holidays.

Hello there!  Bet you forgot about us!  We've both been busy with life lately and haven't blogged.  I hope your holiday season has started well and I hope Santa brings you all the presents your heart desires and you are filled with joyous cheer!!!  We LOVE Christmas in our home... I can definitely say without a doubt that John loves Christmas more than anyone I've ever known or probably will know.  Which is lucky for me because I love this time of year so very much and have someone that is just as excited (more so!) as I am to celebrate.

Christmas season starts the day after Halloween for me.  Last year I tried to get my friends in the holiday spirit earlier than they would like by baking them pies and delivering it to them with a tree ornament and Christmas mix CD I made.  This year I live far from them so was not able to deliver them pies BUT John and I did start to decorate on November 1st and completed our decorating a few days later.  The earlier you decorate the earlier you get in the spirit and celebrate!  We were so thankful that our friend, Lauren, came to visit us in mid-November -- we just love her to pieces and while she was here we started Christmas crafting!  Because we started crafting so early I got a lot of gifts finished super early.  I can't wait to give them to family & friends.

We are going to Kentucky and Ohio for the holidays to see our parents.  We both can't wait to go and are trying to rearrange some things so we can actually go up north earlier than we planned to spend even more time with everyone.  John is especially excited because KY & OH have colder, more "wintry" weather than we do -- he wants snow so badly he can't stand it!

Anyway... I doubt either of us will blog before the new year so I just wanted to hop on and say-

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May your Christmas season be blessed and joyful and may your stocking be filled with treats & no coal! 

Wishing you the best for the best holiday,
John + Rhianna

PS- don't you love vintage Christmas cards?! I found a bookshop in Durham that sells old postcards and scooped up a few Christmas ones that I'm going to give with gifts.  One has a dated message from 1909! So fun!

LUSH.

You know what's awesome?  LUSH.  You know what's even MORE awesome?  Having friends that work at Lush. :)

I'm pretty sure in a previous blog, and definitely in my tumblr, I've talked about how much I love these handmade products.  They are just divine.  Very cool if you're into natural, handmade, better packaging (or lack of packaging, like with one of my favorites - the bar shampoos/conditioners), and vegan things (not all products are vegan but they have a wonderful selection).  Please check Lush out if you haven't already.  I got turned onto Lush awhile ago when I received an amaaaaaazing bath bomb as a gift.  Then I went and bought up some yummy stuff.  BUT - the best things I've received from Lush came just this Christmas...

My lovely friend Cecilia (her tumblr here, or her knitting blog here!) works at Lush in Washington DC and absolutely loves her job there.  For Christmas I received a mishmash of Lush goodness!  Including bath bombs, some body scrub, soap, and my favorite favorite favorite... Helping Hands hand cream!  This stuff is truly amazing.  I've tested a lot of hand creams out and I have extremely dry hands right now. (I wash my hands a lot and use a ridiculous amount of hand sanitizer... I know, I know, creating the "supergerm" or whatever, but I don't like germs.)  This hand cream is amazing.  It moisturizes so very well, doesn't have a horrible smell (like pure shea butter, which I've used and it WORKS, but I'm not a fan of the smell), and it doesn't make your hands feel greasy.  Check it out!

Thank you Miss Cecilia for the products!  And readers, feel free to Ask Cecilia about any products, she's done multiple reviews of products and she's happy to help!  The sweetest girl ever!