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Here we’re on the finish of the 12 months! I’ve stated a lot about 2022 in my year-end recap posts that I gained’t go on any longer. Let’s simply check out the month.
More than something, December was all about Christmas — and also you’ll see it within the images. I ended up celebrating Christmas unexpectedly throughout 4 international locations this month.
I additionally learn lots of good books, discovered some kickass eating chairs, and welcomed a kitty to our residence quickly.
Let’s check out what went on in December 2022.
Destinations Visited
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Vienna, Austria
- London, Coulsdon, and Watford, England
- Reading, Revere, and Wakefield, Massachusetts
- Nashua, New Hampshire
Highlights
A implausible Christmas market journey to Vienna. Surprisingly, Charlie and I’ve by no means been to Austria collectively! We’ve each been to Vienna a number of instances, and it’s by no means been one in all our absolute favourite cities, however we determined to take a look at their legendary Christmas markets.
Well, they have been FANTASTIC. Some of the very best I’ve ever visited in Europe. A great quantity of variety in markets (some extra adult-oriented, some higher for handmade items, some extra art-oriented). Tons upon tons of flavors of gluhwein and punsch, making cities that serve one single taste of mulled wine appear to be a joke.
We additionally obtained to hang around with our Vienna buddies, Becki and Markus, in addition to Becki’s dad, and revel in a market night, adopted by their favourite native Irish pub.
My greatest suggestion? Wear thermals. It was VERY chilly (temperatures hovered simply above freezing, which isn’t whilst chilly as it may be there). My Uniqlo thermal prime and leggings stored me really having fun with the journey, and I’d have been depressing with out them.
The World Cup. I watched SOOOOO a lot of the World Cup, and the way extremely satisfying was it? A really wild match up till the top, and I used to be so completely happy for Argentina and Messi.
We purchased a cool retro eating desk and a few equally funky chairs. They’re mid-century fashionable items initially designed for the 1958 Brussels Expo. Despite that, they have been all fairly reasonably priced.
It’s so onerous to search out secondhand furnishings within the Czech Republic that isn’t IKEA. I’m fairly happy about these.
A Friendsmas dinner at Kantyna. Kantyna is OUR PLACE in Prague — it’s half restaurant, half butcher store, dishing up outrageously good steaks and the very best burger on this planet. Kantyna additionally places on a butcher’s dinner known as Dinner Off the Bone, the place they serve you odd cuts.
They paused Dinner Off the Bone when COVID hit however FINALLY introduced it again! We determined to do it for Friendsmas and feasted on crispy pigs’ ears, comfortable pigs’ brains, and truthfully, probably the most scrumptious tripe I’ve ever had.
(The one non-hit? The room-temperature meat in aspic. Ugh. But our buddies’ nine-month-old child couldn’t get sufficient of it!)
Spending my first Christmas with Charlie’s household within the UK. Seeing how a lot his sister decorates her home and serving to Charlie cook dinner a really insane quantity of meals have been two of the highlights.
Lewis and Murray made a brand new furry buddy. Baliček, our buddies’ cat, got here to stick with us for 10 days. We have been curious to see how our cats would react — they haven’t seen different cats since they have been of their foster residence.
It took about 5 days for them to heat up to one another, and required some partitioning and litter field jiujitsu, however they appeared to get alongside fairly effectively by the top! (I feel they’re glad to have us to themselves once more, although.)
Baliček is the sweetest, most loving cat on this planet, and it was good to look at a film with him purring away in your lap!
Challenges
I wasn’t planning to go to the US on the finish of the month, however unhappy information from residence had me reserving a same-day flight to be there for a buddy. I gained’t go into element past that.
I’m grateful to have had miles stashed away so it value me $200 as a substitute of $1500. If you reside distant from family members, you may wish to do the identical.
And for those who’re not into miles, simply having a sturdy emergency fund is so vital. For terrible instances like these, you don’t wish to add monetary stress on prime.
Blog Posts of the Month
December is all about my Best of the Year posts — with a bit further thrown in.
My Favorite New Destinations of 2022 — Naples took the highest crown, however the place else gained my coronary heart?
My Best Travel Moments of 2022 — From getting engaged in Lake Como to crusing the bluest sea in Sardinia.
My Favorite Reads of 2022 — Just 5 books this 12 months (and a much more digestible submit because of this).
My Worst Travel Moments of 2022 — Aaaaaand everybody’s favourite submit of the 12 months. Yes, poop is concerned.
A Visitor’s Guide to Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts — And a bit information to a stunning, underrated city on Martha’s Vineyard.
This Month on Patreon
On the Adventurous Kate Patreon, I publish unique content material and never-told tales which you could entry for $6 per 30 days. We even have a personal Facebook group and members get free entry to the Book Club every month.
This month on the Patreon, I did a submit about my favourite vacation spot of 2022: Naples, Italy. Naples completely blew me away and on this submit, I talked about what I really like most concerning the metropolis and the favourite issues I did.
I additionally wrote a submit concerning the posts that earned probably the most on Adventurous Kate this 12 months — a deep dive into which all-time posts did the very best, and which posts revealed in 2022 did the very best, and why.
And I wrote a bit be aware on the finish of the 12 months about what was occurring.
Book Club This Month
Our subsequent Book Club will happen on Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 1:00 PM ET. We will probably be studying and discussing Son of Elsewhere by Sudanese Canadian creator Elamin Abdelmahmoud.
“At twelve years old, Elamin Abdelmahmoud emigrates with his family from his native Sudan to Kingston, Ontario, arguably one of the most homogenous cities in North America. At the airport, he’s handed his Blackness like a passport, and realizes that he needs to learn what this identity means in a new country.
Like all teens, Abdelmahmoud spent his adolescence trying to figure out who he was, but he had to do it while learning to balance a new racial identity and all the false assumptions that came with it. Abdelmahmoud learned to fit in, and eventually became ‘every liberal white dad’s favorite person in the room.’ But after many years spent trying on different personalities, he now must face the parts of himself he’s kept suppressed all this time. He asks, ‘What happens when those identities stage a jailbreak?’
In his debut collection of essays, Abdelmahmoud gives full voice to each and every one of these conflicting selves. Whether reflecting on how The O.C. taught him about falling in love, why watching wrestling allowed him to reinvent himself, or what it was like being a Muslim teen in the aftermath of 9/11, Abdelmahmoud explores how our experiences and our environments help us in the continuing task of defining who we truly are.”
You can join right here. Hope to see you then!
New Hampshire Way Update
My large achievement this month on my New Hampshire web site, New Hampshire Way, was gathering TONS of e-mail addresses for the publication. This was due to my new lead magnet, a downloadable calendar itemizing all of the Christmas and vacation actions in New Hampshire in 2022.
Guess what number of e-mail addresses it obtained me? 537. That’s big for a small web site. I needed to go up a brand new degree on my ConvertKit plan!
Here are the brand new posts I revealed this month that I feel you may get pleasure from: my submit concerning the Mount Washington Auto Road, which is among the coolest issues you are able to do in New Hampshire, and for those who’re a New Englander, you may wish to take a look at the Jingle Bell Chocolate Tour in Jackson subsequent 12 months!
And I’m very excited for my first New Hampshire Way Mediavine fee to come back in at this time or tomorrow! Finally, I get to the touch the cash the location’s making!
What I Watched This Month
The White Lotus! GOD, I LOVE THIS SHOW! I hope Mike White retains making them for the subsequent decade! So effectively written, such a terrific forged, a wild satire of the wealthy, and the COSTUMES.
Both seasons have been good. I feel the primary was higher concerning the interactions between the completely different visitors. But the second was completely beautiful and I appreciated that they confirmed a very good quantity of Sicily past the resort, all in sun-dappled mild. (Also, enjoyable truth: the seaside scenes have been filmed in Cefalù, not Taormina.)
And guess what? Charlie and I booked a visit to Palermo in February earlier than watching the present! I’m much more excited now.
Beyond The White Lotus, I loved Glass Onion and Nope for movies and An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, a Netflix comedy particular with Steve Martin and Martin Short.
What I Read This Month
I ended up ending 2022 with 33 books learn. The lowest variety of years, and that’s okay. I did end the 12 months with a number of fabulous reads.
Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional by Isaac Fitzgerald (2022) — “Isaac Fitzgerald has lived many lives. He’s been an altar boy, a bartender, a fat kid, a smuggler, a biker, a prince of New England. But before all that, he was a bomb that exploded his parents’ lives-or so he was told. In Dirtbag, Massachusetts, Fitzgerald, with warmth and humor, recounts his ongoing search for forgiveness, a more far-reaching vision of masculinity, and a more expansive definition of family and self.”
First off — I feel we are able to agree that is far and away the very best e-book title of the 12 months! Fitzgerald is my age and grew up poor in rural North Central Massachusetts (My dad: “Was he in Gardner?” Me: “No, Gardner was the place he went when he wanted a metropolis“). Strangely, I really feel like this can be a standpoint not shared fairly often — most New England-specific memoirs are about city life round Boston.
I really like Fitzgerald’s voice, and the way he makes the connections between the violence during which he grew up and a life that led him to bartending in San Francisco, smuggling provides into Myanmar, and in the end discovering forgiveness for his dad and mom. This is a superb e-book and possibly ought to have been on my better of the 12 months record if I had completed it in time.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (2022) — This novel tells the tales of three characters — a Nineteenth-century Englishman leaving for the Canadian wilderness, a Twenty third-century author residing on a Moon Colony, and a Twenty fifth-century detective utilizing time journey to unravel a thriller that entails all three of them.
I fell in love with Emily St. John Mandel’s writing the month earlier than with Station Eleven, and Sea of Tranquility is full of extra splendidly comforting optimism within the face of a scary future. And past that, what’s so good about this novel is how all the pieces steadily connects to one another, nesting doll-style, finally reaching a really satisfying conclusion.
This is an efficient one.
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan (2022) — Frida is a single mom reeling from her husband leaving her for a youthful girl. But then she has a Very Bad Day — she leaves her 2-year-old daughter Harriet alone for a number of hours. When authorities discover out, they sentence her to a 12 months residing within the School for Good Mothers, a prison-like setting that teaches ladies the way to mother or father.
What a freaky, bizarre e-book. The college itself jogged my memory of the film But I’m a Cheerleader — it’s an odd sanitized “how to be” setting set on strict, nearly cartoon-like gender roles. And it was miserable. From the second Frida arrived, it was clear that it could take all the pieces she needed to attain their ridiculous expectations.
This e-book was half dystopian, half sci-fi, and far of it biting satirical commentary about ladies’s rights and views on parenting. Worth a learn for certain.
Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on Becoming an American by Wajahat Ali (2022) — “Growing up living the suburban American dream, young Wajahat devoured comic books (devoid of Brown superheroes) and fielded well-intentioned advice from uncles and aunties. (“Become a doctor!”)
Now a middle-aged dad, Ali has turn into one of many foremost and funniest public intellectuals in America. In Go Back to Where You Came From, he tackles the risks of Islamophobia, white supremacy, and chocolate hummus, peppering private tales with astute insights into nationwide safety, immigration, and popular culture.”
I’ve adopted Ali on Twitter for awhile — he’s a terrific observe. And this story is in some methods the memoir of each baby of Pakistani immigrants who got here of age over 9/11, and likewise a singular story about his household’s “curse” that despatched his dad and mom to jail, amongst different issues. It’s a wild learn, and effectively value it.
I hope he will get on reveals speaking about extra issues in addition to Islam-adjacent subjects. He deserves to.
Rich as Fuck: More Money Than You Know What to Do With by Amanda Frances (2020) — “For too long, the subject of money has been shrouded in fear, secrecy, and anxiety. It’s time to look behind the curtain at money, while stepping into the empowered financial reality that is available to you. Reading Rich As F*ck is sure to ignite an avalanche of change in the most important areas of your life. Once you finally see money for what it is and realize your power over your finances, life will never be the same.”
I learn this e-book primarily as a result of a number of folks I respect are big followers of Amanda Frances. The e-book was respectable, however nothing I hadn’t heard earlier than.
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon (2012) — “Nothing is unique, so embrace affect, college your self via the work of others, remix and reimagine to find your individual path. Follow pursuits wherever they take you—what seems like a passion might flip into you life’s work. Forget the outdated cliché about writing what you already know: Instead, write the e-book you wish to learn, make the film you wish to watch.“
Basically — a cute e-book, a brief e-book, with a pleasant message. Take the work of others you’re keen on and use that to create into unique work of your individual. Stop pressuring your self for those who don’t really feel unique sufficient.
Coming Up in January 2023
Nothing deliberate this month! Last 12 months I got here to the conclusion that January is a month the place I’m impressed, goal-oriented, and able to set up good, onerous work habits for the 12 months forward.
In different phrases, it was a little bit of a waste being in Mexico final January once I was in tremendous hard-working mode. So that’s one thing I’ll take into account for the long run. Let’s save the winter getaways for February on the earliest.
I hope we get a pleasant, large snowstorm and revel in it whereas being cozy indoors.
What are your plans for 2023? Share away!
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