The Christmas Tag 2018

Image taken from GIPHY

Christmas is just 16 days away now and I’m pretty much ready for the day now. All I need to buy is FOOD and I honestly cannot wait for Christmas food. 😛

I was recently tagged by Jess over at Little Pink Duck to take part in this tag, which I was really happy about! I love doing a tag every season and every awesome holiday that comes our way, especially Christmas! I don’t know if I’ve done this one, I actually don’t think I have which is amazing. If you want to check out Jess’ post and her answers, I’ll pop the link here for you. 🙂

I hope you enjoy the tag anyhoo, especially my answers. It’s Saturday evening and I’m watching Peep Show’s Christmas special.

What is your favourite Christmas film?

It has to be the Home Alone films! The first Christmas film I stuck on this year was Home Alone 2. They definitely remind me of when I was little at Christmas. There’s other films I love too, but this is always the first film that pops into my head whenever I think about Christmas films. 🙂

Have you ever had a White Christmas?

I feel like I have a few times to be fair. I remember it snowing when I was about 6 but it may have snowed before or after Christmas. The one year before I met Dane (probably 6-7 years ago!) I remember it snowed a little on Christmas Day, which was really nice to watch in the dining room whilst eating dinner and opening gifts.

Where do you usually spend your holiday?

I usually go to mine or Dane’s parents, but this year we’re actually going to be at home, which will be really nice. 🙂 I’m rather excited to be honest with you as I love cooking, so the thought of me and Dane getting up in the morning to get Christmas lunch/dinner started together, whilst we watch a Christmas movie or listen to Christmas songs. I am really looking forward to it.

What is your favourite Christmas song?

I would usually say Wham – Last Christmas but I’ve heard it so fucking much this year that it’s definitely not anymore. I completely forgot that Queen has a Christmas song, so when Dane showed me this recently I fell in love. It hasn’t come on the radio much at work but when it has, it’s really put me in the Christmas mood.

Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?

Never! I remember I did for a time growing up, I’d always open a certain gift from a certain relative but as I got older I never received that gift anymore, so I stopped doing it. I mean, what’s the point in opening something early?! 😛

Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?

Comic, Blitzen, Dasher, Pranser, erm… Does Rudolf technically count?

*Google searches*

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolf.

I didn’t do too badly, did I? 😛

Image taken from GIPHY

What holiday traditions are you looking forward to most this year?

I’m looking forward to creating the traditions me and Dane will have for having Christmas at home! I’m really excited for what we’re going to do on the day and how we’re going to do it.

Is your Christmas tree real or fake?

Fake! I remember as a kid my mom decided to buy a real one and it was gorgeous, but it was a pain for the month she had it. The needles kept falling off etc. I don’t think I’d ever have a real one myself.

What is your all-time favourite holiday food/sweet treat?

Mmm I always love the Christmas dinner. The way my parents do gravy, to huge fluffy Yorkshire puddings. I love everything! If there is one thing I’m not arsed about over Christmas it’s all the chocolates that go around throughout the day. We never did this as a family growing up, so whenever anyone does it elsewhere I just don’t get it to be fair. 😛

Image taken from GIPHY

Be honest: do you like giving gifts or receiving gifts better?

I actually really love giving gifts. I like to think I’m quite thoughtful in the gifts I buy so when I get to see peoples reactions to what I’ve bought them, it really does make me happy. I feel rather guilty this year with Dane’s presents as I personally feel like I haven’t bought him a whole lot, even though deep down I know I have. :’)

I’m doing Secret Santa at work in a few weeks time and I really hope the person I have loves what I bought them. I can’t wait to see their face.

What is the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received?

I could never pick one gift to be honest with you. I have a little collection to be fair including, my Kitchen Aid mixer, my Dyson hairdryer, my huge Totoro plushie, my Thomas Sabo bracelet, a little fox that Dane bought me when we first went to the Birmingham German Market together.

What would be your dream place to visit for the holiday season?

I don’t know to be perfectly honest… The only place I can think of is Japan, but I’d love to visit there all year around to be perfectly honest with you. 😛 Me and Dane could have KFC for Christmas dinner hahaha!

Image taken from GIPHY

Are you a pro-present wrapper, or do you fail miserably?

I’m not a pro, but I’m not a fail anymore! I’m definitely getting better, which makes me happy as I feel so good in myself when I’ve wrapped a present really nicely. 🙂 I’m rather proud of how I wrapped most of my presents this year!

Most memorable Holiday moment?

Probably the first year I spent Christmas with Dane. It was probably the first one in years where I was genuinely excited for it for all sorts of reasons.

When did you realise the truth about Santa?

I must have been 10 or 11 and someone told me, “You really think Father Christmas buys all those presents for you? It’s your mom, Nat.”

I was of course gutted, but meh I soon got over it. xD

Image taken from GIPHY

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Do you stick to them?

I usually make at least one New Year’s resolution, this year was to save money which I’ve done really well and was quite pleased with. I’m trying to think what I can do this year and again it’ll probably be to save up money, but this time for a 30th holiday in Japan. 🙂

What makes the holidays special for you?

Being with the ones I love, especially Dane and just being able to use the time of Christmas and New Year to think about the year coming to an end and what I’d like for the year ahead. Oh and having a bit of a break too, you know? 😛

So that was the Christmas tag 2018! It’s taken me most of the evening to write this post and it’s because I kept getting side tracked with watching Christmas movies. 😛

So with tagging people to take part in this post… I WANT EVERYONE WHO READS IT TO TAKE PART! 😀 It’s Christmas so the more the merrier. 😛

Are you excited for Christmas? What are you most excited about? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely weekend.

November Favourites ’18

Image taken from GIPHY

We are FINALLY in December and I’m not quite sure if I’m excited or meh about Christmas yet… Or the fact that 2018 has flown so damn quickly! Also I’m 29 in almost less than a month. Urgh can’t deal with that right now. 😛

I’m going to try so hard to do Blogmas this year as I would really like to. It wouldn’t be something special every day, but it would at least be SOMETHING on my blog, you know? I’d mostly try and fill quiet days in with advent calendar stuff, as well as what I’ve been up to.

Due to the fact November flew by so quickly, I feel like I never got the chance to really think much about what I loved. I had a long think about it though and I finally came up with what I loved throughout the previous month!

• Marc Jacobs Decadence EDP.

My brother actually bought me this perfume a couple of years ago for Christmas AND I KNOW perfume has a use by date on it (like all things…) but I never adhere to these things. 😛 I really love this scent as it’s so unique and yet has a feminine and slight masculine scent. The bottle itself is gorgeous! This is a proper going out perfume, but I love using it all the time. I’ve used this most of November and it’s reminded me 1. How much I love it and 2. How well my brother actually knows me when it comes down to perfume! 😛 He always buys me the best stuff. 🙂

• Simple Kind To Eyes Soothing Eye Balm.

This isn’t the BEST eye balm in the world, in the sense of it isn’t helping any ageing lines that I might be starting to get… However I was quite poorly for a couple of weeks in November with labyrinthitis. It honestly sucked. This eye balm really helped though when I felt tired and like shit. I do really love this eye balm, it’s not thick and heavy like most eye creams. It’s really light and leaves a lovely cooling feeling after.

• Lush Prince Of Darkness Fresh Face Mask (review here).

I picked up this face mask from Lush at the start of November when I went into London. Aside from online the only place you can get this face mask in store is in the Oxford Street store in London. I had 5 empty black pots so I picked this up for free! It’s by far one of my favourite face masks and I use it once a week. It really does help my skin after I’ve had a bad breakout. It clears out my pores and scrubs my face to make it lovely and soft. I definitely recommend giving this a go if you’re combination skin like I am!

• Vaseline Lip Therapy Aloe Vera.

This is my life saver and game changer! I’ve been on and off over the years about which lip balms have changed my life. Last year when my lips kept splitting in the corners this was something I ended up buying to try and help my lips. It helped so much! Since then I use this daily, whether I’m in or out of the house. It’s also great to use underneath lipstick to keep my lips lovely and soft. Out of all the flavours, scents etc out there the aloe vera one is by far my favourite. 🙂

• The Body Shop Banana Body Butter.

Since I started using The Body Shop banana range, it’s certainly made me realise how much I love The Body Shop for their products. They’re just great and at an affordable price too! I LOVED the banana range and I’m so gutted it’s now gone. It wasn’t around long enough for my liking. BUT I love using the body butter on my hands to keep them lovely and soft. I know this is really odd, but their hand cream doesn’t do anything for me. Only the hemp one works. I do love this though as it smells delicious and really does moisturise my hands when they need some major TLC!

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from GIPHY

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite TV Show – The Office (US) and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai.

I couldn’t just name one TV show this month. I loved both of these equally! Thanks to Dane’s brother and his girlfriend we discovered that The Office (US) is fucking hilarious! I’d watched the UK version of it growing up and rather liked it, in a weird way. There are some really funny and iconic moments in the show, but my favourite part is how frustrating Jim and Pam are! In the sense you want them to hurry up and get together. 😛 Jim is by far my favourite character and the way John Krasinski plays him, he does such an amazing job at making the character so natural, normal and relateable.

The second show I’ve been loving is an anime that Dane has been watching for a while now, but every time he’s asked me to watch it, I was either too busy with my blog, playing games or I just couldn’t be arsed to watch it. Finally I gave in and began to watch it towards the end of November. Oh man it’s such a good anime and I’m glad I decided to watch it sooner rather than later! It’s about a guy who sees a girl dressed up a bunny girl in the library and he’s the only one who can see her! Then it goes on from there. It’s definitely worth a watch as it’s pretty unique. It’s on Funimation and Crunchyroll and is only subbed.

Favourite Film – Bohemian Rhapsody.

Oh man I honestly LOVED this film so much! I actually saw it at the end of October but it was pointless mentioning it last month. Alongside Deadpool 2, this was definitely one of my favourite films this year. It was amazing, beyond amazing! I grew up listening to Queen with my mom in the car whenever we were out and about so I do have a love for the band. When the trailer for this first came out I KNEW I needed to go and see it, Dane wanted to see it too. However as the release date loomed Dane changed his mind, “I don’t think I’ll enjoy it as much as I thought I would.” I was desperate to see it and as I didn’t think I’d be able to go with anyone else, I booked it regardless for us both. We left the cinema with Dane loving the film more than I did! I cried throughout the film and I just felt for Freddie Mercury. It makes me wish he was still alive. If it’s still showing and you haven’t seen this film yet, please do.

Image taken from Otaku Magazine USA

Favourite Book – Giant Spider & Me.

I discovered this book whilst I was visited my friend Sophi in London. I was after a new manga to read online as I’d read all my books I’d taken with me for entertainment on the way there. I can’t remember how I discovered this manga to be honest with you, I just know I found it on a UK anime and manga blog. It sounded weird but different, so I gave it a go and whilst I didn’t fall in love with it, it’s something I found myself reading each morning I woke up, as well as partly the way home from London. I occasionally read it before I head into work if I get there early. It’s based in a post apocalyptic world where this girl lives on her own and whilst out she finds the giant spider, who ends up becoming her pet/friend and lives with her. From there she starts to meet more people who have to come to accept the giant spider etc. It’s a very sweet manga and one I recommend people to read, especially if you hate spiders. This isn’t a normal spider and I don’t mean in just the size of it. 😛

Favourite Music – Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.

This is by far my favourite Foo Fighters album. As odd as it sounds it’s been there for me through so much over the years. When I’ve been happy, sad, angry and depressed. Lately I’ve listened to it loads as it’s such a great diving album to listen to. I love listening to it before I go to work as well as before I head to my pole and hoop classes with my bestie Jacqui. I’ve popped the whole album above so you can give it a listen for yourselves if you haven’t already. Some of my favourite tracks from it are “The Pretender”, “Let It Die”, “Long Road To Ruin”, “Come Alive”, “Stranger Things Have Happened”, “Summers End”, “Statues” and “Home”. So most of the album really. 😉

Image taken from GIPHY

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Game – Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Pokemon Let’s Go: Eevee.

Oh man November was just full of games and being poor. 😛 Spyro and Pokemon are both massive games from my childhood and both make me feel really nostalgic. Within the space of a few days both Spryo Reignited and Pokemon Let’s Go came out! I’m still working my way through both games. 😛 First of all I want to say how much I was pissed off about Spyro. Not in the sense of the game but how bloody pisstakey it was for me to get it! So I pre ordered it back in August ready for the original release date of September. The game was pushed back to November so I had to wait another couple of months. Fine. BUT when I didn’t even get it the day it came out due to “courier issues” I was pissed. So I complained to Amazon and they ended up refunding me for the game and allowing me to keep it. It arrived the next day. So I’m pretty chuffed by that result. 😛

ANYWAY on about the game! I LOVE Spyro Reignited so much and they did such a good job on it! I played some of the first Spyro game but fast got bored after I finished the first world and levels. I felt like it lacked what the second and third games brought to the table. So I ended up moving onto the second game, which I’ve nearly completed! They’ve got some of the old voice actors back to reprise their previous roles, as well as some new ones. I love that Cassandra Morris (voice of Morgana in Persona 5, as well as many other things!) does some voice work in the game. I haven’t played the third game yet, but I know I’ll soon get to that this month!

With Pokemon Let’s Go I decided to opt for the Eevee option as it’s one of my favourite Pokemon. I loved Pikachu growing up, but the older I’ve got the more overrated Pikachu has become. Nintendo did such a good job with this game and aww man I couldn’t be happier with it! I think I’ve only had one issue with it so far and that’s that the 2 player option is shite. It’s not for adults really, it’s for children to play with their parents and introduce them to playing Pokemon. It’s a great idea to be honest and there’s nothing wrong with it per say. It’s just not any good for older gamers. Dane has also loved playing this and intends to take it with him whenever he has to work away from home! We’ll probably end up getting the Pikachu version sooner rather than later. 😛 Dane even contemplated getting me a Switch so I could play at the same time as him. The catching system for the game is amazing and works really well! This being said I’ve only used the Poke Ball controller (which I bought with the game) which I find looks like it works better than the joy cons. They seem super faffy! Handheld mode is definitely the best way to play the game though. I plan to write a massive post about the game eventually (probably this month tbf…) so I don’t want to talk too much about it to be honest.

So those are my favourites from November, the month that went by in the blink of an eye and left me feeling poorly and poor! 😛

How was November for you guys? What were you loving throughout the month? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Again, I am going to try and do Blogmas this year, but don’t get too excited for it as to be honest I can’t see it happening. xD

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re kicking off December with Christmas music and films. 😛