It’s not Boxing Day, but it is that strange time between Christmas and New Year’s when we’re not actually celebrating anything but we still have to kind of make an effort to be celebratory.  It’s like the day before everyone heads for home.  You’re all still on vacation which you want to keep going but you also sort of want to get things back to normal because all the holiday stuff really is tiring after a few days.

But you also don’t want to go back to work or back to school yet.

It’s a very in-between sort of time.  So we’re probably going to go see the new Star Wars movie later today after which I’m going to finish Lauren Groff’s new book Fates and Furies which has taken a very unexpected turn but is still fabulous.  I will be the last book added to my top ten favorite reads of 2015 list.

We really do have to finally finish washing all of the Christmas Eve dinner dishes, too.  And put all the Christmas coffee mugs away for another year.  This year, for the first time in quite a few years, I got mugs from my students.  When I taught in an elementary school, I got six to eight Christmas mugs a year, but it’s been a while.

Maybe mugs are making a come back.

The best gift I got was the old sign from a Northern Pacific Railway ticket office, black with gold lettering behind glass.  I’m something of a railroad fan, have been since childhood.  This year C.J. outdid himself.  Two signs from the same railroad station, and a deck of playing cards from an old passenger line, the Chessie System.  These could become my next collecting mania.

I have been doing a lot of reading this week.  Quite a few books read and reviewed to end out the year.  Fates and Furies was one favorite another was Patrick Ness’s book A Monster Calls which was a surprise hit for me.  It’s a very preachy book, clearly written to pass along a message to its readers which is something I usually hate in a YA book, but I loved this one.  It all worked very well, made me cry and then made me feel a bit better about the way life works.  It also disturbed me quite a bit.  Full review will follow soon, possibly tomorrow.

The best thing about having the week off was that I could go to a coffee shop almost every day, sit, have a coffee and write up a review.  I really enjoy writing up reviews which I sometimes forget when I’m staring at a pile of books that need reviewing.  Once the task has begun, I remember how much I enjoy it.

We’ve got over 50 people taking the final TBR Dare this time around.  I posted a silly item about Jonathan Franzen and Jennifer Weiner deciding to bury the hatchet and take the TBR Dare yesterday which got much more traffic to this blog than it’s ever had.  It also got a couple of more people to join in, that and the offer of a free pony to the 50th person to sign up.

It’s funny how “false” items like those ended up bringing so many visitors my way.  Many stuck around to check out other posts, as well.

So, here’s hoping you enjoy your in-between time this week.  If you run out of things to do, don’t forget you can still sign up for the TBR Triple Dog Dare.