It's now mid December and this post is late. December is always a crazy month for content creators, I've always had trouble juggling blogmas, vlogmas, reading, reviewing and trying new eats. Add in being a parent to very active kiddos and running several businesses... yeah it can be a lot lol. But I love what I do, which is why I've been doing it for over 20 years now, happily.

November wasn't as cozy as it could had been, but it was full of things that caught me by surprise and brought joys through out the month.

I also treated myself to a Switch 2 even though I said I wouldn't until the update for Animal Crossing comes out in January but the chance came up to grab one so I did, I deserve it! Working on your shit pays off, and the ability to get myself these two upgrades makes me feel so much more accomplished lol. 

It's been a productive month of blind boxes.

I found some Sanrio ones I was searching for in Plano and had to get them all. Or rather, two or three of each. The Tamagotchi Sanrio one on the top right I had to buy another 3 of because my kiddos stole my other haul of them. These are so cute they light up and they make really cute bag charms. I definitely need to get more! The Pochacco on the bottom right had to be straight up hidden because they would fight over him. So he's hiding on my bookshelf in my room right now lol. I haven't opened the others yet, I'm debating if I want to do unboxing blind box reels.

I blame working at Disney World and at D-Street when blind box Vinylmations was a huge thing. Ah, I miss those days and I miss working there. It was so much fun!

I do love my girls share the excitement and love of blind boxes and aren't sore losers about getting doubles. I just wish they wouldn't lose them lol! 

November was full of Wicked stuff naturally.

Ironically my 6yo was the one who was trying to convince me to go watch it. Act II isn't my favorite. I only like the first part with No Good Deed but everything else having to do with The Wizard I could care less for. Oh, and I want to see the slap happen.

It did hit a point where I was like how much Wicked stuff is TOO MUCH Wicked stuff? The 6yo picked up Wicked bath bombs and all the Glinda bubble bar from LUSH since it doubles as a bubble wand which is pretty cool. I picked up the skincare stuff which smells amazing. I hate how most of these collections at LUSH are super limited edition. I still have the Elphaba glitter broom bath bomb from the collection last year sitting on my shelf and I refuse to use it.

Compartes would do a Wicked collab. They even have an advent calendar on their website. I found these chocolate bars at World Market. There were several others but these were the flavors I was most drawn to. I'll probably put up reviews or a taste test reel up on my foodie blog. 

I haven't had an urge to get on social media all year and tbh, my nervous system has been just a bit more settled since. As someone who's been on social media and doing social media since 1999 and been on Instagram since it was iOS only in 2011, I am burnt out ya'll lol. I love sharing photos and things but on Instagram isn't it anymore for me. Plus with the rise of them just randomly deleting accounts? Yeah, nah. I'm not putting all that time and energy into something I can't control anymore. I've debated on going old school and getting back on Flickr lol. There's Behance but it's only for those with an Adobe Creative Cloud membership -- which isn't such a bad idea at this point. I have always hated the idea of TikTok, I don't know why. Maybe because I'm a Vine-er forever and TikTok is just a bootleg version of Vine lol.

I did find that studies show that being on TikTok does throw your nervous system, if I find the article again I'll come back and link it here.

 Like I mentioned, my gaming pc can now run Infinity Nikki.

I have so many thoughts about this game. I mean, it's a gatcha game so I mean, what could go wrong? My bank account says a lot lol. The fact you have to gatcha 2-3 of each outfit in order to upgrade it is nuts but so so addicting. And tbh I've been overly obsessed with gatcha games since the days of Neopets and GoGaia. Which weren't even games exactly, they were just websites that took your money lmao!

This game is beautiful and the game play itself is wonderfully done. There's SO much to do for a game that is focused on fashion quests and style off's. It's perfect for people like me who love to gather, craft and hunt for resources. The downside is that you cap your insights daily and they're time gated. So something takes weeks to get sometimes. Patience isn't my thing lmao. 

I enjoyed the whole story line with Giovanni and completing the Itzland quests. That whole section was really heartwarming. 

 I still have my eyes on this Oregon Trail ornament because how freakin cute?! If you were a 90's kid and played this on those pc's that only operated in black and green, you know how this tugs at your memories lol! I played it for awhile on my Switch and as an adult, it's much more stressful lmao. But hey, no one's died yet.

Speaking of Switch, I'm so against buying Switch 2 games. I mean $70 a game? In this economy? Ya'll are trippin. I'm thankful that most Switch games come with a free Switch 2 upgrade. I was recently gifted Paper Mario and I'm so excited to play this one! I've wanted it since it was released. 

My 6yo has the same habit as her dad when gaming: she looks at me in game when she's talking to me. I don't remember what we were talking about other than her demanding I get in the car in Roblox. Our Roblox game play is so random and chaotic lol. However she always comes up with the cutest looks and outfits.

November was of course spent decorating for Christmas! This year I went full on glitter. Nutcrackers are a thing I collect and this gold glitter one from Target has been one of my favorite new decor item's I've picked up this year.

Picked up a few of my favorite holiday snacks: I do miss when the Linzer Raspberry cookies had powered sugar on top of them, wonder why they stopped doing that. The Holiday Cookie Collection has been one of my favs since I was a kid but it was the asian market version. Same thing lol! The cookie sprinkled with coconut shavings is my favvvvv... so good.

I introduced the girls to the Terry's chocolate orange and I regret it lmao. In the month of Nov I bought maybe 4 of these because they kept jacking mine and eating it all. Ugh lol. My dad introduced these to me as a kid. I thought the concept of smacking it was so funny and now my kids do the same. 

Overall, November gave me a lot to be thankful for -- even if I didn't get to take my annual Disney World trip this year. I was surrounded by other little joys and things that helped calmed my nervous system as well as things I really needed to upgrade for the sake of my businesses so I can't really complain.

I'm lucky to be able to have and do the things I do, annually my kids take Disney World trips twice a year and that's way more than I got to take at their age, so I'm truly thankful to be able to gift my kids with those memories and experiences as they grow. 

Now to work our way through December and all the challenges that come with the holidays, time management and everything else.

I hope you all are staying warm and cozy this season! 

I discovered Honey Soda Co about 2 years ago. We connected on IG and I was drawn to their Disney inspired scents. It's always so interesting and fun to see how you relate with people on a social media app, especially when it comes to things you're passionate about. In my case it's candles/wax melts and Disney.

So for the last 3 holidays my apartment has been filled with Honey Soda Co wax melt scents and it's quickly become one of my favorite holiday traditions! Move over Bath & Body Works, foreal.

Honey Soda Co features seasonal scents in fun holiday shapes as well as in classic clamshells and more recently added jar candles to their product list.

This year these are the scents I picked up; I already melted through one of my Peppermint Mocha candy cane melts and I'm half way done with the Peppermint Mocha clamshell (it's clearly my favorite holiday scent from their line).

I'm excited to try the gingerbread scents next; I've been on a bit of a gingerbread kick this year. I love how festive these look! I just wish I had a better way to display and store shaped wax melts. I love that these are much easier to break, I've come across some that I literally need to take a butter knife to in order to get them to break lol.

Honey Soda Co is currently closed for December but they're planning on opening back up in January. I suggest following their Instagram for updates!

These wax melts will not disappoint!

What's your favorite indie wax melt company?

This year I decided to step outside of my “comfort zone” and get your typical green tree. As much as I wanted a white tree I couldn't find one that was at least 6" and affordable at the time we were looking for one. We got rid of our last one when we moved (no elevator here at the new place so a lot had to go).

This year's color theme was navy blue and bronze/burlap. I was heavy debating on navy blue and ice blue but most of the ice blue ornaments I found weren't icy enough. The only problem with this is that at night the navy blue ornaments kind of blend into the tree. But during the day it doesn't. Still, the tree itself came out really pretty. I really like how my husband uses ribbon, I suck at placing garland so the fact he uses ribbon gives it something extra without looking like a hot mess. Maybe next year I'll go around fairy-fy the tree lights.

I won't say that the tree is complete since it's missing some of my traditional ornaments; but also that I have no idea where they are. I know I have some in some of my vanity bins but I'll have to find them through the week so I can put them up before Christmas!

We usually pick a few special ornaments that match the theme of our tree, those we always keep. Here's a few from this year's theme.

This year has been more than a challenge for most people; some of us have had to completely change our lives around from how we work to how we spend time with our loved ones; with the holidays coming up I'm sure a lot of people are either on the end where they're feeling a bit of FOMO or they're gonna say screw the pandemic, I'm going to spend the holidays with my family anyway.

Whichever end of this spectrum you fall is not my business, do you booboo.

But as someone who's spent a lot of holidays alone, I'm neither. I grew up with my mom taking every single over time, double pay, holiday pay, whatever she could get. So for most of my childhood she wasn't there for Thanksgiving. My dad felt obligated to spend it with his side of the family and by the time I had hit 16 and my brother was 15 we stopped wanting to go with him and just wanted to stay home. So we would pile up our plates and watch A Christmas Story all day long.

When my ex husband and I moved across the country to Florida in 2013, we spent Thanksgiving either at work (cause Disney does not care what day it is, you come in, period) or just by ourselves. We learned how to mess up a turkey and sides together. And ended up just getting KFC instead lol. And there were years where my ex would go to work and I'd spend the whole day alone. 

Which was fine, I honestly prefer to spend the holidays alone. I don't like big crowds or rooms with lots of people having a million different conversations at once. I do miss my family, don't get me wrong, but spending the holidays alone has never been a big deal to me.

I know it's going to be a big deal for others, so hopefully my 7 pieces of advice can help ease the sadness a little bit.