Merry Christmas ~ 2019

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Let’s always remember, that Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas. He saved us from our sins and because of that if we accept Him into our hearts we can live forever with Him in heaven.

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Romans 10:9 NASB

Thank you so much to Faith for hosting the 12 Days of Christmas blog party. It's been a lot of fun!

Christmastime

I am here today with another 12 Days of Christmas post.

Today I’m sharing about some of my favorite things to do at Christmas time.

Christmas trivia! I really like trivia games, especially Christmas ones.

I love gathering with my family and watching movies. This year it’s mostly just been my parents and I that have been watching Christmas movies together but it’s still just as fun as always.
I think everyone knows how much I enjoy a good Hallmark Christmas movie. ;)

Driving around and looking at lights is lots of fun. We don’t do it too often, but it’s fun when we do. There’s this one house not too far from us and they have a big lights and music display. The lights and music are synchronized!

I love playing in the snow. It’s unfortunately only snowed once this Christmas season. (Well, technically twice but the first time it hardly lasted.)

Reading Christmas books, especially by the tree is so fun!

Can you believe that Christmas is only 3 days away?!🎄

There's more Christmas fun over at Faith's blog.

Favorite Christmas Movies

Christmas is in just a little less then a week!!! The time is flying!

In today's 12 Days of Christmas post I will be sharing about a few of my favorite Christmas movies. Make sure to head over to Faith's blog for more Christmas party fun!

Once Upon A Christmas Miracle is such a good movie! I watched it a few weeks ago for the first time and now it’s a new favorite of mine. It was so sweet. 

Home for Christmas Day is another sweet one. I watched this one last year for the first time and re-watched it earlier this Christmas season.

Last year’s When Calls the Heart Christmas special The Greatest Christmas Wish was really good! Some new characters came to Hope Valley at Christmastime and while they didn’t stay long, they are the main characters in the spin-off show When Hope Calls.
I especially liked this one since Elizabeth had her and Jack’s baby!

Christmas Getaway is so great!! The storyline was lots of fun and I really liked the two main characters.

I just watched Christmas Scavenger Hunt last night with my parents. This movie came out just this year. I thought it was fun and it hardly had any conflict in it which I enjoyed. ;)

Merry and Bright was lots of fun and it also came out this year! I always enjoy movies where the main characters get off on the wrong foot with each other. ;)

Have you seen any of these? 🎄

Christmas Book Recommendations

It's hard to believe that Christmas is in just a little over a week! I really need to finish my Christmas shopping.

Today for the 12 Days of Christmas party I will be recommending some Christmas books. I've done a post like this for the last few years, so I won't mention a ton because I don't want to keep recommending the same books. ;)

I didn't realize it when I started reading Through the Tunnel, but this book takes place around Christmas time. The story was really good and I enjoyed it a lot. It's my favorite book by Rebekah A. Morris.

I haven't gotten very far at all into Hear Them Ring but so far it's been lovely! I read my first Erynn Mangum book this summer, Katie in Waiting, and LOVED it so I'm excited to be reading more by her.

This was a short sweet book that I just recently finished reading and I just reviewed it the other day.

These four books are all really cute and enjoyable stories!


What's the last Christmas book you read?


Don't forget to check out Faith's blog for more Christmas fun! :)

12 Days of Christmas is Back / Book Review

The annual 12 Days of Christmas blog party is back for it's 5th year!! Faith has done a fantastic job of creating and running the party every year. I've had the pleasure of participating in it each year. :)
I'm excited to do some Christmas posts and to read everyone else's posts too.

Today I will be doing a book review.

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From the Back Cover:

When she receives the news in late 1944 that her baby's father was shot down in the South Pacific, Amelia Richards loses hope. Jobless and broke, she has nowhere to turn for help but her infant's paternal grandparents. The only problem is, they don't know that she--or their grandson--exists. When Amelia discovers that the family is wealthy and influential, dare she disclose the truth of her relationship with their son? Or could the celebration of the arrival of another unexpected baby nearly two thousand years ago be the answer to her dilemma?

The Christmas Blessing is a sweet Christmas story. It did feel like it was a little short though. It was a slower paced story, but right towards the end things started happening fast and it felt a bit rushed. I kind of wish it would've been a longer story because I wanted to know a little more about what happened at the end and to see a bit more.

Although I wished it was longer, I did enjoy the book and it was pretty sweet!!

I give this book 7.5 R's out of 10

Don't forget to head over to Stories by Firefly to read Faith's post!

A Read Down Memory Lane

I got the idea for this post and the title from my friend, Brooklyne! I love it when others can help you come up with fun blogging ideas.
Today I am going to be talking about some of my favorite books from over the years as we travel down memory lane.

One of my first favorite books was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. I loved this book so much. My mom read it to me so many times. We checked it out multiple times at the library before we ended up getting our own copy.
As I got a little older I would sometimes read it to my younger brothers.

Super Time for Frieda Fuzzy Paws
My dad use to read this book to us kids all the time. Our copy of it is literally falling apart now.

Hubert’s Hair-Raising Adventure
This book is so funny! I love it and it’s one of those books that whenever I babysit I always take it with me. All the kids I’ve ever read it to have loved it.

The Boxcar Children series
My dad use to read this series to my siblings and I and it was always so much fun reading a few chapters each night and trying to guess the mystery.

Paul Bunyan
This book is one my mom read to us kids. We read a few chapters each morning then when we were done we had Paul Bunyan Day where we had giant pancakes for breakfast and all of our meals somehow went along with the book.

A Life of Faith: Elsie Dinsmore
Once I got into book 1, Elsie’s Endless Wait I couldn’t stop! Elsie and I were around the same age and I adored this book. Then I read book 2 and flew through it as well! The first 2 books were my favorite because Elsie was so close to my age. In the other books she started to grow up and I didn’t find them as fun, but now that I’m older I am in desperate need to go back and read them!!

The Littles
When I read my first book about a family named The Littles, I thought it was so cool. Who doesn’t want to read about a tiny family that lives in the walls of a house?

American Girl Mysteries
I’ve always been an American Girl fan. I read so many of the mysteries and absolutely loved them.

Dear America
Then there’s the Dear America series. I got so many of these from the library. I really enjoyed reading stories about girls my age who lived in different time periods. Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie has always been my favorite!

Millie Keith
One day while I was at our nearby Christian Bookstore with my mom, we saw the A Life of Faith books. It was when they were going out of print and where on sale. Since I loved the Elsie books, my mom suggested I give the Millie books a try. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it. But we got the first two books, and oh my goodness! That series turned into my favorite series ever!

Circle C Adventures
When I first started the first book in this series, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it, but it was so good. I couldn't get to the library fast enough to read them!

Did you read any of these as a kid? :)

What I've Been Reading Lately

I haven't done any sort of reading update in a long time, so I thought it would be fun to do it!!

A few weeks ago I finished a really good book called Through the Tunnel by Rebekah A. Morris. I enjoyed it a lot.

Beloved by Kaitlyn Krispense is another good book. I actually read this one a couple of months ago, but it was so good. It was way better then I expected.

The Timepiece by Beverly Lewis was so good and a great conclusion to The Tinderbox.

Silent Night Holy Night was the first book I read by Colleen Coble. I found out while reading it that the two short stories connect to two of the authors different series, so I wouldn't recommend this being your first book of hers to read. I still enjoyed it, I just didn't get to know the characters as well since I hadn't read those other series.

A book I finished about two weeks ago was The Inn at Ocean's Edge by Colleen Coble. It's been awhile since I read an intriguing mystery so that was great!!

The last book I finished was The Christmas Blessing by Melody Carlson. It was a sweet Christmas book, but I wish it was a bit longer.

What books have you read lately? :)

My Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

These are a few of my favorite Christmas things! 

Grateful, Thankful, Blessed ~ My November Highlights

Another month has come and gone. I can’t believe how fast this year has been flying by!

November was a fast month! Lots happened!

~This month's book clubs were fun as always. For the younger girls the book we discussed was The Cricket in Times Square and we did a lap book for the activity. For the older girls we discussed the Dear America book The Fences Between Us and we learned about Navajo Code Talkers and decoded messages.

~The Bible study has been going great. I’m sad that it’s almost over

~I participated in two different Instagram challenges! I probably won’t take on two challenges at once again because although it was fun, it was a lot of posting! ;)

~My younger brother’s and I hosted a costume party. There was a total of 17 people at the party including us. I dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen.

~Thanksgiving came! My family and I had a great time at home celebrating.
In the evening we played a family favorite game: Telestrations!

~I decorated my room for Christmas! Yay!!

~Speaking of Christmas I’ve started reading Christmas books and watching Christmas movies! 🎄

~It snowed!!! Not much, but we still got snow!!!

It was coming down pretty good! 

~I read some good books this month! I read Through the Tunnel by Rebekah A. Morris.
I also read The Inn at Ocean's Edge by Colleen Coble, along with some other good books!

I hope everyone had lovely November!

Movie Recommendations

It's been awhile since I've done a movie recommendation post. These 6 movies are great. They
are all good and ones I've watched more then once, and I've seen all but two in the movie theatre.

God Bless the Broken Road
I really wasn't sure what to expect with this movie. I wanted to see it, but wasn't sure if I would really like it. It ended up being way better than I anticipated!
View the trailer here.

I Can Only Imagine

This movie is incredible! It inspired me more then I can say.
View the trailer here.

Indivisible
I saw a trailer for this movie while at the theatre seeing God Bless the Broken Road. I never know about movies that are war related, just because I'm a bit more sensitive to war and violence, but it's a really well made movie that I enjoyed a lot.
View the trailer here.

Run the Race
Run the Race is a good movie. As soon as I saw the trailer I couldn't wait to watch it.
View the trailer here.

Overcomer
I enjoy the Kendrick Brother's movies. While this wasn't my favorite one they've made it was still good! There was one thing I didn't agree with, but other then that it had a good storyline.
View the trailer here.

Woodlawn
Woodlawn is one of those movies that after I finish it I always want to go out and change the world. I was a bit hesitant to watch it at first since it dealt with segregation and I didn't want to watch something that would be racist, but it wasn't like that.
View the trailer here.


Have you seen any of these movies?