I know we’re already 11 days into the year, so it might be a little late to still be talking about 2016, but I’ve kind of been getting a slow start to this year. In fact, I really haven’t given much thought to my goals for the year yet…this blog is called Grace to Grow, right? So I’m giving myself to grow into 2017 slowly. There’s nothing magical about January 1st! So in the meantime, I thought I would share some of my favorite things from last year.
TV Shows: When Calls the Heart, Designated Survivor, and Fixer Upper // Last winter I started watching When Calls the Heart, and I loved it! Something about the sweet community and the simpler times made it the perfect show to watch while working on an embroidery project. This fall, we also started watching Designated Survivor, and it’s been really good! It’s a really intriguing concept, and fascinating to think about how a situation like that might really play out. It’s a good inside look into life as the President, too. And then, of course, everyone’s favorite: Fixer Upper! It’s been popular for a while, but I didn’t start watching it until the newest season started in November. My sister and I watched quite a few episodes while she was home for Christmas break, and now we’re hooked 😉
New (to me) Authors: Sibella Giorello and Sarah Sundin // I couldn’t pick just one favorite author I found last year! They have really different writing styles and they write in really different genres, but I really love their books 🙂 Sibella Giorello writes the Raleigh Harmon mystery series about a really smart, capable, FBI agent who works on some really tough cases. Sarah Sundin writes WWII romance, and her most recent series has a little bit of mystery too! I’ve either read or ordered every book by both of these authors, and I can’t wait for their next books!
Kindle Unlimited Author: Jenn Faulk // I read a few of Jenn Faulk’s books during my free trial of Kindle Unlimited, and I was really excited when my parents gave me a year’s subscription for Christmas! I’ve already read 15 of her books since Christmas 🙂
New Series: Montana Rescue by Susan May Warren // My favorite new series that started in 2016 is definitely the Montana Rescue series by Susan May Warren, including the Montana Fire prequel series that came out in the summer. I can’t wait for the next three books in the series to come out this year, starting with a new one at the end of this month!
New Book: The Magnolia Story // I read so much last year, I’m really having to stretch to come up with different categories for all my favorite books 🙂 So my favorite new stand-alone book from 2016 is The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines! I read it right after I started watching their show, Fixer Upper, and I loved getting to hear about how they met, how they got their business going, and how they’ve overcome the challenges they’ve faced. Now when I watch the show I feel like I know them a little bit better!
Podcast: The Boundless Show // I never really listened to podcasts before 2016, but now I have several that I really like! My favorite, though, would have to be the Boundless Show by Focus on the Family. It’s geared toward single adults, especially young adults, and I love the variety of topics they cover.
Blog: Phylicia Delta // Phylicia’s blog is one of my all-time favorites, and I always read every one of her posts. I especially enjoyed her productivity series in December, and I love that she does live videos on Facebook to go along with a lot of her posts!
Blog Post: I haven’t written a whole lot of blog posts, since I just started blogging in September, but I think this post was one of my favorites to write. I love reliving the vacation my family took to Alaska! That was the best vacation we’ve been on, and we all have so many fun memories.
Instagram Photo: I love this photo I posted last April! It really shows how crazy our weather can be in the spring 😉 Plus, it turns out that this is one of the most recent pictures we have of our dog, who had to be put down in October.
Well, now that I’ve relived some favorite moments from 2016, it’s time to get started on planning for 2017!
What were some of your 2016 favorites?