#R2BC - The New Year Edition

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year.  Mine was a fairly quiet one, as I've written about in my last post.

After some fantastic news yesterday, I am starting off the year in a very cheerful mood, so, without further ado, here are my Reason's to be Cheerful this week:

• I GOT THE JOB!!!  I got the phone call at 7.30pm last night.  I was beginning to think that I didn't get it, then out of the blue, the phone call came through!  I am so stupidly excited.  I have been offered a permanent position within the HR department of the theme park at which I was working at last year.  I start on the 14th January, so I'm now in the mad panic of trying to find childcare for the boys!
• It's a New Year, so new year, new start and all that.  I am determined to make this year a happier year, to beat my depression and to enjoy it more.
• I have set up a Goodreads challenge to read 50 books by the end of 2013.  I am hoping to smash this target and in doing so, hopefully that will also keep me off facebook so much, as I feel that I spend way too much time on there.  I have also joined in with Mama Owls #50Books2013 linky with this and set up a brand new blog dedicated to my book challenge.

I think, for the time being, that is it for this week.  What have you got to be cheerful for this week?

Jackie. x

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  Can you believe it, 2013 is here!  I must admit, I've had a pretty quiet holiday and didn't really get into the party spirit that much.  Hubby & I went out on Christmas Eve for a couple of drinks and ended up getting a bit sloshes, meaning that Christmas morning was spent nursing a hangover!  Thankfully, the boys didn't get us up too early, but the eldest wasn't too happy at being woken up at 7am! (If I was up, so was everyone else that morning! lol).
Other than the hangover, Christmas Day was near enough perfect.  We opened our pressies in the morning and the boys were so excited.  They loved everything that we had got them, including the eldest, so we definitely did something right this year!  My mum and youngest sister came over for an hour or so in the morning and there was another flurry of excitement.  I was really pleased with my pressies this year as well, hubby did a good job!  I got the new J.K. Rowling book - The Casual Vacancy, some Ministry of Sound headphones and a couple of Take That picture books.  My mum then gave us a joint pressie of home-made place-mats and coasters, both of which are gorgeous and my sister gave me a Baylis & Harding foot pampering set which included some slippers, foot cream and foot soak.
Christmas dinner was ok.  Hubby cooked the dinner, as he is the better chef. ;-)  In his hungover state, he did forget some of the essentials though, including the roast potatoes, roast parsnips and stuffing!  We had a three bird roast and roast lamb.  I must admit, I wasn't too keen on the three bird roast, but the lamb was gorgeous.  
During the afternoon my stepdad popped in with his 'friend'.  (He and my mum split up a few years ago).  He had with him a large bottle of pink bubbly, so we popped that open and had a couple of glasses.  That was the only alcoholic drink I had for the whole of Christmas Day!
Boxing Day we had family over for a buffet tea.  My other sister, her husband and step-son, Brandon came over along with my mum and sister.  We talked about our days and exchanged some more gifts.  I think my over-excited boys kind of scared Brandon a little! lol.  I was given a lovely long cardigan from my sister.
The 27th was another family day as we had family over from South Africa.  My Aunty Joan came over for a couple of days before joining her husband in Italy for her holiday and my cousin is also over for a couple of weeks.  We had another buffet tea and more pressies. :-)  This time I was given a South Africa beach bag, a vial of sand and seashells, which were handpicked by my cousin from her holiday home and a tea for one teapot set (which I did get rather excited by as I LOVE teapots!!).
On the 29th all of us girls (me, my mum, both sisters, aunty and cousin) went into London, where we had booked a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.  Other than a mild panic attack on the tube (I hate crowded and enclosed spaces), it was a fantastic day.  The guided tour was fascinating and I would love to watch a live play at the theatre.  It was gorgeous.  After a spot of lunch, we then headed off to Portabella Market for a shopping spree.  We then topped off our evening with an Ann Summers party.  Watching my family doing a relay to put on 4 pairs of knickers (over their trousers) and then take them off starting with the bottom pair was such a funny sight!
New Years Eve was a very quiet one.  We watched 'The Hunger Games' and waited up to watch the bongs of midnight on the BBC.  I watched the fireworks on tv, which were amazing as always, and then went off to bed.
So, how was your Christmas and New Years?  Were you a party animal, or did you have a nice quiet family one as well?
Jackie. x

Last year I took inspiration from Mama Owl's blog and took part in Goodread's Reading Challenge.  I set myself a challenge to read 25 books by the end of the year.

Bearing in mind that I didn't start until halfway through the year, I don't think I did too badly.  I managed to read a total of 21 books.  The majority of these were series books, such as the Sookie Stackhouse series and the trilogy of 50 Shades books.

This year, not one to be beaten, I have doubled the challenge figure and have set myself a goal of reading 50 books by the end of 2013.  I have decided to set up a new blog dedicated to this and will be posting updates and book reviews over at MrsJC's Book Club.  I will also be joining in with Mama Owl in her #50Books2013 link up.

Here are the books that I read during 2012:

1. Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
2. Living Dead in Dallas -  Charlaine Harris
3. Club Dead -  Charlaine Harris
4. Dead to the World -  Charlaine Harris
5. Heidi - Johanna Spyri
6. How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff
7. Fifty Shades of Grey - E.L. James
8. Fifty Shades Darker -  E.L. James
9. Fifty Shades Freed -  E.L. James
10. The White Queen - Philippa Gregory
11. The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory
12. Dead as a Doornail -  Charlaine Harris
13. Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris
14. All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris
15. From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
16. Dead & Gone - Charlaine Harris
17. Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris
18. Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Mayer
19. A Touch of Dead - Charlaine Harris
20. Dead Reckoning - Charlaine Harris
21. Deadlocked - Charlaine Harris

I look forward to seeing you over on my new blog!

Jackie. x