Holiday Blogging: Day Five

 

It's Day Five of Holiday Blogging! Today post is on Holiday traditions. 

There's a few Holiday tradition in my family, they're small but still traditions. 

For years and years we would always buy my mom Kmart Christmas bears (although there are some years missing) But we always buy one or two for her every year or at least we try too. This is this year collection, I actually scored a lot of the years we were missing in a garage sale! and so ALL bears are displayed. 

  

 

When trying to do an offical account on the note I made there's at least 50 bears if not more and there's three more to still add! 

Another BIG BIG tradition is getting me Barbie ornaments, yes almost every years since a kid I have always gotten an Barbie Hallmark Ornament in series. HOWEVER I don't have the ones from the early 90s and I am desperatley missing the 2009 one. 

 

2009 was huge milestone for me, I graduated high school and started college, but I guess that particular barbie was set out in the month of JULY and people went and brought them right away and then if I do ever want to buy that one I'll have to pay an Arm and a leg because they're marking it as close to $100 to $300! 

So that's it for our holiday traditions!

Holiday Blogging: Day Four

  

It's Day four of Parajunkee's 7 days of Holiday blogging! Today its about favorite recipes. Although I don't bake hardly ever but I do make something really fun for my family and friends. 

 

Favorite holiday recipes: 

Mainly I'm all for coconuts balls or mound balls is what some people call them, for years I would never eat them until one day one year I took a bite and never looked back. I'm such a picky eater so for me to try something was shocking and one I tried it. I became obsessesed and become known as "the little mouse" around this time of year.

Next it's a recipe insipre by the wonderful addicting Pinterest. I discovered this idea two years ago and they were a great hit the first year I made them, sadly I didn't have any time to make them last year due to my over stressed/overload school studies.

They're called Christmas Mices.  

 

this is the pinterest picture that attracted me to this idea. 

This is my mices from 2013 I actually use pink frosting to determine girl mices with little bows.

One of my cousin taking a bite of the poor mice

 

I made some this year but I still got some finally touches to add, 

So what does making these mices entails? Well the original recipe calls for Cherry (yes Cherry) but I substitute that idea with either coconuts balls and/or peanut butter balls. The 2013 mices had little sliced almonds but those were a pain with a lot of them falling off and the almonds were all different sizes and finding the right thickness???? Shakes head. 

So my revised recipe is using peanut butter mices (this year), Twizzlers licorice peel and pull, and chocolate chips for the ears and using melted chocolate to make the eyes. I basically use melted chocolate as my glue to place the ears, the faces and to stick the tails in the behind of the peanut butter balls. 

I'll post pictures of this year mices when I'm done with them.

Holiday Blogging: Day Three

 

Since Christmas is our family biggest holiday of the year, we typically go all out with Christmas. So Pictures are always getting taken!

 

I wish I could take credit for taking this photo but my cousin is actually the one that took it with my camera.

The Christmas White Bears Collection (I bet you can't even guess on how many we have)

 

This year tree

Holiday Blogging: Day Two

 

God this is so hard!!! I don't know if I've really read any holiday theme scenes. 

Since Parajunkee mention about Harry Potter winter wonderland that I'm going to go with that since I'm horrible at trying to think of scenes from other books that I read. 

 

This was always my favorite from the first movie, seeing the great halls fill with Christmas decorations and that free falling snow without actually getting snow??? I LOVE. 

 

The ball that Goblet of Fire had and it was all crystals! 

Holiday Blogging: Day One

 

Day One: A Gift that I'm giving

Sighs I'm usually great at giving gifts and I guess I am, but sometimes it's hard to know if you truly given the perfect gift to someone. This year I'm gifting a awesome gift pack to Rachel of Fiktshun (SHHH) I can't say what it is but it ties in what she does outside of blogging. I brought this items a couple months ago yes I've held on to it this long but really when I saw it, I knew exactly who it was going to, who I was buying it for.

My card making is insane this year so a lot of people are getting my annual Christmas cards! I've been doing this for about four years now and at this point I should start printing off photos of each cards that I made and place them in a scrapbook to see how much has changes over the years.

12 Days of Blogmas: Day 11

Jj

It's Day 11 of the Blogmas challenge posts

We have to share a recipe, well I don't cook and I barely bake. My mom is responsible for all the holdiays baking the only thing I can be a part of is the decorations of some of the baking. 

Last year I did my first attempt on chocolates mices, you know what I'm talking about those cute little mices you see on Pinterest, and that's is where I got the idea. Sadly I wasn't able to make them this year like I hoped but next year I hope to do it.

So what comes to doing these mices? Pretty simple stuff really

I know a couple mices have different recipes but I'll share what I did,

1. Since peanut butter balls and coconuts are a must have on cookie trays I used both for the base of the mouse. 
2. Ideally you will need to make either peanut butter balls or coconut balls before you can say you have a base. 
3. Next is to melt chocolate, so you can attach ears and faces, I also would suggest using a swirl kisses chocolate be uses that really stands out. Last year I used chopped almonds for the ears which was extremely challenging because they were thin and broke easy, my plan if I had the time to do it this year I would have done mini chocolate chips for the ears. 
4. You use the melted chocolate as a paste, what I did was slightly dipped the kisses into the melt chocolate, you only want the base covered in chocolate and then place it on the peanut butter ball or coconut ball or what ever chocolate covered balls you're using. This goes for the ears as well.
5. As for the tail, the pesky little tail. Now if I had used cherry the tail would have already been done but again I didn't use cherry only because none of my family like it. But I found a chocolate twiizzers as the tails. You kind of have to drill a little hole in the back of your base to put the tail in. 
6. Now you have your mices, to make it a little extra cute I did an boy/girl gender last year with pink frosting for the bows and for the noses. And I think I used the pick for the eyes as well or I used a brown.

I'm having a really hard time finding my pictures of the mices I made, I found one out of hundreds of photos I take  but it is a photo of my cousin eating the poor little mice. So I don't want to post that, but if I do find the photos I'm truly looking for I'll post it.

 

12 Days of Blogmas: Day 10

Day 10 : My Bookish Wishlist

Believe it or not, I kept it small this year around but still kept with the similar themes/genres. One of the reason why I kept it small was because I got better deals after Christmas when it came to books I think I came home with 14 books total from my local bookstore.

My local bookstore has a discount section when some of the YA books as well other genre do eventaully end up there due to overstock or layover because they were getting the paperback set in. So I try to keep my eyes out for it heavily around this time of month. 

Here's what is on my list, trust me I went light on my parents.

 

Visions (A Cainsville Novel) By Kelley Armstrong
Stone cold Touch by Jennifer L Armentrout   Wicked by Jennfier L Armentrout
The Taking By Kimberly Derting The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Naturals: Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes  The Vaults of Dreamers by Caragh M. O’Brien
The Jewel by Amy Ewing

A couple days ago while I was out shopping, I actually posted on my facebook (personal page) that I would choose ornaments over books. It's 100% true, don't get me wrong I love books but Ornaments hold a special place in my heart because they give me memory from something that I hadn't thought or seen in a long time. And the thing about ornaments, once they're gone they are gone or you'll end up paying a really hefty price because the seller is greedy. Books will always have some new updates to their book format or editions. So they tends to be replaceable, ornaments cannot.
Also Ornaments are my first love 

12 Days of Blogmas: Day 9

Day 9: Post ANYTHING!

Post anything huh? Well in case if none of you known, I am actually a December baby. Meaning I was born three days after Christmas and the day before my Great Great Grandmother. 

Yes that means I get double the fun! 

Every year when my family and I unload the Christmas decoration, there's this one really odd material Santa hat. Turns out that is what the hospital wrapped me in when it was time to go home. However I don't think there's any pictures but that's okay. 

Other than that, I'm working a secret walk down Christmas memory lane for my parents. They have no idea.

12 Days of Blogmas: Day 8

Day 8:  Show off my style

MMM . . . this would actually required me to take pictures of what I normally wear during the holidays.

But I decided against posting pictures just because I'm still recovering from my stress overload and I tend to break out a little.

My style would be typically dark jeans, long sleeve whatever color suits my day, and an occasion scarf every now and then.

I do wear boots, I actually just have a new pair that I really really love so if the snow plays nicely and there's no ice I might wear them to the Christmas brunch.

It's not much, I'm more laid back on dressing up for the holidays and I typically wear one of my wrap style tops when we go out for the Christmas brunch.

This year I was thinking of wearing my Lion King tee shirt that I got a few months ago (yes I haven't worn it yet because it's been cold) So I might be rocking a Disney look for Christmas. 

I either wear my hair up or down, mostly down but I am in desperate need of a hair cut and I'm just too busy to make a call to my hairdresser, have I mention I got a lot on my plate?

photo is taken from my pinterest board "Fashion"
 

12 Days of Blogmas: Day 7

 

Day 7: Share a Holiday Tradition

WOW this is going to be a hard post, there's so many small traditions and with my birthday being three days after Christmas. So I get double the fun! 

Mostly we spend Christmas at home, then after we're all done around noonish we go to my aunt and uncle that live by the lake and we have Christmas brunch with my mom side of the family. Last year we as a family decided to take me out shopping for my birthday or the after Christmas day because I scored a lot of great stuff last year. 

Last year was a really big book haul for me as Christmas/birthday.

I'm in charge of Tree decoration, my mom is in charge of baking goodies and I'm also been making Christmas cards for the past two years and I'm behind on this years but I'm trying to work as hard as possible with getting them out. 

I already know that they will not be ready on time, but my people will get my handcrafted cards and maybe a little something else.

12 Day of Christmas: Day 6

 

Day Six:  Best Holiday Books

I honestly don't know how to answer this one . . .  I don't really read much holiday theme books.
But here's a few books that I know of that are set in a Christmas setting 

1. Frigid by J Lynn, Now I did read this book but I have some issues with the book unsure why but I am planning to reread it and see if reading it the second time around will change my mind. 

 

2. Two Little Lies by T.A. Kunz, I actually met him at UtopYa and because I didn't know much about his books he told me that this book was based during the Christmas holiday so that why I picked this one. No I haven't read it yet. 

 

3. Winterspell by Claire Legrand, I have no idea if this book is based during the holidays but the events does occurs during Christmas Eve or just the beginning of the whole story. 

4. The Proposal by J Lynn, a twitter fan fic story of Avery and Cam. It's right during the holidays and Cam pops the big question. 

12 Day of Christmas: Day 5

 

"He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!"

Day Five: The Nice List

1. Cassandra (Enchanted Heart), she's the nicest person that got mixed into an never-ending war.
2. America (The Selection), she wears her heart on her sleeve.
3. Katy (Lux), determines to make things right in the world.
4. Davy (Unleashed), doesn't have any mean bones or DNA in her body. 
5. Tella (Fire & Blood), enters a contest to save her brother.
   
   
   Now that wasn't too bad, check back for Day six!

12 Days of Christmas: Day Four

 

"He's making a list,

And checking it twice;

Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice."

Day Four: Book Characters on the Naughty list

HA HA HA!!!! This should be fun!!!!

1. Dante (The Lost Amulet Chronicles) He's been a very very naughty boy with greed slap cross his forehead. 
2. Collin Dailey (Curse's Keepers), his actions are what got him on the naughty list
3. Daemon Black (Lux series) you know he likes to act naughty

 Yeah I'm horrible at choosing characters to be naughty.  

Check back tomorrow for those on the Nice List, hint they will most likely be the female characters

12 Days of Christmas Book Blogmas: Day Three

 

Day Three: The purrrfect book lover gifts.

Last year my parents got me the best thing a book reader could ever need, love, and want!!!

LED Desk Lamp Light

Yes I was one of those that uses a flashlight to read a book at night, eventually flashlight run out and then you're left to have to go to bed. It has the right amount of lighting especially for me since I require a lot of lights. 

So if you know someone that is still using a flashlight, buy them one of these! They will love it! 

I have no idea what type of thing my parents will buy me this year, we're trimming down some items this year that can wait until after Christmas since I'm a Christmas baby or well three days after Christmas and stores have great after Christmas sales.

Yes I get double the presents or double the fun!

And what else could we book reader need? 

a bookcase if you have the space, I did do some switcharoo in my room to add a bookcase in my cramp bedroom but I still love it even the one that isn't completely filled when I didn't think it was possible to have two book cases in my room.

12 Days of Christmas Book Blogmas: Day 2

 

 I"M BACK! WHEW I thought that semester was never going to end!!!!!! 

So I'm desperately behind on a lot of things, but let's start by Parajunkee's 12 Days Book Blogmas Challenge!!!!!

Since I can't do Day one and Day two I need to share with you my creative side of what it mean to have a really great Christmas card made by me and no I'm not exaggerating.

 

I still have this one because I couldn't part with it. And if you want to see more (this year's cards probably won't make it on my pinterest board until much later like after Christmas later because I'm still working on them) Yes I know I'm late but I have a really good excuse for it. 

Here's my Pinterest board link: Card Designs 

Stay tune for Day three post!!!!