The Grisha #3

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Publication Date: June 17th, 2014

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: Purchase

Pages: 422

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

Okay, I think that this was easily my favorite of the three books in this trilogy. It was so good and mostly satisfying! Also, I'm not even going to pretend there aren't spoilers in this, if you're one who is late to the Grisha party.

The beginning of this book takes place about three months after the battle at Os Alta where most of the Second Army was slaughtered by the Darkling and his shadow army! Alina is weak and the Apparat has her under lock and key, deep underground, trying to advance his little sun summoner cult. She won't let her near her friends or basically anyone but him and his weird guards. Then her friends come up with an elaborate plan to get her strength and power back and she basically puts the Apparat in his place. Which is good because he needed to be knocked down a few pegs, creep. I hate that guy. I was angry for the whole beginning of this book because of him and his creepiness. So they break out of the Apparat's clutches and go back on the hunt for the final amplifier, the firebird. 

I loooove Alina still! She handles being forced into Sainthood a lot better than I would because I'd pry whoop that Apparat's ass. I couldn't handle all those people being all grabby hands at me all the time. She definitely has the patience of a Saint, if anything. Anyway, I don't really know what to say about Alina that I haven't already said in my reviews for the other two books. She learns to hone her powers in new ways, perfecting more of the things that the Darkling had previously only been able to do. She has to make the ULTIMATE hard decision in this book and she somehow manages to do it. She is just really kick ass. She's smarter, she's braver, she's just a little bit better than she was before. I love her. Possibly she could be my new favorite YA heroine. I don't know. Top three, definitely.

The romance in this book made me both happy and sad. Sad because for most of this book Alina and Mal just basically glance longingly at each other and avoid contact and conversation. And Alina is being pushed in other directions by everyone around her. Pushed to possibly marry Nikolai and become the Queen of Ravka, even though I don't think she ever really acts like she wants it. It's just what could be best for Ravka. But throughout it all, she only ever wants Mal. It's always been Mal, it will always be Mal. I did appreciate that, while the romance was kinda just cold for a lot of this book,  Mal wasn't just absent through the whole book til he was needed. I really liked that he was present throughout the whole book. And I really love, love, love their happily ever after!

I decided in this book that I really like David. He really reminds me of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory because he's insanely smart and he doesn't seem to understand sarcasm. I really liked his relationship with Genya. They're so cute together! His little speech about how he understands metal and she's made of steel was SO CUTE! I still love Genya, too. She surprised me because she's totally got a nerdy side too! She is such a good friend to Alina, I'm glad that she didn't really get made out to be a bad guy in this series like I thought she was going to for awhile.

And as for the Darkling, I just really liked him as a character. Definitely still not as a love interest. I was sad at the ending that he got, even though it was necessary. He was never going to give up his cause and if he kept using his power, it didn't seem he ever had plans to die, so something had to be done. I don't think that he actually had bad intentions, I think that his methods of getting what he wanted were what was wrong with him. I liked that you got to see his more human side in this book. He wasn't always so perfectly put together. Alina surprised him and threw him off guard. He was actually capable of real human feelings! I love that Alina thought she needed the aid of all three amplifiers to face him, but in the end, Alina faced him and defeated him without anything to help her. I wish he could have been redeemed and gotten a happy ending, but not with Alina.

The one and only thing that I can think of that I didn't love about this book was Harshaw's death! Maybe it's the crazy cat lady in me talking, but I was SO SAD that he and Oncat didn't get to be reunited after the battle in the Fold. I loved the relationship between him and his feline friend. I also loved his semi craziness and I was sad to see him go. I definitely saw it coming though.

What else can I even say about this book? The plot sped right along. The writing was fantastic. I really don't think that my brain is caught up enough yet to even be writing this review, but if I wait, I'll definitely forget things. More than I'm sure I've already forgotten. This was just an overall really excellent series and I would highly recommend this book to basically anyone. So glad this series was pushed at me and I am only a little bit sad that I cancelled my preorder of The Rose Society to buy these instead. But definitely no regrets!

Guest of the Month Club

Guest of the month club is a monthly opportunity to collaborate with different bloggers hosted by Emily Reads Everything! Every month you will be paired with a different blogger.  You will each plan a guest post for the other’s blog (topic suggestions will be provided every month!). Then all of the club members will post on the same day of the month to make blog hopping easier.

This month I was paired with Rhea from Rhea's Neon Journal! The topic is Beyond the Blog: What do you do when you aren't blogging?

This is what Rhea had to say:

To be completely honest, blogging, and in my case, book blogging, feels like a full time occupation. And since I’m one of those people who are bored if I’m even free for a minute, I love blogging all the more. It keeps my mind and hands always busy. I’m either reading a book, interacting with other bloggers/authors on Twitter or plotting out my monthly TBR or mapping out discussion posts. Busy, busy, busy.

I am a pre-law student and that means hours and hours of cramming and understanding and researching. So in the very few, very rare moments that my mind is away from blogging, I study for my exams that never seem to end. I love studying law, I really do, but I never even imagined how much of a toll it would take on managing everything else in my life, So really, if nothing else, taking up this particular path has taught me the importance of managing time and pre-planning. And that means most of my research papers are complete wayyyy before they are due, and most of my blog posts are scheduled well in advance. Of course, there’s the occasionally snafu, but apart from that I feel like studying law has made me a better blogger.

Apart from that, I am also very good at binge watching TV shows. If one can be good at such a thing. I can do eight, nine, twelve episodes a day (that’s my record) and my attention span is good (thank God for small miracles) and so watching TV shows in my spare time is my best thing to do ever! My current obsession is Supernatural (Destiel, FTW) and that seems to be going really well for me. Of course, being me, I have a host of other shows lined up; think Jessica Jones, iZombie, HTGAWM, the likes. Suggestions?

I’m just going to straight out admit it—I’m not social. No way. I hate stepping out of my room and interacting with people. *shudders* It’s my worst nightmare ever to be stuck in an elevator with the talking type people, and I’d rather go off pizza for a month than communicate. HATE IT. I love my coffee and a good book, and I love talk to people online. But IRL? I’m a complete introvert. I spend time with my college folks, of course, and my favourite people from high school occasionally, and thankfully, that doesn’t seem to bother my introvert nature very much 😛

I love going to the cinema for movies—both crappy and otherwise—and afterward, I love disecting those movies frame by frame, discussing them, laughing at the plot holes, bitching at the instalove! Nowadays, though, the time to watch movies is far less than before and so that too has become a once-in-a-while thing, if ever.   

So…that’s me :)

Yeah you can tell how awkward it makes me to talk about me *hides* Thank you so much for hosting me today, Cyra :D

Stacking the Shelves (#23)

Stacking the shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to highlight books received each week!

During the week of November 21st to November 27th, I got...

I got The Rose Society as an early birthday gift from the BF. I was gonna buy it for myself along with a couple other books, but I looked at my credit card statement and internally cried and then begged him to buy me this for Christmas. And then made him rearrange my gifts so I could have it for my birthday. And then he let me open one early and I made him let me open this one.

I got my first Owlcrate in the mail this week! I was really excited about the theme of the box, but I feel like I had my hopes up too high and wasn't extremely excited about what was in it. But it's still totally cool and I love the necklace and the tea tin.

I also got my #TBTBSanta gift! I got the whole Graceling Realm trilogy which I'm excited about! That is a whole lot of reading right there in those three books! I also got nail polishes that coordinate with the book cover colors and a cute cow mug! 

What kinds of goodies did you get this week? :)

Discussion: Photography

This week's discussion post is my monthly discussion about something moreso about me!

One of my hobbies, outside of blogging, is photography! I started off as just taking senior pictures for my sister and a couple of other people in her grade. After that, I ended up taking senior photos for at least one person every year for the next few years. Granted, the people I took pictures for were family, friends, or people I worked with. I didn't really have anyone outside of my personal circle that I took photos for.

Once people started to be more interested in me taking pictures for them, my dad gave me $500 to go out and buy a good camera. Instead of continuing to take the pictures with a digital point and shoot camera. I ended up deciding on a Nikon D3000. I like it alright, but I think I could have done better. I wish I would have looked more into what kind of camera to buy before I made the purchase. Maybe talked to some people with fancy cameras. I think that I want to sell my camera and buy a Canon T3i or T4i or something. I know someone who has one of those and it takes waaaay better pictures and the manual settings are easier to figure out! My biggest problem with my current camera is that I can't set it up so that I can use the screen to take pictures instead of using the viewfinder. Having glasses and having to look through the viewfinder doesn't always work so well.

I generally only take portrait photos. I like having a model. I have messed around with other kinds of photography, but portraiture is where my interests lie. In 2014, I took a three day horse photography program. My boyfriend's mom paid for it for me so I could help her with taking some pictures. She's never actually had me take any pictures for her so it was basically a waste of my time and her money. I don't even like horses.

When I take pictures for someone, I usually just charge $100. If it is a type of session that I haven't done before and I'm not 100% confident in my abilities, I only charge $50. I haven't had very many paying gigs yet, but I've had a few. I usually set up a time with the person and I pick them up in the morning and we go spend all day driving around and looking for good places to take pictures. We usually only stop because we've gone everywhere or it's getting dark. Then I go home and I look through all the photos and I burn all the good ones onto a disk. I also go through and pick my personal favorites and I edit them and burn them onto the disk as well. I let one girl look at her pictures before I did all this and she picked out the ones she liked and there were 62. I edited 62 pictures for her and that took me FOREVER! NEVER AGAIN!

This one is one of my favorites that I've taken! She actually got professional pictures taken and she hated them and loved the ones I took which made me feel super good.

One of my biggest pet peeves that I've had to deal with is people acting like I'm the one who has to set up a time for someone to get their pictures taken. I was going to take pictures for the brother of one of my high school friends and I repeatedly tried to get ahold of him for pictures and he wouldn't respond. And I was talking to his mom about it and she was like, "Well, he's busy with work and what not." Okay... Annoying. If you go to a professional photographer, they aren't going to run around trying to get you in. You are going to actively try to make an appointment with them. So I don't know why people were treating me any differently because I didn't just sit at home waiting for someone to need me for pictures. I had a life at one time.

This is the only boy I've taken senior pictures for and he was my first paying gig! I wasn't 100% prepared to take pictures of a boy and I feel like a lot of the pictures turned out awkward, but I got some good ones! 

This pregnancy session was really fun. I wish I would have had more time with her, but I had to work. I would really like to do more pictures like this. It was cute and fun!

These are a couple of pictures that I took of a local band playing in a bar. This one was fun and a bit of a challenge. I generally only take portrait shots outside in the daylight. So it was a challenge to photograph a band in a dimly lit bar with everyone constantly moving around, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well some of the pictures turned out!

One thing that I think I have going for me, is that I find it easy to make people smile. Because when you're out ALL DAY taking pictures, it gets hard to continue to have real looking smiles. This girl, she's so good natured and sweet. I didn't even have to try, I had her laughing all day. No fake smiles from her! It was considerably harder to get serious faces out of her. But you're supposed to smile for pictures so that's okay. 

These last four pictures are my sister! She was the first person that I took pictures for and I love all of hers. Some of them are kind of weird, but my sister is kind of a weird person. She chose some goofy poses to do and would not let me talk her out of them. This picture with the piano is my all time favorite photo that I've taken! I entered that picture in an art contest and I got a third place ribbon! The piano we found in an old, abandoned house. You actually have to crawl through a broken window to get to that room. The room you need to go through to get to the piano is missing the entire floor! 

So yeah, that is one of my hobbies besides reading and blogging. If you're interested in seeing more pictures that I've taken, you can check out the Facebook page that I made (X). I rarely ever update it because I rarely ever end up taking pictures for anyone anymore.

This is probably not the most exciting post ever, but hopefully you at least found the pictures interesting. What are some of your hobbies outside of blogging?

Blog Tour: Design the Life You Love + GIVEAWAY

Today I have something for you that is a little bit different than what I would normally post! This is my first blog tour with Hannah from The Irish Banana! I'm going to be sharing an excerpt from the intro of Design the Life You Love by Ayse Birsel!! This book is so much fun! You should definitely check it out!

ABOUT DESIGN THE LIFE YOU LOVE

Design the Life You Love started as an experiment. I had just finished putting my creative process on paper, as a tool to share with my team at Birsel + Seck, the design studio I lead with my husband, Bibi Seck, in New York, and our clients. But first I needed a test project. What better testing ground than my own life, something I have come to consider as my biggest project? I first shared it with my friends, who’ve helped me to fine-tune the steps and given me the confidence to go do it. Then I did my first workshop. And things started to grow from there. Which brings us to this book you’re holding in your hands!

WHY DESIGN?

Design is about identifying and working within given constraints to arrive at new and better solutions. Life, just like a design problem, is full of constraints: time, money, age, location, circumstances, etc. You cannot have everything. If you want more, you have to be creative about how to make what you need and what you want coexist. This requires design thinking.

THINKING LIKE A DESIGNER

Here is how to think like a designer: 

- think positively; 

- put yourself in the shoes of other people and see things from their perspective; 

- see the big picture; 

- collaborate with others, as this makes the ideas so much richer; 

- and last but not least, always ask yourself “what if?” and take your answers seriously. 

As you design your life, remember to think holistically and collaboratively, like a designer, with optimism and empathy. And to ask yourself, what if I did this?

MY PROCESS

In this book I will share how to apply my design process, Deconstruction:Reconstruction, to your life in four simple steps.

01.

DECONSTRUCTION

Taking the whole apart.

02.

POINT OF VIEW

Seeing it differently.

03.

RECONSTRUCTION

Putting it back together.

04.

EXPRESSION

Giving it form.

Deconstructing and breaking current reality is necessary to enable us to shift our perspective-to see the same things differently-in order to reconstruct a new reality that is more than the sum of its parts.

About the book:

A joyful, inspirational guide to building the life you've always dreamed of, using the principles and creative process of an award-winning product designer.
Life, just like a design problem, is full of constraints-time, money, age, location, and circumstances. You can’t have everything, so you have to be creative to make what you want and what you need co-exist. Design the Life You Love is a joyful, inspirational guide to building the life you’ve always wanted, using the principles and creative process of an award-winning product designer. Through four steps that reveal hidden skills and wisdom, anyone can design a life they love!

The Schedule:

11/13: The Irish Banana Review - Excerpt

11/14: Kimberly Faye Reads - Review

11/15: Reading Teen - Excerpt

11/16: Don't Fold the Page - Review

11/17: Seeing Double in Neverland - Excerpt

11/18: Good Books & Good Wine - Review

11/19: Reads All the Books - Excerpt

11/20: Addicted 2 Novels - Review

11/21: No BS Book Reviews - Excerpt

11/22: Resch Reads & Reviews - Review

11/23: Lost In Lit - Excerpt

11/24: Avid Reader - Review

11/25: Rattle the Pages - Excerpt

11/26: Novel Ink - Review

The Giveaway:

You could win one of two finished copies of this book! US only!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting on Wednesday (#24)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on...

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Publication Date: February 16th, 2016

Pages: 464

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

Heidi Heilig’s debut teen fantasy sweeps from modern-day New York City to nineteenth-century Hawaii to places of myth and legend. Sixteen-year-old Nix has sailed across the globe and through centuries aboard her time-traveling father’s ship. But when he gambles with her very existence, it all may be about to end. The Girl from Everywhere, the first of two books, will dazzle readers of Sabaa Tahir, Rae Carson, and Rachel Hartman.

Nix’s life began in Honolulu in 1868. Since then she has traveled to mythic Scandinavia, a land from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, modern-day New York City, and many more places both real and imagined. As long as he has a map, Nix’s father can sail his ship, The Temptation, to any place, any time. But now he’s uncovered the one map he’s always sought—1868 Honolulu, before Nix’s mother died in childbirth. Nix’s life—her entire existence—is at stake. No one knows what will happen if her father changes the past. It could erase Nix’s future, her dreams, her adventures . . . her connection with the charming Persian thief, Kash, who’s been part of their crew for two years. If Nix helps her father reunite with the love of his life, it will cost her her own.

In The Girl from Everywhere, Heidi Heilig blends fantasy, history, and a modern sensibility with witty, fast-paced dialogue, breathless adventure, and enchanting romance.

Super excited for this book! The cover is so pretty and it kinda sounds like Passenger which is my personal most anticipated 2016 book. So this one will probably be amazing, right?

What are you waiting on this week?

Top Ten Tuesday (#22)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created by The Broke and the Bookish!

This week's topic is a Thanksgiving Themed Freebie!

I'm going to list ten things that I'm grateful for this year.

1. I'm thankful for my house being finished finally after a year of working on it! And thankful for the nice guy who we finally found to work on it who was RELIABLE and worth a crap! It was such an enormous struggle to find someone reliable to work on it! We found lots of people who said that they'd do this work or that work, but NONE of them ever showed!

2. I'm thankful for all the fantastic Alexandra Bracken news I've seen floating around this month! New books AND a sweet tour that will go to Minnesota that I will probably actually be able to go to?! What is this?! I love it!

3. I'm thankful for all the fantastic people who visit my blog or chat with me on twitter about books or life! Your friendships mean the world to me! I love this bookish community and I'm so glad that I finally took the plunge and made a book blog. It has been so fun and I just love all of you that I have met.

4. I'm thankful that my boyfriend finally said that I can get a cat. I love his kitty snuggles even if he is mostly an asshole. I don't even know if he was serious when he said I could get a cat. I really think he might have just been sick of me asking if I could get a cat and he finally just said, "FINE, get your stupid cat!!" I think he was surprised when I came home with a tiny kitten in a box.

5. I am so thankful for my family! My dad for putting up with me just showing up for the weekend because I always forget to tell him when I'm coming home! And being so understanding when I can't pay my phone bill for the month because my job kinda sucks right now. My sister for throwing away fun plans to hang out with me when I come home for the weekend and don't want to do anything except eat fro-yo and watch all day marathons of Law and Order: SVU. She had big plans for Halloween to be a sparkle, but she just stayed at home in her sparkly attire with me like the wonderful sister she is.

6. I'm thankful for the one friend I have left from my friend group in high school. That sounds totally pathetic, but I don't find it to be. In high school, I had a group of friends and there were five of us and we called ourselves the Fabulous Five. But I've decided that three of them needed to be cut out. They aren't worth my time and worry, but I am thankful for my one friend who is and who always at least makes plans to hang out with me when I go home even if we both usually forget. I'm also SUPER thankful for my sister's group of friends she made at work! They are so much fun and they always include me and are excited to see me and let me borrow the TV shows they have on DVD and eat fro-yo with me. They've been better friends to me in the VERY short time that I've known them than most of my friends from high school were in all the years we've known each other. And they let me call them the Nerd Herd and I highly value that.

7. I'm thankful for my boyfriend who puts up with me and loves me even if I'm a terrible cook and I never want to play video games with him (because he NEVER wants to play what I want to play! >:(). He's too good to me and a lot of the time I don't feel worthy of it. I am SO glad that I went to the party I met him at. I almost didn't go because parties aren't my scene, but it was probably the best decision I ever made because Dalton is SO AMAZING!

8. I'm thankful for the wonderful new car I got this year. And that my dad loves me enough to get me AAA because I needed it this year and I had a free 200 mile tow that I also ended up needing. I'm just really thankful that that whole ordeal went as smoothly as it did. In like, March I think, my old car broke down on me. I was in the middle of driving from my dad's house back to my house. That's a four hour drive. I called AAA and I got my free tow and the guy I had to ride with wasn't even creepy and it wasn't near as bad as I was imagining it to be. And I love love love my new car. EVERYTHING WORKS!

9. Even if it REALLY sucks right now, I am thankful for my job. I work in a distribution center as a packer. So basically someone orders something off the internet and I pack it in a box and ship it out. It's really dull, boring, mindless work. But it pays really well (when I'm actually there) and I like the people I work with. I'm really thankful that I made the cut when they had to let a bunch of people go a few months ago. I absolutely HATE job hunting so I'm glad I didn't have to. I also really hope that I don't have to anytime soon.

10. Finally, since I'm really running out of things to say and since I don't have a lot of bookish things on my list, I'm just gonna say I'm thankful for books. They're so interesting and fun and my life would be so incredibly dull without them. Yay books.

What are some things that you're thankful for this year?

Review: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

The Grisha #2

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Publication Date: June 4th, 2013

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Purchase

Pages: 435

Add it on Goodreads!

Pages (from Goodreads):

Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm. 

I'm not 100% sure how to recap this story without it either being filled with spoilery things (I mean, maybe that doesn't matter since this book has been out for a couple years, but maybe you're slow to the party like me) or without it just being overly long winded and wordy. So the Goodreads summary will have to do! I don't really think I could do it justice either.

I still really liked Alina in this book. She has become stronger than any Grisha seems to be meant to become. She is hailed as a Saint and worshipped. Her power is changing her and she loves it and wants more and that scares her. She finds herself in some interesting new company, people who help her escape the Darkling for a second time. She finds herself in command of an army and struggles to take charge of a group who don't really seem to immediately care for her being in charge. She really doesn't seem to be as confident as she should be. I don't even know what all to say about Alina, I just really like her. I feel like I can relate to her really well. I LOVE HER!

Before I start, I am totally still team Mal. But like I found him to be a douchebag in the beginning of Shadow and Bone, I find him to be a douchebag in parts of Siege and Storm as well. He's so sweet and caring and protective in the beginning, and I can see why that changes. He doesn't really see where he fits in in Alina's immediate and ambitious plans. He is no longer a soldier and he isn't Grisha, he's just kind of along for the ride and he doesn't necessarily like the changes he sees in Alina. He kinda acts butthurt and childish, I thought, but again, I can totally see why. I feel like in the end, he at least kind of sees the error of his ways, but still, come on Mal, don't be like that.

The Darkling starts to feel more villainous to me than he did in Shadow and Bone. He has acquired a wicked new power and totally uses it for evil. He isn't really present in a lot of this book, but he is definitely not just pushed to the background.

You're introduced to several new characters in this book! Most importantly are Sturmhond, Tolya, and Tamar. I loved all of them. I loved Sturmhond's sense of humor and general outlook on life. He's so sarcastic and optimistic. Tolya and Tamar work with Sturmhond and they eventually end up as members of Alina's personal guard. They take their jobs really seriously and do a very good job and are very protective and I just really liked them too.

I don't like how this story went for Genya. Despite how Alina can't decide how to feel about her, I still really like her and I wanted better for her!! 

I feel like most of the action of this book takes place right away in the beginning and then slows down for a lot of the book. I didn't think it was bad slow, but after that epic and action packed beginning, really not a lot seemed to happen until the end. I really enjoyed the story in this book as well. This book didn't give me that lame feeling that a lot of second books in series do.

I CANNOT wait to get to Ruin and Rising to see how this series ends! I would highly recommend this series to any and all! Especially lovers of fantasy and just anyone! I'm SO glad that I finally got around to reading these, they are so amazing! 

Warm Me Up For Christmas Tag

I saw this tag on Two Sisters Bloggin' and decided I have to do it! Christmas is my favorite time of the year! I love Christmas shopping and decorating and everything!

1. What's your favorite hot chocolate?

I don't drink a terrible lot of hot chocolate, but I really like peppermint hot chocolate!

2. What's your favorite pajamas, fluffy socks, and slippers?

Ususally for pajamas I just wear a pair of leggings or my Victoria's Secret sweatpants and a tshirt or sweater. I love the fuzzy socks from Bath and Body Works that have like aloe or something in them. They're so majestic. I don't really wear slippers, but I have a pair that my grandma got from her Hutterite friends that are nice to wear when it's particularly cold in the house.

3. Favorite thing in winter?

Christmas! I love buying gifts. I love wrapping gifts. I love decorating my house. I love making Christmas cookies. I love driving around and looking at the Christmas lights. I just love everything about Christmas! 

4. Favorite winter lip products?

Really, any kind of chapstick is a necessity here. I like Baby Lips and EOS brands the best!

5. Favorite winter candle?

I guess I've never really had a winter candle before, but I would really like to get the Vanilla Bean Noel scent from Bath and Body Works. That's my favorite of their Christmas smells!

6. Favorite scarf?

I have a grey infinity scarf that I LOVE to wear! I think I got it at Rue 21. It's a fantastic scarf.

7. Favorite winter bath bomb?

I've only ever used one bath bomb before and it was the Sex Bomb from Lush! It smells so good and I love that it turns the water pink! I hate that little rice paper flower in it though.

8. Favorite winter scent?

I like warm scents in the winter. My favorite one is Warm & Cozy from Victoria's Secret PINK!

9. What do you like about winter?

I like being able to wear jeans and sweatshirts and scarves and boots. And I like Christmas. And I like that my boyfriend doesn't have as much work to do during the winter.

10. Favorite movie?

My favorite movie to watch in the winter is Elf!

11. Do you like the snow?

I like snow until right after New Years. Then I hate it. I hate driving in it. I hate shoveling it. I hate when it melts and makes my road impossible to drive on. Generally though, no I really don't care for snow.

What would some of your answers be for these questions? :)