One of my favourite Christmas songs!!! “Like It’s Christmas” by The Jonas Brothers!! Press play while you read!!
Don’t keep calm…only 8 days left till Christmas!!!! How excited is everyone?? I know I am!!! It sucks that Christmas may be a little different this year however there are many ways to keep holiday traditions alive!! One of those being holiday movie marathons!! My best friend Palak and I put together a “8 Days of Christmas” movie marathon, to celebrate the end of our exams!! This movie list starts today and leads right up to Christmas Day!!! We combined the classics, some of our favourite Christmas movies and some new movies to watch!! I created a cute little poster below showcasing the movie schedule!!
Get into some comfy Christmas pj’s, grab some hot cocoa and check out our 8 Days of Christmas movie list!!
Day 1:
The classic Home Alone movies!! These can be found on Disney+
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Home Alone 3 (1997)
Home Alone 4: Taking Back The House (2002)
Day 2:
We decided to put an interesting spin on Day 2 and choose a mix of horror, comedy and romance!! These movies can be found on Crave!!
Black Christmas (1974 or 2019)
Bad Mom’s Christmas (2017)
The Holiday (2006)
Day 3:
Back to Classics!! These movies can be found on Crave or Soap2Day!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Elf (2003) ICONIC movie!!
The Best Man Holiday (2013)
Day 4:
Some romance holiday movies!! These movies can be found on Crave or Soap2Day.
Love Actually (2003)
Last Christmas (2019)
The Proposal (2009)
Day 5:
Classics once again!! All these movies can be found on Disney+ or Soap2Day!
Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas (2004)
Richie Rich (1994)
The Ultimate Christmas Present (2000)
Day 6:
These movies can be found on Disney+ and Amazon Prime.
12 Dates of Christmas (2011)
Noelle (2019)
Ghost of Girlfriends Past (2009)
Day 7:
These movies can be found on Netflix.
Just Friends (2005)
Christmas Chronicles 1 (2018)
Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020)
Day 8: CHRISTMAS DAY!
Ending the marathon with our all-time favourite classics!! Merry Christmas everyone!
The Santa Clause 1 (1994)
The Santa Clause 2 (2002)
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006)
Hope you guys enjoy our 8 Days of Christmas!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!!
I decided to change up this week’s blog post and talk to you guys about this crazy year.
2020 took quite an interesting turn at the beginning of March that none of us would have thought about one year ago today…COVID-19. COVID-19 brought along many changes and quite fast. As many countries were announcing new restrictions, part of trying to reduce the numbers of COVID-19 infections forced many people to make changes to their daily routines. From long lockdowns, to wearing masks, to social distancing, we were adapting to live a different life for sometime, that affected many people.
New realities were formed such as working from home, home-schooling, shortage of employment and lack of physical contact with family, friends and many more. It has been hard for people to get used to, even 9 months into this pandemic.
At the beginning of the first lockdown back in March, it was a different reality for many, being stuck in the house, not being able to go out, and the only escape was really going to the grocery store with your parents or taking long drives to the middle of nowhere. A couple weeks before the lockdown, I was roaming the streets of Paris with my best friends and it is crazy to think that just a couple weeks after we got back from the trip, everything would be shutdown and we would be entering a new world that was new for many people. We started to see sunshine, when a couple months after during the summer months, we got back some normalcy with going to restaurants, being able to travel within Canada and restrictions being lifted to see our loved ones. Now we see ourselves months later right back at full circle, in lockdown again!
With seasonal depression hanging in the air and the feelings that the lockdown brings along, this matter puts a huge amount of stress on a lot of people. 2020 has taught me a lot about myself and about others and helped me discover many things! On a positive note, I am here to remind you that there are many ways to make the most of this lockdown and take care of our mental health during these hard times.
Here are some tips that have helped me during lockdown:
Explore new hobbies and catch up on old ones
I have rediscovered many old hobbies of mine during quarantine! From singing, drawing, writing and reading, I have accomplished quite a bit! There are so many hobbies you can discover during these times at home…do what makes you happy and what brings you joy! Don’t be afraid to broadcast your hobbies to the world, you never know what will come of it! Another hobby a lot of people have taken up is baking! This is one thing I did frequently during the last lockdown and I cannot wait to get back to doing it during this one as well!! From delicious sweets found on TikTok and healthy recipes, almost everyone I know has taken up baking during lockdown!
2. Keep in touch with friends and family
Even though it is hard, make the most of this situation with your friends and family!! It is really important to stay connected during these times. During the last lockdown, every week on Thursday’s, my friends and I would get together on a ZOOM call and play games, drink and it would usually end in deep talks. That is one thing I am grateful for due to the lockdown. My friends and I grew closer in a way where I don’t think we would have outside of this situation. We all laughed over who’s drawing was the funniest during the virtual game Scribble, laughed while playing Cards Against Humanity and bonded over who was most likely to do the craziest thing. Those weekly talks made lockdown and quarantine much better and brought us closer than ever! Another social platform that I started using again was HouseParty. My older cousins and I would jump on a huge video call and play all sorts of games the app offered! These are just many ways you and your friends and family can stay connected! It is highly important to support others and also receive support for yourself!
3. Take some time for yourself
Downtime is highly important. My definition of downtime is binging as many Netflix shows as I can. My newfound obsessions include, Dawson’s Creek, The Affair, Grey’s Anatomy (my best friend and I might’ve watched this show one too many times during lockdown), Schitts Creek, Modern Family and many many more!! Other than binging many Netflix shows during the lockdown, it is really important to take this time and reflect on yourself. That is truly one of the main things I’ve learned this year!! Focusing on yourself, taking time to do what makes you happy and making changes for your own good brings out a different person you did not think you had in you! If you know me, putting yourself is something I strongly standby and I couldn’t have figured that out if it weren’t for some my best friends helping me realize that! Another important thing to remember is that if you have amazing friends like I do, they will help you realize your growth and be there to support you no matter what.
4. Exercise!
Exercise plays an important role when dealing with stress. Whether it is taking a walk outside or working out in the basement with some Youtube videos, anything will help!! Moving your body gets the boost of endorphins you need, which lifts your mood and makes you feel calm. Create a routined schedule that helps you fit everything you want to do during the day! Plan around what you want to be doing! Setting a routine will help with stress and calm your nerves.
These are just few of many ways you can stay positive and keep a calm mind during our second lockdown!! 2020 brought on a lot of chaos but I have learned a lot about myself throughout these lockdown periods. You don’t realize how little you may know about yourself or how little you focus on yourself when you do not take the time to care for yourself and what is best for you. Through these hard times, it may be difficult to think happy thought about the future. Stay positive and soon this will all be over! Look for the positives and ask yourself:
What can you be grateful for? Is this my time to work on my happiness?
I want all you guys to do something for me. Take a notebook and create a bucket-list of all the things you want to do and places you want to go around the world but cannot due to lockdown restrictions. Once things have returned to normal, take that list with you and work your way down that list!!
Remember this will not last forever, take this one day and a time, and enjoy the simple things in life. The smallest gestures can mean the world to yourself and someone who needs you.
Jen Lindley, Pacey Witter, Dawson Leery, Joey Potter
Everyone, including myself, who watched Dawson’s Creek is probably obsessed with the Joey-Pacey love triangle that surfaced from season two and put us through a roller coaster of emotions (which was definitely worth the watch). If you weren’t rooting for Joey and Pacey, the entire duration of the show…I have no words for you. Netflix once stated in a tweet, “Pacey Witter: Setting unrealistic expectations for boyfriends since 1998” …and honestly, they couldn’t have said it any better.
Although, that wasn’t the only memorable thing about the show. Throughout six amazing seasons, I also became obsessed with the featured Capeside couture. From Joey Potter’s tomboy looks, to Jen Lindley’s New York style choices, it is interesting to see which 2000s fashion trends have made a huge comeback.
Joey Potter; Season 3 Episode 15
Overalls
Overalls are the one piece of clothing I believe will never go out of style. Whether you pair them with a long sleeve, or a crop top, they can add comfort and style to a “facile” outfit choice. Overalls were my go-to last summer when I would go on adventures with my friends. It is a quick, go-to outfit choice. Pair it with a cute coloured bandeau and you’re ready to go! Overalls were part of the iconic Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) tomboy wardrobe and my favourite look had to be in season 3 when she was painting her mural. She paired the overalls with pigtails and a cute bandana.
Joshua Jackson as character “Pacey Witter”
Patterned Shirts
Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson) was the “King” of patterned shirts. In almost every scene if it wasn’t a long sleeve shirt, he was always wearing an extravagant patterned button up with a colourful t-shirt underneath. I would have to say, Pacey’s wardrobe reflected his character immensely…wild and fun. Working in retail, I notice that many men’s button downs still have captivating and compelling prints. From animal print, to floral print the 90s trend of patterned shirts have definitely made a comeback.
Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson) & Joey Potter (Katie Holmes)
Bucket Hats
Bucket Hats have made a HUGE comeback and are more popular now than ever. Whether you are going to the beach or just want to accessorize your city look, a bucket hat is the perfect pair. I’m guilty of purchasing a couple of them this past summer and wore them all the time. Jen, Joey and Pacey have all worn bucket hats throughout the seasons. Some being very extravagant and other being the typical black or beige bucket hat.
Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek)
Plaid Flannels
Sad to say my least favourite character, Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek) always wore these, BUT it has become a huge fashion trend this year. Plaid flannels are a full fall mood. From oversized plaid jackets to plaid flannels of every colour, plaid has made a huge comeback! You can dress it up with a pair of leather leggings, create a casual look with a pair of jeans and even throw it over a t-shirt. Plaid flannels are an easy and effortless look, when you’re just hanging out with friends or honestly heading anywhere…just throw on a flannel.
Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) and Eddie Doling (Oliver Hudson)
Oversized Denim Jackets
Even I can agree that oversized denim jackets have been around forever. Oversized denim jackets can be paired with a cute coloured sweatsuit set or even be paired with a cute night on the town summer look! This is a staple and versatile clothing item for both men and women, that can be worn during every season and I see it being a trend for a very long time to come!!
Joey Potter (Katie Holmes)
Crop Tops
A huge fashion statement in the 90s and more popular now than ever!! This article of clothing was an essential fashion item for ladies in the 90s. A crop top was either paired with a denim skirt, high rise shorts or low rise jeans to show off figure. Fast-forward to 2020, you still see these trends around!! You can dress up or dress down a crop top…it is perfect for any occasion!! Pair it with some mom jeans or even sweat pants and you are good to hit the streets! This chic combination is a favourite of many celebrities and street wear models!
Minus all the drama and best moments in Dawson’s Creek, the fashion was another obsession of mine from the show. If you know me, you know that if I could take a time machine, I would love to have been a 20-year-old in the 90s, witnessing all these trends, music, shows and movies, first hand.
P.S. this is for all you Jacey lovers who do not want to believe they got a divorce and who want to believe they are still together!
Also one last question for all my Dawson Creek fans…
She reads books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live
– Annie Dillard
A good book should make you feel all sorts of emotions while also inspiring and challenging you in any way. It should make you feel like you are on a rollercoaster and don’t want the ride to end. If you know me, you know I’m a HUGE bookworm. I read 24/7 and tend to binge books and finish them in one night. Backtrack to October, I’ve read quite a lot of books that month and I wanted to share my top 4 recommendations for my fellow bookworms looking for that next AMAZING read!
“She Reads” will be a monthly segment, where I will discuss all my favourite books I read during that time, that I think you all should read!! If you are a person who does not read but would like to start to enjoy books like I do, this article is perfect for you too!!
The first book I’d like to recommend is “Normal People” by Sally Rooney.
Rating: 5/5 Stars!!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
“Normal People” has got to be one of my all-time favourites reads! I spotted this book in Chapters when I had gone one day with a friend. She told me that there was a show based off this book that was amazing and of course I had to read the book first…yes, I am that nerd. Normal People is about two characters Marianne and Connell, their secret friendship and their on and off again relationship. They are two young individuals who tend to drift apart many times throughout their lives only to always find their way back to each other. All they have in common, is that they grew up in the same town, Dublin, Ireland. The story starts when Marianne and Connell are in high school and each chapter demonstrates a certain amount of time that has passed throughout their lives and friendship. Issues of class, privilege, submission, emotional and physical pain come into play with the characters making it a very intriguing read. I read this book in one night, I COULD NOT put it down!! I’ve gotten a couple of my friends to read it and they love it too!!! It may seem like a cheesy romcom read, but instead Rooney tells the story of a true, raw life-like relationship and really touches upon the transformative power of relationships.
The second book I’d like to recommend is “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover.
Rating: 5/5 STARS!!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
“Fifteen seconds. That’s all it takes to completely change everything about a person. Fifteen seconds that we’ll never get back”
Okay bear with me, I have a lot to say about this book and author. You guys are probably going to hear me mention Colleen Hoover quite a bit, in future recommendations. Over the last couple months, she has really grown to be one of my favourite authors. Any book she writes is always honest, raw and powerful. One of my friends recommended this book to me as well, we both share the same love for this author. Just telling you guys it’s a Colleen Hoover novel should be enough for some of you to know she’s amazing. This was the first Colleen Hoover book I read and I immediately ordered three more of her books after reading this one. I read all her books so quick it devastates me when the book comes to an end. Her stories always bring you through a rollercoaster of emotions. I always end up crying a couple times throughout the duration of me reading them. AGAIN, I read this book in one night. It wasn’t like anything I expected, the ending of this book was surprising, shocking and wow…I could go on and on about this story, but I don’t want this article being 100 pages long.
It Ends with Us is about a girl named Lily who hasn’t always had it easy in life, but that has never stopped her from working hard and reaching her goals. She grew up in Maine, graduated college and moved to Boston and started her own business. She meets a neurosurgeon name Ryle who is stubborn, assertive and super arrogant, but on the other hand he is brilliant and smart. Ryle’s loathing for relationships is quite straightforward…he hates them. Throughout the story Lily finds herself becoming an exception to his “no dating rule” and questions why he had the thoughts and opinions he did about relationships in the first place. Another love from Lily’s life, Atlas, returns and you can only guess what would happen next. Before you assume, “It Ends With Us” is so much more than a “love triangle”.
I highly recommend reading this as the message is very moving and powerful. You don’t quite figure out the message at the beginning of the book, it is subtly there, you just don’t know it. As you continue reading the story, you realize towards the end how significant each moment of Lily’s life relates to the message.
“The fact that it is unexpected for you as the reader is very important because it’s also unexpected for the heroine”. I totally agree with this statement from a review off of the app Goodreads because once you realize the purpose of the story and the message, you are working with Lily herself and noticing how she can grow from trauma and become powerful and you feel as though you are experiencing that growth with her. I am not going to spoil anything by giving away the message, but this is a fantastic read, I would recommend this to everyone and anyone.
The third book, of course is another Colleen Hoover novel, “Ugly Love”
Rating: 5/5 STARS!!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Colleen always finds a way of packing so many emotions into one story with interesting storylines and deep character backgrounds, it’s insane. You guys are probably going to think I’m crazy but again I finished this book in one night. Ugly love was nothing like I expected it to be. Hoover always finds a way of surprising you whether it is at the beginning of the story or towards the end when your emotions are ALREADY all over the place.
Tate Collins is one of the main characters of the story. She is studying to be a nurse and lives in the same building as her brother Corbin. Unlike many typical novel storylines, Tate’s character was relatable and realistic. Miles Archer is the “bad boy” of the novel…an airline pilot, super mysterious and honestly kind of a dick until you got to know his past and his story. When Tate and Miles meet, they automatically hate one another and don’t even consider themselves as friends. The only thing they have in common is their physical attraction for one another. Miles is the type of guy who does not want love and Tate feels that she has no time for love, so that leaves only one thing that the both of them want from one another…sex. After they plan this set-up, Miles has two rules for Tate.
Don’t ask about my past.
Don’t expect a future.
Now when you read that you may think, wow what an asshole, but as you get farther into the story you realize he’s far from that. As one can only infer, they can’t handle the situation at all, and feelings get involved and it only ends up being messy and hard for the both of them. The novel switches from Tate’s POV to Miles’ in a mix of both present-day storylines and flashbacks. As you slowly read pieces of Miles past, they start to align with his present actions, and you begin to understand why he chose to be this way. The relationship between Tate and Miles is so much more than one could imagine. He does anything and is willing to sacrifice anything not to feel love or be put in a position where he could be close to a real relationship. It’s not your typical “bad boy and nice girl” storyline, it’s realistic and deeper than ever. The scenes in this book were written so realistically you feel yourself wanting to read more and more and not wanting to put the book down for one second. Ugly Love is the perfect title for this novel, because it shows you the before and after mess of a relationship of two very different people. I am not over-exaggerating at all, but my heart physically hurt after reading this book. I remember messaging my best friend, spamming her about how this book made me feel after finishing it, even though she honestly probably was confused. I must’ve cried for five minutes…if you haven’t noticed by now, I am a super emotional person. I definitely recommend this to anyone. Any Colleen Hoover novel will move you, inspire you and make you feel all sorts of emotions.
I was going to choose another Colleen Hoover book, but I decided to switch it up a bit and present the final book as “The Unhoneymooners” by Christina Lauren.
Rating: 4/5 STARS!!
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Confession time…my ultimate guilty pleasure is reading an enemy to lovers’ romance. The build-up, the tension, the “grab your hair” moments because you just want the two characters to be together, is one of the best and most stressful feelings in the world.
The Unhoneymooners is exactly that. This story is about Olive and her twin sister Amy. Olive believes she is the unlucky sister and that nothing interesting every happens to her. She has Amy thought out to be the better twin; she is getting married, has an amazing fiancé and thinks her whole life was written out of a storybook. As they are both planning Amy’s wedding, Amy forces Olive to spend the day with Ethan…her sworn enemy who just so happens to be the best man. After a whole day hatred banter between the two, all Olive wants is to get through 24 hours of her sister’s wedding in peace, so she can return to her boring life.
But…when the whole wedding party including the bride and groom, gets food poisoning from eating bad fish, Ethan and Olive are the only ones not affected. That also means the bride and grooms Honeymoon in Hawaii is on the market. Amy and her fiancé force both Olive and Ethan to take the trip. They both set their hatred aside and take the trip of a lifetime to Hawaii. Olive pretends to be her sister Amy so that the resort doesn’t get suspicious…which means Olive and Ethan have to pretend to be newlyweds. The weird thing is…she doesn’t mind pretending. In fact, she enjoys this little role play.
Again…if you are looking for that cheesy enemy to lover romance with amazing scenes I would definitely recommend any of Christina Lauren’s books!!! Christina Lauren is another one of my favourite authors, stay tuned for more book reviews on her stuff!
Hope you guys enjoyed this October review and I hope this intrigues you to go pick up one of these books!!! November has been crazy busy due to school, work and the many assignments professors have decided to assign us…BUT stay tuned for December where I will be catching up on my reading with a huge pile of books that are currently on top of my dresser and honestly I cannot wait to start reading again!!
Pardonne Mes Obsessions 