Happy Friday Everyone!
Can you believe that after the weekend, it’ll be Christmas Eve? I’m kind of glad I have an entire weekend to get things prepped/ready, because we are hosting my family on Christmas Eve… at 11:00 a.m.! Next week will be a little lighter on the blog, I plan to share our Christmas Card on Christmas Day, I’ll still be having Thursday Fashion Files on Thursday (stop by if you have time!) and on Friday I’ll be sharing a post on How to Set Up and Use Your Echo Dot (if you get one for Christmas!). Now, let’s dive into some Friday Five Fun!
One – Christmas Mail from My Blogging Bestie!
Lauren at Mom Home Guide and I met through a Clever Girls gift exchange several years ago and we’ve exchanged Christmas and birthday gifts ever since! I even got to meet her at Haven this last summer. She really got me some adorable items this year! I love the little mini place card holders that have the trees and snow inside mason jars! I just made some of these (but, much bigger!) to put inside my shelves in my serving area. She also knows I’ve started to collect Rae Dunn items and got me this adorable ‘Sip’ ceramic coffee cup! It’ll get A LOT of use! She sent me some cotton picks and a red fire truck wine cork! Thank you so much, Lauren. I LOVE everything and your friendship! 🙂
Two – 9 Books Read in 2018
I love keeping track of my books on Goodreads. It is similar to Facebook, but for book lovers. This has been a really busy year and I only finished 8 books (and reading a 9th book). I used to read 28 in one year! I used to do a lot of long distance running on the treadmill and when I stopped that, I also stopped reading so much. I need to find a new way to implement reading time into my day.
Here are the books I read:
Currently I’m reading China Rich Girlfriend (Crazy Rich Asians #2), Kevin Kwan
Winter Storms (Winter #3), Elin Hilderbrand
The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
Girl, Wash Your Face, Rachel Hollis
Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians #1), Kevin Kwan
Still Me (Me Before You, #3), Jojo Moyes
The Women in Cabin 10, Ruth Ware
Lilac Girls, Martha Kelly
Torch, Cheryl Strayed
I would say if I had to pick THREE favorites, it’d be Still Me, The Great Alone and Girl, Wash Your Face. I really enjoyed the Crazy Rich Asians book. I would recommend any of these books I read this year. I’d love to know what your FAVORITE book was that you read in 2018 (or even a few!). I’m always looking for new books to read.
Three – Bona Floor Cleaner
While at Haven LAST July, I got to speak to the lovely Bona folks. After Haven they sent us a
Bona Multi-Surface Floor Care Kit… which, sadly… I haven’t gotten to reviewing until NOW! We do have maids that come and clean every other week, but this year they’re scheduled to come the DAY after Christmas. I even emailed them to confirm they’re open, and YUP. Which, isn’t a bad thing… our house will need some cleaning after the holidays and we can go out to breakfast that morning while they’re cleaning (they get here pretty early!). But, we are having my family over on Christmas Eve and I plan to do a little cleaning to tidy everything up. I’m planning on getting this Bona Floor Kit out, because it works on hardwood floors AND tile floors! Our bathrooms are ceramic tile and our main living areas are hardwood, so YAY.
This is all that came in the kit (it’s A LOT of products!):
- Durable 4 piece mop handle with 4″ x 15″ mop head
- Bona Microfiber Cleaning Pad
- Full size Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner Original Formula
- Full size Bona Stone, Tile and Laminate Floor Cleaner
- BONUS – Free Hardwood Floor Cleaner Original Formula concentrate refill ($6 value)
- BONUS – Free Stone, Tile, & Laminate Floor Cleaner concentrate refill ($6 value)
- BONUS – Two free Bona Hardwood Floor Wet Cleaning Pads
- BONUS – Free Bona Dry Disposable Dusting Pads
This kit is only $29.99 and is the perfect way to try out the Bona products on your floors. They sell Bona products at Walmart and Target, if you don’t want to make the purchase online. I have been really pleased with this kit and would definitely purchase additional products from them in the future!
Four – Anniversary Gifts
So, back in October… Brian and I celebrated our anniversary. I’ve been wanting to mention what he gifted me on the blog, but somehow the holidays took over and I’m finally getting around to it now. 🙂 One item that he gifted me was this Nora Fleming Minis Keepsake Box. Oh, do I love it! I have a Nora Fleming area in one of the cabinets under our serving area. I don’t have a lot of stuff, but I do have quite a few Fall and Winter minis! Lauren from Mom Home Guide gifted me the lemon mini. 🙂
These are all of my minis. 🙂 I might need another Minis Keepsake Box soon! 😉 The minis snap into the Nora Fleming products, such as their stoneware serving items, etc.
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He also gifted me these UGG Women’s Ansley Moccasin slippers in Light Grey. I’ve been wanting a pair since Shay from Mix & Match Mom Mama shared hers. They are so comfy and I wear them all day in the house. They are hard soled on the bottom, so I can run out and get the mail, etc. They come in a lot of other colors, such as black, chestnut, cream, etc.
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Brian wanted the Apple Ring Doorbell from me for our anniversary and I will have to say this is a MUST HAVE item. It is THAT cool and it is the perfect gift to get your MAN.
You can see so well with it! We can see who puts packages by our door, when the maids leave, who is at the door period. We can hook it up and watch it from our TV or phone. It has pretty good vision, you can see the street and the neighbors houses across the street! It has top notch night vision. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. It was basically a gift for me, too! 🙂
Five – Nathan Earned his Black Belt!
We have had Nathan in a karate program for the last 4 years and he JUST earned his black belt last weekend! We are so proud of him, it is a lot of work. He had to do a speech and take a written and physical test. He’s planning to continue karate, he just loves it. The black belt ceremony was really nice. They had Japanese drummers and all of the different levels of black belts showed some of their skills on stage. They finished with a slide show from Warrior Weekend, which is when they did the black belt exam.
Have a Great Friday and a MERRY Christmas and Happy Holidays! Don’t forget to tell me what your favorite book was (or a few) that you read this year in the comments. 🙂
