Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Why Can’t I Sleep Time!
I hope we all survived the first round of the “holidays” relatively unscathed and are ready to tackle the last bit of this year.
Today’s musing is about one of my favorite new traditions—Book Advent!
I am not a religious person but I truly appreciate the positive aspects of religious and cultural tradtions-especially during the year-end celebrating season. I love the idea and meaning of Advent—waiting and preparing for something wonderful.
I got the idea for Book Advent a few years ago from Instagram. I wish I had saved and remembered who’s post I saw, but it was about giving a child a book each day of December till the 24th. I would have loved that as a kid! (I admit I was such a book lover child that I was overjoyed to receive a dictionary as a Christmas gift (twice)-also, I am an old millenial that used paper dictionaries-haha!).
I got to do this tradtion for the first time last year while my sister was still pregnant with her now 9 month old twin boys. Picking out 24 books for babies I had not met was so much fun—this year was even more fun and meaningful as I have gotten to know them and see their personalities grow.
What does this have to do with vintage, thrift, bookstores (well, obviously bookstores were involved in buying the books), or bars? Well, not much with some of those things, but thrift was definitely the priority when purchasing these books. I actually started soon after 2021 began. Whenever I visited a thrift store, Goodwill, or Salvation Army store I’d check the books section for good quality books that a baby would enjoy or classic childhood books that my sister, her husband or I would enjoy reading to the boys. I believe I only purchased one brand new book for this year, all the rest are from
Thriftbooks.com (if you don’t know about this website and love books or love giving books—whoa!)
Goodwill and Salvation Army stores in my town
The Book Barn - an awesome local used bookstore
Used bookstores in Sacramento and Chico , CA-visiting used bookstores and thrift stores while traveling is THE BEST!
I will look forward to Book Advent from now on and can’t wait to select books for the boys specific interests as they grow up. Will they be into comic books? Books about science, history, coloring books, arts and crafts books? #BookWormExcitement
Has anyone else done a Book Advent for their kids, friends’ kids or grandchildren or for an adult that really loves to read? What age did they stop wanting 24 books to unwrap or what did you do with all the previous years books? I know my sister is planning on donating many of the books once the boys outgrow them but I hope that she keeps a few from each year—she can always store them at Auntie Sarah’s house!
I haven’t written much about the “Bar” aspect of my Bookstore.Thriftstore.Bar dream/theme/what-have-you so today I wanted to include a seasonal drink recipe I found on the Target app and modified for a jolly good happy-hour-at-home last Friday.
Target’s Batch Cranberry Moscow Mules
I modified their ingredient quanitites to make this drink for two.
Needed: limes, vodka, cranberry juice, ginger beer, ice, cocktail shaker, garnishes: slice of lime, cranberries, or other frozen berries (I love this frozen mix, also from Target—I put them in every drink I have that isn’t beer, coffee or tea)
Juice 3 limes
Put ice cubes in cocktail shaker or big tumbler/drink glass you use for mixing cocktails
Add about half a shot’s glass worth of the lime juice to the cocktail shaker
add 1 shot+ of vodka (we used Stoli) to the shaker
add 1 shot cranberry juice to the shaker
SHAKE/MIX it up
use a strainer to pour the mixed drinks into two chilled glasses. Add a splash or more of ginger beer to each glass and toss in your garnishes.
Cheers!
Wishing us all a happy December. I’m doing my best to incorporate as much thrift and vintage and good drinks into all of my holiday giving and celebrating this year.
Thank you so much for reading!