merry christmas and happy new year! ♪ヽ(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)ノ♪

（‐＾▽＾‐）

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I know I'm late for both but in addition to my usual excuses, I have one that's pretty legitimate. I was without internet since December 16th and only got it back on December 31st. Our modem broke and our internet provider had to send us a new one and was going to upgrade the service to optic fibre at the same time. But with the holidays and everything, it took FOREVER. Needless to say my family was pissed but I had internet at work and at Alex's house so it wasn't too bad. Plus, you get used to not having internet and my siblings and I actually spoke to each other and had a lot of "family time" together, meaning we watched TV and just made plans to do things, which we never really did...ever.

Even if the internet is back now, I'm hoping that my siblings and I will continue to connect the way we did when it was down. My brother and I generally do talk to each other as do my sister and I but it's rare that all three of us really talk and watch TV/movies together. 

The holidays were amazing despite the freezing cold weather we've had (always around -20 Celsius excluding the wind factor which brings it down to about -25 to -30). It was filled with (too much) amazing food, family, happiness and of course, great presents.

I present - drum roll- my Christmas presents of 2013.

2013 Christmas Presents

Video Game Presents

These are the video games I got this year. I had been expecting LoZ: A Link Between Two Worlds, I actually got it twice. Alex's brother got me a copy and so did my own brother. I returned my brother's since I thought it would be better than returning Alex's brother's gift. 

My parents got me Tales of the Abyss and Super Mario 3D World. I hadn't been expecting either but Tales of the Abyss was always one of those games that I've wanted to buy but just never got around to it. Super Mario 3D World looks amazing! I was watching my brother play it on Christmas and it looks like so much fun. I still haven't had time to play it yet though .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.

Of course, we can't play Super Mario 3DS without a Wii U and that's what my parents bought for the three of us. It was the Legend of Zelda edition but I wasn't able to take a picture of it so here's a stock photo instead. 

 

Wii U Wind Waker Bundle

Starbucks Tumbler

My brother got me this adorable tumbler also. I had actually bought it myself and then asked if anyone wanted to get it for me for Christmas ^-^;;. My brother said that he would. I didn't realize it was a limited edition thing so by the time I finally decided I wanted to get it, it was sold out online and I asked someone at a local Starbucks if they would know where to find it. They said another Starbucks about 20 mins away had it so I walked all the way there during my lunch break. They had tons of them w(@。@;)w

BCBG Knit Hat

This was another gift from my parents and I'm so happy with it! I had wanted to get it before Christmas but had spent over my monthly budget so I didn't get it. It had little knit ears to make you look like a cat/bear. It's also very warm but I found it a bit small. It doesn't really cover my ears but I had Alex wear it once so it stretched out a little, yay!

Kindle Paperwhite

Alex bought me a Kindle Paperwhite. As I mentioned in my Christmas wishlist post, I had been on and off about wanting one. I had actually wanted the regular Kindle but Alex bought me the Paperwhite which has a back light and some other additional features but the back light is the most important one to me. It's so easy to use and it makes reading on public transit so much easier. 

Kindle Case & Indigo Gift card

Alex's parents got me a gift card at Indigo which is our local bookstore chain, kind of like the Canadian Barnes & Noble. I guess they know I really like to read and I'm really happy with it. It'll be all gone before I know it! They were also the ones who got me this orange/red Kindle case. The feel is kind of like pleather and it has a magnetic clip that snaps it shut. It also does this really cool thing where the Kindle turns on whenever you open the case. I have no clue how it does it, it's like magic!

Plushes!

Of course, it just wouldn't work if I didn't get any plushes for Christmas. It's a complete tokidoki line this year.

Pom Pom Purin x tokidoki = cow?

My sister got me this adorable Pom Pom Purin plush strap. It's one of the items from the newest tokidoki x sanrio collaboration but I have no idea how they came up with dressing up Purin as a cow. Maybe because there's milk in pudding (Purin)?

I also really like the design of the tag, it has several character designs on it and it doubles as a sticker! I haven't decided where to put the sticker yet so I'm just going to leave it attached to the tag for now.

Cinnamoroll x

My sister also got me this plush and I was a little disappointed with it because it was so tiny! I expected it to be bigger but am still very pleasured with this plush because of the amount of detail and the quality of it.

Back View

It's extremely soft, much better than the Purin plush strap.  The spikes stitched on cinnamoroll are also very well done, you can't see any of the stitching at all actually!

Tag

The tag is also beautiful, it's a carousel featuring the Sanrio characters riding the unicorns from the collaboration. They made a plush of each of them. I'm not a fan of the Hello Kitty one but I do also like the Keroppi one. The tag also doubles as a sticker too.

 Bastardino Tag

The cactus pup plush (official name) is actually a plush of one of tokidoki's first characters. His name's Bastardino and he's still one of my favourite tokidoki characters. My sister had gotten me the vinyl toy of him when she went to Washington when she was 14 or 15 year old. I still have it even though some of his spikes have fallen off.

I had wanted this plush for years but never got around to buying it. I actually tried to buy it when tokidoki was having a Black Friday sale but it sold out so quickly! I'm not sure where my dad managed to find this but I'm thrilled that he did.

I didn't take a picture of the plush itself since it looks exactly like it did in the group photo. The tag is super interesting though and very well designed so I decided to share the photo.

 Sailor Mercury Wand Pendant

I had forgotten to include this in the group photo but it was my Christmas gift from Suzy. We had finally gotten together before Christmas and had a nice dinner at an amazing but relatively unknown restaurant called Ariel (haha, Ariel! You should try it if you're ever in Montreal).

She asked me to open the gift before reading the card and I was so happy with this! I had actually been thinking of getting it for a while but always decided to hold back because I had always spent over my budget. 

Suzy has written a beautiful message in the card and I'll summarize. She said that I've been a really amazing friend to her despite the short time we've known each. She said that I help her see things differently and am very level-headed, for these reasons, she asked if I would be her Sailor Mercury to her Sailor Scouts and asked if I would be willing to be one of her bridesmaids (she got engaged in November!).

Of course I said yes! We spent the rest of dinner giggling and celebrating, even our waiter was celebrating with us.

Gifts from Holly

One of my bosses had gotten me a Christmas gift, which was really sweet of her. She had gotten me a tea strainer, which was something that I've been thinking about getting for a while but again, it was one of those purchases that I never really went through with. She also got me this amazing bag of Early Grey tea. For those of you who don't know, I LOVE EARL GREY TEA! Not only is it Earl Grey but it's called Early Grey Premium! So it's fancier Early Grey. I smelt it and it smells amazing.

It tastes like Earl Grey but...fresher. It tastes very fresh because it's all tea leaves and it's very delicious. 

 

From Corporate Stays

I work very closely with our partner company (and spend much more time cleaning up their mess than anything else) and they got me a Christmas present too. They had gotten me a bathing set from L'Occitane. I know for a fact they stock Occitane items in their units so I don't think it really cost them much since they buy everything in bulk but it was still very nice and thoughtful of them.

Shower Gel, Shampoo and Soap

It smells really nice and not overpowering. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but L'Occitane was always one of those brands I'm aware of but was never really interested in trying. Now, I'll get to see if they're as good as they smell!

So that's my Christmas. What did you guys get? Were you happy or disappointed with your gifts?

Happy New Year! I wish you all of the above and more!

Lastly, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I wish you all a year of happiness, good health, and lots of kawaii!