops picked up the wrong book for the pic)

The Resurrectionist - James Bradley

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkes

Dylan Thomas - Andrew Lychett

Eating Children - Jill Tweedie

The Christmas Books - Charles Dickens

Birds Without Wings - Louis de Bernières

Shakespeare - Bill Bryson

Quiet Moments in a War - The Letters of Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone de Beauvoir

1940-1963

Tess of the D'Urbevilles - Thomas Hardy

Insomnia - Stephen King

In no particular order I have to read 12 of the TBR pile in 2012 (with 2 spares in case 2 are no-goes). The challenge starts on 1st January 2012 and ends on 31st December 2012 by which time all the books will have been read and reviewed here. I think it is a fab challenge and hope it makes a big space on my groaning bookshelves in 2012!