The first weekend in December is officially tree weekend in my family, so my husband and I spent this morning shopping for a new decoration and then this afternoon putting up our Christmas tree. Every year, we buy one new decoration to add to our collection; this year it's the gingerbread star you can see in the picture above. One of my favourite parts of Christmas time is decorating, and it'll be even better this year as now we own our own house, we can buy additional decorations to put up all around around the house, not just the living room.
I've also managed to finally get started on my Christmas shopping, although I have a long way to go until I am done! Now that December is here, I'm much more in the mood for all things festive. It's also the best time of year to be working in a primary school, and I'm looking forward to all the Christmas crafts and cooking I'll be doing with my class over the next few weeks.
Reading wise, my time has mostly been dominated by my Classics Club spin book, Les Miserables. I did squeeze in Mockingjay, as we saw the Catching Fire film last weekend, and I was desperate to know how the trilogy ended. But apart from that, it's been all Les Mis, all the time. And I'm actually loving it. I found the first 50 pages hard to get through, and was starting to worry about the rest of the book, but once Valjean actually appeared and the book moved on from an extremely detailed profile of the Bishop, things looked up. I'm 300 pages in now and I'm finding it easy to read and extremely absorbing. Hugo is a master of detail, and you feel completely immersed in the book. My goodreads goal for the year has officially gone out of the window and I won't be finishing it any time soon, but winter is the perfect time for such an immersive, epic read. I'm glad the spin finally gave me the push to start it.
This week, I've been reading:
Review posted:
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (5 out of 5)
Well done for getting through Les Mis. I have it on kindle but because it's so long I have put it off. Your tree looks lovely and it is nice to get to ready the first weekend. We used to have real trees and left it later to avoid drop but they are so much better now anyway. This year we bought a fake one but can't put it up until my new bathroom is out of my living room and installed in its rightful place.
ReplyDeleteIt is an extremely long book, I'm keeping myself going by thinking about how proud of myself I will be when I finish it! Hope your new bathroom is installed soon so you can put up your Christmas tree :)
DeleteI'm glad you're enjoying Les Mis and weren't put off by the slow start! I read it a few years ago and I loved it too. Maybe I'll get round to re-reading it one day.
ReplyDeleteIt's one I can imagine rereading in the future, already the characters feel so familiar and I'm sure I'll want to spend time with them again in the future.
DeleteI want to read Mockingjay now I have watched Catching Fire. Not sure when I will put my tree up yet but slowly starting to feel festive. Need to finish Xmas shopping to.
ReplyDeleteI did like Mockingjay, but it was nowhere near as good as the other two books. I have a feeling most of my shopping will be done online this year!
DeleteLovely tree! I'm such a sucker for everything and anything Christmas. I already start saying I want it to be Christmas in April!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're enjoying Les Mis. Have you watched the movie? I haven't read the book or watched the movie, but everyone that does love them both.
My husband is the same way as you with Christmas, he's been nagging to put up the tree for weeks!
DeleteI have seen Les Mis in London, and wasn't that impressed. I did like the movie but the book is so much better so far.
I thought I was going to be so grumpy about Christmas this year, but now it's the first I'm all like 'awww, Christmas!' so I'm really happy about that :) Love love love that you have your decorations up already!
ReplyDeleteAlso, Les Miiiiiiiis! Yay. I sort of love that book, apart from the parts I hate (I give you permission to skip the sewer bit, for instance). Hope you carry on enjoying it.
I was pretty grumpy about it up to this point, to be honest! But now it's December I am officially excited.
DeleteI am looking forward to the sewer part in a weird way. At the moment I'm in the strange Napoleon at Waterloo diversion, didn't see that one coming!
It was all that detail about the bishop that stumped me the first time I tried to read Les Miserables and I never made it to Valjean's appearance - good on you for managing to push through it! It's on my TFR (to FINISH reading pile!!) so at some point, I'll have to get brave and get stuck into it.
ReplyDeleteThe bishop stuff was hard to get through, but it REALLY picked up afterwards, so it's worth pushing through it if you do ever try the book again.
DeleteHappy December, Sam! The tree looks very festive :) I took out all my decorations yesterday, but around here the trees are brought in usually on 24th or around that, so it'll be a while until I can use any of them.
ReplyDeleteSadly our tree is fake, but the benefit of that is that we can put it up whenever we want to!
DeleteAdorable ornament!
ReplyDeleteI think my must-read list for next year will include Les Mis. I'm glad that you're enjoying it so much!
Christmas craft projects sound fun! If I were the least bit crafty I'd do likewise, but I unfortunately am not. I'm focusing all my Christmas energy on presents. I had a few presents lined up early, and then I moved and lost all my momentum. I'm ordering a few things online this evening though, and I'm hoping that gets me going again.
ReplyDeleteI think the length is what intimidates me about trying to read Les Mis. But it's fantastic that you're enjoying it and I look forward to your review. Have your seen the movie?
ReplyDeleteI loved reading Les Mis too! My version was broken up into several volumes, so it seemed much more doable. I hope you enjoy the rest of the book!
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