Year End Recap And My Favorite Books of 2015

All of our Christmas celebrations our now over and the year is quickly coming to a close. And of course, that causes reflection of the past year, a reliving of the special moments that made 2015 great. Like the really cool center piece I made for the Falmin' Hot Breakfast.

Or spending the afternoon with the kids in the After School Program in the town where I grew up which was sadly the last time as the program is now shut down.

Hanging out at author fairs and laughing it up on air.

Camping with my family.

 

Having fun at the fair.

Running the Shelby Farm Market and attending Cook Book Club with Emily.

Day trips with the family.

 

Road trippin' with my girl and hangin' with my story sister.

Christmas performances, homemade gifts, cookies, and balloon fun.

 

So many good memories and so many great books as well. And without further ado, here are my favorite reads of 2015 in no particular order.
  

And my all time favorite, number one, brilliant, most incredible, the author was a genious book of the year? Drum roll if you please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me in the New Year for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, the sequels, Return To Fern Valley,  and Cooking In Fern Valley, along with my very first picture book, Quack and Daisy! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Christmas, Cookies, and an Assortment of Bear Books!

I love December and all that it entails. I love celebrating the birth of my Lord and Savior. I love watching A Charlie Brown Christmas for the upteenth time. I love wrapping presents. I love that my family gets to spend two entire weeks together with no school or work. And I love to bake cookies. Lots and Lots of cookies. 

There were my old standbys like Swedish Butter Cookies, Raspberry Cookies, and Date Nut Pinwheels also known as Railroad cookies because railroaders would take them in their lunch pails. In addition, this year I tried several new recipes. I made Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cinnamon Bun Cookies, Iced Oatmeal Cookies, and Italian Ricotta Cookies. Not everything turned out quite how I expected, but it was still a fun experience. The ricotta cookies were iced with sprinkles and looked gorgeous when they dried, however, when I placed them in airtight containers, the moisture in the cookie made the glaze turn gooey like day old donuts. This of course made me fearful to glaze the oatmeal and cinnamon cookies, but thankfully they tasted divine without glaze. I do have to say though, that the chocolate cookies were the absolute best ever.

 

I had quite an assortment of cookies and so I thought I would share an assortment of bear books this week. I'm not sure why, but I do love bears. I have various bear figurines and stuffed bears, some from as far back as my childhood (I know, that is scary old) and some of my favorite childhood books are about bears. So below is my list of  really great bear books both old and new. Enjoy and have a very Merry Christmas!

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, the sequels, Return To Fern Valley,  and Cooking In Fern Valley, along with my very first picture book, Quack and Daisy! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.