TTBA Weekly News and Mailbox Monday

This feature was inspired by It's Monday! What are you reading? hosted by Sheila at Book Journey and also by The Sunday Salon.

Listening To:  My son's 11th birthday was Friday and my sister got him the "NOW That's What I Call Party Anthems" CD and one of the CDs I bought him was "Queen's Greatest Hits" (yes, he has great taste in music) so we've been listening to those.  We also got him his own CD boom box.  That party anthems CD has some great dance songs on it!

Book finished: zero....zilch  =O(

Reading: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, The Waste Lands by Stephen King, Shakespeare's Coriolanus, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (the 2nd half of it)

On the Nightstand:  The Home by Scott Nicholson, Spooky Showcase by Alan Draven, a couple other review books (haven't picked which yet), Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (maybe)

Watching:  More new Christmas movies on Hallmark Channel and Lifetime this past weekend.  I'm in my element! Also, watched "The Return of the King" on Encore today.  Love that movie! And I'm beyond thrilled...I got free advance screening passes to "Life of Pi" on Thursday night!!! I can't believe it.  One of my most favorite books of all time.  I hope it's good!

Making:  I've had some nice fabric to recover the seats of my dining room chairs for years so I'm going to get started on that...hopefully this week, in between working on my book.  At least my house is clean.  We're also going to start putting up Christmas decorations this weekend.  Squeeee!

Grateful for:  My house being clean (as mentioned above) and for all the family and friends who helped to make Gabe's birthday party special on Saturday.

Looking forward to:  Well, not actually looking forward to it because it started today, but glad to be in it...my write-a-thon, Sit Down and Write 2.  It's not too late to SIGN-UP.  I'm still hoping it will help me catch up on my NaNoWriMo word count!

Also...have you seen?  I've posted the sign-ups and official dates for the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge! All the details HERE.

Picture:  I finally got my bookshelves put together after they sat in their boxes for months.  How do you like my corner window bookshelves nook?

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Since it's a very Christmas-y week of books,

I thought I would break out the Christmas mailbox pics!

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia and is being hosted by Bermuda Onion this month. 




FOR REVIEW:
From the publisher, Crown:
The Nutcracker  byE.T.A. Hoffman, Illustrated by, none other than, Maurice Sendak
A Christmas Home by Greg Kincaid

WON:
Christmas in Lucky Harbor by Jill Shalvis...from the lovely Martha at Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf...also, some bookmarks and a pen =O)

BOMC2:
A Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans...another SQUEEEE!

Note:  Be prepared because my Christmas season officially starts, well...this weekend, so there will be a Christmas background up on this blog very soon (and probably also on my writing blog).  =O)