#blog12daysxmas Day 12 12 drummers drumming

On the 12th day of Christmas I checked out the words to the song and realized it was 12 drummers drumming. I am not totally sure about what that signifies in any meaningful way for me today but I would like to attempt 12 reflections on what this blogging challenge has meant for me.

1. I found it incredibly challenging to blog every day for 12 days and in fact didn't! I have finished 12 blogposts on time today but there were a couple of days when I did two.
2. On the first day of Christmas I chose to blog on my Hecuba Reads blog because I wanted to talk about getting books for Christmas. Somehow this one-off decision morphed into blogging 12 days on the one blog - ie a blog about reading that I created last year to improve the documentation of my reading.
3. I have three active blogs on quite specific subjects, ie this one on reading, my food blog and my technology blog. Wouldn't it have been easier to spread the blogging amongst the three blogs? YES is the answer as I have several posts waiting for me on the others.
4. I think the reason I stayed put on this blog is that like last January I felt that it would be a good thing to document and explore my reading or lack of reading.
5. My technology blog is called Hecuba's Story and her story ended in November. My half-thought out Animoto tribute to her life is the blogpost I have been meaning to do since then. I planned to do it as part of this blogging challenge but.... The time is not right. So reading stayed as the theme (even though Heccie's name is part of this blog too).
   
6. I really admire the bloggers who stuck to the theme and talked about livestock and maids et al. I tried to do this occasionally but kept on being waylaid by the theme of my reading!
7. @jobeaz was great in outlining every day's action at the beginning of each blog.
8. Documenting books I got for Christmas and my birthday was a great exercise. I love getting books as presents and it is nice to acknowledge such gifts.
9. I love Agatha Christie and it was great to blog about my trip to her house in Devon - finally. Thanks for providing the trigger for this.
   
10. Local history is a particular passion of mine and the books whose publication I have been involved with in this area are very special to me. It was great to share them with you all.
11. My reading and rereading of Elizabeth Peters' works has been a significant reading task I set myself in 2010 so it was good to spend some time assessing where I had got to. I was so pleased that at least one person decided to read her books (or give them a go) as a result of this post.
12. We set up our #librarymysteryamonth challenge! That will be such fun and I am really looking forward to seeing what books Tara Moss comes up with and with sharing the books amongst us. Blogging once a month will be bliss after this daily effort :) Thanks to the 6-8 people who have put up their hands.

Thanks to all of you who participated in this #blog12daysxmas. It has been great sharing the days with you all! I have found myself looking forward to reading your posts even if doing it myself did become a bit of a chore.

In parallel to the #blog12daysxmas was the #twitterlibrarysecretsanta and this featured in some of the blogs. I have illustrated this post with a photo of my #twitterlibrarysecretsanta Christmas tree posing before a painting by Australian science fiction writer Sean McMullen of a fictional account of a Roman landing in Western Australia. This photo brings together lots of things for me and I used it today for my #2011PAD, a challenge I joined during the 12 Days of Christmas.