I now have two dancers. Does that make me a dance mom?!? I’ve never worn false eye lashes, but as my daughter advance within dance that’s an inevitable situation. At Samantha’s 2015 Nutcracker recital, the items required list included false eye lashes. Oh no! Knowing Samantha, she would not be thrilled about me gluing eyelashes onto her eyelids. Thankfully, the false eye lashes requirement was reassigned to lead roles and not the group ensembles. Goal is for my kids to be confident and happy dancers. I think we’re well on our way to achieving that objective.
Christmas Photo 2015
Picking the family Christmas photo! This is a project that I all too often I wait until the holidays are in full swing to get my order in. There are so many companies out there that create fabulous Christmas photos, but my go-to shop is Costco. Costco’s Photo Center is reliable and convenient, most importantly the cost is quite competitive.
Our 2015 Christmas photo was taken at the backside of the Disneyland Sleeping Beauty castle. We had the right setting, our entire family, and we were up for snapping a few photos with our princesses – Samantha and Emily.
Now in a few months, I get to start the process all over again. What photo will make it as the standout annual holiday photo?!? Stay tuned…
The Best Books I Read in 2015
Just as in previous years I’m writing a post about the books I read in 2015. I read 87 books in total, below is the breakdown. This year I’m adding a few metrics which I think will be interesting. Like, how much I saved by borrowing books from the library ($807.40) and what percentage of the authors I read were men (67%).
Fiction was the majority of my reading at 60%. Fantasy (20%) and Science Fiction (21%) being the largest portion of all genres. Read a few series this year, meaning I read 8 books by Holly Black (Spiderwick Chronicles), 3 from C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia), 2 from Timothy Zahn (The Thrawn Trilogy) and 2 Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson). Paperback was the least popular binding at on 17% of my reads.
Most of my books came from the library (37%). Longest audio book I listened to was Capital at 1,503 minutes (25 hours), shortest was The Hamburger: A History at 180 minutes (3 hours). Total audio listening was 11,751 minutes (196 hours, 8.2 days).
Longest book I read was Hadoop in Practice (536 pages), which was for a class and I didn’t read every page. Next was All the Light We Cannot See at (530 pages). Shortest was 30 pages, a short story called Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo. In all I read 14,560 pages.
The longest it took me to get through a book was Capital (195 days), Michelle and I listened to it in the car. Shorts books included a lot of the Spiderwick Chronicles, in all I finished 12 books the same day I started them.
I finished the most books in July (20). The most popular book (according to goodreads) I read was The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The least was Valkyrie.
So how does this year compare to previous years? Well, I read the most I have in the past 3 years, but still not as much as 2011, when I read 96 books. That big 100 is still just out of reach. Maybe this year…
Some of my favorite books of the year were:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason
Shade Me Review
So I read Shade Me by Jennifer Brown. Before we get to the spoilers let me just say quickly that this is a very strong 4 on a 1-5 scale. The only reason I held back on 5 is because of a bit too much teenage angst for my liking. Although, not nearly as much as the Twilight books. Also, there were a hand full of times, that I caught myself thinking, come on Nikki really, that’s dumb, don’t do that. But this actually might be a reason to give it more stars not less because if you are talking to yourself while reading the book, its got you. Full disclosure, I entered a contest on EpicReads and was sent this book for free. It doesn’t get officially published until 1/19/16.
**Spoilers Below**
Claude Monet & Dora
Tonight Samantha read Dora’s Mystery of the Missing Shoes and I read Claude Monet: The Painter Who Stopped the Trains to Samantha. Listen to her audio review below.
The Velveteen Rabbit Christmas
Tonight Samantha read The Velveteen Rabbit Christmas and Daddy read Princesses Are Not Quitters. The audio review is below.
Play with Blue
Tonight Samantha read Play with Blue all by herself! Daddy finished reading Scooby-Doo and the Howling Wolfman to Samantha.
Dixie
Tonight Samantha read Dixie with just a little help from Daddy. We also started to read Scooby-Doo and the Howling Wolfman.
Black Beauty
Tonight we read Scooby-Doo! Museum Madness and a recommendation from Grandpa Duane Black Beauty. Earlier in the day we read My Brother Martin by Christine King Farris.
Jake Drake Bully Buster
We finished a new Jake drake book tonight, Jake Drake Bully Buster. We read it in only two nights. And we read another book as well Scooby-Doo and the Mummy’s Curse.
