Month: Jan 2026

December Reading Wrapup

Well into January and I’m only just finding time to share my final reading wrapup of 2025.

One More for Christmas by Sarah Morgan

Kicked off my December reading with a Sarah Morgan book about a successful woman who has been estranged from her adult daughters, Samantha and Ella, for the last five years. An accident at work forces her to reflect on her choices, and she invites herself to spend Christmas with her daughters who happen to be visiting an estate in the Scottish Highlands for Christmas. I love how relatable Sarah Morgan’s female characters are, they’re all navigating something like grief, estrangement, motherhood, secrets, regret and trying to be more authentic, but the romantic subplot was the weakest part for me.

It Always Snows on Mistletoe Square by Ali McNamara

This is the story of Elle who finds her way to a Georgian house home to two eccentric women, Estelle and her housekeeper, who want to employ her to write Estelle’s family history. There’s a fair bit of magic realism in this one, but as much as I loved glimpses of Estelle’s family history and the ripple effects that one person can have on the world around them, I didn’t like the love-at-first-sight romance between Elle and Ben, and the almost flippant references to addiction, adoption and AIDS as plot devices.

Strong Female Character by Fern Brady

Started the year by listening to Katherine May’s autobiographical account of late diagnosis of autism, and by strange coincidence ended the year by listening to Scottish comedian Fern Brady’s account of being diagnosed in adulthood too. It’s a fascinating insight into sexist biases in the medical profession that lead to women being late diagnosed or misdiagnosed with other disorders, in Fern’s case anxiety and OCD. I really enjoyed this view into an autistic woman’s lived experience and it ended up being one of my favourite reads of the year.

A Highland Christmas by MC Beaton

This was an impulse purchase that turned out to be my favourite Christmas read so far. This seems to be a bit of anomaly in a murder mystery series as instead of a death, PC Hamish MacBeth finds himself conducting enquiries into the theft of a town Christmas tree and lights, and the disappearance of a pet cat. Thoroughly enjoyed this humorous tale of grumpy, superstitious, gossiping folk the Scottish Highlands reluctantly finding some Christmas cheer and community spirit.

Greenwild by Pari Thomas

I actually started Greenwild over a year ago but put it down for a while. I wanted to love this middlegrade fantasy adventure about a secret world of botany and magic, but it didn’t quite work for me. Greenwild follows a girl called Daisy whose mother goes missing and her determination to find her mother leads her into a hidden world of plants. There are some really poignant moments about grief and some pertinent commentary on environmental issues, but overall I found the pace of this quite slow in places.

Have a lovely week! X

Wonderful Christmastime!

Hello and Happy New Year from frosty Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 December was a lovely month, but a busy one that passed in a blur.

Before Christmas, my husband and I had a rare childfree night out where we went for dinner at our favourite Mexican restaurant and finally got to see Hamilton on tour. We don’t go to the theatre very often but have thoroughly enjoyed everything we’ve seen, and Hamilton is definitely one of our favourites with incredible music, set design and fascinating storyline.

It always feels like a bit of a marathon to get everything ready on time, and there’s a lot of pressure to make Christmas magical for the kids. Our oldest daughter woke early on Christmas morning, excited to see if Father Christmas had been. We let the kids open their stockings and some of their gifts upstairs before we let them wake up their grandparents so they could get stuck into their gifts from us and them. It’s become our tradition to host Christmas as my husband is an excellent cook and it’s easier to keep the kids entertained at home while we prepare lunch. After lunch, there were family boardgames and bike rides.

On New Year’s Eve, we returned to the theatre to see The Little Mermaid, our first pantomime with the girls, which  exceeded all expectations, full of beautiful costumes, clever special effects and some very topical, risquΓ© humour.

We had lunch with my parents and a family friend on New Year’s Day, which was a gentle way to welcome the New Year in. Though 2026 is off to a bumpy start as my father took a tumble on New Year’s Eve and it turns out he’s fractured his ankle and requires surgery to pin it back together, so there’s been hospital visits too as well as some lovely get togethers with out extended families too.

My husband and I like to have a walk on the beach early in the New Year and we headed to Lunderston on the 2nd. Lunderston has become our default beach because the kids love the playpark next to the beach and it also has public toilets (a necessity now that the girls are both out of nappies). We watched the sun climb over the horizon as we combed the beach for interesting shells and stones. It’s been fairly cold here in Scotland for the past week, and the kids enjoyed cracking the ice that had formed over the rock pools.

My daughter received a journal for Christmas and it’s been a lovely way to end the day with her taking some time to write three things she enjoyed from her day and practising her writing before she bounces off to bed. It’s also inspired me to start my own gratitude journal, something I did for years previously.

After all the excitement and merriment of the festive season, we’ll take our decorations down today and we’re all back to work, school and nursery tomorrow

Wishing everyone the very happiest New Year! πŸŽ‡πŸŽ‰πŸ₯‚