25 Days of Jubilation: It ain’t Christmas without you!

The 25 Days of Jubilation is being hosted by the lovely Cyndi at Dog-Eared & Bookmarked (@DEBookmarked), Jacinda at The Reading Housewives (@ReadingWifeJac), and Yani at The Secret Life of an Avid Reader (@AvidYani). Thanks for putting this together ladies!


There are some things that just “make” Christmas for me. They are the things that I have to see or do every year to get in the Christmas spirit. 

With my nephew on this years tree outing

Cutting down Christmas trees with my family: My mom is one of those people who has to find the perfect tree. Clearly a stand selling pre-cut trees will not do! The Saturday after Thanksgiving is reserved for our annual Christmas Tree Hunt. We (some mixture of my parents and my siblings/their spouses/their offspring) drive about an hour to a Christmas tree farm my mom likes and then spend an undesignated amount of time traipsing about in search of the perfect trees. Personally I am too lazy to remember to water a tree so I have a fake (sacrilege, I know.) Still, it’s a fun day to spend with family.

All I need now is a cup of hot cocoa and a book!

Decking the Halls: Obviously you can’t be in the holiday spirit without decorations! I love hanging ornaments on the tree and unpacking all the Christmas boxes. I really love my Peanuts decorations… especially the nativity set! I also have a number of decorations made by my grandmother. They are put on display every year. The stocking in the picture to the left is the one she made for me when I was young 🙂 I also love seeing all the decorations around town. I live on Main Street in a small town. The road is cobble stone and it looks so sweet with all the businesses decorated. 

Songs: I really love Christmas music. My mom would listen to it year round if we would let her! There are certain songs that really put me in the holiday spirit.
I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas (I don’t care if it’s annoying)
Baby, It’s Cold Outside (Ignore the creep factor)
Santa Baby (Only this version)
Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth (Bing Crosby and David Bowie!!!!!)
Christmas in Prison (Don’t judge! My family is weird)

Christmas Movie: I vividly remember curling up with my great grandma in her bed to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer, and A Garfield Christmas. These are still favorites of mine (although I haven’t seen the Garfield one in years!) My dad is a huge fan of Scrooged starring Bill Murray. If you haven’t seen it you should. It’s hilarious! We watch it every year 🙂 And of course Elf. When my niece was little she called it “funny movie.” I have to agree!

Making cookies: A holiday staple! I love making Christmas cookies of all kinds. I go a little crazy. In college I used to make a ton and then send out boxes to my friends that were scattered all over the state. My Nana and Oma used to bake a lot so it always reminds me of spending time with them. this year my sister and her kids came over to my place. We made a variety of cookies including some Star Wars ones 🙂 Theoretically they were for my nephew but we all know that they were really for me! 

Santa Photos: Seeing pictures of my nieces and nephews with Santa always makes me laugh. This year is my baby niece’s first Christmas. Her santa picture is priceless. She looks so angry! Also, if you’ve never seen the awesome that is Sketchy Santa then you have seriously been missing out! 

Okay, you’ve stuck with me so far. You deserve a present. Or at least a chance to win one! I couldn’t decide if I was going to do one big giveaway or a couple small ones. I polled twitter and y’all were no help. Then I remembered I had this awesome box. It looks like this:

I’ve been wanting to use it but it’s pretty big so I haven’t had a chance. I DO NOW! I filled the box with some of my favorite books I read this year AND stuff I don’t need but that is still awesome! The prize pack looks like this:

See? All kinds of stuff. There is a bunch of random swag, a copy of The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep, Clockwork Angel (paperback) and Clockwork Prince (Wal-Mart edition) by Cassandra Clare, Divergent by Veronica Roth (signed!), the audiobook of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (signed), and the MP3 CDs of The City of Bones, The City of Ashes, and The City of Glass by Cassandra Clare. Use the rafflecopter widget to enter! US only. Must be 13 or older to enter. Good luck! 


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