Happy Holidays, Y'all!

So I hope all of y'all had a great holiday season/are still having one (I'm counting New Years!). For the first year in a while, we had Christmas at my uncle's house instead of ours, which was kind of a relief, not going to lie.

 

 I want to name these bad boys, but I don't know if my uncle would approve. I guess I don't have to tell him, right?

 I got to see my cousin's kids, who are the little lights of my life. The three-year-old asked me for help drawing a shark (because that's what big sister was doing), so I asked her if she was scared of sharks. She said no, so I asked her what she would do if she saw one. She replied, "I would feed it. Sharks are always hungry because nobody feeds them", in that self-assured way only very small children have. Did I mention she's the cutest thing? However, I now have to make a dozen reindeer cookies for her big sister when we get back from a mini vacation to the coast. And I've been recruited to do their nails for their next dance recital, thanks to my rhinestone-bedecked Christmas mani!

That magnificent book in the back is Jenny Lawson's (The Bloggess) Let's Pretend This Never Happened and also proof that my hint/threats about seeing a dead (ethically taxidermied) mouse under the tree worked.

I used Julep Delauney and Sienna, and my rhinestones from Born Pretty. I got Sienna in my Julep New Year's Mystery Box-if you want to check that out, as well as some photo blurbs from Christmas, look after the break!

So this was the first Mystery Box I've ordered, as well as my first box since September in general (and I decided to skip January's...so there's that.) It was $20 and promised at least $100 worth of product, so I gambled on it and was kind of pleased.

I got five polishes, one of which I already own, and I'm pleased with the colors. What I'm less pleased with is the product they sent to seemingly reach the hundred dollar mark (a glitter pot and a few polish remover pads do not bump the $70 the polish is worth all the way up). They sent me Age Defying Hand Treatment. A huge tube of it. I'm TWENTY-TWO. I gave it to my mom, but I was disappointed that they didn't seem to take a minute to realize this and send me something a little more age-appropriate. I would've LOVED a full-size Pedi Treatment, which I actually had my fingers crossed they would send me..but oh well, life goes on. Now for pictures!

 I love the extract bottles themselves: they are tiny and glass and make me feel like Alice and her "Drink Me" bottles when I use them. However, I do not like the smell of almond extract AT ALL. It makes me gag.

I liked the way the gingerbread spices looked before I whisked them into the flour...therefore this happened.

I made tiny sugar cookies for my cousins! Also for me, because they made me feel less guilty about eating all of them.

My mom found this crystal dish and filled it with party mints, which I promptly devoured.

Christmas Minnetonkas!! And, less visibly, Christmas jeans.

And then I made friends with this meow meow and was the most cheerful reindeer of all.