Castles, Presidents...and Mice

     Merry Christmas! 

     My family is pretty subtle when it comes to Christmas. We went to the evening church service and then went home and ate supper of ham, cheese and crackers, with vegetable and fruit trays, and my brother even brought home a pizza when he got back from work at Little Caeser's! After we ate, we did our little gift game, which constitutes of finding one's gift through memorizing and figuring out clues.

I got this lovely 14x14cm. oil painting

And this very cute cup that I've been using all day. Seriously! I haven't gone to the cupboard once to get a drinking class. So it's actually convenient to have one's own cup.

Then name draws came around and my dad (who drew my name) got me these:

I had picked this up at the library and knew that I immediately wanted it! It gives a wonderful look at all of the characters of Downton Abbey from season 1-3.

I don't think I've ever mentioned that I'm a big Kennedy fan. In spite of their flaws, I've always admired the Kennedy family (mainly Bobby and Ethel Kennedy as well as Rose Kennedy) for their iron willed ambition and fierce loyalty to one another. My mom and I caught this mini-series about half way through on television and I managed to watch most of it the following week. I really wanted to get it so I could watch the whole series. If you want a good biography series to watch about one of America's most famous political family, then this is it. It's honest, clean, and I think very accurate to the heart of the Kennedy legend.

Then on Christmas Day, I got these delightful gifts!

YAHH! I finally have the whole Merlin series! My family has just now gotten into Merlin and so I think it's not just me that's excited about finishing the series.

This Downton Abbey book is all about the making of from casting to costumes to set designs and makeup. Very well done with interviews from cast, crew and writers.

This is the first of the Downton Abbey books and this explores seasons 1 and 2, but unlike The Chronicles of Downton Abbey, this book explores the historical context of the time period as well. 

I love Chanel! Mainly for the simple elegance and timeless classic designs. It's on my bucket list to get a Chanel purse and my mom was actually going to get one for my birthday! Except the cheapest you can get is $300! And I believe that's in America! So my mom got me a bag that looked similar in design to the legendary designer's masterpiece. It's beautiful and I love it! The picture makes it look bright bubble gum pink, but actually it's more of a coral/peach color.

I thought that was it for my presents...until I looked into the bag and saw a small white box...

This was a completely unexpected gift! 

The power button on my old i-pod stopped working almost a year ago, but I found a somewhat primitive method of plugging it into the USB cord to turn it on. So I didn't make a big deal out of getting a new one. Then a few weeks ago the + volume button just stopped working! Now I was really in trouble, because the volume was down so low I couldn't hear it. My mom said that she would give me her old i-pod and to wait until after Christmas to transfer my music, when all along she and my sister had bought me a new one. So, even though I had to download and update my version of i-tunes, I managed to get all my music transferred with no trouble at all.

Then afterwards we went and saw, Saving Mr. Banks, which was wonderful! If you've been wanting to go and see it, then go! It's a great movie!

~ ~ ~

So, I had another wonderful Christmas, I love all my gifts and have a had a good break from school (which has been pretty drama free as well). I hope everyone had a happy memorable Christmas as well!