Blogmas | December Playlist

Hello!

Can you believe Christmas is on Sunday?! I can’t honestly, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who are feeling the exact same way.

I usually post my monthly playlists at the end, but since I will be taking my mini hiatus directly after Christmas, it just makes sense to release it as part of my Blogmas content. I’ll actually give you the list now and share some of the stuff going on in the past few weeks below.

Here are my Top 20 favorite songs for December 2022! If you want to check out the full playlist, click here.

Skinny Little Missy by Nickelback
Diseased by Icon For Hire
Bye Bye by Gryffin featuring Ivy Adara
Met Him Last Night by Demi Lovato featuring Ariana Grande
Have Mercy by Chloe
It’s Been Awhile by VCTRYS
The Way I Are (Dance With Somebody) by Bebe Rexha featuring Lil Wayne
What A Man Gotta Do by Jonas Brothers
Running For Your Life by UNSECRET featuring Butterfly Boucher
Ghost Town by Layto featuring Neoni
DICE by NMIXX
Revolution by Bishop Briggs
Reinvented by Ad Infinitum
Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz
Dangerous by Aviva
The Assault by ADIEAUX x Justin Starling
Wild by Effsio Cross
Bones by wens
May It Be by Anuna featuring Sara Weeda
O Holy Night by Lindsey Stirling
Medley by Michael W. Smith
Nordlys by Myrkur
Silent Souls by Moya Brennan featuring Cormac De Barra
Carols of the Bells by Jennifer Thomas
Turn Off All The Christmas Songs by Sam Tinnesz

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As I mentioned in last Friday’s post, I was really sick throughout the early part of the month, but I will say, I have had a lot of fun hanging out with my family lately. Our dog Rumer has really enjoyed playing again. She didn’t like it not being able to come around me in those few weeks. However, when I did come out, we’d play ball so much that she would literally jump up on the couch and fall asleep. One day she’ll do this when mom and I are watching Jeopardy in the living room. She tends to be active while we’re watching it, and you’d think her craziness would slow me down at all, but I have found I do better when I’m multitasking and playing with her.

Rumer does not know a lot of commands, we had plans to teach her a lot of different things when she was a puppy, but that takes a lot of time that none of us had a lot of patience for it, and now she’s full of energy and whines quite a bit. She does not do well away from my parents, mostly my dad, and she’s fiercely protective over us on top of that. Anyways, I’ve been trying to teach her some simple things, one is sitting (or lie down) before I roll her green ball to her. I don’t know what made me do this, but I point my big toe at her while leaving my right foot shielding the ball at the same time. She is starting to realize when I point downward, it means she needs to sit. She’s been doing great for this but recently, she’s been learning to go all the way down now. It was just bowing, and they’ve turned into fully calm, cooled and on the ground and everytime she succeeds in this task, I reward her with the ball.

For those of you who are asking about our Christmas tree though, she does pretty good with it considering she doesn’t usually care for the plants in the house. My dad was way too excited to bring our big plant we call “Sally” into the master bedroom for the month, because she can’t really mess with her and Sally has really blossomed in there as well.

If anybody has advice on how to help her anxiety being away from us and/or with the cats, we’ll gladly take it now!

Let’s talk about actual Christmas things now.

I wasn’t going to put up my tree this year. We recently switched my bed, have a new bedside light and other furniture around in the room and it’s been sort of a struggle figuring out where everything can go now, so I just figured I wasn’t going to have any space for it. And then we got the advent calendar which consists of mini ornaments, and it would make better sense to use my tree compared to the family tree and being around Rumer who eats anything and everything she’s not supposed to, so we managed to arrange it next to the TV and I have two very beloved musical Santa Clauses and we put them at the sides of my tree, and it really looks so good together.

These were the day one and two of our advent calendar ornaments. My nephew absolutely loves to do it as I mentioned in my post last Wednesday. I feel bad it’ll end on Christmas Eve though because it is literally the first thing he goes for when he comes over. Maybe I can find an activity for us to do at the start of 2023. If anybody has any ideas about this too, let me know in the comments.

One of Nolan’s favorite things to do lately is coloring, he really cherishes coloring with me and using my markers even though he has his own. We did a series of holiday characters, and he claimed all of them but one, the Dasher reindeer as it was for Mimi or my mom; unfortunately for Pawpaw Nolan decided his reindeer is for someone else, which really made him sad about it. At the same time we did this, Nolan introduced me to a movie on Disney+ and it’s called Prep and Landing, it is about the elves helping Santa navigate throughout Christmas night and it is so cute and hilarious! I’ve actually watched the other two and I figured out why the voice of Wayne sounded so familiar is because it’s the same actor who did Flik in A Bug’s Life: Dave Foley! Anyways, if you haven’t seen any of the movies yet, you should as they are perfect for toddlers and kids at heart obviously!

Here are the end results of our pages.

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We have already finalized our plans for Christmas morning, and I get to play Santa this year! I’m not going to lie; this is good karma for me in a way. Nolan will be spending the night, so we have cookies and carrots for Rudolph and the gang, as per to Nolan’s instructions. We don’t want to offend any of the other reindeer of course! I am hoping when Nolan is officially asleep, we can put a couple of presents underneath my tree as he’s been such a good boy making my tree all pretty that I feel he needs to see some holiday magic for all of his good work this past month.

Okay, I think that is it for me today. I hope you have enjoyed all of the Christmas-y stuff going on and maybe found some good tunes to round out the rest of 2022.

May Playlist

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well out there.

May was actually a pretty good month; my parents have started growing the garden in the back yard. They have selected a number of flowers and vegetables–we’ve actually been eating our way through the early blooms of lettuce since the middle of April! They started out fixing the landscape around the front end of Rumer’s gate and now that they have “finished” that area, they’ve turned their attention to the back. If you would like a garden tour or something like that soon, let me know!

A few days later, we were able to have my nephew over for a sleepover! It had been a long time since we’d done this, but it was actually really good! He slept in my room on the floor, well, technically he was on his rug I got him before he was ever born, and he seemed excited about being on it and we watched a couple of movies. We started off with Sonic the Hedgehog because that was his newest obsession (now he’s into Pokémon and we are having fun poking–no pun intended I swear!–fun at his mommy because she once had an even bigger thing for Ash and Pikachu!) and after that was over, I put on Zootopia and it didn’t take him long into hearing Shakira singing “Try Everything” that I found him asleep with his hand in the snack bowl!

The other weird thing that happened was that I decided to start watching Star Wars. I’m still not exactly sure what I was thinking but I will say, it’s been fun! I published a post about the prequels: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith on the 20th, so if you’re curious about what I initially thought about the characters and story, you can check that out here. I have finished all 9 films and currently making my way through The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and eventually Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am still going to do another post about the original trilogy sometime next month.

Unfortunately, I developed a small cold around two weeks ago. I hope I really learn my lesson this time around because I felt stupid these last few days. I was so excited to go all out for May and introduce the brand-new music series too, and everything just went to shit after completing Revenge of the Sith. I always kick myself later because it usually comes about when I’m not ready, blog wise, and since my monthly playlists are one of the easiest posts to put together, I wasn’t able to come back to it until last Tuesday. Thankfully, I have become a habit of creating my banners early in the month so I can set up my color scheme before officially writing this part of the post.

Lastly, this blog turned 11 years old a couple of weeks ago. I always forget the actual day I created it, because WordPress says I signed up on the 12th whereas I published my first post on the 13th. It’s no wonder I am confused for the two weeks leading up to it, right?

I didn’t intend to make this more than music, but I thought you guys needed a little life update. So, finally, here are my Top 25 songs for May. Click here to check out the full playlist on Spotify!

First Class by Jack Harlow
Broken Pieces Shine by Evanescence
Walking With Strangers by The Birthday Massacre
Casuality by Mothica
Mad At God by Sarah Saint James
My Gun by Tove Lo
My Garden by Kat Dahlia
24 by Jem
Symphony of the Night by Leaves’ Eyes
Fuck U Love U by Alison Wonderland
Wicked Ways by Halestorm
Family by Badflower
If Tomorrow Never Comes by Bad Wolves featuring Ice Nine Kills
Foxglove by Boston Manor
Despactio by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee
Miss Me More by Kelsea Ballerini
Work Song by Hozier
The Foundations of Decay by My Chemical Romance
Cleopatra by Train featuring Sofia Reyes
How You Like That by BLACKPINK
Where Did It Go? by Asking Alexandria
American Woman by Muddy Magnolias
I Can’t Get You Off My Mind by Miss Li
Allfather by Foresaga
Eye of the Storm by Pop Evil

Now it’s time to share what you were listening to in May!

First Impressions | Star Wars: Episodes I-III

Hello there.

I never thought I’d be here to discuss anything to do with Star Wars, but here we are!

As of May 10th, I have completed five movies, and I needed a way to express my feelings out loud because Nolan isn’t, technically, old enough to watch the films yet. I’d like to say he was the reason I decided to watch them, but I can’t. I’ve always been curious about the newer movies and since Disney+ has a few series about the past and present stories of this drama–plus the mania that surrounded the “Baby Yoda” a couple of years ago!–I realized I needed to see what all of the fuss is about once in for all.

So, with this being sad, let’s get into my top five impressions from, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith. I’ve recently watched Rogue One but will not talk about it in this post. I hope to do another on the next three films and finish with the latest movies as well.

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5. My Love for Jar Jar Binks is Infinite

When I started my SW journey, I knew any character(s) that were quirky in some way, would capture me almost immediately, and when Jar Jar Binks was introduced in the middle of the first film, I knew I was a goner! I really wish he was around the third film instead of that one little scene that he is walking in Padme’s funeral. I enjoyed his bubbly personality and in an odd way, he, R2-D2 and C-P30 reminded me of Hagrid in the Harry Potter series, because despite his big appearance, he is such a lovable guy, who has a different way of speaking to others.

4. Tatooine Looked Like Bedrock from ‘The Flintstones’

As I was watching all of the scenes that feature the desert planet Tatooine, I was always thinking in my head of how much it looked like Bedrock from the live action versions of The Flintstones! I didn’t understand my thinking about it at first, but then I started to pair different things up like the usage of little handmade huts, giant weird creatures, and the angry alien versions of Fred Flintstone.

3. Master Yoda Can Really Move

This one really threw me for a loop. but you’ll (hopefully) understand in a minute.

Ever since the “Baby Yoda” craze erupted all over the world, I did know he was sort of portrayed as an older character, whenever I did see scenes of any of the movies, I would notice he was either propped up by a crutch or sitting in a levitating chair of some kind, so imagine my reaction in the third film and he is just running around like crazy, I was very shocked but I know when your adrenaline kicks in, you can do almost anything with your body and mind. So, as he was fighting Count Dooku, I was taken back by the spirit of Yoda’s abilities.

Master Yoda is like every elderly man out there, and that includes my papaw, because even though he wasn’t the strongest–physical wise–he had a restless mind, and he definitely did not like to be told ‘no’ about anything. We knew he shouldn’t bend over to pick up a tissue he dropped on the floor when I was around, but I think he did it because to give us mini heart attacks, so Yoda basically abandoning his cane altogether was somewhat familiar to me. As a newbie to the universe itself, now I am wondering if he is merely hiding this on the account of being an older creature to the Jedi council or what actually happened to earn that type of battle wound, so I’m hoping as I continue on with my list, I will finally get my answer to this burning question.

2. Anakin & Padmé

Okay, let’s start at the beginning, where we meet a young Anakin Skywalker in his cute chubby cheeks and inventive mind on Tatooine. I absolutely adore this little cute from the start of the whole thing. I vaguely remember seeing promos from “The Phantom Menace” and thought he was adorable, but it wasn’t enough to check them out along with my peers. I thought superheroes were cooler for me!

Anyways, when you are introduced Queen Amidala, you automatically think “she looks like a geisha!” because that’s exactly what she looked like and then before heading out to Tatooine, we meet her most trusted handmaiden Padmé and she obviously looks young, I’d say around 14-16 years but compared to this little boy that seems to be around 10, you would hope they would be able to keep up with each other as friend, but then “Attack of the Clones” comes on and Anakin definitely has a crush on her and acts on it, kind of bothered me at first. I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to see happen between these characters, but I did not believe they should be a couple throughout the entire film.

1. The Origins of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia

I am still reeling by the events that happened in third film. Despite my feelings against the union, I did warm up to them and I didn’t realize how much I felt for Anakin and Padme as individuals until I got to the moment Anakin attacks the younglings at the Temple. I am surprised I didn’t believe in that change to Darth Vader after he killed Master Windu but once he walked into their room, my mind didn’t want to believe he’d kill them. This has happened before, and it was when it was revealed on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. about which side Agent Ward was really working for, and I had the same exact reaction where I didn’t want to believe it until I saw the person mentally and physically change into the enemy.

Sadly, it wasn’t until Obi-Wan was fighting Darth Vader, and he couldn’t allow himself to kill him, even though he saw the evidence of execution of the younglings and Master Windu, although there wasn’t footage of that scene, but it was absolutely heartbreaking hearing him groan and wail in pain as he’s being burned alive and seeing Padmé lose all hope for her little Anakin and the life they both desperately wanted for their little family, At the end, and Padmé gives birth and it is revealed to be two babies, who turn out to be Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, the former Queen dies, but while this is going on Anakin is essentially reborn as Darth Vader, and it really pulls at your heart and you can’t quite understand how it all went to hell so fast for them.

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I couldn’t believe how much I adored these early characters so much. You get a chance to see the beginning of the whole world that makes STAR WARS so special. However, since I chose to watch the films in order, and seeing the special effects between the original three movies against what CGI can do to films, might’ve been my downfall because I am currently at a crossroads because I cannot stand to watch anything past the mid 1990’s movie magic, so I’m not exactly going through the group as I was when I started this list. I’ll get there, but I wouldn’t exactly hope for another update until possibly the start of July!

If you are a fan of the STAR WARS franchise, do you have a favorite film and/or characters? I’d love to hear what everybody enjoys about the pandemonium below in the comments, but please do not tell me any spoilers, it’s bad enough I know Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker have heck of a meeting so, please be considerate of this newbie, okay?

Blogmas: Holiday Reads & TV

Hello!

This Christmas, I wanted to go all out on my celebrations, which really means absorbing as many books, films and TV specials as possible that relate to the holiday season. In this post, I am going to tell you about my reasons over this decision, plus give you some ideas if you’re in the mindset to basically do anything (or everything) I’m doing this December, so I really hope everyone enjoys this little thing.

Books:

Since I finished my reading challenge very early, it has allowed me to devote a chunk of my time to finding some wholesome and maybe not-so-wholesome reads about the holiday season. All but three of the books I’m reading this month are available on Kindle Unlimited, so they were free! So I have three full-length novels and the rest were novellas.

Title: Unwrapping His Package
Author: Fiona Davenport
Genre: Erotica/romance
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was amazing start to the holiday season! I always have a rough time with novellas because they can lack organization, but I didn’t have any problems with this one. It was a very steamy read, but exactly what I wanted to read at that moment of time. 

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Title: A Christmas Carol
Author: Charles Dickens
Genre: Classics/contemporary fiction
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have always wanted to read this book. I’ve seen two or three film adaptions but have never actually made to read it, and this has always surprised me because it is the ideal Christmas story, but then again, when I was in school, I only read a handful of classics!

Anywho, I found the audiobook on YouTube and I thought I could listen to it while working on my Christmas cards this past weekend. I don’t know who the narrator was, but he definitely brought the characters to life with his deep, but welcoming voice! If you have about three hours to yourself, you should listen to it as well, and if you want, click here to start reading the book.

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Title: On His Naughty List
Author: Kat Baxter
Genre: Erotica/Romance
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Despite the fact that these two books are in the same series, I did not follow the order, because there were some that sounded cheesy, so I ignored them and found this bad boy! This one definitely had a lot of things missing from the storyline but obviously I didn’t care as much since I gave it a higher score…

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The other books I have on my TBR (to be read) list are: Secret Santa by Mayra Stratham, (which is another book in the Filthy, Dirty Christmas series.) A Very Bossy Christmas by Alexis Winter, How to Ruin the Holidays by Becky Monsoon, Christmas in the Scottish Highlands by Donna Ashcroft, and finally Finding Love at the Christmas Market by Jo Thomas. Technically I am (as I write this post) reading A Very Bossy Christmas and it is absolutely hilarious, which is exactly what I want right now, so I see myself enjoying this and the one by Becky Monsoon the most, but we’ll see how things turn out in the end.

TV

I am not one to have my television locked on the Hallmark channel this month–honestly, it is one station I have locked out until the second of January when they turn The Golden Girls back on!

Last year, there was a film premiering on Lifetime called, Christmas Ever After and it starred Ali Stroker. Ali is a wheelchair user like moi, but most importantly she won a Tony away for her performance in “Oklahoma” in 2019. Honestly, the overall concept of seeing someone in an overwhelming holiday romance on my television that I was thoroughly exciting! Unfortunately, I never got a chance to finish watching it, that I feel like I need to find it again and give it another chance before Christmas is over.

I already have a small selection of films in my movie folder, and I am still stunned by my reasonings for wanting to watch them. There is Christmas in Tahoe that apparently was inspired by a Train song or album, and the band itself or just the lead vocalist Pat Monahan is in the actual film too! I adore the band’s music, I’ve been a casual fan over the years, but I thought the concept of this movie was interesting, so this was the first. The second was, A Christmas Dance Reunion, and it has Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman, who played “Chad” and “Taylor” in the original High School Musical films. And finally, I am recording Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday which has real sister Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams. It honestly looks really fun and hilarious, so it is on my list as well!

Now I am this selection says “TV” but of course, I’m enjoying all of my other favorites like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Annabelle’s Wish and Home Alone. Speaking on that film, I am also looking forward to checking out the newest Home Alone on Disney+ too! I really enjoy the sequels of these films, so this is just natural for me! Now that I have everything done, I can do everything that I love doing in this festive season.

What are you looking forward to the most? Do you have a new favorite holiday book or movie yet?