Sunday Salon -- Happy New Year Edition

Ain't this the truth? Everything is new and the year stretches out in front of us. And then ...

Don, Anne, Kathy, Tom. New Year's Eve with the Eugene Syphony

New Year's Eve is Eugene: My sister scored some free tickets at the Holt Center for a Eugene Symphony concert with guest vocalist Peter Hollens. Afterwards drink and dancing in the lobby. Fun. Fun. Fun. Thank you to Kathy for inviting us for some fun as we welcomed in 2023 together.  Earlier in the day we spent a few hours at the Eugene Children's Museum with our daughter and her family. What a treasure. The kids had so much fun especially with the machines which ran on gears and wheels they could control. 

New Year's Eve party at the Holt Center in Eugene, Oregon with Rita and Dan.

Visit with long-time friend: On our drive home the next day, we stopped off for a nice long visit with a dear friend who was visiting her mother for the holidays. R. and her husband live abroad. We don't get to see her very often so it was nice to have long, unhurried visit. Visiting with R.'s mom was a bonus, too. Growing up together our parents played a big role in each other's lives. The fact that we both have living mothers is such a blessing.

Ian and Jamie at Children's Museum in Eugene

Turning the page: Every year as the previous year ends and the new year begins I busy myself with looking back and looking forward concerning books, reading goals, and lists of favorites. I'm still not finished making all my "favorites" lists but here is what I've posted about so far:

• 2022 End-of-the-Year Book Survey where I answer questions about the books I read in 2022 and I mention a lot of titles.
  
• My favorite book club selections of 2022. I am in two clubs and read 23 books combined. Here I list my favorites with an assist from other club members.
• My Top Ten Favorite Novels Read in '22. I purposely just named novels for this list, hoping to soon create lists of nonfiction favorites and another list of poetry favs. But I haven't finished those two lists, yet.
• Some of my Audiobook favorites of 2022. You'll notice a lot of dups with the list above. I also list all the audiobooks I listened to in the year.
• My 2023 reading goals, and how I did on my goals in 2022. I didn't complete all my goals, but I did accomplish quite a few of them. So good for me!
• One Big Book Challenge. This is a personal challenge to read one book which has been on my TBR for years, usually a classic, and I give myself the whole year to get this one done. I'm reading: The Count of Monte Cristo, which is over 1200 pages long, so it may take me all year!
• First review of 2023: These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett
  

Tomorrow: We take down Christmas. Sigh. I love the way the house sparkles when the decorations go up and always miss it when I take it down.

Just in case you aren't sick of Christmas tree photos I thought I'd share this one of our grand-kitties: Skimbleshanks and Sasha. Photo credit: Rita Adams.

HAPPY 2023!

-Anne