Christmas – Page 2 – The Writer of Letters

Some recent photos and little life update peace sign

Hello! I figured I’d pop on here tonight and do a quick life update because I haven’t done one in basically forevrrrr. so please enjoy!

Things that have happened:

In October/September I passed both my written and drive test for drivers ed so I will officially be legal to drive by myself on February 21st, my birthday! I can not wait, driving is so fun in my opinion and I can’t wait to be able to go hang out with friends without needing to be a ride from my parents.
I reached 300 followers on my blog AND I’m hosting a Christmas giveaway to celebrate! Check it out here and enter for a chance to win 😉 I also re-designed my blog with a new theme and I’m loving how it turned out!
With Covid going around still my family has done quite a bit together as a fam. One day we went on a mini road trip up into the hills to a nearby mountain and I got some cool pics!
I’ve fallen of the bullet-journaling train for now, but I’m hoping to hop back on next year. I just needed a break to get my creative juices flowing but I’m still loving pen-paling! My friends and pen-pals are the best, I’m so thankful for each of them!
I’m in the Christmas spirit, even more than last month and tonight we got our tree and are soon to put it up and decorate it so that is always exciting!
I still drink lots and lots of coffee but I’ve started drinking a bit of hot cocoa because the caffeine has started giving me headaches.
We start Christmas break this Thursday and we’re on break until JANUARY. I’m so excited!!

Anyways, that’s a quick update of how my life has been going! Now enjoy some pictures 🙂 *I edited all these with Lightroom.

Pumpkin spice cold brew- one of the actual good coffees I can make and man is it GOOD 🤩

My new blog design! Check it out on my website 🙂

This is the prize for my giveaway!! Minus the fairy lights, I’m keeping those 😉

Mail from one of my friends that was unexpected made me very very happy, so if you recognize this mail, thank you!

Mr. T is getting quite big and he’s still the cutest thing ever <33

I got the new boots and I LOVE THEM. They are the perfect fall boot for almost any outfit and ahhhh I was so excited to get them!

I love love love this picture but one of the things that really really annoys me is how my shoe is untied *cries* you might’ve not even noticed that before I mentioned it so if so, please pretend u never even saw my shoe lace xD

Anyways, thats all for this post! I hope you enjoyed this quick update! How’s life going? Do you celebrate Christmas? if so, how excited are you on a scale of 1-10? I’m a 100/10 dude, so so excited! Whats your favorite Christmas tradition? Favorite cookie? Chat with me in the comments, I’d love to talk 🙂

thanks for reading lovely, means the most 💛

x, Jasmin

300 followers + Christmas giveaway!! Confetti rains on us all

Hello lovelies! Happy December! How are you? I hope you’re doing fantastic 🙂

Today I’m back with a long awaited post, my 300 followers giveaway! I was going to do a fall post but then I didn’t reach 300 followers early enough and life got busy so now, we get a Christmas giveaway! And it’s close to Christmas so even if it doesn’t get to you by Christmas, its’s still wintery things that you can enjoy all winter long 🙂 I will be giving away a pair of fuzzy socks, a crushed candy cane scented candle and hand cream, and 10 chocolates. Plus I will be writing a personalized letter to the winner and adding in a fun Christmas themed letter to the giveaway! I’m super excited for this giveaway and I can’t wait to see who wins!

these smell so good, just like a candy cane 🎄

these socks are so fuzzy and warm! Plus they have the grippy things on the bottom so you don’t slip!

AHHH these chocolates are my favorites! They’re a mix of dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate-yum!

Much to my disappointment, hosting an international giveaway was not in my budget this time so this is limited to my US friends. I’m so very sorry to all my international’s buddies, believe me when I say if I could make it international in any way possible I would!

-Before you enter, make sure you ask your parents if you are under 18, as I will be shipping this to you and will need your address!

Enter the giveaway here!

The giveaway will run from today, December 6th, to December 14th and I will randomly select a winner as soon as it ends! Best of luck and also, this is my first giveaway so if you notice something I missed, let me know please!

Thank you and have a lovely Sunday!

xx, Jasmin

Mug review and my favorite hot cocoa recipe! cue the Christmas tunes and posts

Hello! How are you doing today? I hope your doing amazing, and guys: guess what?! It’s officially socially acceptable to start celebrating Christmas!! I may or may not have been celebrating Christmas since the beginning of November, I’ll let you decide what to believe 😉 In my opinion, Christmas only comes once a year and its the best holiday so why not go all out?

Today I’m back with a super fun and exciting post, and it’s also special because its my first Christmas post of 2020! I know your reader is probably full of Christmas posts so if you’re reading this, thank you very much, I appreciate it ❤

The wonderful Shellea from shelleaandscout over on Etsy kindly agreed to send me a mug in exchange for a blog post and man am I excited for this post! I chose a Christmas mug with this post in mind and the mug Shellea sent me was PERFECT! She sent me the Merry Christmas mug, which is one of my favorites from her shop. Check it out here!

The mug is the perfect size in my opinion and is so fun to drink hot cocoa out of. It’s this really festive red color and says Merry Christmas with some cute little stars around it. The design is made of permanent vinyl so it is completely dishwasher safe although Shellea recommends hand washing so it holds up longer. My mug was put in the dishwasher (unknown to me) on the top rack and held up wonderfully, without any of the vinyl starting to peel or anything!

Next, let’s move on to the cocoa recipe! This cocoa recipe is my family favorite, with it being passed around from one of my cousins and now its a family tradition to make for Christmas movie nights! This recipe originally comes from a Taste of Home magazine, published in 2008 but it’s been altered a little by my family and cousins 🙂

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
4 cups milk
1/3 cup water
2 tsp vanilla extract
12 tsp almond extract
marshmallows and whipped cream (optional)

The recipe:

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
4 cups milk
1/3 cup water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
marshmallows and whipped cream (optional)

Heat milk, water, and vanilla and almond extracts in a medium sized pot. Add in other ingredients, mix it up, and let warm until your desired heat! Top with whipped cream and marshmallows and enjoy!

Next, I poured my hot cocoa into my lovely mug and I took some adorable Christmas photos that I’m quite happy with 🥰 Here are my favorites!

*These photos are edited with a filter so this is not the true color of the mug, the actual color is brighter. You can see the true color in Shelleas picture on her shop.

Ahhh I love those photos! So Christmas-y and they definitely help me get into the spirit ❤ Overall, I give this mug a 10/10. I don’t have any complaints and I adore it for drinking my cocoa out of! It also works really well for taking super cute Christmas photos! A huge thank you to Shellea for sending me this mug, I appreciate it so much! Make sure to check out her shop, her mugs are priced super reasonably and I highly recommend.

Thats all for today! I hope you enjoyed this post, I sure enjoyed writing it for y’all! How are you preparing for Christmas if you celebrate it? If you don’t celebrate Christmas what are some fun things happening in your life soon? Do you call it hot cocoa or hot chocolate? Do you have a Christmas mug? I recommend buying one from Shellea if you don’t 😉

xx, Jasmin

How to have a Christmas sleepover in August. Because why not? shrugs

Hello people! How are you doing? I hope you’re doing wonderful 🙂

Today I’m back with a random post that I hope you’ll love. Last week, my friend and I were cleaning our house and singing karaoke and talking about holidays. Our favorite holiday (Christmas!!!!) came up (obviously ;)) and we were all like “It’s so sad that Christmas isn’t for another like 6 months! Yeah, I wish it was Christmas right now. Wait. What if we had a Christmas sleepover tonight?!? But.. it’s like the middle of summer? Who cares?!” and that was how it went down y’all. And the idea was born. We could go shopping, get supplies, watch a Christmas movie, listen to some Christmas songs, build a “gingerbread” house, and of course, string Christmas lights around the room.

So with all that being said, here are the SIX easy steps to having your very own Christmas sleepover in the middle of August!!

Step one:

Dress festive. Our first idea was to dress like it was winter but we decided that might make us look a bit too weird. So we opted for the more simple, refined look. Christmas themed fuzzy socks. Because fuzzy socks are the best and them being christmassy is just a bonus 😉

Step two:

Get snacks. Preferably Christmas themed ones but alas, since it is August, your local store might not be supplying Christmas snacks unless they are super awesome. We did actually find peppermint sticks so that was cool 🙂 If you’re planning on building a gingerbread house you will need to find some candy and supplies to decorate that! Warm foods and drinks that remind you of winter are also really swell!

Step three:

Create the atmosphere. String some lights up, bring in the fuzzy blankets and pillows. Get comfortable. If you want to be really extra you could even get all the Christmas decor. It’d be great ❤ Our area was pretty cute anyways 🙂

Step 4:

Get yo self some tunes. Preferably Christmas ones so they go with the theme 🙂

Step five:

Pick a holiday themed movie. In this instance we chose to watch Mandie and The Forgotten Christmas and it was pretty good. I fell asleep during it though because I was extremely tired so I need to rewatch it sometime 😉

Step 6:

Build your self a beautiful gingerbread mansion home. And then eat it for breakfast the next morning xD Also if you have some struggles with them architecture and building, believe me, we’ve all been there. It’s rough 🙂 But our “gingerbread house” turned out pretty good and it sure tasted good, until we made ourselves sick anyways 😉

And there you have it! 6 easy steps to having your very own Christmas sleepover in the middle of August.

I hope you enjoyed! Would you have a spontaneous Christmas sleepover in august? What is your favorite thing to do with your friends? What is your favorite holiday? Chat with me in the comments, I’d love to talk!

xx, Jasmin