Christmas Traditions

Continuing with co-hosting duties of 25 Days of Christmas with Star from over at Stars Pink World. Today's topic is Christmas Traditions. 

Growing up and through the years we've kept our family traditions alive. The first beginning with our Christmas tree. We've had a live tree every year since I was 3. I'm not on my 23rd live Christmas tree. This one is currently in my living room...

We always get it the Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving and try to have it completely decorated by the Wednesday. 

Another tradition, we open one Christmas present on Christmas eve. The rest have to wait till Christmas day. And yes, we still get up early to open all our gifts! 

Yep, that's me. Tired, no make up, in my pj pants on Christmas Eve 2009

Another thing we still do is leave cookies for Santa and hang our stockings. We go old school and have the traditional red/white stockings.

What's your Christmas Traditions? Link up and let us get to know them!

Christmas Decorations

I'm co-hosting The 25 Days of Christmas with Star from Star's Pink World.

Today's topic is Christmas Decorations! 

I love Christmas and one of my favorite things about it is the decorations. This year I have 3 trees up in the house. One being my 6.5 ft. white tree...

It's mainly all candy theme ornaments. I did a whole post on it a few days ago, to see more of the tree and the ornaments you can see them here. 

Then there's the tree in my bedroom. I've actually had it up all year long. I put it up last September and then once the holidays were over, I decided that I wanted to keep the Christmas cheer going all year long.

 

To see the original tree ornaments and tree, go here. The photo is above includes all the new ornaments I added over the year. 

And then of course our live Christmas tree. It's 6-7ft. tall and smells so good! Every year since I was a child we've always had a real Christmas tree. I can't imagine not having a live one. We just got it on Saturday afternoon and it's not finished yet, so right now here's the photo of it getting picked out! 

Apart from the trees, we always go full out when it comes to decorating. We've got our banisters covered in garland/lights. We've got our manger scene up, the holly spread out around door frames, candles out, etc. You name it, we've got it! 

So link up and show us your Christmas decorations!

Oh I Gave Thanks alright!

Yesterday I stuffed myself silly. I had it all. If I wanted a second helping, I took it. If I wanted a 3rd roll, I ate it. Ham? Turkey? Corn? Yes, yes and YES! 

(Getting the turkey ready!)

In my 26 years of life, I finally tried the stuffing. It was not a success, next year I will continue to not eat the stuffing. Ew.

(Completely grossed out)

Once we ate dinner, I settled into my turkey coma and looked up deals for shopping! I had a second dinner to attend with my entire family (minus an uncle). I proceeded to stuff my face there as well but this time with ham. 

(My awesome Mom & I)

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and good luck shopping today! 

Oh wait... I almost forgot! My Scarf a Day, Keeps the Cold Away Giveaway ended last night. Using random.org the winner is... 

From Dreams Do Come True! Congrats Girl! 

Theater Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

It's Theater Thursday and today we'll be taking a break from our Christmas Edition to bring you a Thanksgiving movie called Dutch.

Dutch stars Ed O'Neill as Dutch Dooley who decides to do impress his girlfriend Natalie (Jo Beth Williams) by driving from Chicago to Georgia to pick up her son, Ethan (Ethan Randall) from boarding school for Thanksgiving break. What Dutch (O'Neill) doesn't know is the adventures Ethan has in store for him.

Ethan, a 12 year old snob, who believes his business-millionaire father (Christopher McDonald) can do no wrong, strongly disapproves of Dutch. He views him as a dumb, construction worker with no future or class so when he shows up to escort Ethan home for the holidays he does everything in his power to make Dutch run for the hills and out of his and his mother's life. 

Ethan puts Dutch through fires, prostitutes, car wrecks and much more. Dutch is determined to get him home though, so which one will win the war and will both come out alive? 

This movie is HILARIOUS and if you've never seen it, it's a great one to watch! 

Also, today is the last day to enter my Scarf a Day, Keeps the Cold Away Giveaway. If you haven't entered you can do so here. 

Thanksgiving Thanks

Things I'm Thankful for this Year. 

1. My job. Times are tough out there and people are struggling. Have you seen the unemployment rates? Yeah... not good. Even though I may not be happy at work 100% of the time, I am thankful that I have a job and that it allows me to afford life. 

2. My family. I love my Mom. She's awesome and she's always been there for me. The rest of my family- well they may not be the coolest but at least they're not like crazy Randy Quaid. 

3. My Best Friends- Kristin, Cheryl & Erica she's always there 24/7 to deal with my crazy shenanigans and listen to my ideas that could have been used by Lucy on I love Lucy. And of course they participate in the crazy ideas with me. 

4. My Travels. This has been a big year of travel for me and I am very thankful. I love going around the world and seeing things that I have always wanted to see. I hope that next year I am fortunate enough to do the same. 

5. A Home. I'm so thankful that I have a roof over my head. I'm tough but I don't think I could make it on the streets. So many families have been pushed out of their homes this year and have nothing now. Thankfully, I'll be spending the holidays in a home. 

Top 2 Tuesday

This week's topic is Top 2 Things on my Christmas Wish List! 

(Christmas Day 2009)

1. To be able to spend Christmas day with my entire family! With all of us not living in the same area and having jobs, I'm really hoping we can all make it home to spend Christmas day together!

(Graceland-In the Jungle Room)

2. Going back to Graceland. Even though it technically doesn't need to be on my wish list because I know I'm going to be back there in 3 weeks, it was still really important! Since I'm really into Christmas and I love Elvis, I thought it would be great to go and see it all decked out for holidays! I can't wait! 

No Witty Post Title Today

First of all, have you entered my giveaway? If not you can do so here. It ends on Thursday!

I've started this post at least 6 times now. I have so much to say yet I don't know what to say. I'd really love to talk about work but that's the one area that I have never talked about on here and won't. Let's just say that I'm hoping for a big opportunity to happen in 2011. Cross those fingers. 

I'm off work for the next 4 days and that makes me very excited! Hello Thanksgiving! I'm ready to watch the parade, hang out with family and eat some yummy food! Nothing is better than holiday food. Besides Thanksgiving and Christmas is my favorite times of the year. SO I plan on enjoying them. 

(Thanksgiving 2008)

I'm still at a loss when it comes to my bigger vacation next year. I can't decide on where to go. I want something that's going to be fun, have lots of things to do and be somewhere I have never been. I'm leaning towards Seattle but at the same time I just don't know. Suggestions? 

 

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of judging from people, more so than usual. Maybe we should all take our judging caps off and realize that everyone is different. Some things are not black & white issues. Stop spreading the hate. And remember... 

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. 

A Scarf a Day Keeps the Cold Away

It's another giveaway time!!! I'm calling this the A Scarf a Day Keeps the Cold Away Giveaway!

This handmade (by me) scarf is red and green and is 61 inches long. I thought it was very festive for the holidays and since it's cold out, why not?! Like it? Well it could be yours!

Ways to enter

1. Be a follower of my travel page! 

2. Follow my travel twitter page.

3. Add the travel blog button to your page.

4. Tweet- "Need some ideas for travel? Check out @jmotravels"

Make sure you leave a separate comment for each. 

The giveaway ends on Thursday, November 25 (Thanksgiving) at midnight. Good luck!

Theater Thursday

It's Thursday and that can only mean one thing! It's time for another Christmas Edition of Theater Thursday! This week's featured movie is, Nothing Like the Holidays.

Nothing Like the Holidays, is about a large Puerto Rican family coming together in their hometown of Chicago to celebrate the holidays together. What happens next, takes them all by surprise, their parents are getting a divorce. The family never saw it coming since they have their own busy schedules. 

Jesse just getting back from Iraq, Mauricio dealing with his wife, Sarah (Debra Messing) trying to get pregnant and Roxanna trying to get an acting career going. Determined to keep them together and enjoy the holidays the gang bands together to make this years festivities the best because it could be their last together. 

This movie is definitely a great holiday movie and I loved seeing it. I had never seen it before until a few weeks ago. Check it out! 

Now here's the really fun part, have a movie you love? Great! Post about it and then come back here and link up. That way everyone will get to hear about a movie they may never have seen before. 

Oh Christmas Tree!

It took me all day yesterday, but I got it done! What started out as this...

Turned into this...

Most of the ornaments resemble candy, cookies and other sugary confections and I love it! 

I'm so glad I decided to put it up early this year. Now it can be in photos for Thanksgiving!

5 Truths

Yesterday was cold and rainy. However, I went out and braved the cold for some Christmas shopping! I can't have a tree up with nothing under it, right? Right! 

I had some set goals of things I wanted to get for people on my list. It was a complete FAIL. The stores that I went to didn't have any of the stuff I was looking for in stock. I mean really, how hard is it? This is Christmas time, stock your stores!! So I came home, called all my friends to say, "Any suggestions on things you want for Christmas?" and started browsing Amazon where I met with success! I can't wait to get the stuff and start wrapping. Fun! Ok... I swear I'll stop being overly excited about Christmas before Thanksgiving even. Maybe.

Over the last few days I've seen this on a few other blogs and since I didn't like the top 2 Tuesday topic, I thought I'd join in on this one....

5 Truths

1. I could literally eat breakfast foods for every meal, every day and never get tired of it. 

2. I will never look at Kelsey Grammer the same way after seeing the train wreck he married from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Am I the only one who thinks she's deranged? 

3. The next country I'd love to visit is Australia. 

4. I love stores like TJ Maxx and Marshalls. You never know what you're going to find there!

5. The television is always on if I'm home and awake. I like having the noise. 

Shout out to you!

First of all, I want to say a big, big THANK YOU to everyone who commented on my last post. I truly appreciated every comment. The support from all of you made me smile and let me know that I wasn't the only one out there feeling this way. 

As for my weekend, the only thing I did fun was fight the holiday shoppers who are already out in full force! 

It's like everyone just realized that the holidays are only a few weeks ago. I had to circle the parking lot at my beloved Target for a good 10 minutes looking for a space. Ridiculous! 

Today, after many days of trying to get it done, I'm finally going to be putting up my white Christmas tree! So be prepared for this Christmas loving girl to have tons of photos of it up this week! 

Remember my candy theme tree from last year? Well.... I never took it down. It's been up all year long. To my surprise, last week the lights blew on it. I thought it would be an easy fix to change them all out. Um.... no! It took me almost two hours. I had to take everything off and start decorating all over again. So pictures will be up of that as well! Yes... I love Christmas.

Dear Happy, Where are you?

I'm in one of those weird limbo moments in life where all of my "friends" (we'll come back to the whole in quotes reason later)have got married, are getting married, living with their partner and are having babies, buying houses, decorating etc. And then there's me not doing any of that.

Honestly, I'm usually ok with that but then there's times like oh say, the holidays that only remind me of how alone I am. I get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner alone, watch tv, go to bed. Repeat. It's starting to get old.  I don't have a lot of family and it's starting to get scary. Like one day it could be just me and that's it. Stare that one down in the face and still be chipper....

Add to the fact that all of my friends no longer live in town. They've all moved away and there's literally no one to hang out with. I try to be really good about keeping in contact but lately I'm tired of it. Why do I have to be the one to reach out? Friendship is a two way street and apparently I've been forgotten. Maybe it's because I'm the odd girl out who hasn't got married or is even in a relationship. I give up. I'm tired of being the one to text, write on walls, send cards and then get a response weeks later or if ever. Done and done.

Now, I'm trying to get my happy back. I know it's out there. I feel like 2011 could be my year. Maybe I'll win the lottery and can just spend all of my days traveling the world. Ok wait, let's get realistic. Maybe a work opportunity will arise where I get to travel and get paid for it. Maybe I'll meet Mr. Right, fall in love and get married and start decorating. Who knows. Either way I'm going to be out there looking for my happy. 

I'm a firm believer in the fact that if you're unhappy with things your life then change it. Well I'm changing it..... hello happy here I come! 

Theater Thursday

Welcome back! Last year at this time I was already posting Christmas theme movies. Well I held off a little longer this year but this week marks the beginning of Theater Thursday: The Christmas Edition! 

And since we never repeat a movie twice here at Crazy Shenanigans things are going to get interesting. December might be the exception to the rule but for now this week's featured movie is... Elf

Elf stars Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf... only he's not an elf, he's human. For the last 30 years Buddy has been living at the North Pole with the other Elves. Due to his enormous size and poor skills at making toys, he's told that he really is not an elf. 

Buddy (Ferrell) leaves the North Pole and heads to New York City in search of his real father. Along his journey Buddy's naive ways come out and everyone he comes into contact with starts to believe that he's "special". He takes things seriously such as, "World's Best Coffee" and doesn't understand why people don't believe in Santa. He also meets a worker at Gimble's named Joive (Zooey Deschanel) and takes a liking to her. 

If you've never seen Elf, then you're missing out on some good laughs. Remember... Smiling is my favorite, so watch this movie! 

Now here's the best part... have a movie you love? Great! Post about it and then come back here and link up.  That way other's can go take a look at it and find something new to watch! 

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

A few weeks ago, I posted a few things I'd love to have for Christmas located here. It was mainly things for my bedroom such as a new comforter and a jewelry box. Now I thought I'd share some other stuff I'd love to see Santa put in my stocking...

The Stella Multifunction Black Dial Watch- Fossil. 

The Kristin Leather Pleated Satchel-Coach.

A few dvd's: Lost Season 5, Quantum Leap Season 1, The Last Song, Tudors Season 3

And this amazing book! 

Who's ready for Christmas? Me! I'm also counting down to Thanksgiving! Be on the lookout... This Thursday I'm bringing back the Christmas Editions of Theater Thursday so get your movies ready and participate by linking up! 

Top 2 Tuesday

Two Things I'm Thankful For

1. My Mom. She's my biggest fan, cheerleader, motivator, rock, you name it. I love my Mom more than words could ever describe and I hope that one day I can do something amazing for her! Love you Mom!

(0utside of Graceland)

2. Being able to travel. I love to travel. I love being out on the road. I love having my bags packed. I love exploring new cities and touring museums. If it's involved in a vacation then I love it! This year has been a great year of traveling for me and I hope next year will continue to be another year of travels! I've traveled so much I even made a travel site!