hosted by Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post
Blogging, Bookish and Real Life News:
So it happened 🙁 They believe in the spirit of Santa but not the actual guy. 8 years ago I had found a letter on Pinterest that put into words exactly what I would want to say and I read them the letter. They cried, I cried but they both thanked me for making Christmas awesome. It was really my pleasure to do it, my mom made it awesome for me and I did the same for them. I loved every minute of it and would do it again in a heartbeat. I told them no worries though, Christmas morning will not change…your stocking will still be full and presents will still be under the tree and it will still be awesome. They are sad about our Scout Elf, Elfie Pickle but I have a new game to play that involves the whole family and we are giving it a test run until Christmas. I will let you know details next week we just started it today so the rules might change. Speaking of Christmas….
Christmas is only one week and one day AWAY! Can you believe it, I have so much to get done still but I spent most of this weekend organizing the menu for Christmas Dinner and just getting any last minute things so that next week we don’t have to go crazy trying to get stuff since the stores are going to be CRAZY! I was suppose to wrap Friday but my little guy (he’s 13 and an inch taller than me) got sent home sick and he stayed with me on Friday. So nothing was wrapped until Saturday but it’s done! YAY! I am so freaking EXCITED! Also all the decorations are still in one piece and the tree is still standing…those kittens are the best babies!!! (I might have given them a stern talking to about the decorations and tree, so that might have helped)
Now for the good stuff…We made some major changes to one of our challenges and one that I hosted with someone else is now hosted by us, I also have a NEW Challenge. I hope you will be able to join us! We are so excited for these challenge and they can all be found on BecauseChallenges.com website.
2019 Reading Assignment, if you joined last year it was basically you list the books you want to read and read them each month. That was a fun challenge but a lot of people are mood readers so instead, he hired 3 teachers and they set up class. So Spring Semester is now taking class registration. You can sign up for one class or all 3. Our Author Love challenge is now part of the reading assignment.
A Year in Anthologies I had a conversation a few months ago about not getting to Anthologies and then I had a great idea. Why not make it a challenge to read as many anthologies as you can, the bigger the better. You can pick one or a few as long as you read the entire thing by the end of the year…also the more pages the more points you get in the giveaway.
2019 Bookish Resolutions I used to host this with another blogger but she’s now a pretty popular author so Berls agreed to help me out, so basically you just make your list of resolutions and if you can complete them by the end of the year you get a point in the giveaway but wait there is more….We also are linking this challenge with our BRAND NEW! Bookish Bootcamp that will be similar to Bloggiesta and also Task it Tuesday will be back starting in Jan. You can find all the details on the sign up.
I am so excited about these challenge and will have my sign up posts this week for them. Again I do hope you will be able to join us! 🙂
Last Week on the Blog:
- [12 Dec] Waiting on Wednesday ~ Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!
- [16 Dec] Christmas, Santa 🙁 and Challenges ~ WIR & SP
What you might see this week:
- Reading Assignment Goal Post
- A Year in Anthologies Goal Post
- Bookish Resolutions Goal Post
(Read, Currently Reading & Next)
What I grabbed
I was hoping to get my OwlCrates this week but we didn’t get it. I will probably get them on Monday so I’ll have books next week. 🙂
Totally Random:
So tell me what have you been reading and up to this week?
Hope you all have a fantastic week!!!
Happy Reading
ox
It sounds like your kids took the news okay! The tears were an unfortunate side effect, but it’s great that they appreciate all you’ve done for them over the years. We decided not to do Santa with our kids, so it’s not a discussion we’ll have to have, but we still make the holidays fun! We’ve also already opened all of our presents, because we’re in the middle of a move and needed to get those things packed away. It was unfortunate timing, but they understand! I hope you have a lovely week and holiday!
Check out my 2018 End of the Year Giveaway! Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬
Ah the Santa discussion! Glad it went well. It’s always tricky knowing when is the right time sometimes. And sounds like you’re getting all prepared too! I still have some shopping to do, sadly haha.
Love the idea of an anthology challenge- I want to read more of those too. 🙂
Love that Totally Random. 🙂
I bet it is sad when your kids know all about Santa and things change. I am curious about your new game and hope everything goes great. I know you’re excited but I am so ready for Christmas to be over.
Have a great week!
Stormi oxox
I can’t believe that Christmas is so close. I’m excited, but I have so much stuff to do. I hope you like Scythe! It’s one of my favorite books of the year. Have a great week!
Its so great that you had something prepared to help your kids deal with Santa. i’m sure you will find other ways to make Christmas magical! Have a great week!
So far they are still really excited about Christmas and I am sure they will still get excited when they get up. It will be different for sure but I will be sure to make it awesome! 🙂
I love how excited and what fun things you are doing for Christmas. We are low-key this year. We’ve had so much happening we just want to relax with it. And eat great food.
I’m doing my usual challenge and don’t know if I can add any. I will have to see how things go in January, we have lots on the schedule.
Merry Christmas!!
Anne – Books of My Heart
Christmas Day will be nice with just my family. I just love it and I can’t wait for the morning. We have been having so much fun hiding the elf around the house.
I didn’t go any this year so I think that hurt my reading and I am looking forward to joining some challenges.
Sounds like you handled the Santa talk well. Good on you and hugs for the aftermath. You’re doing great for holiday prep. I just did enough shopping that will hopefully last me through the New Years so I don’t have to face the grocery store parking lot and crowds again. Just wrapped the last of my presents and sent all my cards. I’m caught up on my blog posts and feel pretty good about it all. 🙂
I am still hem-hawing around about the challenges and some others I’m considering. I definitely want to do the antho one. I am guilty of dropping the ball on my anthology purchases. 🙂
I am hoping to send out my cards on Tuesday. I still have a few other gifts to do and not 100% done as I thought.
I have to get food for Christmas day but we just need to order and pick it up. So it’s all good and we have time to get stuff.
I realized I need the challenges, without them I don’t seem to read as much as I would if I had a better plan.
Trip says he still believes and he’s 19. I’m not sure if he’s just fucking with me or if he really does. lol In any case, I still make them go to bed by midnight so I can put out the stockings and presents from “Santa” even though they don’t say they’re from Santa. They enjoy it so that’s all that matters.
I think your stern talking to helped. lol Our cats just hang out under the tree. They’ve never messed with the decorations which is a relief.
I’m seriously considering the challenges. Not sure about them yet, but maaaaaaybeeeee…?
I hope you have a fantastic week-before-Christmas, Michelle! XOXO
I also might still believe more than I think and just assume he is busy which is why I do it for the kids. I still plan to make them go to bed and put out the gifts and fill stockings, I wont do it when they are awake.
After I wrote this, Auggie was playing with a snowman that has bells, I had to remind him that he has enough toys to play with.
i think a lot of my reading suffered because I wasn’t doing challenges. I think I work better with a plan, I am so excited about the Reading Assignment since it has 3 totally different ways to do it throughout the year. Even the bookish Resolutions since I really need them
Aw, I’m getting teary eyed reading your post. My boys still believe, and I know that magic will go away any day now…
But it doesn’t have to go away, my kids both said they don’t believe in the guy but the spirit of him. That is what makes Christmas so magical. I also still reference Santa a lot instead of saying me. I remember after finding out about him, my mom still made Christmas pretty awesome and didn’t change a thing. lol. Plus I am such a Christmas crazy person I don’t think the magic will ever go away 🙂
It was tough when my son came home from school and asked me if Santa was real. We did come up with fun ways to keep the magic gong each though. I miss when he was young. Easier to buy for. LOL I’ve been checking out new challenges. I have a few I do every year but thinking I might try some new ones too.
I made sure they told me what they thought and I loved their answer of we don’t believe in the guy but the spirit of him. I plan to keep the magic going and with my sons special needs this will help his anxiety during this time of year. It will also help him be patient.
I took a year off challenges and I think it affected my reading. So this year I am all about making lists and doing challenges. I miss it.
Aww. It’s sad when the magic comes to an end. I know when I eventually learned about it I was just stunned. I fear my niece is nearing that age now. This could be her last year of believing. I miss being able to hide Buddy, her Elf on the Shelf but since she moved out a year two ago I haven’t had to do it.
Wow. No new reads? That’s sad. I hope your Owl Crate comes soon! I always get upset when people start posting the reveals of them on their accounts as soon as they get them and have no spoiler filter or anything. The last few boxes I got were all spoiled and when I got the box I barely wanted to open it. One was because I saw what the book was and was really upset about it. It hadn’t been one I wanted to read at all despite thinking it was going to be one I wanted.
I hope you get some goodies in this coming week! I just realized I still have 2 more gifts to wrap! Thought it was just the one but then I totally forgot to wrap one that just came in this week! Whoops! Lol!
Here’s my STS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
The good thing is we still have a lot of Christmas spirit and that is what I love about it. Our Elf didn’t leave and so far we are playing a game at is working and the kids still get to enjoy our Elf.
I am sort of on a purchase freeze since I am not sure what I will be getting for xmas. Plus I don’t read ARCs or get them in the mail that often/if ever so it’s all good since I have so many already at home 🙂
I still have a few more to wrap but the kids are almost done, I might have purchased two more things yesterday! 🙂