Before I begin with showing the gifts I received, I want to give a bit of a life update first. I took a bit of a back seat on my blog this year due to this year being an emotional and particularly tough one with my Granddad passing away at the beginning of the year and dealing with such a big loss in our lives. I feel like it still hasn't fully sunk in, even now and if I'm being honest, I'm still grieving. He was such a big part of my life and especially my childhood, I have so many fond memories which is what carries me through but for a long time I've felt like I'd lost a part of myself with him when he died and it's taken me a while to come to terms with him passing away and this loss of self I've been feeling as well. He had been constantly in and out of hospital and the last time he went into hospital before he sadly passed away was actually on Christmas Eve of last year so around this time of the year it has been particularly hard to deal with what happened and to try and stay positive. I must admit Christmas this year felt rather bittersweet without his presence.
Another emotional time this year for both sad and happy reasons was due to my brother moving to Australia in January, which although I was so excited for him, at the time felt like we were dealing with two losses but in different ways (if that makes sense). Fortunately in a strange way, him being on the other side of the world brought us closer together as we made more of an effort to keep in contact with each other whilst he was out there. Which leads onto my best and most memorable Christmas present of all this year: HE RETURNED HOME!!!
Apart from my Dad, the rest of us had zero idea that he was planning on coming home before the year was up. It was about a month now when it happened. I had been out celebrating the evening before as I have just got a new job at the start of December (another positive moment of this year) so I had been out with my work friends from my previous job at Matalan. The next day, my Dad played the best prank. He had called me downstairs saying that one of my friends from Matalan had popped over to drop off a card they had forgot to give me the night before, so I rushed downstairs in my Lion onesie and dressing gown (classy outfit to great friends lol) and opened the door to the living room and saw my brother stood on the other side of the room with my Dad recording the reaction on his phone. Well of course I burst into tears! It's literally one of the most happiest moments of my life. It was just the pick me up I needed after this pretty shitty year. Despite the bittersweet feeling without my Granddad not being with us anymore, we all felt moments of sheer joy that we had my brother back to celebrate the holidays with.
So that's my news for now, hopefully it has given a bit more of an insight into my hiatus. I'm hoping once I'm feeling more myself again, I will get back into blogging a bit more frequently. In the meantime, let's show you what I got this year:
Beginning at the top of this blog, I got the beautiful Ariel from The Little Mermaid ornament that now has pride of place on my work desk.
Followed by this Victoria's Secret makeup bag. I adore the colours on this!
DKNY Be Delicious perfume by Donna Karan - My favourite perfume!
A Girl's Best Friend by Lindsey Kelk* - The latest book release by my favourite author <3
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer by Nintendo for Nintendo 3DS*. I'm such a huge fan of this franchise so I couldn't wait to place this! Although at times can feel repetitive, if you enjoy building and designing houses on The Sims crossed with Animal Crossing gameplay and cuteness, you'll enjoy this!
A very mermazing wash bag/make up bag. Feeding my mermaid obsession ;)
My Mam surprised me this year with a make your own advent calendar where she put loads of little treats inside the different drawers. They mainly had little cardboard pictures of the Disney princesses, hair bobbles and sweets inside but the main one was this adorable Funko Pop Ariel keyring which now resides on my house keys.
Matchmakers chocolate! My favourite festive treat. I know you can get them all year round but it has always been a tradition in my family that my brother and I get a couple of boxes of these. It used to be my Granddad's tradition so I'm happy my Mam has decided to keep this tradition going for him.
Lush Cosmetics Butterbear Bath Bomb Tin - my favourite bath bomb with this collectors tin and beautifully designed scarf, containing 6 of these adorable bears. I'm excited for soft skin again.
Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume gift set - The packaging and designs of the bottles are so pretty!
Rabbit jewellery display ring holder* - So cute! <3
I hope you enjoyed seeing what I got this year. As it usually goes with these style of posts, I'm in no means trying to come across as boastful or show off. Personally I enjoy reading these blogs and watching these style of videos because I'm a curious Kate and a little nosey so I thought I'd give a go myself as something I can look back on and see what my interests were at that particular time. I also think it's fun to see because it gives a little insight into what certain bloggers and youtubers that I follow have interests in and shows a bit more of their personality and a way to connect with people, so I hope that's come across in mine.
Before I sign off I just want to give a HUGE thank you to my family, my boyfriend and his family and my friends for not only these wonderful gifts but for their constant love and support they have shown me both throughout this tough year and always. Love you all <3
And to you reading this, I hope you have had a wonderful festive season and thank you all for your support of both me and this blog. I wish you all the happiness and success for 2016!
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