Tag: RaeAnna Rekemeyer

11..., Lifestyle

11… Hopes for the New Year

RaeAnna
Enjoying Christmas things in Baytown, Texas. | Dress | Shirt | Boots |

I’ve never been one for resolutions. In reality, I’m not even one for goal setting or manifesting. It’s not that I’m unmotivated; I’m actually incredibly motivated and hardworking. I’ve just found that it doesn’t work for me. Resolutions, goals, manifestations are not for me. 

Happiness and kindness are the two driving forces in my life. Every day I wake up and live my life to the best of my abilities by making choices that make me happy and do as much good as I can in the world. At the end of the day, if I have accomplished those, I have lived a good day and that will culminate into a good life. I hope. 

2020 was quite the year. Filled with ups and downs on a global and personal scale. I did what I could to find happiness and create kindness, but I, like the entirety of Earth’s population, am hoping for better things in 2021. 

I missed the usual Christmas traditions in 2020, but I won’t let it get me down for 2021. | Dress | Flannel | Boots | Earrings |
  1. I hope the pandemic is reigned in. For selfish reasons, I want life to get on with it. For global reasons, I want life to get on with it. Everything has been on hold for far too long. 
  2. I hope to see friends and family again. It’s been over a year since I have seen some of my closest friends and family members. Some live far away and others live just on the other side of town. Due to COVID, I have gone without seeing many people for their safety and mine. It sucks, but it is for the best. 
  3. I hope to travel. Knock on wood, 2020 was supposed to be my year of international travel. Shocker: It wasn’t. I went to none of the places I was supposed to. It makes me sad, but at the end of the day, it was for the best. Most of the trips were postponed, a few were permanently canceled. Time will tell when I get to see Europe again. 
  4. I hope for health. The health of the world and myself. As an imuno-compromised person, this year has been tough. I’ll speak more on how I’m ringing in 2021later, but it’s not the way I was hoping for my family.
  5. I hope to be more consistent. 2020 was anything but my finest year of consistency. I managed to let so many things fall through the cracks that I have never ever let fall through the cracks before. I’m ashamed… Kind of. In all honesty, I’m disappointed in myself, but at the end of the day, I just couldn’t make those things happen. In 2021, I want to get back to being the consistent human I was before and even more consistent than before.  
  6. I hope to get back to working. As a freelance writer, COVID seriously affected my income. I’m not complaining because, at least, I’m still working. It has been a very, very slow year for me. As a creative, I was impacted significantly. Luckily, I have a partner who has been able to work consistently throughout the pandemic, so we have not struggled the way other families have. I miss working, though. Here’s to a better year!
  7. I hope to not wear a mask. I will absolutely continue to wear a mask until it is completely safe to not wear one. I am looking forward to not having to need it, though. 
  8. I hope the vaccine can be administered to one and all. 
  9. I hope my puppies continue to grow healthy and strong. They will celebrate their first birthday in March. I can’t believe how soon that is and how quickly this year has gone by. I was so very blessed to have them and be able to provide for their health and happiness. COVID gave me the time to care for them, and for that, I will forever be grateful for 2020. 
  10. I hope to grow my blog. 2020 was incredibly inconsistent for the blog. It grew and shrunk and stagnated. I’m not complaining. I love this part of my life, but I’m hoping to really dive into it in the way I had been wanting to in 2020 but was unable to. I have a lot of books to catch up on reviews. So I hope to have those all published by May. Fingers crossed. 
  11. I hope to continue chasing happiness and kindness. I want 2021 to be filled with happiness for myself and others. I want to spread kindness wherever I go, making the world a better place as much as I possibly can. 
  12. Bonus Hope I hope to get a bunch of projects done in my house. I very much love it as it is, but there are so many things I want to get done, like painting and decorating. I’ll absolutely document my progress as I go because it’s so fun!!!

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

Shop the Post
[show_shopthepost_widget id=”4328155″]

11..., Lifestyle

11… Post Christmas Musings

RaeAnna
My gorgeous and huge tree.
Christmas Eve with my babies.
Enjoying Christmas Morning

I can’t believe Christmas 2020 is past. The season went by so quickly. I’m still a little bit shocked that it even happened, but it did. I’m trying to process 2020, but I’m having a very hard time with it all. So I am going to begin by processing the easiest things first: Christmas!

  1. I did not get nearly enough done. Oops.
  2. Five books went unreviewed. 
  3. Christmas content was completely nonexistent from me this year. 
  4. I managed to bake a total of zero Christmas cookies.
  5. I watched the same Christmas movies on repeat and didn’t even see any of the new Netflix Christmas movies. 
  6. Santa didn’t get me a single thing this year… Not even coal. I feel forgotten. 
  7. I’m still not done Christmas shopping.
  8. I failed as a mother because the puppies didn’t get a single present. I’m the worst mother ever. Poor babies. 
  9. I’m sad my office Christmas tree was never put up. 
  10. I wish I would’ve seen more Christmas lights. 
  11. I really missed getting to go out and do Christmassy things. 

Those are a few of my post Christmas musings. I’m hoping next year will be better… Well, next year, I’ll be better. I was lazy and slacking this year. Oh well. I had a great Christmas day with family and puppies, so that is all that matters. 

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

Shop the Post
[show_shopthepost_widget id=”4323635″]

Fiction

Finding Christmas Diversity in Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory

RaeAnna
Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory

Worth A Read Yes
Length 320
Quick Review Vivian is dragged on holiday to rural, royal England by her daughter. Not only does she get away, she finds love. 

Every December, my reading list becomes inundated with white people doing holiday things because I read Christmas books this time of year. I try to keep my reading list as diverse and mentally stimulating and challenging as possible. Christmas stories are not diverse… in any way; I have been craving more color in my Christmas reading. I finally found it in Jasmine Guillory’s Royal Holiday. Honestly, this is probably one of my favorite rom-commy books I’ve ever read. It’s real and honest and the characters are believable and interesting. I don’t want to punch them. 

Vivian is a social worker about to get a huge promotion she’s worked towards her entire career. Her daughter convinces her to take a trip to England to get away for once. Her daughter is a stylist and will be helping a Duchess during the holidays, so Vivian gets to stay with royalty. While she’s enjoying a week in the lap of luxury, she meets Malcolm, the Queen’s personal secretary. Also, they’re both Black. 

I love that the main character, Vivian, is a single mom in her fifties with a career, drive, adventure, passion, pizzaz, and healthy boundaries. The rom-com problem for her budding relationship with Malcolm is not only believable but a real problem. So often, the obstacle keeping two people apart is ridiculous. Long distance between two powerful working adults, that’s a real obstacle! Workable but hard. 

Enjoying Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory in Baytown, Texas. | Dress | Heels | Earrings

Royal Holiday is not devoid of clichés, it has them for sure. Guillory leans into the clichés without letting them ruin or run the novel. The main characters are strong and independent. They want love, but they’re also not willing to sacrifice everything for it. Vivian is established and knows herself; there is a confidence to her character that comes from living a full life. Malcom is normal and easy going. He’s a man a woman would want to be with and should want to be with.

The writing isn’t spectacular, but it’s perfectly suited to the book and the storyline. Guillory does well with the dialogue. She doesn’t saturate the narrative with saccharine antics; it’s the right amount of realistic and optimistic. 

I truly love how wonderful Vivian is. Rom-coms have a tendency to make the characters overly quirky rather than making them relatable and wonderful. Vivian’s just a normal woman with anxieties and excitement and hopes like the rest of us. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I love it. I respect it. Royal Holiday has an ending that grown women with careers want to watch play out. 

I love that this romantic comedy features a strong, independent woman who gave up nothing for love. She chose happiness, her career, her family, and the man of her dreams. She sacrificed nothing and still won. Thank you Jasmine Guillory for giving me a romantic comedy I actually appreciate and the two main characters are Black. Yay!!! We need this kind of diversity in romantic comedies and Christmas novels. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Royal Holiday is my favorite Christmas read of the year.

Memorable Quotes
“Vivian couldn’t decide what appealed to her more, hot coffee and fresh scones or that man in the corner who looked like a tall mug of hot chocolate.”
“Plus, she was on vacation, for God’s sake—everyone did something a little out of character on vacation, didn’t they?”

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

Buy on Amazon | Buy on Book Depository
Shop the Post
[show_shopthepost_widget id=”4314143″]

Title: Royal Holiday
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Publisher: Berkley
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780593099049

Books, Fiction, Reading Lists

11… Of My Favorite Christmas Books to Read

RaeAnna
A Christmas Treasury is one of my favorite Christmas books and my #1 recommendation.

When I started blogging, I decided to dedicate December to reading Christmas and holiday books. By now, in my third year of continuing this tradition, I have now encountered many Christmas inclined books. Some have been beautiful classics and others have been smutty romances and others have been worse than a Hallmark movie with a bigger time commitment. 

To save you some time, I’m sharing eleven Christmas books I will always recommend. There are a couple silly romances, but they’re well done, and now is the time of year for love, joy, peace on Earth, and a little mindless reading.

  1. A Christmas Treasury This one is a beautifully illustrated book full of lots of Christmas stories. If you buy one book this year for Christmas, make it this one. Perfect for children and adults. Plus, it looks amazing sitting on a coffee table or under the tree. 
  2. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Arguably the greatest Christmas story ever told, it changed Christmas in England and America. It’s a classic because the tale is timeless and the writing is superb.
  3. Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien I adore everything about this book. Tolkien wrote to his children for two decades as Santa. The letters were accompanied by beautiful illustrations. 
  4. Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory So often Christmas stories involve white people. I love that this romantic comedy had a strong independent woman who gave up nothing for love and the two main characters are Black. Yay!!!
  5. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson I have an emotional connection to this one because I starred in the play version as I kid. It’s fun, funny, and full of redemption.
  6. The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn Full of history, adventure, and Christmas spirit, this is a great book for families to read with their kids. I also just enjoyed it immensely as a history buff.
  7. A Merry Christmas and Other Stories by Louisa May Alcott Alcott has been one of my favorite authors since I was a child. I love her Christmas stories as much as her novels. They’re sweet and beautiful.
  8. The Nutcracker by Alexandre Dumas This is not the ballet. It’s a great book about the Nutcracker and Christmas with the right amount of horror and fun.
  9. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum This is such a sweet and fun story. I absolutely love the mystical take Baum gives Santa and his world. It’s adorable and I read it again and again.
  10. Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope I have loved Trollope’s way with words, and his Christmas stories are witty and full of societal insight. 
  11. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry This is a classic Christmas story, and one that probably has more relevance than we would like to admit in today’s world of COVID and financial upheaval. 

Alright. These are my eleven Christmas picks. I highly suggest all of them. You can’t go wrong with any of them. They’re happy and full of Christmas spirit. This year, we could all use a little bit more of that in our lives; I know I could.

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna 

Shop the Post
[show_shopthepost_widget id=”4311301″]

Books, Fiction

Bed Time Story of Christmas Cheer with Buddy the Elf

RaeAnna
Recreating my own Elf moment by climbing on the tree to hang the star. | Pajamas |

Worth A Read Yes
Length 44
Quick Review A less time consuming way to enjoy Elf the movie.

If you love Will Ferrell’s adventures in New York City as Buddy the [oversized] elf, then this is the perfect book for you and the children in your life. Based on the movie by David Berenbaum Elf, is a great addition to your bedtime reading list or something sweet to put on the coffee table this time of year. 

I’m not going to go over the plot of the book because everyone—should know—knows what happens because it’s a Christmas fucking classic with all the heartwarmth, songs, and baked goods this season requires. 

Being Silly

That was a lie; I’m going to talk about a couple plot points. The movie does a better job explaining why Buddy is able to escape by way of Santa. The book, however, does not. Buddy wanders into the sleigh and is discovered at the North Pole. Instead of going “Oh no! Let’s find his family.” Santa goes, “Sure. A baby. I’ll let an elf adopt the child I accidentally kidnapped.” No mention of Mommy, at all. The more logical and Santa-like thing of ‘Oops! Let’s deliver this baby back home, pop it under the Christmas tree with a bow on his head, and pretend like nothing happened.’ And since there is no mention of the mom, how did she react? Did she respond with a, “K, cool. My kid’s been napped.” She’s nowhere in the story! She probably died of heartbreak.

What I love most about the book is that it keeps some of the most memorable lines from the movie. “Some people just lose sight of what’s important in life.” It does an amazing job of being sweet and funny and Christmassy all at the same time. Buddy is as ridiculous and wonderful as Will Ferrell portrays him in the movie version. 

Kim Smith does a fabulous job bringing Buddy, the elves, Santa, and New York City to life through her illustrations. 

Christmas is about joy and happiness and good cheer. Buddy has become an iconic bringer of cheer for children of all ages since the movie was released. I love that Elf is now in book form to be read around the fire or curled up in bed. 

Memorable Quotes
The Code of the Elves “2. There’s room for everyone on the nice list”
“You’re not a cotton-headed ninny muggins. You’re just… special!”
“Buddy, you’re more of an elf than anyone I’ve ever met.”

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

Buy on Amazon
Shop the Post
[show_shopthepost_widget id=”4307279″]

Title: Elf
Based on the film by: David Berenbaum
Illustrator: Kim Smith
Publisher: Quirk Books
Copyright: 2020
ISBN: 9781683692201 

Books, Fiction

A Chaste Christmas Novel: Debbie Macomber’s Jingle All the Way

RaeAnna
Jingle All the Way by Debbie Macomber | Sweatshirt | Shorts | Hat

Worth A Read No
Length 272
Quick Review A chaste (and confusing) Christmas romance for those who really don’t want to be surprised or titillated by love or the holiday spirit. 

I’m going to start off with: I have nothing good to say about Jingle All the Way by Debbie Macomber. I would suggest this book because it is the perfect Christmas romance for Christian women with a sex-sensitivity. Honesty, it doesn’t even have to be sex… intimacy is also applicable.

Everly is a high-powered CEO of a company in downtown Chicago. She gets sent on her idea of hell: a trip down the Amazon river with absolutely no way to connect with the outside world. While on the cruise, she connects with the ship’s naturalist and Chicago-native, Asher. They fall in love on the Amazon as they encounter illness, accidents, kidnapping, and mishaps. 

I still do not understand the title, Jingle All the Way, or the cover image. Poor choices. They do not match the plot at all in any way shape or form. It is very confusing, and I hate it. Poor choices on the publisher’s part.

For the completely inept at knowing how a Christmas romance novel is going to end: If you don’t want to know how it ends (the same as every other one in this genre), do not read this paragraph. I really loathe how the characters always end up married and usually with child in the epilogue. Let’s have a new ending. Like they had three great months before brain cancer suddenly took Asher from Everly and she dedicated herself to preserving the Amazon in his memory. That’s romantic and new!

Macomber’s writing is incredibly unbelievable. The dialogue is very cringe worthy. As someone who is of the same age as the main characters, we would not talk that way to one another, especially if it was a flirtation. The dialogue has as much emotional depth as encounters I have with a friend I don’t much care for rather than the person I’m falling head over heels in love with. 

Having more fun on the photo shoot than I did reading the terrible book.

I know that romances must have a reason the two love interests shouldn’t or couldn’t be together, but the reasons Macomber creates in Jingle All the Way are hardly believable. The only thing I remotely like about this one is that Asher is pressured to give up his wandering ways to settle down and begin a family. For once the man is also giving up something. Surprise, surprise, surprise, they both decide to settle in a small town and be happy and a family and give up their wandering and high powered lives. Yuck.

Macomber also starts off the novel with an attack on Gen Z by painting Everly’s assistant as inept, irresponsible, catty, and an all around shitty human and employee. I don’t like this because it’s a sweeping judgement rather than individualized to this particular person, who is a crap assistant. It also sets the scene that Everly is much older, but in reality, they’re maybe ten years apart in age. 

One of my favorite (read this sarcastically) moments in Jingle All the Way is when Macomber takes the opportunity to defend romance novels as a genre. I don’t understand why she feels the need because the vast majority of the people reading it are fans of hers and the genres. So it feels very self-aggrandizing when Everly says, “They’re positive and uplifting and give me hope of finding my own handsome hero one day.”

I do have one audience to whom I can and would suggest this novel. As much as I really did not enjoy reading Debbie Macomber’s Jingle All the Way, it is perfect for Christian women or women with a sex-sensitivity. I, for one, do not love reading sex scenes. They make me uncomfortable. Yet they are a natural part of any romantic relationship. Kissing is also normal… Everly and Asher do none of it. They two chaste kisses. To have a raging love affair last two weeks on vacation in South America without technology or connection to the outside world, I can’t imagine them not having sex. Not realistic. 

Like I said. Don’t waste your time on this book. It’s terrible unless you really hate intimacy and want to know what the ending is by paragraph one. 

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

Buy on Amazon | Buy on Book Depository
Shop the Post
[show_shopthepost_widget id=”4300416″]

Title: Jingle All the Way
Author: Debbie Macomber
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2020
ISBN: 9781984818751