12 Days of Giveaways Day 2: $25 Sephora Gift Card

Day 2 of the 12 Days of Giveaways this year is Kimi from Kimi Who?. It has been wonderful getting to know her better through her blog and her awesome comments here on the blog. She's one of those incredibly supportive and friendly people that anyone can count themselves lucky to know. Also, she has cute cats. Really really cute cats.

How do you usually celebrate the holidays?
As an adult, I've not yet had a routine when it comes to the holidays. It gets spent differently every year depending on what is going on with my life at the time. The last several years, I have spent Christmas with a friend or special someone and their families - participating in whatever traditions they have. It's been a good way to compare the traditions of my childhood to theirs and decide what is important to me now that I'm all grown up.
This year? It's probably another year of mostly the same. It's my first Christmas with my boyfriend and we haven't made any concrete holiday plans. I do know one thing... it involves a lot of decorating and Christmas movies if I get my way! And dressing my cats up in Santa hats...

Are you a Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopper?
If so, what are you planning to shop for those days this year?
Black Friday - absolutely not. I tried it once and lost a lot of faith in humanity. I am all for a great deal. Who doesn't love saving money, right? But I cannot believe the way people fight over things and the number of people who get hospitalized during the event. Cyber Monday is another story. I have used this most often to update electronics that I otherwise can't afford to replace. I'm usually done with most of my Christmas shopping by then anyways.
I work a retail job, so I will be working on Black Friday *groan* but fortunately, I work for a jewelry and watch repair shop and while we will be open during most of the chaos, we won't see much of it. We carry a very small jewelry selection and most people aren't thinking about getting their watches fixed... until after Black Friday when they realize they've broken it in a scuffle. ;)
What is your favorite holiday food? Turkey! I'm so glad I'm an adult and I can make holiday food for myself now. I grew up with dry, tasteless turkey like a lot of people did. I thought that was just sort of what it was supposed to taste like until a few years ago when I followed a recipe of Louisiana native Emeril Lagasse and fell completely in love with turkey.
Want the best, most juicy, delicious and magazine cover perfect turkey you've ever had? I'll even share the recipe with you.
What's at the top of your holiday wishlist this year? When I started my blog, I was so frustrated by all of the beautiful pictures I saw everyone else in the blogging community posting. My cell phone is a little outdated (I'm still using the Samsung Galaxy 3) but why do my pictures suck so much by comparison!?
To help me out, a friend offered to loan me their camera, a Nikon D3000. My pictures have greatly improved and I am much more happy with the quality. Having said that, it's incredibly heavy and bulky for my T-Rex arms and short stature. I love the quality, but I felt I needed something more compact and more on-the-go.
I've been looking around at cameras a lot, knowing that I can't borrow my friend's camera forever and I decided on the Samsung Galaxy 2 camera. The picture quality is that of a DSLR, it's half the weight and it comes with a much-craved feature: It will allow me to post directly to social media via Wi-Fi.
I'm about 99% sure my boyfriend has already bought this for me. His hints aren't very subtle!

Are you planning any awesome posts on your blog this holiday season? It's my first year being serious about blogging. I don't have a whole lot planned aside from some giveaways and reviews. I'm sure I'll be talking all about my favorite holiday movies and traditions as well as sharing our decorations and the trials of having 2 very young cats experiencing their first Christmas tree. Otherwise, I'll be participating in some of the prompted holiday posts.
What is your favorite thing about blogging? I blogged for years over MySpace and blogger, under various blog names and aliases. It never once occurred to me that anyone would actually read it. Now, I love the idea of sharing past and current experiences that touch people. As much as I love talking about Doctor Who, nail polish, geeky stuff... my favorite posts are the ones where I open up and talk about the real, important things.
Nothing about blogging has made me more happy than when I pour a scenario out onto a page and a reader connects with me, understands, and maybe feels a little more normal. There's a lot of doctored pictures and tailored posts reflecting a life we all wish we really had. A lot of the community is "best foot forward" and I am sometimes guilty of this myself in attempt to make my corner of the internet a little more attractive. But I also try to keep it real and give you my real life perspective.
The best part is when the reader gets me, understands, and connects with me.

Kimi is offering one lucky reader a $25 Sephora Gift Card! How generous is that? Giveaway is open worldwide and ends 12/4/14 at 12AM. Entering below agrees to all Terms and Conditions in the Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Don't forget to come back tomorrow for day 3 of the 12 Days of Giveaways!