Best of ’18

Did anyone do it? Did anyone actually walk 2 miles a day or eat five vegetables each day in 2018? I didn’t. But I did do some really exciting stuff! Today I’m sharing my top 10 things I did in 2018 — things I saw, things I did, things I tried and recommend you try!

Celtic Nights.
This is how to start a year off right! I went with two of my best friends to the Midland Center for the Arts and saw Celtic Nights on St. Patrick’s Day. For Sarah and I, the Center was local, but Emma had quite a drive, but we made a weekend of it, so that was fine. I believe our tickets were about $36 each, and we had really good seats, near the isle but not far from the front rows.
If you haven’t been there, Midland Center for the Arts is a beautiful venue! I’d never been in the auditorium before and it was just gorgeous — clean, comfortable, and like the rest of the building, everything had meaning. For example, the theme of the room is trees: the ceiling lights are made of thousands of light-reflecting pieces of glass, all different to represent the leaves of a tree. The seats are green like a tree.
The show was amazing! Emma’s birthday is also on St. Patrick’s day and she said it was the most Irish thing she’d ever done on her birthday.
Celtic nights followed the tale of the Irish people’s heritage, their many reasons for leaving their beloved homeland to come to America, and the new lives they built here. There were dancers, several types of instruments and of course wonderful singers! They even had a sing-along in which they sat on the edge of the stage and talked with the audience and sang popular tunes like “Whiskey in the Jar,” and “Danny Boy.” They also had a meet and greet time after the show!
I’d definitely recommend seeing them sometime and check out Midland Center for the Arts! They have many types of shows throughout the year including theatre, Broadway shows, comedy, and much more!
Later in the year, I went back to the Center for the Arts with another friend and we saw Whose Live Anyway? Which of course is the touring portion of the popular T.V. show, Whose Line Is It Anyway? We went for Carolyn’s birthday and it was again an amazing show! Anyone who’s seen the TV show knows there is a fair amount of adult humor, but it was a blast for us! Definitely a high point was seeing Ryan Stiles in person after watching him on TV for years.
They had a lot of audience involvement and the sketches were a lot of fun! We laughed until our sides hurt!
Whose Live tours every year with various members of the TV cast. Check out their tour schedule!
One of my new “Happy Places” movies came out in 2018: Peter Rabbit. This was a really fun adaptation of the Beatrix Potter books! You can read my review of the movie here.
Diamonds To Die For.

This is one of the first books I reviewed with Hidden Gems and I loved it! It is a romantic mystery/suspense and it was one of the best mysteries I have read in a long time!
Book blurb (all rights to Kathryn Jane):
An old flame, a cold fire, and the will to live.When the men in her life start dropping like flies, Kate will sacrifice everything to keep an old love safe.

But Jason knows who the killer is…

A horse trainer and a private detective might seem like an unlikely pair, but they have a steamy history neither one would mind revisiting if she wasn’t in mortal danger and if he wasn’t fighting to keep her alive.

Join Kate while she runs for her life, avoids trouble, and is for the most part successful. As for keeping Jason at arm’s length? Well, as a former jockey she knows, you can’t win ‘em all.

I loved the suspense in this book and really it almost left like two different stories to me, the plot twists were that good! Because at first you’re just reading along in “happy-solve-the-mystery” land, and suddenly the MC changes the entire game and you’re reading almost an entirely different character!
Hidden Gems. I’m not going to go into great detail here, because I reviewed this site in last week’s post. But I am a huge fan of Hidden Gems! They are a site where you can read ARCs for free in exchange for an honest review on Amazon. They are worth checking out if you like to read and want to give reviewing a try — and they are not just fiction books!
Critter Haven.
Critter Haven is a Middle Grade, Dark Fantasy novel that just released a few days ago! I was fortunate enough to be a beta reader for this book and I really enjoyed it! I am expecting my copy any day now, and I will be re-reading a posting a review for you guys as soon as possible (I need a refresher on what all went on). But the story revolves around Koda and Sully, two hamster brothers who get way more than they bargained for when they sneak out of their cages on Christmas Eve. What follows is a world of totems, tricksters, critters and friendship.

Book blurb (all rights to Angelina Moretti):
A PERILOUS ADVENTURE OF THE WORLD’S DARKEST LEGENDS, FROM NATIVE AMERICAN TO EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY. For house rodents Sully and Koda, sharing a room with an ill-tempered bearded dragon is as dangerous as it gets. That is, until on a night of disaster they leave their burrows for the first time and enter the forest where deep within hide the wooden heads of monsters. Gruesome, weathered by floods, the totem poles guard a precious secret: a world without humans beneath the forest floor. The world is eerily familiar to home aside from a starry sky made of faces, Tricksters that glow seafoam green, and a new creature, the Smoking Beast, who soon could be the death of everything Sully and Koda care for. To return to Giant’s nest, the brothers must rescue the Haven in a race against Critter-eating totems.
Fuller House.
Gotta say, I was skeptical. I grew up on Full House and I thought no way could a spin-off be as good. Well, I still don’t know if it’s “as good”, but I was pleasantly surprised by this series! I’m so happy to see the old house again and the first episode was a reunion show of sorts that included Jessie, Becky, Joey, and Danny as well as Kimmy, Stephanie, DJ, and DJ’s three boys. I started watching during Christmas break and I’m now about half way through season two. I’m loving how DJ and Steph turned out and how they’re handling their new lives together. It still feels like a great family show, tackling age-old things kids go through every day, along with new issues brought up by social media. And ya’ll have no idea how much I’ve missed that theme song!
Last Man Standing came back!
I’m a big fan of this show as well! My family didn’t discover it until the show was on its second season and we were so disappointed when it was cancelled for “totally not political reasons.” Thing about this show is it does show both sides of a lot of social, political, religious, and family topics we all deal with every day. And true to Tim Allen, he pokes fun at both sides — because that’s what comedy does. Real comedy brings out points on both sides of the spectrum. Now, do I think it’s a highly conservative, right-winged show? Yes. BUT, note that Mandy, Kyle, Kristen, and Ryan lean the other way, and while fun is poked at them now and then, they are still loved and valued by their family and that, I think, is what brings the show together.
The Invisible Library.
This is another book that I tried out this year and I was highly impressed by! It’s a fantasy novel and it includes some of my favorite things: mystery, magic, dragons, friendship, and people who just really understand how to treat books! You can check out my review for The Invisible Library here.
BookBookOwl.
BookBookOwl is a profile I follow in Instagram, and in November, I decided to treat myself with some bookmarks, so I placed an order with Jen. They arrived promptly and in fantastic shape, considering they come to the U.S. from Australia. Jen’s bookmarks are amazingly beautiful and come in themes ranging from book quotes to Hogwarts Houses to Christmas themes! Check her out, follow her, get some beautiful bookmarks for your bookish collection!