Personal Thanksgiving Read-a-thon (aka Vacation)

My husband, kids, and I on the beach.

I'm a homebody. The person who likes vacation time, but is just as happy spending it at home. There's a word for it now...staycation. It's about time! I mean, I can read anywhere, so I might as well read in the convenience of my family and home, right? There's more to it than that I'm sure, and I don't know why, but it's just the way I am. Homebody for life.

But when the holidays roll around, I can't help but notice people traveling...usually visiting family or going to a beach. Only once have I ever spent a holiday away from home. In high school my band marched in the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade - we were even on National TV! Besides that, I've NEVER spent a major holiday away from home, but I've always been curious. What would it feel like to take a trip mid year? (We're talking teacher year here people, August to July.)

Well, my question was answered this Thanksgiving, as my parents, siblings, husband, kids, and I (and even our dogs) made a trip to Avon, North Carolina, a town within OBX, for the Thanksgiving week. We stayed in a beautiful beach front beach house that was plenty big for our family. The purpose: a most relaxing trip, just to spend time with family and be thankful for some really big things my family came through this year. Of course, this also meant reading for me. I took the last of my TBR Challenge books, thinking realistically maybe I'd get to two - Memoirs of a Geisha and The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

To die for book nook all on its own at the top of the stairs.

As luck would have it, our beach house came with its own personal reading nook. At the very top of a fourth flight of stairs sits this one little space with two chairs and chandelier displaying windows that overlook the neighborhood. On a beautiful day with the windows open or a cold day wrapped in a fleece blanket (I experienced both), that reading nook was a dream come true! I napped there daily too! My little dog was by my side every single minute! She loved it as much as I did.

Samoa, my cuddly bookworm buddy.

As usually happens, I didn't read as much as I thought I would. Vacations typically consist of a fair amount of down time, but we spent it eating, playing cards, napping, watching Thanksgiving specials, shopping, walking the beach, and playing with the dogs. The dogs were quite entertaining...my little dachshund didn't want to be near any other dog or person except for me, and routinely barked and growled at my siblings' dogs, which was quite unexpected. She's usually so friendly and knows all of my family well. (Meanwhile, my typically high maintenance dog, Chloe, was at my in-laws being an angel. Go figure.)

When I did read, it was Memoirs of a Geisha. Although I didn't finish it, I definitely had enough time to get myself invested in the story and hungry to finish it! My TBR Pile Challenge 2014 is going to be a close call, if I make it!

Oh and of course, I bought a book on my trip. I picked up a secondhand copy of Case Histories by Kate Atkinson at an Indie bookstore called Buxton Village Books in the next town over. It was one of my first experiences with locally owned booksellers. The secondhand section was full of big names and titles, so selection was not a problem.There were so many books to look through, I figured I'd go with an author I'd read and liked before.  My daughter picked up a handmade wool hat and my husband bought a beautiful nautical journal for our son. It was a cozy little place with some unique gifts.

Any lovely ways in which you've spent favorite holidays?