Monthly Archive: December 2007

I read 118 books in 2007, an average of 9.8 books per month. I’ve increased the total number of books every year since I started keeping track, from 104 to 110 to 113 in the past three years. I don’t know if I’m getting faster at speed-reading or if the books are smaller. Though some of the books I read this year could totally be used in house-building as bricks, so I don’t think that’s it. Best books of 2007 (in no particular order and including no re-reads): The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield...

Carols playing on the stereo, cookies on a platter, stockings lying rumpled and flattened on the floor, surrounded by scraps and strewings of wrapping paper. Cards from friends and family around the world pinned to the felt snowman strip that hangs in the hallway. The aroma of roasting turkey wafts through the house overriding the knowledge that after the holidays it’s going to be time to get back on that treadmill and get some pounds off again. Lights on the tree glow on the red and golden and multi-colored ornaments, each with its own story to tell. Mistletoe lurks above...

You know, I love living overseas. I’ve lived overseas for 17 years, give or take a few weeks. 17 years! Not all at once, and not all in the same place but still, that’s a significant portion of my life…especially considering I’m…only 29. I like living in Europe. I like living in Sweden. There isn’t much I dislike about it (and even less I’d admit to in public). But the thing I dislike MOST about living overseas? Living so far away from my family. And the hardest? Putting my mom on the train and waving goodbye as she leaves for...

I confess to being a tad envious of those of you who have snow. We have no snow and no snow in sight. We had no snow at all last winter, to speak of, and so, though one always wants to be done with it already come February, right now a little snow would be nice. Mom keeps asking me really hard crossword puzzle questions. It’s getting rarer that I know the answers offhand and it makes me feel alzheimery and dumb. It also makes me suspect my Trivial Pursuit crown would be in total jeopardy if I had anyone...

The smell of fat green pine needles fills the house, it tingles when you breath in then you get used it and all that’s left is the small start of surprise each time you realize there’s a tree in the room. Hey! There’s a tree in the room! I have a wish to always have a tree in the room and this time of year the wish sprouts and curls upward and blossoms. There are, as yet, no decorations on the tree, but really, I almost think it doesn’t NEED decorations. It’s decorating the room all on its own power!...