Merry Christmas, blogosphere! This holiday season definitely snuck up on me, and while it was a crazy rush Christmas shopping and prepping for the holiday, I managed to finish all of the essentials! I received some wonderful gifts (and books!) this year and thought I would share them here!
Max and I started the morning at our place with our personal tree and gift exchange. As it’s our first full size tree together (and not one of the mini-trees used in our college dorms and previous apartments) the decorations are a little sparse, but we do love it!
One of the first order of business of the morning was opening this mystery box of books! Max always gets me some of my wishlist books for Christmas and my birthday (which are quite close together) and it’s always one of the highlights of the holiday for me!
It’s also a Christmas tradition now, running on about 5 years, for Max to buy me my Erin Condren planner for the upcoming year. This year he ordered me a lot of extra goodies, and I’m also trying out the new horizontal layout for the first time too!
Max also gifted me many other wonderful gifts, including a new MAC 138 brush, Anastasia Bevereley Hills Contour Kit, a Kate Spade Wallet, and an Alex and Ani bangle (of which I’m an avid collector!) One of my favorite gifts I presented him with this year was an at-home ice cream maker (we love kitchen appliances and are constantly on Pinterest finding new recipes).
After our morning gift unwrapping we headed on the long journey to my parent’s house, for Christmas dinner, meeting up with my mom’s side of the family, and our large annual family gift exchange. My dad really went all out and bought everyone iPhones! I had been admiring the new iPhone 6 Plus S in Rose Gold for a while (it reminds me of my nostalgic pink razor phone days) and my parents were generous enough to gift me the exact phone I wanted! The camera is AMAZING and I can’t wait to use it to take some bookstagram photos!
We ended up spending most of the afternoon and evening at my parent’s house, socializing with my family, playing with my cats, and watching everyone unwrap gifts (it’s quite an ordeal at my house, with a very strategic system in place orchestrated by my mother. Everyone must be handed a gift and then we unwrap one by one so everyone can take oooh and ahh and take photos of each unwrapping…it’s a little exhausting and can take anywhere from 3-5 hours when you account for the amount of people, photos, food breaks, etc.!)
I also received some stunning Alex and Ani bangles (from Max and my aunt) which I’m thrilled about adding to my collection! My aunt gifted me the Disneyland Diamond Anniversary bangle (you can see the little diamond charm hiding behind the main blue charm) which means I now have to find a way to get to the park while the celebration is still happening, haha!
My best friend also sent me a Christmas package that included some souvenirs from his trip to Japan this year (and Tokyo Disney!) as well as a selfie stick, which was hilarious and ironic considering I had bought both of my parents selfie sticks for Christmas too! It just goes to prove that we’re on the same mental wavelength, despite the distance!
great haul! I just finished reading The Husband’s Secret! Very good (:
I can’t wait to start it! I’ve heard SO many good things about the author’s writing!
Ahhhh I’m so excited to read it! I’ve been craving some adult fiction so I’m really looking forward to this one!
I love Christmas time. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays because I get to spend time with my family. Your husband is awesome to get you that makeup.
Grace @ Books of Love
He’s really great at picking out gifts, I’m really lucky! Christmas is wonderful for spending time with family, even if it means traveling a bit on the day to do so! I hope you had a great Christmas as well 🙂
It sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas! Your guy really does a great job in the present buying department! 😀 Enjoy all your gifts.
Thanks, Kay! This is our 8th Christmas together so he’s really gotten the hang of gifting me the things I like 😉
Ooooh a new iphone! I still have the 5c, though the 6 is one that I definitely want to upgrade to. I hope you enjoy all your new additions! 🙂
Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian
Thanks, Krystianna! I had an iPhone 5S prior to receiving this new one, and while I remember loving it when I got it I am OBSESSED with the size of the 6plus (it’s so big!) I find it much more motivating to use to keep up with my blog on the go (like responding to comments) because it’s so easy to see everything.
Sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas! 🙂 You got a lot of great gifts! I was gifted Shatter Me, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Ask and the Answer and A Thousand Nights 🙂 I don’t know which one to read first haha
Those are all great titles! (I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who hasn’t gotten to Simon vs. yet! Unless you’ve already read it, haha!) I really enjoyed A Thousand Nights, it’s very literary and dreamlike for a YA novel. I hope you enjoy them!
Wow, great books for you this week. You got so much other great items! I hope you enjoy your new books!
Britt @ Spare Time book blog
My STS: http://sparetimebookblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/stacking-shelves.html
Thank you so much, Britt!
I spy This Shattered World in your pile of new books, which makes me happy! I adore that series so, so much <3 And my favorite thing I got this Christmas was an iPhone 6S that my husband got for me, which was a total surprise 😀
Books for Christmas are the best! I got the Percy Jackson box set and will probably binge-read the series soon. Those Erin Condren planners are beautiful, though I’ve only been able to admire them from afar. Hope you have a happy New Year!
wow what a great Christmas you had!! This was a terrific post, Happy New Year!!
Happy belated Christmas to you!
Sounds like you had a great one. I especially love the tradition of your boyfriend getting you a box of books….I might have to not so subtly hint that to my boyfriend for next year, haha!
I only got one book this year if you can believe it (Red Queen), but it’s probably a good thing as I already have so many to read. 🙂
Thank you so much, Becky! I hope you had a good Christmas as well! It was your first one since graduating from university, right?
I’m interested to see what you think of Red Queen, especially as someone who consistently reads a lot of YA, as one of my complaints about it is that if felt too similar to other stories.
Yay for mystery boxes 🙂 Looks like a wonderful haul this week. Enjoy.
Thank you! It was a good Christmas for books this year!
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