Hey guys, today I am participating in the 12 days of love letter writing that More Love Letters is putting on.

More About This Amazing Movement:

1. What is the 12 Days of Love Letter Writing? We are creating 12 Love Letter Bundles for 12 individuals (all requested secretly by someone in their life that cares about them) across a 12-day span. From December 5-17, we will highlight an individual in need of some extra encouragement in the form of handwritten notes and encourage people to script a letter and send it to our PO Box to be bundled up and mailed off the person.
2. What is The World Needs More Love Letters? The World Needs More Love Letters is a community of “love letter writers” who write and leave letters across the map in hopes that the right people will pick them up. We leave them everywhere: books, coffee shops, coat pockets, trains. Love letter writers document the letter writing and dropping through photographs, blog posts, and social media.
3. What is a Love Letter Bundle? Once a month, we take an extra special letter request and we mail it out to our email subscriber list. Those on the list then have 10 days to script a love letter for the individual in need and mail it over to PO Box 2061, North Haven CT 06473. We then bundle up the love letters and mail them over to the unsuspecting recipient with a letter from MoreLoveLetters.com on top to explain just why they are holding a pile of stationery from strangers in hand.
4. Helpful Links

• The 12 Days of Love Letter Writing
• Join the Love Letter Email Alert List
• The Love Letters Blog
• The Story of The World Needs More Love Letters

My Love Letter Request

I was sent my love letter request just over a week ago and here it is:

Shelley & Nelson

We received a letter request for Shelley and Nelson, a couple dedicated to a daily fight alongside their 7-year-old girl who has Leukemia. The letter request below says it all:

“Nelson and Shelley have the kind of love little girls grow up dreaming of. Nelson is outgoing; Shelley more reserved. Both have kind, honest eyes and smiles that light up their faces.

Nelson is currently in the reserves, and is an airline pilot. Shelley is a stay at home mom with the grace of a TV housewife, but with a fire inside of her that shines through. If you met them on the street, you would have no idea the journey they are in the middle of.

Proud parents of 3 kinds under the age of 7, their the oldest has leukemia and is facing a nearly impossible battle. This isn’t their first go-around with this terrible illness. They are raising a loving family in as ‘normal’ a way that they can.They are constantly upbeat, but you can see that not all of the lines on their faces are from smiles anymore. Nelson and Shelley could really use a boost of outside love right now.”

My Letter:

I decided to write my letter on my “Keep Calm and Be Merry” Christmas cards that I bought this holiday season.

Now I would like to ask my readers to participate by writing a letter to Shelley and Nelson as well! It can be something as simple as a quick note of encouragement, letting them know you are thinking about them this holiday season.

If you would like to write a letter please have it in the mailbox no later than Tuesday, December 13! You can send your letter to the following address:

More Love Letters, PO Box 2061, North Haven, CT 06473

Thanks in advance lovely readers! I am sure finding this bundle of love in their mailbox will make Shelley and Nelson’s holiday season much brighter. XO

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Questions of the day: Have you ever written a special letter to brighten someone’s day and/or received one?

Happy December! I cannot believe it’s the last month of 2011 already. Wow. This year has flown by! Also, how funny that it’s been almost exactly a year since my last three things Thursday update

One.

Leigh and Lindsay organized this awesome Favourite Things Christmas Swap for Canadians and last night I received my package from the lovely Erin! She sent me an advent  calendar (I haven’t had one of these in a long time. So excited!), an adorable engagement ring Christmas ornament (we’re both getting married next year), some yummy white chocolate cranberry biscotti and a Tim Hortons gift card! I love it and it was such a fun pick-me-up to get in the mail yesterday

Two.

I have been doing some major research for our honeymoon in the last week! We are going to Tofino, B.C. from July 10 – 15. Honeymoon planning > wedding planning

I’ve heard nothing but awesome things about Tofino and it’s the perfect vacation for Eric and I because it’s going to be a nice combination of relaxation and little adventures. I’m also excited to be honeymooning in Canada and not flying anywhere after the wedding!

More honeymoon details will be in my ’7 months to go’ blog post that’s coming up next week but in the meantime if anyone has ever been and has any accommodation, food or things-to-do recommendations I would love to hear them!

Three.

I’ve been trying to get back into a strength training routine as of late and I’ve been pretty good about doing it 2-3 times per week! I seem to have a love-hate relationship with strength training but lately it’s been love again. I’ll admit it’s hard to get myself into our home gym to do it, but once I’m in there I always enjoy my workout and feel super strong afterwards!

I don’t really have a specific routine going, I’ve just been doing random workouts from Oxygen magazine and Fitnessista and try to do one lower body, one upper body and one full body workout a week!

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Questions of the day: If you participated in the Christmas swap what did you get? Have you ever been to Tofino? If so, answer my questions above! Do you strength train regularly? If so, where do you get your routines?

Well friends, it’s that time of year again. The holiday season! Last year I wrote a Christmas list which turned out to be very effective as I was gifted most of the things on my list So I’m doing the same thing this year! Check out my Christmas list last year and my present haul – my family totally spoiled me!

Anyways, this year all I want for Christmas is…

A kobo e-reader!

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Yup, I’ve caved and decided I’m ready to go the e-reader route. I did a lot of traveling this past year and it was really hard to travel with more than one book. Also really annoying when I was traveling and finished the only book I had with me. An e-reader would make it so much easier. Plus, we don’t have a lot of extra room for books in our house as it is!

Run for it pullover and/or Run your heart out tights – Lululemon

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There is sooo much lululemon stuff I want that I could fill up this entire blog post with the different lulu things I would like. But after much debate I decided that these two things would benefit me most during winter marathon training. Oh, and I’ll take both in size 10 please and thank you. Or a GC of any amount would go towards one of these two things

A gift card to the Running Room for new shoes

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My current running shoes are not going to last me through my whole marathon training cycle and I’m going to need a new pair in early 2012. I’ve been running in the Asics GT-2160′s for about a year now and I’m really happy with them! A gift card of any amount for the Running Room would go towards that purchase!

Nike dri-fit socks

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I have asked for these the last two years in a row and my family always comes through! Somehow when Christmas rolls around I always need more as I’ve wrecked or misplaced most of the ones from the year before…why does it work that way with socks?

Starbucks Coffee

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My mom got me a few bags of coffee for my birthday and we’re almost out. I LOVE Starbucks coffee and have been saving a lot of money by making coffee at home every day but Friday (when I treat myself to a latte!) the last few months. I would love another couple bags. Especially a few Christmas Blend ones!

Some prints for our walls!

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As evidenced by this post our walls in our townhouse are still really bare. A full 7 months after moving in! I would love some prints to hang on our walls. Above are a few of my favourites that I found on etsy but I’m not too terribly picky. I just love the idea of hanging prints/typography rather than JUST photos!

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And that’s about it! I can’t think of anything else I really want. None of these things are NEEDS of course but I sure do want it all Plus it’s always fun thinking about your Christmas list every year!

What is on your Christmas list this year?