Hallmark Movies

I love watching Hallmark movies at any time of the year but especially at Christmas time. :) I've watched them throughout the years whenever I've visited someone who happens to have a Hallmark channel. I now have my own subscription to a live TV service that has three Hallmark channels and I can DVR them and I love it!

I love Hallmark movies and I acknowledge that all of them are cheesy but some are cheesier than others. And although I used to watch as many as I could, I now am a little more picky about which ones I will watch the whole way through.

I've been thinking about which Hallmark movies I like the best and will watch over and over again and I think there seems to be a certain formula that I like. I tend to like the movies where both of the romantic leads are single (no love triangles) and they both live in the same town (no just visiting their hometown for the holidays). Don't get me wrong, I have exceptions for this formula but in general I think that is the case.

Here's a list of some of the Hallmark movies that I enjoy:

Christmas 

The Mistletoe Promise

Operation Christmas

The Nine Lives of Christmas

The Christmas Ornament

It's Christmas, Eve

Two Turtle Doves

Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy

A Godwink Christmas: Meant for Love

Christmas Getaway

Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays

On the 12th Date of Christmas

Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater 

A December Bride

Other times of year

The Last Bridesmaid  

Love at First Bark

Recipe For Love

Bottled With Love

Falling For You

 

Are there any Hallmark movies that you recommend?

Gratitude

Since it's November and our prophet, President Russell M Nelson, encouraged us to do this, here is my gratitude list. (In no particular order). 

(President Nelson actually encouraged us to post on social media for seven days but since I don't post very often on social media this is as close as it's going to get to what he encouraged.)

I am grateful for my family. My parents and siblings are some of my best friends and I am so grateful for them. 

 

I am grateful to be an aunt. I love my nieces and nephews near and far.

 

I am grateful for my friends. My friends have kept me sane during this crazy pandemic time. 

 

I am grateful for my bookshelves. They hold and keep my books, scrapbooks, journals and playbills etc organized.

I am grateful for my car. I can run errands when I need to and can just go for a drive when I need to get out of the house. I've cried many a times in my car.

I am grateful for my own bedroom. I need a place that I can be by myself in a house where three other people live too.

I am grateful for heating. It is getting colder outside and having heat in the house and my car is awesome. :)

I am grateful for my bed to sleep on. My bed is pretty comfortable and I'm glad I don't have to sleep on the floor.

I am grateful for my clothes and shoes and socks. I like being modest and warm (in the winter time) and clothes and shoes and socks help me with both of those things. :)

I am grateful for the ability to read and write. There are many things I couldn't do if I couldn't read or write. (For instance writing this blogpost, doing my job, reading books.)

I am grateful for books. They can transport me to a different world for a little while. 

I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. It brings peace to my soul.

I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I am grateful for my computers. I watch movies and do personal things on one of them and I do my job on the other one.

I am grateful for the GPS on my phone. My GPS has brought me to many destinations in an efficient manner. :) 

I am grateful for the library. Before the pandemic, I loved visiting the library. Now during the pandemic, I've been using the library by checking out Kindle books and audio books.

I am grateful for large grocery stores where I can find all of the food items I need in one store. I've lived places where I had to go to separate stores to find the different items on my food list.

I am grateful for a washer and dryer in my house. I've lived multiple places with coin-operated laundry and one place where I had to do my laundry by hand. 

I am grateful for hand lotion to keep my hands soft (especially during the winter). 

I am grateful for music. Sometimes music helps me in ways that nothing else can.

I am grateful for musicals. I love music and I love watching musicals.

I am grateful for electricity. There are so many things we couldn't do without electricity. (For instance, use a computer and the internet, use the microwave, have lights in the house at night time etc).

I am grateful for indoor plumbing. I am so glad that I do not have to go to an outhouse when I have to go to the bathroom. 

I am grateful for cookbooks (online and physical). I have found many delicious recipes on recipe blogs and in cookbooks. 

I am grateful for sanitary products to help me through that time of the month.

I am grateful for toilet paper (all of the time but especially this year). ;)

I am grateful for doctors. I am so glad there are people out there who are willing to be and are smart enough to be doctors.

I am grateful for grocery store workers and other retail workers who continue to serve us during this pandemic. (What would we do without them?! Seriously. What would we do without them?!)

I am grateful for people who sell masks. I don't know how to sew and I've had to buy a few masks this year.

I am grateful for my job and that I can do it from home. Not everyone can do their job from home during this pandemic but I'm so grateful that I've been able to.

I am grateful for mixbook.com. I've made 5 different photo books during the pandemic and I'm glad that mixbook is so easy to use. 

 

I am grateful for cookies. I love baking cookies and I love eating cookies!

I am grateful for my slow cooker. I have made so many dishes in my slow cooker and I love it. I stick the ingredients in in the morning, turn it on, and then voila, when I'm done with work, dinner is ready. :)

I am grateful for nature. Nature has always been a place of solace for me but especially now during this crazy time, being able to get out in nature more and discover new places has been a life saver for me. 

There are so many things I am grateful for and there is no way that I can name them all. As hard of a year as this has been, there has been good in it too. :)

Wolf Trap Trail

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been trying to find new places to hike not too far from me. In my searching, I found that there's a trail around Wolf Trap. 

I decided to give it a try and I ended up really liking it. Shari joined me again for this hike.

 

The trail took us behind Wolf Trap, a side of the theater that I had never seen before. 

And we ran into some water. (Don't worry there was a bridge to cross the water.) :)

Sometimes the trail wasn't very well marked and it was hard to know which way to go but we found our way around. And although we were never far away from civilization, it felt like we were in the middle of nature.

The picture above is not an example of the not well marked part of the trail. ;)

 

It was a nice morning for a hike!

We ran into the Children's Theater in the Woods. I had also never seen this part of Wolf Trap before. It was so picturesque!

We also walked around on a trail across the street from the theater that took us to this little lake. Look how pretty that red tree was!

I've been enjoying my Saturday morning walks in new locations. They're keeping me sane during this crazy time.

Walking

At the beginning of the pandemic, I would sometimes go a couple of days without going outside. Going outside (even going on walks) made me anxious. I did go on walks occasionally, I was just stressed the whole time (which is the opposite of what a walk should do, in my opinion). 

As the pandemic continued on and I realized it wasn't going away anytime soon, I decided I needed to get outside more than I was. So I went on more walks around my neighborhood and found that going in the morning, there was less people out (so it wasn't as stressful going on a walk).

It's been about 8 months since the pandemic started and I walk a lot more than I did at the beginning of this craziness. I still like to walk in the morning (because less people) and in my new neighborhood I feel like most places I walk I can distance myself from passing walkers.

During the week and on Sunday, I'll stick close to home, but now I'm trying to find new places to go on Saturday mornings.

So far I've walked around Burke Lake twice and Lake Accotink once and I love it! I love having a change of scenery and they have nice wide trails to walk on.

The pictures in the post are from my recent hike around Lake Accotink. 

 

 A great blue heron hanging out on the dock. :)

Isn't it beautiful?!
 

 

Most walks I go on by myself but sometimes I can convince one of my friends to join me. Shari joined me on this walk at Lake Accotink.