WINNER!

Hello, everyone! Who can guess what this post is all about?

Yep, that's right! I won NaNoWriMo 2012! That means that I wrote 50,000 words. It's actually 50,120 words, to be exact. I still have a little more of my novel to write before it's actually finished plotwise, but nowhere near as much as I had left when I finished my Camp NaNoWriMo novel in July.

In other news, Thanksgiving was very fun. We had a sort of potluck Thanksgiving dinner with our Bible Study, which was awesome. One of the families has a smoker, so we had smoked turkey, which is pretty much my favorite kind of turkey. Mommy made butterhorns and these turkey cookies that involve Rice Krispie treats, Oreos, frosting, and candy corn. Both were very, very, very yummy. After we were finished eating, my friends and I played Settlers of Cataan and two games of Phase 10. I also enjoyed seeing one of my friends who I haven't seen for several months.

The day after Thanksgiving was spent mostly in shopping and putting up the Christmas tree. We put the Christmas tree in the corner this year, instead of in the middle of the room, and I think it actually looks better that way. I also decided that this year, I'm going to write my own Advent calender. The main reason for this is that most of our Advent calenders have been done at least a half-dozen times each (or so it seems), and we've done my favorite one so many times that I've memorized it.

In other news, I plan to start listening to the Blood of Kings series, which the friend I mentioned earlier recommended to me. The author, Jill Williamson, did a free podcast of her reading the books, so I was able to download those. Now I just need to find some kind of project to work on while I listen to them. I've also been reading the Sherlock Holmes short stories. I'm really enjoying them, though I very rarely even come close to solving the mystery. Once I finish Sherlock Holmes, I'm going to reread the Legends of Karac Tor series. I read this series over the summer and very much enjoyed them.

Well, that's about it. Thanks for stopping by!

Namarie!

- Sarah

A Birthday and NaNoWriMo

Hello, everyone!It seems that my blog is mostly dead . . . at least with this post it'll be slightly alive! I apologize for not posting more. I think you'll understand why when you take a look at this:

That, in case you can't tell, is my NaNoWriMo word count, as of 3:45 PM today. Very spiffy, no? I'm having a ridiculous amount of fun with it too, especially since I'm currently pretty close to the climax. And have I mentioned lately how much I love some of my characters? (Particularly Gwen and Emma Alyron?) It does keep me fairly busy, though. Most days, I aim for about 1,800 words. As you can see, my average is a little above that.

However, NaNoWriMo isn't the only thing going on around here, though it might seem like it is sometimes. A few days ago, I celebrated my birthday! I had a lot of fun. My dad and I went to the Botanical Gardens in D.C. in the morning. Since it's an indoor garden, there were still lots of nice plants and flowers to take pictures of. I'll make sure to post pictures once I finish editing them. It'll be a few more days, though, since I only just started editing today.

Later that day, my family and I went to Anita's for dinner. Anita's is a New Mexican style restaurant that I love. I had a Taco and Taquito Dinner, which was very yummy, especially since it had been an extremely long time since I had a taquito. 

After dinner, we came home to eat cake and open presents. As you may recall, I got a recurve bow back in July, which was actually a very early birthday present. On my actual birthday, I also got a Barnes&Noble gift card, a box of chocolate covered cherries, The Princess Bride movie, and the Hobbit movie calender! I was extremely excited about the movie and calender. The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies, and I think most people know how obsessed I am with The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I absolutely love the calender pictures too. July has the absolute coolest picture of Elrond I've ever seen; he looks very action-y and yet very wise at the same time. That's kind of how I originally pictured him when I first read about him in The Hobbit: incredibly wise, and yet incredibly powerful. December's picture is of Legolas, complete with bow and arrows. I'm not sure if I like the elf or the bow better. The one thing I don't like about the picture is that Legolas is wearing black, and I just don't usually picture him wearing that color. (Aragorn or Elrond, sure. But not Legolas.) The dwarves are also growing on me, especially Thorin, Kili, and Bofur. I still don't like Nori's hair, though. 

After I opened presents, we had cake. Mommy made me a chocolate-cherry cake that looked like one of the notebooks I write my stories in. I was going to post a picture, but they're all on Daddy's computer, unfortunately. We also had cherry-chocolate chip ice cream with the cake, which was very yummy. Then we watched The Princess Bride. I think I like that movie more every time I watch it. After that, it was late, so I went to bed. All in all, it was an excellent birthday.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Namarie!

- Sarah