Happy Christmas! Merry New Year!

Here's a shocker: I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!  It's my FAVORITE holiday, by far.  I love being with family, shopping, watching cheesy Christmas movies, listening (and rocking out) to Christmas music; the works.  Name anything about Christmas, and I probably love it.  Go ahead, I dare you.  Here are some of my favorite, songs, movies, etc. about Christmas:

(1) Bundling up and going out shopping in the crowds, I love it!  Everyone (mostly) is so happy to be out at this time of year, and I find myself having a greater abundance of patience too.

(2) Baking Christmas cookies.  I spent many hours and days baking cookies this year, and I do it every year.  It's our "thing" in the Evans' household.  We've done it for as long as I can remember and will continue to do it for a LONG time.  Here's what I made this year: Chocolate cookies with Reese's PB cups in them, Chocolate-PB-Pretzel cookies (thank you Pinterest!), PB Kiss cookies, Ginger cookies, and Oreo Truffles (again, thanks Pinterest!).  Baking's therapeutic for me; it calms my soul.  For real.
    

(3)  Watching Elf and Home Alone.  I love these movies and they get grouped together in one.  It's a tradition to break out these two.  When Home Alone first came out, my brother Tony took me and my other brother Andrew to see it in the theater so Santa could visit us on Christmas Eve.  It's a long story why we always opened presents on Christmas Eve, but in a nutshell, my older brothers ruined it for me and I've never opened gifts on Christmas morning.  Sad, but true.  "Smiling's my favorite."

(4) Other cheesy Christmas movies, thank you Hallmark, abc family, and ion television channels for feeding this guilty pleasure of mine.  My favorite cheesy movie, hands down, is "A Boyfriend for Christmas."  A few new favorites this year are "Holiday in Handcuffs," and "Snowglobe."  Go check them out on Netflix if you have that same guilty pleasure.

       
(5) MUSIC! Here's a condensed top five favorite Christmas song list: "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey; "We Wish You the Merriest" by Frank Sinatra; "What Christmas Means to Me" by Stevie Wonder; "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" by Jackson 5; and "Oh Holy Night" by 'N Sync.  There are so many others, it really pains me not to list them!

(6) Being with family in Michigan!  I miss my family and Michigan and I LOVE getting to spend two weeks or so back at home with them.  I wish I could live closer, but it's not where I'm supposed to be at this point in my life. 

There are so many other things I love about the holidays, but I won't ramble on forever.

Happy Christmas!!  Merry New Year!!  I hope the holidays find you and yours happy and healthy! :)