It's the Most Wonderful Time of Year!

My favorite time of the year is by FAR Christmas time. I love love love the holidays. Since I was a kid, I would literally start thinking about Christmas in August. I adore the feelings that come along with the holidays. The warmth of the lights, the glow of the tree, the smell of cookies in the oven, and all the glittery presents under the tree. I even love the rush of people at the stores. Till this day, I really enjoy buying gifts. I love trying to be creative (unless there is a list...well there's only so much creativity I can have). I especially love seeing the surprised faces when everyone opens their gifts. Don't get me wrong, I love receiving gifts too, but there's just something about giving that makes me happy. When I was a kid, I used to love going through "Consumers" catalogue (anyone remember that???) and circling what I thought would be nice to buy for my parents, my grandparents, etc. My brother and I would always split the cost (I mean, we were kids, we didn't have a whole lot of money of our own). I remember one year, we bought both my grandmother's a bottle of perfume. I believe one was called Poison and the other I don't remember. Poison?? Really? I wouldn't wear something with that name! LOL! The funny part is that this year when I went to Portugal, I noticed that my grandma still had the bottle. Hilarious. No surprise that it was still full. hehe! How embarassing! Anyways! All this to say...YAY for the Holidays!

This year I'm finding it a little hard to get into the spirit. First of all, its been like 16 degrees outside and sunny (except these last two days where it's rainy). Its HOT for this time of year. I need some snow. It did snow last week for a day, but with 16 degree weather, the snow is all gone. My Christmas spirit is slowly coming though. We brought our tree out (yes, fake tree...I have allergies and pine would make it a very sneezy Christmas for me). We put the lights on so far, decorations to come soon. I still need to decorate my mantel too. I have some lights on it but it's nowhere near done. I'll post some pictures when it's all done.

Well, thanks for reading my little Christmas rant. I love the Holidays and hope you do too. If the holidays become a stressful task, then why bother. Enjoy yourself and be happy. Some people are sick in the hospital and wish they could be shopping in the madness. So enjoy the Holidays and the madness and be grateful for all your blessings! 'Tis the season!

With Love,
Ni-xox-

Happy Holiday PhotoShoot

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

Photography by: Me
Location: My bedroom
Purpose: Holiday Cards

Ni-xox-

To Christmas List or Not?

Every year on my husband's side we all have to provide a Christmas list. At first I thought it was annoying and totally not original. But after years of not knowing what to buy everyone I think it's a great idea. At least this way, you dont really have to think and think and in the end buy someone another neck tie that they dont need, or a movie they already have. I think the list idea is good in the way that you end up getting things that are actually useful to you. Also, the list isnt strict in the way that you HAVE to buy something from it. It could just be inspirational so that you know in what direction to go. It has proved to be very useful.

On my side, I've tried to start to impliment the list idea. So far we just use a list for my brother and his family and my three cousins. My mom sometimes uses our lists for stocking stuffers.

This year, on my hubby's side, we decided to do a gift exchange for the adults. Anyone under 18 still gets a present from everyone, but anyone older has picked a name and only needs to buy one person a gift. In the envelope with the names, we attached our lists. We'll see how it goes. Because we only have one gift to buy, we have upped the budget a little. In the end, buying one gift instead of 14 is much better math in my mind and my bank account!!!

Do you think Christmas Lists are a good idea?

Ni-xox-

Canada Post Sucks!

So lately I've been having a lot of trouble with the postal system. I think everyone that works for them is incompetent....at least in the past few months. First I keep getting someone else's mail. Ok, so the number of our addresses are the same but not the same street. But really, cant these people read? Then lately both me and hubby had placed an order on amazon. A couple of days later we both received an email saying that our orders were shipped and delivered.We never got them so we had to email amazon to reship. I'm sure the post delivered the orders to the wrong house and the people who received them were not nice and kept the boxes.




NOW, just to add to my aggravation, I had mailed out three packages of pictures to family in Portugal. I actually went to the post office and had them weighed and everything. The person at the post office put what I thought was the appropriate postage on each package....yeah really? Shouldn't this be their job? Isnt it a no brainer. Just weigh the package, check the destination and add postage. Well guess what? I received 2 out of the 3 packages back in the mail saying that it was insufficient postage...and not by a dollar or anything...by $5.00!! Really? Now I'm just waiting for the 3rd package to come back so I can resend! GGGRRR!! I really cannot stand Canada Post right now. I think they hire idiots. *sigh* And that's it for my ranting.




Ni-xox-