Month: December 2013

Anyone a Oncer?

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Last night was the mid-season finale and I am still reeling.
This is why I stick to sitcoms. They don’t leave you emotionally devastated like this.

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Robbie Kay I miss you.

Holiday Music Addict

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I love holiday music.
I love it so much that I sometimes play it in the middle of the summer.
I wish I could play it year-round, but I get scolded if I play it between January 2 and Thanksgiving.

So, between January 2 and Thanksgiving, I wait patiently. (Er, kind of. “Patiently”.)

On Thanksgiving day, I listen to nothing but holiday music and I do not listen to any other kind of music until January 2. I take all my other music off my iPod. I never change the radio station off my holiday music station in the car. I only play the holiday music station on Pandora. I kind of go into withdrawal if I don’t hear it. I will walk out of a store that plays anything else.

All holiday music. All the time.

Image courtesy of TheInspiredClassroom.com

The artists that I would never dare to skip over while listening to Christmas music, because they always sing wonderful versions of my favorites, are (in no order):

  • Bing Crosby
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Burl Ives
  • Nat King Cole
  • Ella Fitzgerald
  • *Celine Dion
  • *Michael Bublé
  • *Josh Groban
  • †Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • †Trans-Siberian Orchestra
  • †Mannheim Steamroller

*Newer versions done right.
†Not vocal artists

I recommend getting any of their Christmas albums, they’re great.

I have compiled 5 playlists of my favorite holiday music (in no particular order) to share with you all. This is not an exhaustive list, by any means. NEXT YEAR, I will be choosing the versions of songs that I hear in my head when I think of the song, but multiple people do covers of these great classics and almost all versions are terrific, but I don’t think I’ll be able to have this done in time for Christmas if I do that this year. The songs don’t fall neatly into these categories, unfortunately, but I did my best. I often listen to all these songs in a big mess of feelings, but feel free to listen to them separately. 🙂

  1. “Snow & Bells” – Happy, cheerful holiday music that makes you smile and want to sing along to, these songs have a  bright tone that evokes the image of falling snow and jingling bells, going ice skating and sleigh rides. Includes most classic carols.
  2. “Fireplaces & Cocoa” – Feel that? That’s these songs tugging at your heartstrings, making you tear up. But it feels like sipping a mug of hot cocoa while sitting in front of a fireplace while wrapped in a cozy blanket.
  3. “Wordless Wonderland” – Wintry, holiday pieces that are a little tricky to sing along to, due to there being no lyrics, but somehow I still manage. These are good if you can’t help singing along but it is not convenient to do so, e.g. at work, etc.
  4. “First Christmas” – These are the more religious songs. While I am not personally a Christian, I appreciate these songs that celebrate what the first Christmas was originally about. It wouldn’t quite be Christmas without these songs.
  5. “Christmas is for Children” – This is a collection of songs that are really more geared for kids. I have a lot of fond memories singing these songs with my middle school choir for roaring audiences of elementary school kids. I didn’t want them in playlist #1 because they’re a little TOO chipper. I like them but not the way I like playlist #1, if that makes any sense.

These are NOT complete, but if I don’t publish today, I will NEVER EVER get this out.

SO without further ado, please enjoy.

Snow & BellsSnow & Bells

  1. “Last Christmas”
  2. “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”
  3. “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”
  4. “All I Want for Christmas is You”
  5. “A Holly Jolly Christmas”
  6. “Home for the Holidays”
  7. “It’s the Most Wonderful  Time of the Year”
  8. “Little Saint Nick”
  9. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
  10. “Jingle Bell Rock”
  11. “Let It Snow!”
  12. “Happy Holidays”
  13. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
  14. “We Need a Little Christmas”
  15. “Christmas”
  16. “Feliz Navidad”
  17. “Jingle Bells”
  18. “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
  19. “Sleigh Ride”
  20. “Carol of the Bells”
  21. “Twelve Days of Christmas”
  22. “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
  23. “Wonderful Christmastime”
  24. “Deck the Halls”
  25. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”

Fireplaces & CocoaFireplaces & Cocoa

  1. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
  2. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
  3. “The Christmas Song”
  4. “White Christmas”
  5. “Blue Christmas”
  6. “Silver Bells”
  7. “O Christmas Tree”
  8. “Please Come Home for Christmas”
  9. “Christmastime is Here”
  10. “Good King Wenceslas”

Wordless WonderlandWordless Wonderland

  1. “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”
  2. “Dance of the Toy Trumpets”
  3. “Waltz of the Flowers”
  4. “Waltz of the Snowflakes”
  5. “Pas de Deux (from The Nutcracker)
  6. “Christmas Eve / Sarajevo”
  7. “A Mad Russian’s Christmas”
  8. “Wizards in Winter”
  9. “Carol of the Bells”
  10. “Home Alone Theme” (teehee)

First ChristmasFirst Christmas

  1. “The First Noël”
  2. “O Holy Night”
  3. “Silent Night”
  4. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
  5. “Angels We Have Heard On High”
  6. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
  7. “Joy to the World”
  8. “Away in a Manger”
  9. “Do You Hear What I Hear?”
  10. “Little Drummer Boy”
  11. “O Little Town of Bethlehem”
  12. “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”
  13. “We Three Kings”
  14. “Ding Dong Merrily on High”

Christmas is for ChildrenChristmas is for Children

  1. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
  2. “Frosty the Snowman”
  3. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”
  4. “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas”
  5. “7 Feet of Snow”
  6. “Here Comes Santa Claus”
  7. “Christmas Don’t Be Late (Chipmunk Song)”

Some songs I don’t like. It’s nuts to think about, but I just don’t like listening to them. They’re too cheesy, or too sad, or just ugh. I have purposely excluded them:

  • “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” (sorry, John, it just doesn’t quite do it for me)
  • “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” (groan)
  • “Grown-Up Christmas List” (ugh)
  • “Christmas Shoes” (nooooooo)
  • “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” (I just learned that this is a song and nope)
  • “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” (same deal as above)
  • “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (the line “There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas” ruins the entire song for me)
  • “Santa Baby” (I like this one but I don’t know where to put it so….. sorry Eartha)

TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY SONGS 😀

Black Friday/Brown Thursday

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(In the debate between “Grey Thursday” and “Brown Thursday”, I like brown because that’s the color of most of the Thanksgiving foods, I guess? XD)

(I’ll update this with photos and video when I feel like getting around to taking and editing them. XD)

I did most of my shopping with my family on Thursday after everyone was food coma’d. I don’t really like the idea of shopping on Thanksgiving, a sacred day for eating and being with family. I also hate the idea of salespeople having to leave their families to work on Thanksgiving. 😦
However, we spent all of Black Friday showing someone around New York, and people ditched us after dinner anyway, so around 8 PM we headed out to Best Buy, figuring that it wouldn’t be too hectic after 2 hours of being open.

I did wait in line outside of Best Buy a few years ago, so I was extremely glad that I didn’t have to do that this year. My cousin (well, actually his dad is my dad’s cousin, but he shall henceforth be referred to as “my cousin” and not “my second cousin” or whatever) had one objective: The Big Bang Theory season 6 DVD box. He is upset that the design scheme for the DVDs changed after season 3 and now they’re inconsistent with each other on the shelf. (Serious stuff, people! Open your eyes to the ugly truth.) As for myself, I wanted to get:

  • An external hard drive – I was extremely panicked when my computer died, so I want to make sure I can back up my files
  • SD card – When I lost my camera, I lost my 8 GB SD card for my camera, and now I only have my 2 GB one. I like having more on hand, preferably in a larger file size.

I ended up getting:

  • A 2 TB portable external hard drive – I didn’t plan on getting such a large size and I didn’t think that portability was so important, but my dad convinced me since it’s more convenient to be able to carry it around AND if I keep up at the rate that I’m currently going with my photos and videos, then I’ll need the large storage capacity.
  • A 16 GB SD card adaptable to micro-SD – Not sure why I needed micro-ness, but maybe if I want to carry the files on my phone? Iono. I declined the 32 GB one because I worry about having TOO many files on one card in the unfortunate event that I lose it or something. Also, I would never upload if I had so much storage space on one. XD
  • A wireless mouse – I gave my old one to my brother and then he broke it. So. I don’t use them much but if I need one, I’ll have one.
  • Headphones & earbuds – For my listening needs, since my old ones are on their last legs now. I got the warranty for the headphones but I’m tired of getting them for these Skullcandy earbuds… sigh.

Because of that external hard drive, I ended up spending the most money at Best Buy this weekend.

POOR WALLET GETS NO BREAK. (Sorry, wallet.)

My brother made me take him out to the mall around midnight because he wanted to get some clothes. I had some things in mind to get, too. PLUS we were in New Jersey visiting my “cousin”, so you know what that means:

No sales tax on clothing holla at me!

Even though I was pretty annoyed about being out so late when I wanted to be asleep, and a little grumpy with my brother, I had a productive late night trip. I got:

  • 2 Disney graphic tees – I stopped buying graphic tees for a while, but I bought quite a few this past fall. I’ve been especially into getting graphic tees that harken back to my childhood, i.e. Disney, Super Mario Bros, TMNT. I got these at Macy’s, where they were on a clearance rack for half off, I think. PLUS the cashier put in some promo code (I’m guessing for Black Friday?) so both T-shirts together only cost me a little bit over $10. (And remember, no tax, holla.)
  • Black button-down blouse, aubergine button-up cardgian, & red lace-trimmed tank – Just picking up some basics from Old Navy; no real rhyme or reason here but I’m sure I’ll wear these plenty.
  • RED PANTS & cream sweater with lace sleeves – I have been searching for red pants for no less than a year and a half. And I finally finally found them, YES. This thrills me. I’ve been struggling because every time I would see red pants, they’d be super duper skinny and cause me pain. Also, the sweater is cute, but I’m mostly excited about this red pants thing. I’m still excited about them today. (Also, shoutout to the super helpful sales associate at Delia’s!)

And then, I did a bad thing. I splurged on something on Saturday. I’ve been eyeing this for a while and I know I don’t need it. I know this. But here we are:

https://i0.wp.com/www.mysubscriptionaddiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Screen-shot-2013-11-04-at-9.51.06-PM.png

The Sephora Favorites Super Stars Beauty Essentials gift set (no longer available on their website).  I saw this at Sephora a few weeks ago and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. It’s $75, which is more than I like spending on anything, let alone on beauty supplies since I, uh… don’t really wear makeup. Ever. ^^;; I have a bit more knowledge than would appear, since I watch a lot of Youtube beauty gurus and read a lot of magazines.

But dudes, the value is so incredible. There are full-sized products in here, and these are all consistently listed as holy grail products. (That famous eyeliner, that infamous blush/bronzer duo, the argan oil, oh my.) I basically do not need to buy any other makeup/beauty product again. (If you like beauty products, you definitely should buy this. The value is through the roof, and it’s way more economical than buying more than 2 or 3 of these individually. The value of all the items separately is over $280. I only wish it came with a nice bag also, like some of the other gift sets. (Case in point, the Sephora Glitz& Glam set, which I almost bought had I not seen this Super Stars set. That is also a super great deal, if you’re looking for something for yourself or to give as a gift.) (I wish Sephora was paying me to say this, but these gift sets are such a good deal and so dangerous for your wallet.)

In fact, I will be adding to my resolutions that I will not be purchasing any other makeup/beauty products unless something goes empty that I need (e.g. my moisturizer, etc.). Because honestly, I won’t need anything ever again. Ever. Never for never.

I also got my Beauty Insider birthday gift! That was a surprise, since my birthday is in December, but I guess they have us all ready, so I got Benefit’s They’re Real! mascara & Watt’s Up highlighter earlier than I thought I would, so yay.

Sephora Beauty Insider Birthday Gift 2013
Photo courtesy of HelloJaa.com

That is my little haul from the weekend! My Thanksgiving in and of itself wasn’t terribly eventful. We ate dinner with my family and some of their friends and spent time freezing in New York (I may go into that day in a later post).

How was your Thanksgiving weekend?
Did you buy anything over the weekend?