Victoria Magazine Giveaway Win... Plus, Lovely Blogger Gifts

Happy Monday to all, I hope you all had a good weekend. I am actually writing this post late Sunday night... I am a night owl! I wanted to give a big THANKS to of Willow of the blog: http://myirishcottagehome.blogspot.com/
I won her blog giveaway a while ago: a subscription to VICTORIA MAGAZINE. I received my first issue recently, and on this snowy weekend here in New England, it was a very much appreciated past-time, to curl up and read such a lovely magazine. Thank you again, Willow, I appreciated my win. Here's Willow's link to her blog in case you'd like to visit: http://myirishcottagehome.blogspot.com/ She and her husband just redid a bookcase into a TV console and they did a fabulous job! Stop by to check it out if you'd like
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I also wanted to include in this post an additional thank you to another of my blogging buddies, Lilybets, for a couple of gifts she sent to me this holiday... I will explain more below...

But, for now, here's some nice photos from Victoria Magazine.

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The other part of this post, as I mentioned, is for raving about a sweet little package I received for Christmas from Lilybets - from the blog: http://nelboscodililybets.blogspot.com/ (Please click on her blog name to visit!) Lilybets lives in Malta, and she is one of the loveliest people that I have met in my 'blog travels.' She is very kind, loving and is good to animals!! (I know she will visit here and will smile when she reads that!) The next two photos are what Lilybets so generously and lovingly mailed to me from Malta. I will always treasure them...
A pretty felt Santa, complete with Jingle Bells!
And here is a cute little 'kitty' notepad...
And last, but not least:
I am also including a photo of this "G" below -- it is a special Christmas tree decoration that one of my very absolute favorite blogger friends sent to me last year, among a few other things. I will not name her, she is "quite shy" and wouldn't want me to give her any praises! But I must say that to get something like this (and the other decorations I received, of course), I feel are the most special things that one can get because one will ALWAYS remember the person, and the story of how they received what was sent, every time these mementos are taken out for the holiday every year. Isn't that the most precious thing for each of us to have when looking at our decorations? To pick something up, as we decorate, and look at it and remember the person and the circumstance of receiving it? I think that's one of the BEST parts of the holidays!
To leave you with one last photo, here's my house the night before last, when it started to snow... my son took the pic -- this is his "thing" with taking a photo with the 's-t-r-e-t-c-h' of light. I think he is quite talented. But, then again, I'm his mother. ;)
Best,
Gloria