Christmas Eve is my favorite part of Christmas because it's absolutely the most magical night of the year. Except perhaps Halloween. But that's a toss-up.
I took a few pics of what Christmas Eve looks like in the Daniels Home!
Stockings for my boys. ♥
Our Christmas tree and full Advent Calendar (which we've had since we were LITTLE and still use every year).
My Mom does this little gold tree in the foyer every year, and it's my favorite. I like how there are bird and pine cone ornaments. It just looks PRETTY when you walk in through the front door.
These are my favorite ornaments. My late Uncle Jim made the one on the right. Pretty awesome, huh??
You can't have Christmas without some cookies for the Big Guy.
My mom does the dining room in ice blue and white every year. I think it looks really nice.
I did my presents in pink, white and silver this year! Well, the presents for my female friends and family, at least.
I hope all your Christmas wishes come true, and that your eyes are widened with childlike wonder at the specialness of the season. Merry Christmas!
The other night, Bethany and I went Christmas light looking!
(May I just say that it's very nice to have her in town? Because it is. *_*)
Anyway, my parents used to take Michael and I here as kids. We'd get in the car, go through Starbucks, and listen to Christmas music while driving around. Sometimes we'd even take the dogs. This whole neighborhood gets into the spirit...everything from music-coordinated light displays, to those plastic blow-up things, to entire Christmas Villages constructed in garages! It's really outstanding and I can't recommend it enough. Anyone in the area needs to go check it out!
Pictures do it absolutely no justice. The address is 5651 Garden Grove Circle, Winter Park, and if you're looking for a wonderful way to spend an evening in Christmassy spirits, look no further! Go see it for yourselves!
I thought I'd do a collection of some unique and quirky Christmas gift ideas I've found and center them around a few of the different types of people on your list. And here's the best part: they're all under $50! Sorry I didn't get this up sooner, but a lot of these places ARE guaranteeing Christmastime shipping! So act soon!
Without further ado, Christmas present ideas for....
Lol, this one is just fun stuff! I hate the video, but I love the Nyan Cat earrings...they're so unique. I thought the "Everyday I'm Tumblin'" sticker was super clever for the Tumblr addict on your list, and I especially love the lol magnets. I WILL have them if/when I ever move out. Also: BAZINGA.
I like everything in this set, but the owl earrings are my favorites. I also really like the set of 3 rings. You get a fox, a deer, and an owl! So cute! The Bake Your Own Dog Treats are an awesome idea, even for men. This is especially true if you know a couple with a dog. And the fox slippers, which are adorable, are actually for guys! So there are a couple guy-ish things there, too, which is awesome. GUYS CAN LIKE THE FLUFFY ANIMALS, TOO.
Okay, this is the section with the best deals (in my opinion, but it's my blog so my opinion is really the only one that counts). The Sephora perfume sampler is so cool! It comes with sample sizes of the company's best-selling fragrances of the year, along with a reusable atomizer. AND, the best part is, you get a voucher for one full-size perfume to redeem later, so she can pick which perfume she likes best and then get the big size! It's so worth $50, especially if you have a perfume addict BFF or girlfriend. I also love the Betsey Johnson slippers, and the Rudolph lip balm would make a great set of stocking stuffers!
This one's obviously near and dear to my heart. I wanted to find some things that weren't your everyday Star Wars merch. I think the Han Solo ice tray is AWESOME, and they also have an R2-D2 one! As shown, you can use them for more than jut ice, so YAY. I also really want to get the Jedi Path book at some point, just because it's STAR WARS and BOOK all in one. Also, I want to be a Jedi. There are so many Star Wars t-shirts in existence it's not even funny. Seriously, if you're looking for one, utilize the internet! ThinkGeek, Etsy, Hot Topic and 80's Tees are phenomenal places to look. And for the Star Wars nerd who has everything, the Family Guy trilogy is hilarious. Just saying.
I thought this would be a cute idea for younger siblings, those people in sororities that you adopt as a non-biological sibling, or anyone who's in high school or college. I had no idea that you could add CAFFEINE to hot chocolate, but whoever invented this deserves a prize. Also, the Predict-a-Pen is like a Magic 8 Ball you can write with! And then, you can put it in a sweet vintagey pencil case (which could easily be swapped out for Lisa Frank or something for girls). Top it off with the WTF sticky notes (one of my personal fav items) and one of the snarky Mental Floss notebooks, and you're good to go!
Hope this was marginally helpful, or at least entertaining. You've got 5 DAYS until Christmas. Make the most of them!
After a lot of blood, sweat and tears (LITERALLY, you think I'm joking), I finished. I worked hard. I cried a lot. I almost gave up. I vanquished a buttload of papers, exams, bad teachers, anxieties, and read almost 40 novels and COUNTLESS short stories. And I'm DONE.
THIS IS JOYFUL AND TRIUMPHANT.
My commencement ceremony was lovely. They had BAGPIPES. Need I say more? My friend, Elizabeth, came to see me, along with my parents and that one guy that I share the upstairs with. And then afterwards, lovely Bethany and I had a dinner and movie date. It was pretty much a perfect day.
Then today, I scrubbed the microwave and cleaned windows at Plato's.
THIS IS LIFE, THOUGH, APPARENTLY.
Since my commencement speaker was a little boring and highly conventional, I downloaded this onto my iPod and I will forever maintain that Conan was actually my commencement speaker. Because he's an amazing human being.
I encourage EVERYONE to pretend accept that this was their commencement speech. It's 23 minutes, but worth every second. Conan O'Brien: I love you.
My post-school plans? (Except for that last panel...I don't think too many people know a lot of stuff, and I don't really like conversation.) What that may be, I have NO idea. But that's the exciting part. And I promise, whatever it is, I'll be writing about it.
Monday, December 12, 2011
This happened to me at work tonight. HOW DARE YOU?? Betsey Johnson is 69 years old and CARTWHEELS down her own mothereffing runways. She is a goddess among fashion designers and women in general. She is also one of my spirit animals. No lie.
But before we celebrate and all that, we need to take a second so I can tell you my story of what happened today. Because I finished WITH A BANG.
So, today I had a really great game plan. I was going to run a couple errands, pick up my cap and gown, and grab some stuff from the pharmacy before they close for Christmas. So I'm just taking my own sweet time, because my planner reads, "Pirate Final: 3p." I've got till 3 to get stuff done, so I figured, "Oh, I'll go this morning then come home around 1 and study until I have to leave again."
I had not studied at all, at this point, because this is how I feel about studying at this point in my undergrad career:
So I'm just like, lollygagging around. Got my cap and gown. No problem. So I'm sitting in the pharmacy and my friend, Jessica, who's also in the class, texts me and is like, "Hey, I don't want you to miss the test! You might still have a few minutes."
I look down. I got that text at exactly 1:00. It was now 1:16.
It then dawned on me that I was in great and terrible danger of entirely MISSING my very last final.
So, I go up to the counter, DEMAND that they hurry up, and then get the hell out of there. I RAN. Like a madwoman.
And, this is totally ironic and if my life were a novel, English majors would be all over this moment, but a couple years ago I got HORRIBLY lost around the Engineering and Business Administration buildings. So I now know that you can cut across Biz-Ad to get to Engineering AND that there's a testing center in the one wing where you can buy all the stuff you need to take tests. So even though I was late to a very unimportant class then, I was now HOPEFULLY going to make it (albeit somewhat--very--late) to a rather important test.
So, I go into this hallway where I was lost 2 years ago and there was one of those scantron vending machines, because I was absolutely unprepared for this test. In every sense. So I go, find the machine, and all I have in my wallet is a $5, which is fine because it takes fives. SUPPOSEDLY. It rejected my five, like, six times. So then I go to buy a soda and get change. And this works...UNTIL IT DOESN'T GIVE ME CHANGE.
So, I eventually get it to give me back a handful of change...enough to buy a scantron.
So then I continue running and get to my classroom as other people are leaving. It's now 1:29. So I go in, a panting, sweaty, mess, and my professor looks at me like I have a third head. So I'm like, "Hi. I just got here." And he looks at his watch, and he MEANLY says, "You're half an hour late. Why should I even let you take this exam?" I was like:
So, in a spell of quick thinking, I told him I'd been stuck at the health center and whipped out my receipts, which were time-stamped to about fifteen minutes earlier. This isn't exactly a lie. It's twisting truthful circumstances to most beneficially suit my current predicament.
Luckily, HE LET ME TAKE THE TEST.
So, even though I damn near almost missed it AND hadn't studied a single page, I took my last final. And I think I knew more than I didn't. Either way, like I care.
