I just posted my list of books read in 2009. I was surprised the total ended up at only 42 (though I’d say the 1400+ pages of Les Mis has to count for at least five books, dontcha think? ) Some people think I read a lot, but I’m nowhere near Carrie’s 132!

I’ve read as Semicolon has posted her top ten books from different genres the past several days. I haven’t read enough or from enough different genres to do that, but these are my overall favorite books read in 2009, in no particular order:

1. Les Miserables (unabridged) by Victor Hugo, reviewed here. I had read different abridged versions before, and it had been my goal for a long time to read the  whole unabridged version. I am glad I did: I enjoyed it, but I don’t know that I would do it again! I do think I’ll revisit the story in the future, but I’ll feel free to skip over some of the longer side trails in the book.

2. Becoming God’s True Woman edited by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I read it twice this year but have yet to review it: there is just so much to it, it’s hard to know how to condense anything I might say about it other than that I highly recommend it. But this is a review I agreed to do, so I need to get on that right away!

3. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, a compilation by Nancy Guthrie of 22 Christmas related essays from authors varying from Augustine and Luther to Piper and MacArthur. I just finished this and haven’t had a chance to review it yet, either, but I loved it. I am already planning on using it again next December: it may become an annual tradition.

4. To The Golden Shore by Courtney Anderson, reviewed here. A detailed biography of America’s first missionary, Adoniram Judson. Depth of character, faithfulness in any circumstance, even the severest hardships, a brilliant mind yielded totally to God.

5. Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer and Daily Light on the Daily Path. I’ll put the two devotional books together. I’ve been using Daily Light for years and feel a little funny listing it as a favorite — but it is. Meyer’s book is new to me this year, and it was my introduction to his writing (that’s the main reason I picked it up: I’d heard much of him and wanted to read directly from him. I did enjoy the book and plan to use it again this year.

6. How Do I Love Thee? by Nancy Moser about the relationship between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, reviewed here.

7. The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke, reviewed here, about the time just after Christ’s death. I don’t usually like fictional books based on Biblical accounts, but this one kept true to the Bible while employing imagination about what certain situations and people might have been like.

8. Fatal Illusion by Adam Blumer, reviewed here. Very suspenseful! If you like mystery and suspense, put this on your list.

9. Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes by Robin Jones Gunn. I have enjoyed this whole series, but something about this one just especially spoke to me.

10. Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner, reviewed here, my favorite of Turner’s books.

I did not read as many classics this year, I think partly because Les Mis took so much time, partly because I had a big stack of books from a clearance table at the Christian bookstore that I still haven’t read through, and partly because since starting a blog I’ve read most of the ones I had in mind. I still want to read something by Agatha Christie, but this may be a year to revisit some old favorites.

I had planned to do this post anyway, but today’s Booking Through Thursday prompt also asks us what our favorite books of the year were, so I’ll link this post there as well.

Linda at 2nd Cup of Coffee created and host a weekly Random Dozen set of questions for participants to consider. It’s fun to read different people’s answers.

1. Do you find it gross to share drinks with family? Friends?

Yes, definitely.

2. What have you learned this year? (You didn’t see a question of that weight coming, did you? At least not for #2.)

Well, I am sure there have been many things, but at the time of evening I am writing this, with a fried brain, I’m not coming up with anything. If something comes to mind before I push the “Publish” button, I’ll share it.

3. When do you dismantle the Christmas decorations?

Pretty much just whenever we can get to it — we don’t have a certain traditional time, but it is probably the last weekend before everyone goes back to work and school.

4. Something you wish to accomplish before the end of 2009 is:

The monthly ladies’ booklet I’ve been working on this week. There would be a whole list of things I wish I’d gotten done, but I’ll just roll them over to next year’s list…

5. How do you feel about winter (after Christmas)?

That’s the hardest time of the year for me. All the festivities and brightness of Christmas is over (though, yes, we carry it in our hearts), it’s cold and dark, the landscape is almost colorless. One thing that keeps me hanging on is the thought that, after Dec. 21, we turn the corner and the days start imperceptibly getting longer, so I know we’ll see more daylight as time goes by. Then I love Valentine’s Day, so there’s that to look forward to, and then in March we start to see the first blooms of spring. So I keep busy and keep looking ahead.

6. Have you participated in after-Christmas sales?

I don’t usually. I went to one store the day after Christmas and was reminded why. Too crowded. I’ll scout around a little days afterward, when yes, I know there’s not much selection left, but occasionally I’ll find something.

7. Do you have plans for New Year’s Eve?

Normally we just laze around the house flipping through the different celebrations on TV, but this year my son and new daughter-in-law live outside the city limits where they can legally have fireworks! So we’re having a little get-together there.

8. Is there anything special awaiting you in January?

Mmmm, not that I know of, besides hopefully getting some things crossed off that rolled-over list (see #4) and revival meetings at our church.

9. If your life this year was a movie, what category or genre would it be? (Romance, Comedy, Drama, Thriller, Suspense, Farcical, etc.)

Documentary? Family Drama? Reality show? I don’t know. We had a college graduation, a wedding, and a 30th anniversary this year – other than that it was just everyday life.

10. How much time per day do you spend blogging? Please do not lie. I will know.

Actually writing blog posts? Anywhere from just a few minutes to several days (not 24-hour days, but some posts, like my blog year in review, were written in pieces over the course of several days). Reading blogs? Well, that’s another question….

11. Who runs your household?

My husband is the head of the household and does most of the big projects and smaller fix-it jobs, pays bills, etc.; I do the everyday cleaning, meal prep, shopping, etc.

12. Share one hope/dream for 2010.

I’ve been praying along the lines of Col. 1:9-12 for my immediate family, and praying that at least one of my extended family members (preferably all) would be saved this year.

Each year about this time I’ve looked back at the first blog post from each month, but this year I want to do my favorite from each month as well:

January:
First post:
New Year’s Meditations.

Favorite post:
Hard to choose between three different favorites this month, but I’ll say When children’s beliefs and practices differ from our own.

February:
First post:
Bible study on women.

Favorite post(s):
Choking anxieties and Melli’s ABC Challenge and other things I see in odd places (the post wherein I see Gene Shalit in the wallpaper…)

March:
First post:
The Conversion of Adoniram Judson.

Favorite post(s):
I have a preposition for you and Encouragement for homemakers.

April:
First post:
O Baby!

Favorite post:
Yes, I got dressed in a hurry. Why do you ask?

May:
First post:
Poetry Friday: Ode to Hay Fever.

Favorite post(s):
Graduation dinner and The visible teaches of the invisible.

June:
First post:
Preaching personalities.

Favorite post:
Of lists and marriage.

July:
First post:
A Thousand Words in Idioms: O and P.

Favorite post:
Things I remember from childhood.

August:
First post:
Reasons why prayers aren’t answered (this was actually the second post as the first one was a contest winner announcement.)

Favorite post:
The Wedding.

September:
First post:
Book Review: How Do I Love Thee?

Favorite post:
Another tie between Helpers and Thoughts from the toy store.

October:
First post:
Melli’s September Photo Scavenger Hunt (Hey, Melli — when’s the next one? )

Favorite post:
Hard to choose this month! Couldn’t decide between God does so much more than “show up” and Fathers and sons and a couple of others.

November:
First post:
All of These.

Favorite post:
What He Is To Me.

December:
First post:
Book Review: The Heirloom.

Favorite post:
On our 30th anniversary: 30 things I love about my husband.

I’ve enjoyed talking a couple of days to skim back over the posts of each month. I wish I had done so before writing our Christmas letter — there were some things I had forgotten about! But I like how these encapsulate the different things I focus on in my blog: meditations on Scriptural truth, family, books, and fun posts.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas week! Ours was very nice.

I thought I’d share with you just a few tidbits from the past week.

When we came back from our anniversary trip, Jeremy has already offered to make dinner that evening, and Jason and Mittu surprised us with balloons, a cake, some plastic goblets (I didn’t know they made such a thing), and “sparkling” grape juice. We had never really had an anniversary celebration at home before — having a girl in the family adds a new dimension! Not to fault the boys, though. They were used to us just going out to eat that day and only a couple of times over the years going somewhere overnight. But that was a nice surprise.

One of our silly little traditions on our anniversary is to put a card under each others’ pillow and then read them together before we go to bed. Somehow even though I bought family Christmas cards specifically before we left so the store selection wouldn’t be all picked over or all gone by the time we came back, I totally forgot about an anniversary card. I thought I might sneak out Monday morning before we left, but it ended up being so late before I was ready to go, I didn’t want to take the time, and there was no way to do it sneakily. So I thought maybe I’d find something in a little shop along the way. Nope. The places we went to didn’t have any and the places that might have had them weren’t open. So that evening in the hotel I was trying to decide what to do. I hated not having a card at all, though I knew Jim would understand. While he was on the phone with the kids I looked around and found the hotel stationery….so I wrote my little note for our 30th anniversary on that. At least having the image and name of the hotel on it made it somewhat commemorative. I was especially thankful then that I had posted my 30 things I love about my husband that morning!

Our church always has a Christmas Eve service, understanding that everyone can’t come because some have their family celebrations then. I had had to go to the store that day and then had multitudes of wrapping to do and was chafing just a little about going. But I always enjoy it once I get there. Our music director’s daughter and her husband were in town and they did a sacred concert for us: she plays the cello and he is working on a PhD in something to do with classical piano.  The cello is my all-time favorite instrument. It was lovely: a nice, peaceful time to stop and reflect.

The service itself was at 5 p.m. — kind of an odd time — I guess they were trying as much as possible not to interfere with anyone’s evening plans. But we ended up going out to eat afterward at Fatz Cafe. I wouldn’t mind making that a regular Christmas Eve tradition.

Christmas Day was very nice with Jason, Mittu, and Grandma coming over. The Christmas story, presents, and what has become our traditional breakfast of Sister Shubert sausage wraps, cinnamon rolls, and sliced, cooked apples with cinnamon and sugar, then naps, puttering around with Christmas presents, dinner, naps, a couple of movies on TV, and time with family in between. A very restful day.

No after-Christmas shopping for me on Saturday! I went into one store looking for something I had seen advertised before Christmas in the hopes that they might still have it, but no such luck, and the crowdedness and lines reminded me why I don’t go shopping on that day.

Mittu and Jason had a little get-together Saturday night with us and a family from church they are close to whose daughters worked with them at Castlepoint. One daughter attends college in FL and one teaches in CA, and they were both in town, so it was a nice time of visiting. We played Pit, which was my first time playing. I had always thought, looking on, that it was a noisy, confusing game, but in the midst of it, it’s fun.

Today was a fairly normal Sunday. I have the ladies’ booklet to work on this week — I don’t know quite how that will work with everyone home, but I’ve been praying about it! We’re really looking forward to New Year’s Eve at Jason and Mittu’s. I grew up in a family that had fireworks regularly and I’ve chafed at our city’s restriction of them. But Jason and Mittu live outside the city limits! So we kind of invited ourselves over to do fireworks then. We’re not so much into the ones that just make noise: one of my all time favorite ones we had ages ago were little tanks that would send off little sparkles as they traveled a few inches. I wonder if they still make those…

It’s been understandably quiet around the blogosphere this week, which has been helpful as I am sure we were all otherwise occupied, but I’ve missed getting together with my blog friends. I imagine most people’s posting might be a little iffy this next week, too, but then we’ll get back to “normal.” I have a lot of plans for that first normal week!

Here are a few pictures from Jim’s camera during our anniversary trip. We don’t have many photos of just the two of us together, but he got some using Jeremy’s gorillapod and his time-delay setting on his camera.

In the hotel room:

In front of the hotel:

At a little tea shop where we stopped for lunch one day:

In front of the Heyward-Washington House waiting for the next tour:

Hope you have a good last week of 2009!

Welcome to Microfiction Monday,
where a picture only paints 140 characters.

Susan at Stony River has begun a Microfiction Monday wherein participants write a story in 140 characters based on a particular image that Susan has chosen for the day.  Design 215’s Character Counter helps keep track of the number of characters. It’s a fun exercise in creative conciseness…or concise creativity…

The picture for today and my take on it:

Annie was looking for the box of dress-up clothes, but what she found convinced her she wasn’t in that much of a hurry to grow up after all.

Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.

My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I, too, must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle song.

Glory to God in highest Heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.

— Martin Luther

Hilarious!

For God, the Lord of Earth and Heaven,
So loved and longed to see forgiven
The world, in sin and pleasure mad,
That He gave the greatest Gift He had,
His only begotten Son, to take our place,
That whosoever - oh, what grace!–
Believeth, placing simple trust
In Him, the righteous and the just,
Should not perish lost in sin
But have everlasting life in Him.

– Author unknown

Wishing you all a wonderful day of fun, family, feasting, and especially remembering the birth of our Savior.