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Stephany Writes

Categories: Holidays

Scenes From the Holiday Season

Chip and Lucy had a very important meeting with Santa Paws. Getting them both looking at the camera was impossible, but at least they look adorable and the Santa looks pretty authentic!

My mom and I have an annual tradition of driving through a local neighborhood’s light display. These houses go all out and it’s quite impressive. Every year, we talk about how annoying it must be to actually live in this neighborhood during December. I’m assuming there’s a way to get in and out of the neighborhood that’s separate from the driving path. Otherwise, how would you go anywhere during December? Anyway, I didn’t take many pictures this year, so this is the best I’ve got for ya!

Bri and I had a very festive lady date last week: We went putt-putt golfing at the pier! The course was super fun, even though I lost badly to Bri. And three cheers for Bri because I needed her to pick up my ball from every hole and place it down on the next one, thanks to my stupid hip issues. There’s a TWSS joke in there, but I’m not creative enough to make it.

My Secret SANta this year was Jenny! What a sweet surprise. I love the mug she got me. I shared with Jenny that I have a shirt with this same design, so now I can drink coffee from my bookish Christmas mug while wearing my bookish Christmas t-shirt. I also loooooove the grumpy cat ornament she got me. It’s basically like Eloise on an ornament! Thank you, Jenny!

I love this little Christmas present headband that I bought a few years ago. It’s perfect for Christmas parties, work calls that happen on Christmas week, and adding a little oomph to my outfit on Christmas morning. 🙂

Another favorite tradition: making Christmas cookies! A few years ago, we found a peppermint frosting for these cookies and I haven’t looked back since. I desperately wanted to make ALL of my cookies with this frosting, but it’s white, and that’s kinda boring. I compromised: for every peppermint-frosted cookie, I had to make a green or red frosted cookie. Balance, as they say.

For my birthday, Kim gifted me a ticket to A Drag Queen Christmas and then suggested I start watching the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race so I could get to know some of the performers. I’m so glad for that suggestion because I fell head over heels for some of the queens at this show, and was screaming my face off when they came on stage! (I’m a Suzie Toot fan girl for life, but how could I not love our hometown girl Jewels Sparkles?! She was RAVISHING on the stage!) This show was joyful and fun and while Florida can get a bad rap when it comes to our stupid governor and attorney general (who was definitely not a fan of this show coming to Florida!), the St. Petersburg area is beautifully accepting and affirming and gay as hell. I LOVE IT.

My Advent calendars this year have been a bit of a bust. First, there was the mystery Advent calendar that was basically a badly written story about a murder with some very complicated puzzles to solve. (Well, some were very complicated, and others were so easy that they were boring. No in-between!) I decided I didn’t care to spend my December with this Advent calendar, so I stopped after a few days. I bought the girls a cat treat Advent calendar, but when they turned their noses up at the treat for the third day in a row, they lost their Advent calendar privilege. And lastly, I have the above chocolate Advent calendar from Target. It’s… fine. But it’s kinda boring, the same three or four chocolates cycling through the month. The only thing I like about this calendar is that my mom bought the same one, so every day, we FaceTime each other so we can eat the chocolate together. (Aww!) I give this Advent calendar a 6 out of 10; my mom gives it a 5 out of 10. We’d like more variety, so if you have a chocolate Advent calendar you recommend, please let us know for next year!

And here’s my Christmas tree this year. It’s an obnoxiously tall Christmas tree for someone like me (you may notice that the top of the tree is barely decorated, nor have the branches been properly fluffed. And that’s because I have to get on a stepstool to reach the top part of the tree and that’s just not happening these days. I’m just happy I was able to get the star on the top of the tree, whew.

Merry Christmas, my friends! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

Categories: Holidays, Recurring Series

Five for Friday | Holiday Favorites

1) Balsam fir candles

If I can’t have a real tree in my home, at least it can smell like I do! I love hoarding balsam fir candles, even though I only want to burn them in December. It’s my go-to December scent, and it makes my apartment smell so cozy and Christmassy! I have tried many different brands for these candles, but Bath & Body Works consistently has the strongest scent.

2) Pepperidge Farm Mini Gingerman Cookies

Until a few years ago, I didn’t think I liked gingerbread anything. And then I tried a gingerbread cookie and my mind was blown. Gingerbread is so tasty! I’m on a mission to eat gingerbread everything, so when I saw a package of these cookies on an endcap at my local Publix, I snapped it up and now I am fully obsessed. Right now, Publix is selling four packages of these cookies for $5, and I have bought way too many of them in the past few weeks. I am officially banned from buying any more!

3) Automatic lights

This one goes to Elisabeth, who introduced me to the concept of smart plugs, which has truly changed my life. I always thought I couldn’t have a “smart” house since I’m in an apartment, but yes, yes I can! With these smart plugs, I can turn my lights on and off with my voice or using an app. And even better, I can set my Christmas lights to turn on and off automatically. Do you know how many times I’ve left my Christmas lights off because I’m too lazy to plug them in every single night? Too many. Now, the lights turn on at 5 p.m. every night and it feels so magical. When they turn on, I announce to the cats, “Merry Christmas!” every evening, and I am sure they love that as much as I do.

4) Wrapping presents

I love wrapping presents. I like to think I’m good at it and I like the challenge of wrapping gifts that are more uniquely shaped. I don’t know if I’m good enough to wrap presents at one of those Christmas wrapping kiosks, but I can’t lie and say I haven’t thought about how much I would enjoy doing that for a few hours on a weekend. I always wish I had more presents to wrap every Christmas season, so yes, I will come to your house and wrap all your presents!

5) All things peppermint

I mean, what is more Christmas than peppermint? Peppermint mochas, peppermint hot chocolate, peppermint creamer, peppermint cookies, peppermint frosting, peppermint treats… give me all of the peppermint! Chocolate and peppermint is my all-time favorite combination, and I love that I have so many options during the holiday season!

What’s one of your holiday favorites this year?

Categories: Holidays

My Christmas Wishlist

I love a Christmas wishlist. My family is big on gift-giving, and I love it. I also love that we do wish lists, so the whole gift-buying process is very easy. Yes, please tell me exactly what you want this year, and I will buy it for you! This year, my wishlist has some pricey items, so we’ll see how many items appear under the tree for me. I think I’m on the nice list this year.

1) Reading chair ($170) – Isn’t this reading chair so cozy? When I moved, I did not bring my old reading chair because it had been straight-up destroyed by the cats. (They thought it was an excellent scratching post!) And now I have an empty corner of my office that would be perfect for a cozy chair.

2) New pair of TOMS ($50) – I love TOMS. I have a lot of issues with finding shoes that fit well, and TOMS always delivers. It’s time to replace my current pair of TOMS, so I added a neutral-colored pair to my wishlist this year.

3) Couch tray ($23) – How cute is this couch tray? It can hold drinks, snacks, a remote, my phone, and all other kinds of things! It would be very handy since I don’t have any end tables and my coffee table sometimes feels soooo far away when I’m trying to relax on the couch.

4) Makeup organizer ($36) – Now that I have more counter space in my bathroom, I’d love to have an organized space for my makeup. I don’t wear makeup as much as I used to, but maybe I’d make more of an effort if my makeup wasn’t shoved away in a closet, ha.

5) Book sign ($25) – When Meredith on the Currently Reading podcast talked about her “Books Read This Year” sign that she bought from Etsy, I couldn’t open the app fast enough to add one of these signs to my Christmas wishlist. This is one of those gifts that I’ll be buying myself after Christmas if it’s not underneath the tree because it’s just so damn cute and I need it for my bookshelf!

6) Spin shoes ($80) – Before I started having chronic hip pain, I was going to spin class at my gym regularly. Unfortunately, cycling is very hard on the hips/IT band, and it’s just not comfortable for me to do right now. Still, these spin shoes are on my wishlist this year, in the hopes that I’ll be able to get back to spin class in 2026.

7) Anti-gravity chair ($90) – I have a patio I can use! I’d love to make it a more comfortable place to spend an afternoon, reading and sipping a fruity beverage. First things first, I need a chair to sit on, and I want something that I can lounge on. This anti-gravity chair is just what I need!

8) Kindle Paperwhite ($160) – Do I need a new Kindle? Not really. Mine works just fine. But do I want a new Kindle? Yes, I do, especially because finding a cover for my older Kindle is becoming harder and harder these days. And isn’t a wishlist all about things you want?

What’s on your Christmas wishlist this year?

Categories: Holidays

My Christmas Wish List

In my family, we’re wish list people. I love shopping from a wish list. It takes away so much of the stress of holiday shopping because I know exactly what my people want and I can get it for them. I don’t have a wish list to buy from for everyone on my Christmas gift list (friends, my stepdad, my sister-in-law to name a few), but knowing I only need to think about presents for a handful of people makes things a lot easier. I also don’t have to worry about buying teacher gifts or gifts for postal workers/trash collectors/etc, so that makes things easier, too. And even though we’re a wish list family, I try to find a few items for my mom that she didn’t put on her wish list. That’s one of my favorite things to do!

For a while, my family was just sharing our gift ideas in a group chat but it quickly got messy. So I found an app called Giftster where you can set up wish lists, add links to the exact items you want, and keep everything neat and organized. Other people can mark items as “reserved” or “purchased” (the gift receiver will not see anything!) so you don’t accidentally end up buying multiples of something. You can even set up lists for your pets (if you’re the kind of family that buys gifts for the pets; we definitely are). It makes things so easy! (This is not any sort of paid ad – I genuinely love and use the app!)

Okay enough about all of that. Let’s get into my Christmas wish list. Here are some of the items I added to my list this year:

1) Cycling shoes ($76) – I’m attending spin class once a week now and enjoying it a lot. I have never had cycling shoes for spin (not even when I was doing Peloton) but for some reason, I find the cage pedals on the spin bikes at my gym to be really awkward. They’re hard to fit into and then I never feel totally comfortable with my foot placement when I’m cycling out of the saddle. I didn’t do a ton of research on the best cycling shoes, but chose the Tommaso Pista cycling shoes since they have over 4,000 ratings and 4.4 stars.

2) Book Lover’s Reading Challenge ($30) – I saw this reading challenge at a bookstore and loved the idea, but I didn’t feel like paying $30 for it. Onto the Christmas list it goes! There are 25 different challenges (examples: reread a favorite book, read in a place you’ve never read before, etc.) and you get a fun prize when you complete each one.

3. Stanley Quencher H2.0 Tumbler ($45) – I want to be a basic bitch (<– is that still the term?!) and have a Stanley like all of the other hydrated girlies, so I put one on my wish list. Plus, this water bottle is bigger than what I’ve been using so hopefully it’ll help me drink more water!

4. Water bottle holder ($26) – Speaking of hydration, how awkward is it to carry a water bottle around when you’re at an event or walking around a city? Very awkward. This water bottle holder makes things a lot more convenient. There’s even a zippered pouch and phone holder so I could use it as a makeshift purse if I needed to.

5) Reading tracker ($26) – Do I need yet another way to track my reading? (I use Goodreads, my blog, and a very detailed spreadsheet.) Probably not. But this one looks like something I very much need in my reading life. (This isn’t the one I put on my Christmas list—it’s sold out on the Etsy shop I linked to on Giftster—but it’s similar.) There’s a place to write reviews, list out the books I’m reading, fill in some reading challenges, etc.

6) Egyptian cotton pillowcases ($15-18) – This is the most boring thing on my wish list, but sometimes you need boring things. I want to upgrade my bedding with really luxurious sheets and pillowcases because having a decadent place to sleep feels like the dreamiest thing ever. These pillowcases have a 500 thread count and look so cozy! I asked for a set of king and queen pillowcases.

7) Reading pillow ($50) – I’m not sure why I added this pillow to my Amazon wish list, but it would be a lovely present to receive. I love how versatile it is – I can use it to prop up my legs when I’m reading or use it for extra back and neck support when I’m sleeping. It’s pretty expensive, but maybe I’m on Santa’s nice list this year.

8) Coffee mug warmer ($20) – Is there anything worse than taking a sip of coffee and realizing it’s cold? Yuck! This mug warmer would come in handy since I sometimes get distracted in the mornings and forget to drink my coffee in a timely manner!

9) Makeup organizer ($42) – I would use this fancy organizer for more than makeup, but also elastics, clips, claws, etc. I put this on my wish list because I want a way to showcase my makeup in an organized way. Right now, I keep it all hidden away in a bag in my closet. It’s not very well-organized, and I find myself a lot less apt to pull it out. This is quite the stack of drawers, but it is probably exactly what I need.

10) iPad ($300) – Do I think my family is going to spend $300 on me this holiday season? Absolutely not. But one day, my mom was telling me I needed to add more things to my wish list so I added an iPad just to be funny. My mom thinks I’m a real riot.

What’s on your Christmas wish list?

Categories: Holidays

Birthsgiving Snapshots

My annual birthday selfie! Plus, I had curled my hair and put on actual makeup (we’re talking foundation and eye makeup, people!) so I had to take a cute selfie for the occasion.

Snuggles with Lucy before Thanksgiving dinner. She’s the best little snuggler.

Thanksgiving dinner! My stepdad made this whole meal (aside from the pumpkin bread, which my mom made), and it was all so delicious. He did an amazing job!

I requested cupcakes for my birthday. Mmm!

We had the cutest little puppy at Thanksgiving! Cici was the best little girl (she doesn’t bother us when we’re sitting at the table eating, which is WILD) and I am just so in love with this sweetie.

I had a very relaxing evening. I took a short nap when I came home from my mom’s house, spent a lot of time reading, watched a disappointing football game (stupid Dolphins), and snuggled some cute girls.

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Welcome!

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Stephany! (She/her) I'm a 30-something single lady, living in Florida. I am a bookworm, cat mom, podcaster, and reality TV junkie. I identify as an Enneagram 9, an introvert, and a Highly Sensitive Person. On this blog, you will find stories about my life, book reviews, travel experiences, and more. Welcome!

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