Here is my 2013 Reading alliteration.  I gave Betsy my topic descriptions of books I want to read this year, and this is what she came up with:

Staying serious with solid and substantial selections on spiritual stretching, salubriousness, self sagas, signing studies, and sewing, stitching, and similar strands, sometimes scattered with short sabbaticals for seemingly silly scoops of stealth, slaying, and subterfuge.

Basically, that means that I want to read a lot of non-fiction, including many books I got at the True Woman conference I went to, by great Christian authors, on Biblical Womanhood, as well as books on health-related topics, biographies and autobiographies, Deaf studies, ASL studies, and various needle and fabric arts topics.   All of that will be interspersed with my favorite mindless mysteries and other fictional options.  I might just throw in a Dickens or two sometime during the year!  Most of the books are ones I already own, that I got as part of registration at the True Woman conference or bought there, or have in this book-filled house, or can get at the library.  Not planning on making book purchases this year unless something just jumps into my path and says, "Buy me, buy me!"

First up is Voices of the True Woman Movement; A Call to the Counter-Revolution, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, with contributions from John Piper, Mary Kassian, Joni Eareckson Tada, and Janet Parshall.

I made a Moose quilt for Jim's Christmas present!  I bought the fabric when I was out in Colorado last year on one of my trips.  I had several friends help me design it, figuring out a pattern with the fabric that had uneven panels on it!  I sewed most of it at quilt camp this past November, then finished up the last border when I got home, then had it machine quilted by a friend here who does long arm machine quilting.  Then I sewed the binding on it last week.  I think it is the best Christmas gift I have ever given Jim!

More pictures of our Christmas Day next time!

This time last year, my daughter, Betsy, and I decided to spend 2012 reading Charles Dickens.  As many of you know, we like to come up with an alliteration that makes the reading topic of the year more fun!  Well, it used to be the topic of the summer, but I guess we have set a new precedent, because we had an alliteration for the past year and are about to come up with some for this coming year.

And Jim decided to join us!  So, here was 2012's reading alliteration.  It was a long one!

Donna, Daughter, and Dad are Dedicated to Delving into the Delightful, Dreary, and Dark Documents from the Desk of Dickens, BUT, Destined to be Dragged by Dickens' Demanding Dictation, we are Free to Filter with Fiction, Fantasy, Facts, or Further Features that Find our Fancy.

So, although Jim has been reading on his Nook, a book that contains all of Dickens' works and so he is going straight through, and Bets is pretty much doing the same thing, although since she isn't here, I don't really know how she is going about it for sure, my decision was to pick some of Dicken's novels that I had not read before (and I had read quite a few, especially during our homeschooling years), and choose ones that I either had in my possession or could find in the library.  I only got through 5!  Some of them took a LONG time to get through!  Here are the ones I read this year:

Nicholas Nickleby, Old Curiosity Shop, Dombey and Son, Hard Times, and Martin Chuzzlewit.

I did read other books - 30 other books, to be exact!  And the year isn't over yet!  Some were my favorite mindless mysteries, some were for Bible studies, and the majority of them were in Books on CD form - I listened to LOTS of books while I was driving across the country numerous times by myself this year.

Trust me - you can only read so much Dickens without breaks in between.  There are more of his books that I would like to read, though, and so perhaps I will add some to this year's reading on occasion, or maybe I will do a year soon of mostly classics and read some of the others then.  

Betsy is helping me with my alliteration, so I know I will have it before the New Year!  I gave her the subject matter, and she is making up the alliteration.  Stayed tuned!

I always seem to be the last person I know to get any Christmas decorations up.  We did get the village up, but that has been it.  So, knowing I was going to have the kiddos over to play today, I knew they would enjoy helping Grandma get some Christmas decorating done!   We put some mini ornaments on one of my mini trees -

And we made some felt ornaments that I found at AC Moore - just gluing felt on felt -

They got to take their ornaments home, and they are putting up their tree tonight, they told me!

It was a busy day around here!

Here are some more pieces from my Christmas in the City village.  Remember, it represents Philly to me, so many of the pieces have special significance -

Independence Hall - I keep this one up all year!

A department store - when I was growing up, it was so much fun to go downtown to Wanamaker's Department store, especially at Christmas time.  This department store reminds me of that!

The Art Museum - everyone knows of the Philadelphia Art Museum from the Rocky movies!

There was a hotel like this one, but it was the Barclay Hotel, on Rittenhouse Square, where we had our wedding reception -

And I had to have the automat!  Who knows what an automat is?   We ate many meals out at automats in Philly!

These next two pictures are of the North Pole Village set.  It is Betsy's.  She left it at home, so the kids decided to make it part of the set up this year - a special shopping area!

And many years ago, the little boys of some family friends, who LOVED going to construction sites, gave me these pieces.  They are not part of Dept 56 sets, but they are very special to me -

Two different people have told me that they leave their villages up through February to enjoy it longer.  That's what I'll do!  I am soooo tempted to leave it up all year long so that we don't have to put it up again next year!    But I am sure we will need the tables it is sitting on at some point!

I have a Christmas village called Christmas in the City.  It is one of the Department 56 villages.  We haven't put it up for the past 5 or 6 years, because the girls were all gone, Jim was busy, and it is too much for me to do myself.  But this year, my family put it up on Thanksgiving for me!  Even my grandchildren helped!

I got the first piece to my village on my 40th birthday - oh, my - almost 20 years ago!  We still lived in Mississippi!  I had wanted the Christmas in the City village because I grew up in Philadelphia, and so much of that village reminds me of Philly!  

The first piece I got, from the friends who we went out with to celebrate my 40th birthday that year,  was the Doctor's Office because, well, Jim is a doctor!

Now I have a large village!

Don't ya love that subway stop in the last picture?  I rode the subway everywhere for many years!

The Scrooge sign, on the theater, is because every year we are involved in our local production of "Scrooge" and this year it was this past weekend.  It went very well.  We miss having Betsy here, because for years she was in the show, and for two years she directed it, and then before that, Amanda was in it.  Now, it is just Jim, from our family, as part of the cast.  He is in the chorus, plays his psaltery, and dances on Scrooge's casket.  It is such a fun show, very professionally done, and is free, with an offering taken for our local crisis pregnancy center.  I am one of several sign language interpreters.  So, it makes the months leading up to it busy ones for us!

More photos of my Christmas village next time!