December Life Lately

Happy 2021! It feels a bit weird looking back on December after my last few posts looking back on the whole of 2020, but here's what I did in the last month of the year...

What I did




I wore 25 different lipsticks throughout December. I blogged about them here.

I also completed my second full month of daily yoga with Adriene's Honor calendar. I've loved doing yoga every day! I always forget how much I love it and how much it chills me out, and of course the more I do it the better I become and the more I enjoy it! I was originally planning to keep going with the January 30 days which I normally do every year, but I've decided to try something new for January. I've just started using a new fitness app, Fiton, which is free, and I really like it so far, but I've heard great things about the Peloton app too.



Phil and I got really into cocktails in December, thanks to two things. One was I did a zoom cocktail making class with one of our suppliers at work, and not only was it amazing fun, but they also provided us with an excellent cocktail shaker, as well as all the drinks we needed for mixing. Then, after months of trying to find the perfect one, Phil found a drinks trolley he liked, so of course we had to fill it! Our drinks trolley so far is nearly entirely gin and whisky, so I've been learning about gin-based cocktails and had so much fun making them. My favourite at the moment is a Gimlet.



I've mentioned before the work we've been doing on the house, and in December we finally finished the hall. We added a radiator cabinet, a lovely new mirror and we got some shoe racks from Etsy which I painted white to match the walls and floor. 



I was gutted to find out a few weeks about that one of my favourite podcasts, The High Low, was finishing after four years. I was super late to The High Low and only discovered it last year (soooo much back catalogue to work through - the best!) so I was particularly gutted to find out it was finishing. However they did one last High Low episode in December - a live episode for charity. It was so lovely and I got Phil (and Bob) to watch it with me. It was the perfect ending.



Christmas was obviously a little bit different this year. I was so gutted we couldn't do Christmas Day parkrun this time and I really loved hosting Christmas Dinner here last year (even though cooking for 9 people was super stressful!). This year we had a lovely time taking Bob for a Christmas Day walk, saw my parents and video called Phil's family and had a really lovely day. I got loads of jumpers, socks, pyjamas and slippers, plus a few games and lots of other lovely things. It wasn't quite the Christmas we wanted but we had a lovely day.



I was hoping to get out for lots of walks between Christmas and New Year, but due to lots of snow it wasn't quite possible! I did manage a doorstep present exchange with my friend Riven who made me the most incredible tote bag and kindle case in the most beautiful book fabric.

I've never been super bothered about New Year's Eve, so staying in with my boys was absolutely fine by me! We had lots of party food and a bottle of fizz, and we watched Hamilton to keep me awake til midnight!

What I loved

I'm currently obsessed with Uniqlo heattech thermals. Our house is freezing, and I'm also really tight, so to keep our bills down I've started wearing a thermal top under my jumper for work. I was about to place an order for more when I asked on Twitter what else I should get from Uniqlo, and my friend Sarah recommended the fleeces. I got a fleece jacket and it's the warmest, cosiest item of clothing I have. I've already ordered a second one from Depop!

I love scouring through end-of-year lists to find the best podcasts of the year, and that's how I discovered the 2020 podcast. It looks back on 00s pop culture with 20 years of hindsight. Episodes I've listened to so far include reality TV, Destiny's Child and Craig David.

Over the summer when I was furloughed I got really really into cross stitch, but as soon as I started working again I completely got out of the habit. I picked up my most recent piece a few weeks ago and I'm really enjoying getting back into it again. I'm working on a super detailed llama cushion and there's so much to do but it's definitely keeping me busy!

What I read

I finished 2020 having doubled my Goodreads goal and hitting 142 books read. This was definitely helped by reading 10 books in December.

Here's everything I read in December:
  • The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
  • Ironopolis by Glen James Brown
  • The Imposter by Anna Wharton
  • Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
  • Long Bright River by Liz Moore
  • Deity by Matt Wesolowski
  • Actress by Anne Enright
  • The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly
  • The Comeback by Ella Berman
  • The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

I was also helped by my local library being open again! I managed to pick up 3 books I've had reserved since March - Hot Milk, Long Bright River and Actress. I particularly loved Long Bright River which I read in about a day.

I had a couple of advanced proofs this month - forever grateful to Netgalley for this! I read the new Laura Purcell, The Shape of Darkness, plus The Imposter, and my favourite book this month, The Office of Historical Corrections.

I also particularly loved The Comeback and Ironopolis.

What I watched

I went hard on the festive content this year. We had a list of all the Christmas films and TV shows we wanted to watch, and due to a lack of Christmas parties and other festivities we managed to watch them all!

Here are our festive film watches:
  • Gremlins
  • Muppet Christmas Carol
  • Home Alone 2
  • Klaus
  • Die Hard
  • It's a Wonderful Life
  • Planes, Trains and Automobiles

New-to-me non-festive watches in December were Mank and Soul and we also revisited Zootropolis and Hamilton, and after a bottle of champagne to celebrate 3 years since we got engaged on Boxing Day, I finally got Phil to watch Cats!

We also love the Vicar of Dibley specials. The Vicar of Dibley is one of my all-time favourite TV programmes and always reminds me of my parents so I loved the new short episodes that came out this year.

What I read online

Writing Between Pauses - How to set goals for 2021
Alice Slater - #CookJan in 2021

Hope your 2021 is going well so far!

Charlotte x

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