what I received for my birthday

i hope y'all had a very merry and cheery holiday season

today I'm going to share my birthday presents with y'all

i am very very thankful for everything I received and had a blast being able to spend my birthday with my mom's side of the family on our ski trip! (post soon to come)

here are my presents in no particular order : 

a gorgeous pair of silver hoop earrings

a received these from my grandparents, and i absolutely love them! 

they go with everything and i can't wait to wear them they're beautiful

a bauble bar necklace 

i have been eyeing bubble necklaces for the longest time and when i told my mom that i was wishing for a necklace from bauble bar, she definitely knew which one to get me! 

i'm in love

 a gold pair of hoop earrings

i received these from my aunt and uncle and couldn't be happier

i love how they're not seen everyday while still being a classic hoop earring!

 a kate spade phone case 

i received this case from my brother and i absolutely LOVE it! 

it's just so so cute and ugh 

it's on my phone right now, and i don't expect it to come off anytime soon

my big present this year was a michael kors watch from my parents! 

my parents gave me all of my gifts before they gave me this one so i was so surprise when they said "wait i think we have one more gift"

(classic christmas story line ;) ) 

my poor dad had to brave the michael kors store this holiday season and he accidentally got the rose gold watch, so i'm going to exchange it for the gold one!

i love both rose gold and gold watched, but i feel like the gold one is more classic 

 last, but certainly not least i received hunter boot socks from my cousins! this is my first pair of hunter boots socks, and i can't wait to where them in the snow and rain and if i'm obsessed enough maybe even the sun;)

i also received a target gift card, some spending money, and a pair of madewell pants! 

i'm so grateful of everything that i received and absolutely couldn't be happier! 

what should i spend my birthday money on?

what was your favorite gift this holiday season?

thanks for reading! 

xox

what makes christmas "christmas"

Hey Preppy Diaries readers!

I usually blog over at  {The Life and Times of Belle} but today I'm super excited to be guest posting for Chloe while she's off on her ski trip - the lucky thing! I'd love to go skiing - anyways before I go off point before I've started  - seeing as Christmas is literally just around the corner I thought I blog about what, in my mind, makes it Christmas...

Frosty weather... in the absence of snow I'll take take a heavy frost :P

being by the lake when it's all icy and frosty is just so beautiful...

... as is going to uni on such a gorgeous campus.

Fairy Lights

As much as I love fairy lights indoors I really love them outdoors - I love seeing peoples houses all decorated and lit up, brightening up the dark nights when I'm driving home :)

Christmas themed candy - 

when this stuff hits the shops (usually in November or whatever) I do start to get excited about Christmas!

Seeing the unveiling of the annual Christmas Harrods bear always puts me in a Christmas-y mood :)

I think this one is the cutest one yet! I can't wait to receive my little Chester bear :)

Holiday drinks (and cups) - pretty standard 

My fave is a mint hot chocolate - yum :) What's yours?

Christmas candles

These really help to set the scene for me Christmas-wise - Yankee ones are my brand of choice but I'd love to try some B&BW ones :)

Decorating the house for Christmas

Nothing makes a house feel more Christmas-y than putting up the Christmas decorations - in my opinion anyway :)

Presents!

{via}

I love going out and finding the perfect gifts for my friends/family and then coming home, putting on some Christmas tunes and settling down to wrap them - it really puts me in the Christmas mood.

Side note: I love this idea of putting on photos of you and the recipient on the wrapping paper

Hope you enjoyed reading this post! I'd love if you would go on over to {my blog} and give it a read!