My holds list at the library tends to get out of control in December and January as best-of lists begin to appear, but this year stress has moved the needle to near-full earlier than usual. I haven’t hit the 25-item request limit yet, but will soon if I’m not careful, particularly because three of the items are still on order.

Here’s what I’ve requested from the library:

• Tana French’s The Witch Elm
• The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez
• The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, by Jeffrey C. Stewart
• Flights, by Olga Tokarczuk
• The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, by M.T. Anderson
• A Treasury of African American Christmas Stories, edited by Bettye Collier-Thomas
• Kate Milford’s Ghosts of Greenglass House
• Donald Hall’s Christmas at Eagle Pond
• All Summer Long, By Hope Larson
• T. E. McMorrow’s The Nutcracker in Harlem
• The Emissary, by Yōko Tawada
• A.J. Pearce’s Dear Mrs. Bird
• Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi
• Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black
• Allie Rowbottom’s Jell-O Girls: A Family History
• Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing
• An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
• There There, by Tommy Orange
• Becoming, by Michelle Obama (I’m also on the audio wait list, which I’d prefer, but I suspect neither will come through before the end of the year)

What have you put a hold on at the library?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic asks about our favorite non-romantic relationships in literature. I’ve opted for friendship over family in my list:

1. Harry and Hermione (Harry Potter series)
2. Lupin and Sirius (Harry Potter series)
3. Harry and Ron (Harry Potter series)
4. Anne and Diana (Anne of Green Gables series)
5. Jo and Laurie (Little Women — is this cheating, since we all know they should have ended up together?)
6. Mary and Colin (The Secret Garden)
7. The Walkers and the Blacketts (The Swallows and the Amazons)
8. Ove and Parvaneh (A Man Called Ove)
9. Agnieszka and Kasia (Uprooted)
10. Charlotte and Mrs. Watson (The Lady Sherlock series — to be fair, Sherlock and Watson are a fantastic duo in pretty much every iteration of the characters/stories)

How about yours? What are your favorite platonic relationships in books?

My folks went out to the town of Union yesterday to buy their Christmas tree. We tromped all over the farm hunting for a tree with branches strong enough to hold their heavy ornaments and soft enough not to prick fingers and in the Goldilocks range for size.

Finally we found an interesting one and decided that would be best:

This is a concolor fir. The branches seem firmer than most firs, and the needles long but not sharp. And it has a citrusy piney scent, which smells delightful.

I think my folks picked well, don’t you?

Wishing you a peaceful Sunday, whether it’s being spent on the road or at home. We have one more day in Connecticut before we head back down south & I’m looking forward to filling it with good memories.

Mum, Dad, and I made dozens of Spritz cookies this afternoon, but the cookie press broke in the midst of the final batch. Mum was not deterred and improvised with the last of her dough, and I used up all the sprinkles I would otherwise have needed to return to their containers with some decorating that looks done by someone more four than 44.

The snowman, provided for comparison, is the size of the average Spritz cookie.

Tomorrow, we’re off to get them a tree and to get it inside before the rain begins in the evening.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a wonderful holiday surrounded by or in touch with your loved ones and were able to partake in a delicious meal.

Rudi and I made it to my folks’ house just before dawn and I have spent all day drowsing uselessly in between meals. I’m calling it an early night in the hopes of starting tomorrow feeling more energetic.

But before I do, I wanted to share three beautiful things from my past week:

1. As you remember, I got myself lost on Sunday and had to call Rudi and check the maps on my phone in order to get home. If that had happened when I was 20, I would have had to call him from a pay phone and he would have needed to find my location on an atlas.

2. Our longtime cat sitter retired to another state, so we had to find another one. I got a photo of Corey texted to me this afternoon by the fellow who is feeding them this weekend.

3. Both the moonset this morning and the sunset this afternoon were spectacular.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?