Afternoon all!

It is TIME! Welcome to the newest edition of End of the Year Book Tag! Yes, 2024 is almost over (whut how??).

And it didn’t turn out the year I had hoped to be. At the start of the year my mom suddenly called me out of nowhere (I broke contact with my parents years ago, well specifically my mom) and told me my dad had Alzheimers and was now in a care home. Of course, I almost immediately started planning on going there and ever since that month I have been visiting my dad almost every week. He has his good days and bad days, you never know what you will get. But I do know that for most he is always happy to see me. I am happy I can now see him again, talk to him, be there for him. I love bringing him snacks, magazines, talk to him, clean up things for him. But it is tough, I try to make the most of each moment I visit. Even if it is just a few minutes because he has an off day. So yeah, my plans for 2024 didn’t include a mentally unstable mom, a dad with Alzheimers, and also meeting other family members who are also not easy to deal with. They also didn’t include Coco getting an operation August/September because her hip was bad, she is now slowly getting better, faster, but some days she just doesn’t want to walk/do her therapy stuff.
So yeah, I didn’t really get to baking. Or gardening (though that also has to do with the fact they are working around our neighbourhood with the roads and we have to do some things to the garden because of that). But I did read quite a bit again! I found happiness in moments. My hubby definitely also cheered me up a lot this year and was there for me when things just weren’t going well (thanks love). Coco and I had tons of fun afternoons at the local garden centre (it is like an amusement/theme park for her). Coco is superadorable. One of the libraries I used for gastlenen is now my main library and while at first I wasn’t too happy because I lost a big library I am now delighted with this arrangement because it means I can put reservations on books and pick them up almost immediately as this library is a 10 min walk from my home.

And my blog is still doing well. OK, good, I was planning on taking it more easy and while I definitely eased on some stuff, other stuff not so much, haha. But I don’t mind. I love my blog and I love my readers. My stats were all over the place at times, some months very good, others not so much. But I am happy that people are reading my posts and that people are still discovering my blog!

Last year’s releases I hoped to read: Bookshops & Bonedust (recently bought that), Wow in the World (wanted to buy but too expensive), Kinderen Krijgen is Optioneel (thought it was a GN, but it wasn’t and it was boring), Wedding Peach #1 (loved it + also read the second volume), Jawbreaker (this was MEH so on the DNF stack), Oh. It’s You (LOVED this one). As for three books I wanted to read before the end of the year, Dark Lullaby (another try and another nope), They Come From the Water (loved this one so much), Anger Bang (still need to buy this one, maybe this year??).

And that is it! Thank you all for reading, just like last year I won’t be tagging anyone, but be sure to do this fun tag if it looks like something you want to do! I am always curious what everyone is answering~
I had fun doing this tag, it is a bit of work, but definitely worth it! Here is to hoping I manage reading the books I am planning on reading. Plus, I hope that my 2025 will be a bit quieter, a bit easier, a bit less stressful, a bit less everything meh. Just more love, happiness, and hopefully more baking as well. Less meh surprises and more yay surprises. Let me know in the comments what your plans are + if you have any books you are desperate to read before the end of the year~ 🥰