Thursday Ten: Christmas Songs I Love (Part One)

Mele Kalikimaka
The Nutcracker soundtrack (cheating I know, but really, who can pick just one!)
Here Comes Santa Claus
Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Last Christmas
Have A Holly Jolly Christmas
I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas
The Chipmunk Christmas Song
Wonderful Christmas Time
I love Christmas so much it is hard to pick just ten songs. So, this week I chose secular songs and next week I will feature traditional/religious songs that I love! What are YOUR favorite Christmas songs?

Thursday Ten: Christmas Movies I Love

One of my favorite things about Christmas is being able to enjoy Christmas movies. Starting in November I will occasionally watch something Christmas related, but once Thanksgiving is over and we are eating our way through leftovers it becomes Official Christmas Season at my house. Christmas movies are played each night, some more than once. Without further ado, here is my Top Ten list of Favorite Christmas Movies

1. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
2. White Christmas
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Animated)
4. Nutcracker
5. Most any version of A Christmas Carol
6. Here Comes Santa Claus
7. I'll Be Home for Christmas
8. The Santa Clause
9. The Year Without Christmas
10. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Live Action Version)

What Christmas (or any holiday) movies do YOU love?

Blogging The Advent

I haven't blogged in WEEKS! That is truly horrible! I hate when I ignore this blog. It isn't always amazing or anything, but I love sharing things here. Since I love sharing and I love this time of year, I had an idea. I am going to blog the Advent season. One of my favorite things about Christmas when I was younger was my Advent calendar. I loved moving my marker and getting a piece of candy each day. The anticipation and the small treat made the Christmas season even more special. Keeping that in mind, I wanted to give you all a gift this season. That gift is regular blogging! I am going to count down to Christmas HERE with all of you. I will share insane Christmas traditions and memories, my Teasers will be about Christmas related books, I will have Christmas related Top Tens, and so much more. I think that BFF1 is going to guest post a few times throughout the month, to share her own Christmas love with you all. I hope that you all enjoy this small peak into why I love this season so very much. To me there are few things that I love more than my family and the time that I spend with them all. I hope that you all enjoy this holiday season is as enjoyable for you as it is to me.

Happy Holidays!


**Disclaimer: In no way are these blog entries meant to offend if you do not celebrate Christmas for whatever reason. Regardless of your stance on Christmas I hope you enjoy the time you have with your family, whether you are celebrating a religious holiday, Santa, or just time off from work and school.

Christmas Shopping

Obviously I'm getting desperate for blogging ideas*. Maybe the reason I am so bad at updating this blog is because I run out of ideas about what to blog about**. Anyway, tomorrow is the last day of summer program and I have a few child-free days before school starts. Maybe I can finish a few books in that time. It would be nice since I just bought MORE books! I honestly have a problem! I have ordered more books in the past few months than I have read this year! I blame Barnes and Noble for their bargain sales and also for the save ____% on your next order coupons they send me. Also, I blame authors for being fabulous and writing wonderful books that I read over and over again!

Anyway, on to the Christmas portion of the blog! So, I love Christmas like a lot. I don't usually buy a ton of gifts, mainly because a few years ago my family decided that adults should draw names, because it is difficult to buy gifts for 30+ people. I love this, and my only complaint is that we don't draw names until later in the year. I honestly do not know how many times I have found great gifts for one of my relatives and just walked away because I'm not sure if they would actually like it or not. So the people I always buy for are BFF1, BFF2, my parents, my brother, my Maw-Maw, my cousin's fiancée, and BFF1's little sister.

The problem I run in to is that I always wait until the last minute to buy gifts! Every year. So, this year my quasi-New-Year's-Resolution was to buy stuff a little at a time so that I don't end up spending hundreds of dollars in December. So far that has not been working! However, since I have discovered Etsy.com things have become so much easier. My town is TINY and there are NO unique stores around here to shop at. BFF1 and I usually end up going to the mall in NC to shop for gifts, but it is really hard to buy gifts for someone who is glued to your hip. For the last few weeks I have been scouring the various categories of gifts on Etsy and making note of various gift ideas. I'm so excited because I feel like for the first time in a while that I will actually get my shopping done early, I will be able to get unique gifts, and I don't have to worry about my friends or family already having the gifts that I purchase for them!

*If anyone has a topic they would like to hear me ramble on about, feel free to leave it in the comments! I am always looking for suggestions!
**Tomorrow we are taking small children to a horse farm, so I feel confident that I will have some quality thoughts and feelings to share with you all =)