Hi friends,
Today is Sunday, time to look back in the rearview mirror and talk about my week in and out of the blog. As usual I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted for years by Kimberly @caffeinatedreviewer .
As I didn’t post last Sunday (too busy having fun) I’ll cram two weeks in one today and I will give you my November wrap-up
In my private Life
First I want to wish a HAPPY SAINT NICOLAS for those who celebrate!
We do in Belgium and the tradition is to leave a carrot with your wishlist in front of a fireplace or a door or a window. The carrot is for Saint Nicola’s donkey of course!
Then in the morning, kids discover their gifts (we don’t give many gifts to kids on Christmas), chocolate (because we live in Belgium) and cooked marzipan.
Usually at the office, I leave chocolate on my colleague’s desks but this year, I sent them a parcel with more chocolate than usual and a card that I took the time to personalize. Not just with a “Happy Saint Nicolas, enjoy” but really pondering on this year, on what that person does for me, on who he or she is and to give my thanks.
After writing 13 cards, I realized that I wasn’t used to write a lot by hand anymore! I wondered how I have done that in school, writing the whole day 😀
I went to the post office with a cart full with 13 parcels and…the post worked her magic super fast!
Discovering my colleague’s reaction was really heartwarming!
I saw that the cards were so loved that one of my colleague burst into tears after having read it!!! Not sad tears but happy ones.
Mission accomplished, I brought some sweet and joy in this very bad year 😉
Less positive news now: our government has annouced the rules for Christmas. We can only invite one person! ONE!
Yet we have two mothers, both widows so making a choice was not easy!.
My mom proposed that we choose my mother in law as she never sees anyone, at all. My mom has friends she go walk with and, living closer to us, she sees us once or twice a week, wearing masks and all.
Still, that stings.
But it is what it is…
We decided to order our Christmas meal at my cousin’s restaurant. Restaurants and bars have been closed twice this year and are still closed now. They have a hard time surviving so we thought that even if we would pay a hefty price as it’s really “fine cuisine” with stars in Gault et Millau at least we would help my family to survive this crisis.
Last thing for you to enjoy: we made another collaborative reels where we all show our best read of 2020!
I love doing these because I end up coordinating 13 people from around the world (Greece, Romania, UK, USA and Belgium) and it shows how united this community is! We all gather together, support each other because we love books! And that gives me lots and lots of positive energy!
Click on the graphic below to watch it! I’ve titled this : BAND OF BOOKNERDS PRESENTS : OUR BEST READS OF 2020
On the blog (click on the graphic to read the post)
In November I have read 14 books! I reviewed 9 of them and here are my favorites this month:
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco is the first of her new series and my first by that author but it won’t be my last one! I may have a little crush on Prince Wrath 😉
The Burning God by RF Kuang is the conclusion to her Poppy War trilogy. It was hard, brutal, brilliant and heartbreaking! Thsi will always be an author I’ll fear to read.
Last but certainly not least favorite: Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey Mc Quiston. I know I am late to the party but I so loved Alex and Henry’s story!
From December 1st, we began our Best Reads of 2020 challenge and I’ll leave you the posts below if you are interested in reading them!
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That’s it!!!
I know that I have tons of like and comments to catch up with but writing all this is time consuming yet thrilling! 😀
I want to thank you for your comments and also those who participate in our challenge! That’s always amazing to see your choices!
Have a great week guys!
Sophie
Wow…14 books this month AND audio?!? Amazing! You’re such a busy bee! Happy belated Saint Nicolas day, hope you have a fantastic week!
With the Band of Booknerds you had an amazing idea!! And Christmas would be quite… Strange this year, but let’s hope that in the next year things would get better!
Happy Saint Nicholas to you! That’s so sweet of your to send your coworkers such special gifts. I’m sure they really appreciated it. Christmas really is going to be strange this year. I don’t think we’ll have any visitors this year. That’s really sweet of your mom to let your mother-in-law be your one visitor.
Sophie!! You are so sweet to send your colleagues gifts. I bet they loved opening a big parcel from you!!
You had me at marzipan! What a lovely sounding day! Have a lovely week!
What a wonderful thing to do for your colleagues. That had to mean so much to them. The Christmas restrictions sound tough but it was kind of your mom to make the sacrifice so your mother-in-law could be with you. Let’s hope we never have to have another Christmas like this again.
I know Tanya. I hope we’ll soon have a vaccine!
Only one person for Christmas? Kudos to your mom for being so selfless – she must be a wonderul person. You can send some of that chocolate my way, Sophie!
I will Teri promise 😉
Oh that just breaks my heart, only one person allowed for Christmas! I mean, it makes you wonder why even have an allowance when most people have two sides of their families and like you are probably in a tough spot deciding who to leave out. And like, what if a person has two surviving parents, they have to uninvite one of them? 🙁 But anyway, aww, your mom has such a big heart! I imagine there will potentially be a lot of hurt feelings for other families with this rule, but at least I am glad it worked out for you guys!
I know Mogsy. Many decide to invite no one as they don’t want to reject people.
Oh my goodness – ONE person?? That’s really difficult – your mother is clearly a lovely person as she stepped back to allow your mother-in-law to spend the day with you. I still don’t know what we’re doing, yet… Except that we will be here – but whether we will have anyone joining us hasn’t yet been decided.
Saint Nicholas Day sounds lovely – glad that it has cheered everyone up so much:)). How lovely and thoughtful! And I love your Instagram book roundup – how very clever! I hope you have a great week, Sophie:)
Thank you! I hope your week will be amazing too!
I’d never heard of the St. Nicolas tradition/day! I love learning about how other countries mark the holidays… 🙂 Sorry that you are only allowed one person for Christmas! That sucks… I’m not seeing my mum either. I haven’t seen her since last Christmas and even though the UK is relaxing rules for 5 days over Christmas so up to 3 households can mingle, it’s just not practical with flights etc for her to come. 🙁
It’s very sweet what you did for your work colleagues. I’m sure after the year we’ve all had it was very appreciated to know they are appreciated! 🙂
Take care, Sophie!
I love learning about others traditions too Nicci! That’s one of my favorite things about blogging.
I love that you sent presents to your co-workers. Christmas is just going to be different this year. Stay safe and well!
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
That’s nice that you personalized for your employees. Nice touches like that make all the difference. 🙂 And happy St. Nicolas! But oh no about a rule of one! That is awful and so hard. We had a similar issue over Thanksgiving (not by gov’t edict) but just trying to decide did we want to bring both mothers together for the holiday? In the end we didn’t, too risky, but such a hard decision. We ended up splitting it up and it worked out, but yeah…
Chocolate!!!
I know Greg! I’ll be happy when this year will be over!
Definitely a different xmas this year but hopefully we’ll all still have a lovely festive season!
I hope so too Autumn 😉
Glad that you at least to have one of your mothers come to dinner. The restrictions are tough. I have my bubble of people I meet with, my daughter, son-in-law, grandkids and my son and daughter-in-law. That’s it for us. I do see people quite a bit since I work in a hospital, but I’m gowned and masked up all the time, so I don’t feel isolated at all to tell you the truth. Sometimes I wish I could just stay at home. Chocolate for gifts is a wonderful idea! Have a lovely week, Sophie! 🙂
Thank you Rachel! You too!
Happy St. Nicolas day! Catholics here in the US acknowledge it and usually have small presents. I don’t know anyone outside of the Catholic faith in the US who celebrates. I have a couple friends who also have birthdays today.
Wow only 1 person for Christmas. That is tough. I don’t know that I will go anywhere. I think my husband and I will just stay home alone. I miss seeing my parents, but I just don’t want to get anyone sick. And as a teacher, I am exposed to a lot of germs!
Samantha I hope you’ll still get to see your mom, one way or another!
I haven’t ever heard of the Saint Nicolas tradition or about a donkey! I love this, I’m going to have to google to read more about it ♥. And sending all the hugs your way for having to celebrate Christmas without your mom. Hugs, hugs, hugs and more hugs!
Thank you, thank you and more thank you Jen!!!
I’m so sorry you have to choose between your mom and mom-in-law. That is awful. This holiday is really gunna suck for a lot of us. (((HUGS))) Happy December!
Thank you so much Freda!
Happy Saint Nicolas day to you! I love that idea with the carrot and wishlist! Christmas is going to be different this year but only 1 person is really hard. Here we can mix together with 3 other households but it has to be the same households over 5 days. But this has come with a warning that we might need to go back into lockdown again in January if cases shoot up again! Me and my son will spend Christmas with my parents as usual but not see the rest of our extended family like we normally do, we will Zoom though!
Mix with 3 other households is a lot by our standards LOL I hope you’ll have a great Christmas, zoom and all.
I’ve bought some Christmas games too so we can amuse ourselves with those!!!
The limit for Christmas in France will be 6 persons, which will be all right for us but I’m sorry I won’t be able to see my sister. There is Saint Nicolas in my boyfriend’s région too, in Lorraine, so he’s familiar with the carrot 🙂 Your colleagues must have been so happy with the chocolates. And yes, we write less and less. A computer engineer subscribed to my library in september and he had trouble filling the form because he’s so used to typing that he doesn’t write any more. I’m sorry you won’t spend Christmas with your mom… *hugs*
It seems that every country has another set of rules which is so weird! I hope you’ll get to enjoy your Christmas.
I hope you and the family had a nice little celebration today. Sorry you will be without your mom for the holidays. ((HUGS)) It really was very sweet of you to send packages to your co-workers. My mother is actually hand writing her Christmas cards this year (400 of them), because she feels they need to be more personal this year.
She has 400 cards to send ??? Wow Sam! She’ll write for days!!!
My mother is the ultra extrovert to my introvert. Millions of friends!
Oh, I love that you sent personalized cards and gifts to your colleagues at work, how touching, and yes, I can see how I too would probably cry tears of joy. Just to be remembered. How thoughtful of you, Sophie.
And sorry to hear that you can only invite one person for Christmas day. We cannot even do that. We’re in a red zone, so no one can go anywhere. So no Christmas at my sister in laws, or anything.
Meanwhile, happy St. Nicholas’ Day today. As a child we celebrated this, and I loved it. But they don’t do this here, in Québec.
Merry Christmas to you and all your family. Stay safe and enjoy what you can.
No one in Quebec? That’s even worse Alexandra! I’ll be happy when this madness willend!
Its going to be different this year for Christmas but I love it every year!! I love hearing about your traditions, sounds so fun. Hope you have a great Sunday.
Thank you Renee! You too!
It will be a weird Christmas! I’m going over to my mom’s as the only one. It’ll be so weird.
I know Stephanie!