Hello guys!
I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas season so far. It's still hard for be to believe that this year is almost over already.
Anyways, I wanted to post about some of the traditions we have going on right now or are looking forward to in my family. Because I come from a pretty large family, Christmas traditions are a huge production every year. I honestly think we add at least one new tradition every year....and we don't even mean to do it on purpose.
One of the oldest traditions we stick to is ornament gifts. Every year on Christmas Eve, we get to open one present. That one present is an ornament that either describes us as an individual or has to do with something we enjoyed that year. As you can imagine, since my middle name is Noelle, I have received several "Noel" themed ornaments. After 20 years of celebrating this tradition, we have more than enough ornaments to fill our tree. It's so fun to get them all out and remember each year and how much everyone has changed.
Another tradition we celebrate is new pajamas on Christmas eve. We just started this tradition last year and so far it's been fun! I love it. For some reason no one in my family has ever been into buying new pajamas...so we just have always had the same ones from forever ago. Because of that, we all love the luxury of getting a new pair every year.
This year we added one more tradition to the bunch. My youngest siblings are four and two, so I wanted to do something that was geared more towards them, something that will be special to them when they get older. So this year I started the book tradition. (disclaimer: I saw this on Pinterest...this was not originally my idea.) Every night starting on December 1st, the kids get to go pick one wrapped books from under the tree and open it, then we read it. We're now on day 7 of this and they LOVE it! It's the highlight of their day. Obviously every book is Christmas themed and we're going to end on Christmas Eve with the "Golden Present," which happens to be the "Night Before Christmas." At the end of this season, the books will go into the Christmas boxes and we'll start all over again next year.
Just writing about all of these makes me so excited for Christmas Eve!
Anywho, I am hoping to post again next week about a surprise place we're going this weekend, but in the event that I get too busy, I hope you all have a lovely Christmas!
-KB
Here's the thing.... Everyone has their life story, their struggles, that's what makes people who they are. Somehow, though, that seems to be the leverage for a lot of the hate in this world these days.
In my own life, I've experienced jealousy and hatefulness that wasn't at all necessary. Just because you are jealous of someone's life does not give you the right to hate on them and spread crap around about them that you know isn't true. It's funny to me how when your life is at a rough spot people are so nice and kind to you, but when you start to succeed people all of the sudden become your worst enemies. I hate that. A LOT. Just because I'm finally equal with you doesn't give you the right to treat me bad, unless of course you think I'm a threat....which is the vibe I hate getting from people. I don't know if it was the way I was raised or where I'm from, but I have this knack for being able to see through people's crap, which I think annoys people. I'm sorry but I'm not just going to let you parade around here and pretend like you're someone you clearly aren't. You may have everyone else fooled but I'm not convinced and I will take you down a notch if you play victim again.
I don't really believe in Karma but I do believe that things happen for a reason. I love those good old success stories where the kid that everyone hated or picked on is now someone big and there you sit with your crappy job in retail telling everyone how you know them.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, to the kids that cry themselves to sleep at night, the one's that think they did something wrong to make everyone hate them, the one's who are way too hard on themselves - hang in there. It gets better, I promise. I'm living proof that no matter how bad it is right now, it will get better. The truth is, you're not alone. Everyone has struggles, it's how we handle them that makes us who we are in the end. And those other people that hate on you, they're just jealous. Jealous of your life, jealous of how you handle stuff, jealous of how gorgeous your are. There's always going to be someone that treats you badly. Here's what I want you to do, be nice to them....I'm serious, be so nice to them that their jaws drop. Just because their values are terrible, doesn't mean you need to lower yours to "get back at them."
Keep your head up kid, you got this.
These were the last items I purchased. We saw them and decided we needed to at least give them a chance. They're not bad, it's mostly just a normal Reese's but with crunchy peanut butter and caramel.
Song to match my mood - I'm just going to say Downtown by Mackelmore, mostly because that's what just came on my Pandora station.
My Dream Wedding. Well, I have a few ideas I would like to use at my wedding but nothing major. So here's a few of my favorite photos from my Pinterest wedding board.
Hey guys!
So for some reason, I've always loved lions. With that being said, I think if I could have any animal as a pet, it would be a lion. Yes, I know they are wild animals and very dangerous, but a girl can dream, right?
Hope you're having a good day!
-KB
