Month: December 2022

#AMonthofFaves at the Movies 2022

Here’s my part two to the #AMonthofFaves on your screen post. As a reminder, here’s the prompt:

FRI | Dec. 23 – #AMonthofFaves On the Screen or in Your Ear. What did you watch this year that you absolutely loved? Did you see any movies inspired by books you’ve read – what did you think? Or, what are some of your favorite podcasts, audiobooks or songs / albums that you listened to and have on repeat.

GirlXOXO

Uhhh, so I didn’t talk about any movies this year, even though I watched 56 in total as of this posting. (A few were rewatches, and I don’t anticipate watching any movies today.) So here are the new-to-me ones I gave five stars along with the reviews. Unless otherwise noted, I saw the movie in theaters, huzzah.

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#AMonthofFaves on the TV Screen 2022

Today’s A Month of Faves prompt is the year in books, but there are still two whole days left in the year and I may finish another book before then, so I’m catching up on the prompt from Dec. 23:

#AMonthofFaves On the Screen or in Your Ear. What did you watch this year that you absolutely loved? Did you see any movies inspired by books you’ve read – what did you think? Or, what are some of your favorite podcasts, audiobooks or songs / albums that you listened to and have on repeat.

GirlXOXO

Just like last year, I’m going to break this up into two posts, one for movies and one for TV. Also just like last year, I’m going to lament the fact that figuring out what new TV I watched this year was hard. However, unlike last year, that one is probably my own fault as I had more than one person recommend a TV tracking app to me that I never used, so, you know. I really had no excuse. Plus, I deleted my Twitter account since the takeover, and it is past the point of recovery so your guess is as good as mine about what I watched prior to June. Anyway, let’s get into it.

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#AMonthofFaves This Is How I Did Christmas in 2022

MON | Dec. 19 – #AMonthofFaves This is How We Do Christmas. How do you get into the holiday spirit? Are you decorating, cooking, have certain traditions? What are you gifting this year (if anything)? Tell us all about how you plan to enjoy this holiday.
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GirlXOXO

This past week was a whirlwind precisely because the holiday was very different for me and my family this year. I’ve been in Florida for the past two weeks (and will be here an additional week) to be close to my daughter who is completing an internship here and to have a do over visit with my parents since we didn’t get to hang out with them during the summer because we caught Covid. I did a combo Christmas/birthday celebration with my parents and daughter last week (my mom’s birthday is actually today). And because my mom loves me, she brought their tree for the hotel room! There was no oven in the room, so we decorated while eating gingerbread cookies from Insomnia Cookies.

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#AMonthofFaves 2022 Challenge and Goals Check-In

Prompt from Dec. 17:

FRI | Dec. 17 – #AMonthofFaves Challenges and Goals Check-In. Reading challenges, personal goals, resolutions – how did you do? Are you making any for next year … next month … next season?etc.)⁠

Girl XOXO

My personal goals for 2022 were:

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#AMonthofFaves Best Buys of 2022

Dec. 14th prompt:

These are a Few of Our Favorite Things. e.g. to wear, smell, see, do, enjoy, best purchases, most used gift received, most used purchases, something crafty you made.

GirlXOXO

Okay, last year, my best buys post was bananas. This year, I want to focus on quality over quantity–and not just because I didn’t buy nearly as much but because I want to talk about the things that have had the greatest impact on my well-being. I will note that I finally (finally!) bought a properly fitting coat and bathing suits this year, I finally replaced my laptop battery, and, I finally made my way to The Wizarding World at Universal Studios Orlando. Oh, and I bought a wick trimmer, which is very fun. However, the following greatly impacted my quality of life.

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It’s Monday and I forgot to schedule my #AMonthofFaves posts for last week

Last week was finals week and I left town mid-week, and if you think that’s why I forgot to schedule my post, that is incorrect. I just checked to see why/how I forgot, and it turns out that I wanted to add a photo to the post and didn’t, hence the lack of posts last week. So that means I’m behind on my A Month of Faves posts, which means I’ll be catching up on them this week, so things will be a little out of order as I get up to speed. The good news is that I’ve had good reason (besides finals) to miss posts: I was at Disney World!

So far I’ve managed to visit all four parks, see the Epcot fireworks show (Harmonious), watch Fantasmic, meet Mickey & Friends at a character dinner, and watch the Lion King show.

I also went to the candlelight processional service at Epcot with Neil Patrick Harris as the night’s special guest. It was amazing. He was great and all of the signing/songs were A+++.

And in between all of that I had to finish grading and submit final grades.

All grades were officially submitted on Saturday, though, which means winter break can begin in earnest. Huzzah! Yesterday, I slept a thousand sleeps. On Wednesday, I’m supposed to go back with my parents and daughter to Disney World on Wednesday, and we’re hoping to make it to the Guardians of the Galaxy and Frozen rides and also the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom. While I wait for that, though, I think I’ll get to what else I’m excited about doing this break: reading!

In the meantime, here is last Monday’s A Month of Faves post.

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It’s Monday! And I’m doing a monthly reading wrap-up!

What does everyone think of the little prompts that WordPress has been so generously giving when you open the editor to write a new blog post? Today’s for me is “What’s your favorite cartoon?”

I had a good weekend which made this a good week. On Friday, I went to a for your consideration screening of Abbott Elementary with a friend of mine that included a Q&A with the cast and crew and that was followed up by a reception that turned into a dance party. On Saturday, I won the lottery so got two $25 tickets to see the touring production of The Book of Mormon, which was amazing. I didn’t know much about the show so didn’t know what to expect (except that it would include irreverent humor), and I loved it so much. Lots of great social commentary and it made fun of systems without making fun of people, if that makes any sense.

Anywheedle, as the blog post title says, it is Monday and instead of what I read last week, I’m telling you about what I read this past month since, you know, I only read three books and also posted the review of the book I finished this week in the underrated books post.

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#AMonthofFaves 2022: Underrated Books

I am going to use the same metric I used for this Top Ten Books with Fewer Than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads post some years ago for today’s topic.

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#AMonthofFaves 2022: Popular Books Worth the Hype

Self-evident topic is self-evident. Let’s get into it.

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#AMonthofFaves Moments of 2022

It’s that time of year again. That’s right. A Month of Faves is back, baby!

Today’s prompt:

MON | Dec. 5 – #AMonthofFaves Moments of 2022. What were some of the moments this year that you are grateful for. We’re here for hearing all of it! It could be the simple things (I know that’s what I’m celebrating this year) or more epic adventures.

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