What I Got For Christmas 2018

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope you all had a lovely day, whether it was with loved ones, friends or even (sadly) on your own.

I can’t believe how quick both Christmas Day and Boxing Day went! We just have that little slum between New Years Eve now and as depressing as it sounds, I’m working today and tomorrow… Which was completely my own choice! YES I chose to work. 😛

However, at the time of writing this, it’s Boxing Day morning and I’m snuggled up in bed and looking through all the gifts I was spoilt to this Christmas and as I always do, I share with you those lovely gifts I received.

Now I understand not a lot of people like posts like these because it’s seen as, “showing off” which I completely understand! I’m not showing off though, I’m just sharing what I received. I love reading and seeing what people get for Christmas, especially when they’re heartfelt and special gifts, where the receiver has clearly been thought about.

If you’re one of those people who think it’s showing off, you can bugger off because this post clearly won’t be for you. 😛 HASHTAG – honesty is the best policy.

Not all my Christmas presents have made it into this post sadly as I’m still yet to receive some from my best friends, but I can always share those in a separate post, can’t I?

Anyhoo, on with the post! There’s a lot of goodies to show off. 😛

The first gifts I’m going to talk about is what one of my best and oldest friends Sophi bought for me! She gave me my gifts back at the start of November so it’s been hard having to wait until now to open them! She bought me so many awesome bits and pieces and they’re all so fab! I’ve got so many Pusheen items it’s amazing.

These items include a Pusheen pyjama top, three pairs of shoe liner socks, Christmas Pusheen fluffy socks (which will be HEAVENLY to wear around the house!), a stationary pouch (which includes a notebook, blue pen, purple gel pen, two pencils, a sharpener and a rubber), a gorgeous notebook (which in turn I’ve had my eye on for agggges!), a pencil case/make up bag and finally some cute little pin badges! There was also some Japanese sweets inside the pencil case/makeup bag which taste AMAZING!

As well as Pusheen, Sophi also bought me a few Lady and The Tramp items, including a pyjama top and some shoe liner socks. I honestly love all the bits that Sophi bought for me, especially the Pusheen stationary to be honest with you! I’ve always been a sucker for stationary but I love using this sort of stuff at work and seeing as Dane bought me something lovely (stationary wise!) these bits from Sophi are perfect. 😀

The next gift I received is this gorgeous fox origami necklace and I got this from my gorgeous friend Sophie… Yes, another Sophie! 😛 I wasn’t expecting this so it was such a lovely gift to open when we met up recently. Since she gifted it me I’ve worn is everyday and I adore it so much. It’s definitely one of my favourite gifts I received this year. 🙂

The next gifts I received were the ones from Dane’s parents, which were all so lovely! The first thing I opened was the Empire Cinema voucher, which I found really random but when I read what they wrote inside it was so thoughtful and cute! It’s definitely the sweetest gift I’ve received so far. As you’ll probably see it says it’s for when Detective Pikachu comes out! You’ll see that I’ve blocked out some information, this is just to keep Dane’s parents names private, as well as how much is on the card.

They also gifted me this gorgeous fox hair towel from The Body Shop, as well as a cute patchouli fox candle, which I doubt I’ll ever burn! I think I’m going to keep it by the front door on our shoe cabinet, but I need something to stand it on before I pop it down there. It smells gorgeous to be honest.

Finally they bought me The Body Shop peppermint candy cane sack gift set. I’m so glad I got this as I LOVE the peppermint candy cane scent and I’ve already picked up a few items in the sales. I’ve tried a bit of the body butter on the back of my hand it’s so creamy and smells AMAZING! I can’t wait to try the shower gel out now, as well as the body scrub.

Next up we have the gifts my mom bought for me, one I knew about and two I didn’t. My mom knows me so well when it comes down to buying me gifts and every year not only does she surprise me, but she just reminds me of how much she knows me. 🙂

This was actually a gift for both me and Dane and that’s a massive refill bag of Australian Bodycare’s tea tree skin wash. I LOVE this stuff so much and have done since my mom bought it me as a teenager. I mostly use it on my face these days but I do occasionally use it all over my body, especially in the warmer months. I’ve already refilled my bottle with this, so I’m really chuffed! 😀

The second thing she bought me is this cleansing brush and it was such a surprise when I opened it! I’d mentioned to her a while ago how I’d stopped using the facial brush she bought me years ago as I found it didn’t work for me anymore… Not as in power, as in what it does to my skin. So when I opened this, oh man I’m so excited to give it a go! 😀 It’s easily charged and turns on and off easily! Not going to lie though, when I opened it on Christmas Day Dane made a lewd joke… 😛 Either way though this will hopefully work wonders on my skin!

Finally we have what is probably my favourite gift this Christmas. My mom had asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I mentioned this watch to her, which isn’t the cheapest in the world… So when she said she was more than happy to buy it for me, I was over the moon! I love gifts when they’re bought from someone, as they have some meaning behind them. I’ve wanted a new watch for some time now and have eyed up the Olivia Burton ones since I started my job just over a year ago. As many readers will know, I LOVE foxes, so when I finally saw that Olivia Burton were doing a fox design, my heart was kind of set on it. I showed it to my mom and she sent me the money to order it for myself. I mentioned how you could get your name stamped on the band and she told me to make sure I did just that! As you’ll see, I did and THANK GOD they spelt my name right. 😛

I adore my new watch so much and when I wore it Christmas Day it was so comfortable. I love it. :’)

Finally we move over to Dane and the gifts that he bought for me. He really spoilt me this year and although I feel lucky as anything throughout the year, when it comes to Christmas, birthday and anniversary he always reminds me just how loved I am, as well as just how well he knows me.

These were mostly in the stocking he made up for me, we started to do stockings when we moved into the house and I really do enjoy doing them. 🙂 So some of the items Dane gifted me were matcha/green tea related, which was lovely but so bloody random! 😛 I LOVE green team KitKat’s from Japan and I’ve already eaten one of these whilst writing this post. 😛 He also bought me some matcha knock off Oreo’s, which look yummy, I can’t wait to try those. Finally he bought me a matcha ramune drink… I can’t imagine how this is going to taste! I think I’m going to wait until my birthday to try it. 😛

I didn’t think Dane would buy me squishes, but he did and he did good! I’m not a squishy person to be fair BUT I do like them as they help me relax whilst when I’m anxious or overthinking. I find they’re great when I’m a passenger on the motorway. He did actually show me these and I can’t remember if he said he’d bought them for me  before or after showing them off to me. I LOVE the fox ninja so much and it’s definitely my favourite of the two, but this being said I love the panda ninja for squishing. Due to the way the paint is on the foxes face, I’d worry it would crack, so the panda is going to be my go to for squishing!

It seems to have become a tradition every Christmas now that Dane buys me Nichijou! I never really pick it up for myself throughout the year, so he does it for me. 🙂 I do really love the Nichijou series, it’s something different and a manga series everyone needs to read! They have an anime version of it too, which I also need to watch through, I’ve only watched the odd episode… I might suggest me and Dane watch it tonight whilst we have dinner. ^_^

I love getting calendars for Christmas and when I opened this one from Dane, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect… So when I saw it was Juniper I was so chuffed! Dane bought me the Juniper calendar for 2018 so it’s nice to have that lovely Instagram famous fox hung up in our living room again! I love writing down stuff me and Dane plan, as well as days off, birthdays and even blog events!

This was something I had a feeling Dane had bought me as he showed it me before Christmas and asked what I thought of it! It’s so adorable and I LOVE Pompom Purin. 🙂 I actually saw this when I was in the Japan Centre in London and I rather liked the look of it to be fair. I’m just not sure whether to have it for work, or for the house to keep my stationary in downstairs in the living room… We’ll see but either way it’s so adorable. 😛

Bless Dane, he’s such a cutie! When we went to EGX in September he asked if I liked the Spyro pin badges that had been released to coincide with the game as he wanted to buy them me for Christmas. Sadly I didn’t like the look of them… They just weren’t for me in all fairness. So he asked me to have a look around to see if there were any other Spyro items I liked the look of online, alas I found this incense burner and hey presto! He bought it for me. 😛 I haven’t had chance to use this yet as I need to get some incense cones for it, but how it works is you pop a cone into this and as it smokes, the smoke comes out of Spyro’s nose. Funky, eh?! 😀

This is definitely one of my favourite Christmas presents this year and one I had a feeling Dane had bought me. I spoke recently about this item here and how much I’ve wanted something for the wall behind our bed. Alas I found this awesome wall tapestry online at Redbubble and I just knew I had to have it! Me and Dane plan to buy some easy stick on and remove hooks, as well as some fairy lights and we’ll soon have our room taking some shape after a few years of it looking bare. 🙂

I was rather shocked by the size of this in all honesty, I thought it was going to be bigger like my other Morgana cushion (which you can see here). This was an ichiban kuji prize and as YY Kawaii was selling it, I asked Dane for it for Christmas. Alas here it is! It’s such a cute little pillow and will be nice to use as a head pillow whilst in bed, especially if I’m feeling poorly or under the weather and need to rest my head on something a little more.

These again are some of my favourite gifts that I received from Dane! Again, I had a feeling I was getting something like this for Christmas as I’d hinted to him about it and he’d asked me to put in order which ones I’d like. I’m not only 2 short of having ALL the Eeveelution plushies and I’ve now pre ordered them from YY Kawaii! Some of these were in my stocking and some were in my present bag, so it was a nice surprise when I found out I had another two to open! I cant wait to show all nine of the Eeveelutions off to you in the New Year!

I know I’ve said this for a few gifts now, but this is definitely up there in my top three Christmas presents! I know it’s just a pop vinyl figure and I know it’s just Wall-E BUT it’s Earth Day Wall-E and he’s pretty damn rare now! I mentioned on my post a few days ago how he’s now worth a maximum of £50 on places like Amazon and eBay, so the fact Dane managed to get him new for £15 on eBay is such a bargain. He’s how the original Wall-E should have looked in all honesty and I just love the look of him so much! He’ll be going into mine and Dane’s manga cabinet and he’ll be staying in the box. 😛

Finally we have my number one present, which of course is a Nendoroid! I was surprised to only see one in my Christmas bag as Dane and me usually go Nendoroid happy over Christmas, birthday and anniversary. I bought Dane three and he only bought me one. This being said, a lot of Nendoroid’s I want at the moment aren’t THAT easy to get a hold of, or I’ve already ordered them for myself. There’s quite a few of the Yuri On Ice Nendoroid’s I want, mostly the casual versions at the moment BUT I was missing Yuri Plisetsky, so I’m glad that Dane managed to get hold of him for me! I’m going to pose him as a cutie with kitty ears on with the other two guys. 😛

So that’s all the Christmas gifts I have received so far! I know I have a few bits left to get from two of my best friends, but that’s okay, they’ll be worth the wait. 🙂

I can’t believe the whole hype of Christmas we work ourselves up for is now over. It’s only 4 days now until New Years Eve and then it’ll be 2019. It’s crazy, I don’t honestly know where this month has gone. It’s flown and it’s rather scary to be honest with you.

What did you get for Christmas from family, friends, significant others and more? 🙂 I want to know! I love hearing about what gifts people receive.

Until next time all, I hope you had an amazing Christmas and Boxing Day!

Christmas Presents I Wanted As A Teenager VS Presents I Want Now

It’s Christmas Eve and everyone is pretty much ready for Christmas now… Right? RIGHT?! I bloody hope so anyway, otherwise you’re pushing it a little bit… 😛

Last year I wrote about what gifts I would have wanted as a kid, as well as gifts I was wishing after for Christmas. You can read that post here.

This year I decided to do the same sort of thing on Christmas Eve, but I wanted to do a list of items I lusted and asked for as a teenager. When it came to thinking about items for this post, I really forgot about how much stuff I wanted as a teenager and how much of the stuff on the list I still own. It’s just made me think a lot… About how old I am! 😛

Of course as well as talking about items I asked for as a teenager, I’ll also be talking about items I’m hoping I’ve received for Christmas tomorrow.

I really hope you enjoy this post as I know I enjoyed writing the one last year about when I was little. Gosh I honestly can’t believe it’s Christmas Day tomorrow. This month has really flown!

• Apple iPod Mini 1st Generation in Green.

I remember when the iPod first came out and my brother had one. I loved it and the thought of having all my music in one place was such a mind blowing and life changing idea! I used to use my CD Walkman all the time but I hated changing CD’s in it constantly or having just the one and it boring the hell out of me after the third play. I remember asking my mom for this for Christmas, but it didn’t come out until my birthday so I actually got it then. However, I never got to keep this iPod. Reasons for this were because the iPod broke and my mom was reluctant to replace it. I don’t know if you remember, but back in the day there were rumours that Apple were notorious for not testing their products and the first batches that people would buy would always be rubbish. This seemed to be the case with my green iPod as only a month or two into owning it it started to play up. It wouldn’t charge and when it did the charge lasted for seconds. It was confusing and upsetting, so my mom took me back to the shop (Dixons to be exact! Remember them?) to get a refund. I was upset already at this point that she wouldn’t replace it, instead she just wanted her money back. I understood why, she was angry that she’d spent a lot of money on the iPod for it to break so soon. So we explained in the shop what was wrong and how she wanted her money back. “The back light is constantly on. Is this how it’s been since you bought it?” It was, I always left the back light on. “Well we aren’t giving you a refund then. You’ve broken it yourself by leaving that back light on.” This was such a shitty attitude and my mom already being annoyed, was even more annoyed now! I was gutted. My dad took me to another Dixons store to try and get a refund for the iPod, we explained what we had to the first store and they gave us a full refund without any questions or judgement. PHEW! I never did get another iPod Mini to replace that one but when I started university I bought my iPod Nano, which I still own and use to this day. 🙂

• Converse All Star Hi Tops in Red.

The Christmas I received these was the year of my teenage years where I started to become who I am now… If that makes sense? I’d discovered so many of my favourite things including music, films, books, TV shows and especially what style of clothing I loved. I’d been eyeing up Converse hi tops for a while and especially wanted the red pair as they were different. I remember my brother taking me to the Bullring in Birmingham and buying me some new clothes for Christmas and my birthday. It was such a bizarre day to be honest with you… He bought me loads of clothes including jeans, tops and hoodies and he also bought me my hi tops, which I loved and wore them for about 2 years until I couldn’t anymore. They just wore down so much they were too uncomfortable to wear anymore. I still have them though… I don’t think I could ever part with them now in all honesty! I don’t know if I’d ever buy another pair of Converse now… I’m too much of a Vans and Docs girl now.

• Angel Eau de Parfum by Thierry Mugler.

This was my first “proper” perfume that I owned and to this day I still own it! Not the same bottle as I would have had back in the day, but I always need a bottle of Angel in my life now. It reminds me of my mom to be honest with you, as I remember her buying this and falling in love with the smell! Angel is just such a unique perfume and anyone who loves their fragrance will instantly know what this is after you get a whiff of it. I remember as a teenager always asking for a bottle of this as I wanted my own, I didn’t want to keep sneaking my mom’s. 😛 I can’t remember if my mom bought me a bottle for Christmas, or if I was bought it after someone went on holiday. I know I had a bottle as a teenager though and I felt glam as fuck! 😛

• Kodak Easyshare Camera with Printer.

I remember my mom taking me to Dixons to buy this for me for Christmas. It wasn’t a surprise come Christmas Day but I loved it so much! I had wanted a digital camera for the longest time so my mom took me to have a look at what kind of camera I could pick up. We saw the Kodak ones with printers and were sold! I used this camera and printer to death to be honest with you and I’m pretty sure they still work! Yes, over 10 years later and I still own both the camera and the printer. I remember staying in my room taking selfie photos all the time and of my dog. I remember filmed a video of my dog Madge on this camera and it’s still the cutest thing. I wish I had that footage somewhere online so I could watch it now and link it here. But the best thing about this camera was as soon as you’ve taken your photos you could print them off AND you could plug the printer into your computer and print photos from off of there. It was a fab little device and I loved it so much. 🙂

• The Sims 2 PC Game.

This was something I wanted so badly, so when I opened it on Christmas Day from my brother I was so ecstatic! I remember him installing it for me and I couldn’t keep still at the anticipation of playing it. I spent so many days and nights playing this game and even played it whenever I went to see my cousins after school and over the weekends. I just fell in love with it. I actually really miss playing Sims 2 as I found it was the easiest to play, as well as the funniest! Every Christmas and birthday I’d always get the expansion packs too, which was awesome. Honestly though, many wasted years of my youth went into this game. 😛

• Sony Ericsson W800.

After the whole iPod fiasco I was without an MP3 player for quite sometime. I also had a bit of a shit mobile as well. It was okay and it did the job, but as a teenager everyone wanted a good camera on their phone, as well as other things. I asked for this for Christmas but I didn’t get it until towards the end of secondary school. From memory it was marketed as one of the first phones to also double up as an MP3 player and this really did call to me! Plus it was white and orange, what more would you want from a phone as a teenager?! I always loved getting new phones over Christmas, it was just awesome back in the day. It’s different though these days for kids. They want them to go online and take selfies, where back when I was a teenager you just wanted something that could take photos and best games on there. 😛 I remember this phone also had a selfie mirror on the back, which was always amazing.

• Nintendo DS in Pink.

The final item on this list and one I wanted for years, and years, and years but I never got, which in turn I was gutted about. I asked for this for many years but the one year it was in a package with the Nintendogs game and I KNEW I really wanted it that Christmas. My dad even took me to GAME to buy it for me, but my brother talked him out of it saying, “Don’t get her that, Nintendo DS is shit! Get her a PSP instead!” So my dad made me look into the PSP and the games and I didn’t want any of them. So alas, due to the Nintendo DS being “shit” I never got one. Years later my dad bought me a red Nintendo DS Lite, which was amazing. 😛 I am still gutted though that it took so long for me to get a Nintendo DS because of my brothers inaccuracies. 😛

OKAY so that’s all the items that I remember fondly asking for as a teenager for Christmas, as well as a bit of a back story into what happened when I got them/if I got them. ^_^

NOW onto the gifts I’ve wished for this Christmas! Some of these items I know I’ve been gifted, or asked for from Dane, his family and my own family. I know this list is probably boring, but meh. 😛

• Persona 5 Morgana Plush.

I can’t tell you how long I have wanted this Morgana plush for! It’s not cheap to get a hold of though, which in itself sucks! I really hope deep down that Dane has bought me it for Christmas though, as I really want him. 🙂 I think I might have to treat myself to him sooner rather than later as I’d hate to see a SOLD OUT on him on the two websites I’ve found him on… It would definitely suck! Maybe if I don’t get him for Christmas or birthday, he can be a birthday treat to myself… 😛

• Disney Wall-E Earth Day Pop Vinyl.

I literally just went to Amazon to see how much this guy is going for. Bloody hell, nearly £50! DAYUM. I’m really hoping Dane has picked him up for me for Christmas as it’s so damn cute and to be perfectly honest with you, how the first Wall-E pop vinyl should have looked really. If I do get him, he’ll stay in the box. 😛

• South Park Princess Kenny Mug.

This is such a random thing on this list, but something I’d love either way! I think I’d love this mug more for work to be fair. I recently bought the t-shirt with Princess Kenny on and I’m in love. Princess Kenny is for sure one of my favourite things to come out of South Park and she’s definitely my boo. 😉 I doubt very much I’ll get this mug for Christmas or birthday, but if I go to Fobidden Planet anytime soon, I may pick it up to use at work. 🙂

• Fox Wall Tapestry by ARiAillustr.

I have a feeling Dane has bought me this for Christmas… It’s something I expressed that I really wanted for our bedroom. He’s always commented how he wanted a feature wall behind our bed, but I just can’t commit to something like that, especially as we have built in wardrobes in front of the bed with mirrors on. Imagine waking up every morning and just seeing a red wall? FYI that’s what he wanted. 😛 However when I found this fox wall tapestry I fell in love with it! It’s such a pretty design on it and with a simple stick on wall hooks it’ll be up and down in no time! I’m also hoping I have some fairy lights to hang around it too. 😛

• Olivia Burton Snow Globe Blush & Silver Watch.

I already know I have this for Christmas, as my mom has bought it for me, which in turn is so lovely of her. 🙂 She asked me what I wanted as a gift as she hadn’t got a clue and when I suggested this watch (and of course the hefty price tag!) she was over the moon to pick it up! That’s the good thing with both mine and her birthday’s right after Christmas and just days apart from each other (mine is the 6th and hers is the 7th!) so we can buy each other expensive gifts and have them for both occasions. 🙂 I LOVE this watch so much though! For a year now I’ve wanted a really nice designer watch, but as of yet I didn’t quite find anything I liked the look of, or showed who I am… If that makes sense? I love foxes, as everyone knows so when I saw that Olivia Burton were bringing a watch out with a fox on the face, I knew I had to get it. Bless my mom she’s also got my name etched onto the band too, which is gorgeous. She told me I could have it before Christmas, but I’m waiting until tomorrow. 🙂

• Elodie the Unicorn Humidifier.

I can’t remember how long I’ve wanted this for… I think it must be almost 2 years now! It was on Kickstarter and I wanted to back it so much, but I never bothered. It worked out quite expensive at the time. Elodie The Unicorn is an American branded item too so shipping was a bomb! I waited and waited and eventually Firebox started stocking Elodie The Unicorn items, one of which I spoke about recently on this post. However, I would love this humidifier for more than just the way it looks. I really want it to put essential oils in of an evening and during the weekends when me and Dane aren’t at work. Lavender for evenings and eucalyptus for when me and Dane have colds. I have a funny feeling that I’ve been bought this for Christmas… 😛

• Loungefly Pokemon Eevee Embosed Tri-Fold Wallet.

I am gutted at the time of writing this post because I was actually going to order this for myself. It’s now out of stock and due to that a part of me has kind of died… I don’t need a new wallet, but I’d like to have one if I could. Mines definitely showing it’s age now. I doubt very much that I have this for Christmas, but a small part of me hopes I do. :’)

• Pandora Bobby Bot Dog Charm.

I’ve had my eye on this Pandora charm for a while now. I’ve not really asked for any Pandora charms for some time and I don’t really know why… I guess I just haven’t liked the look of any, you know? However I do really LOVE this Bobby Bot dog! It’s so adorable and definitely something different. I tell you what though, for what it is it’s fucking expensive! It’s £50, which isn’t cheap for a Pandora charm in my opinion. I doubt very much that I have this for Christmas as I didn’t think of giving it as a gift idea…

So there’s my wish lists from back when I was a teenager to now I’m an adult! 😀 As you’ll probably see from both lists, thing never change with me. 😛

I do miss being younger and having a carefree life, but at the same time I actually don’t miss those years of dealing with puberty, the heartbreak I felt when lusting after boys who thought I was grotesque and not having any freedom. 😛

I want to know what some of your memorable Christmas gifts were from when you were a teenager? As well as what gifts you’d like to receive come Christmas day? 🙂

I have to add whilst it’s all well and good me talking about receiving gifts tomorrow and enjoying time with loved ones, we always have to remember there are people out there not as fortunate as some to have a lovely warm home and family members to be around at Christmas.

I always think of people who are both homeless and dealing with mental health issues around Christmas and it truly breaks my heart.

With that in mind, if you’re struggling today, tomorrow and for the rest of 2018 please make sure to drop me a message on any of my social media pages. I will always be happy and welcoming to you if you need someone to rant to. ❤

On that note, I hope you have an amazing Christmas and a happy New Year! 🙂