The Essential Oil Lover's Gift Guide

I cannot believe it's 10 days from Christmas Eve! The whole month of December has felt surreal. I'm not sure how it's even the end of the year yet!

With the holidays comes the pressure of finding and buying the perfect gifts. The ideas I've curated are only a few of the many awesome essential oil and holistic health gifts you can consider for your essential oil-loving friends and family.

Something I love about the essential oil world is that there are so many amazing entrepreneurs and small business owners. Help support them by shopping small this holiday season! Without further ado, here are my top 9 gifts for essential oil lovers:

1. Holiday Gemstone Roller Bottles

These oh-so-cute roller bottles are from Whimsy & Wellness on Etsy. You're not only giving the gift of essential oil health through the use of these roller bottles, but you're also providing the gift getter with all the health benefits of the gemstone rollers. For example, the Snowflake Obsidian roller provides balance for mind, body, and spirit, while the Amazonite roller dispels negative energy, emotional trauma, and fear. I ordered Tim and I a set of 5 of her customizable roller bottles recently and absolutely love them.

2. Himalayan Salt Lamp

This beautiful amber Himalayan Salt Lamp is from So Well. One of the coolest things about how it's made? It's hand-carved by skilled artisans at the base of the Himalayan mountains from a solid salt crystal that hasn't been exposed to air in 250 million (yes, million!) years. SO COOL. Himalayan salt lamps provide wide-ranging benefits, including:

• Cleansing the air
• Neutralizing electromagnetic radiation
• Reducing static electricity in the air
• Increasing energy levels
• Promoting better sleep
• Improving mood and concentration

3. Lava Diffuser Jewelry

What I love about Lava Essentials' jewelry is how minimal each piece is. They're dainty, gorgeous, and perfect for those essential oil lovers who like using their oils on-the-go. So how does lava jewelry work? After you rub a pure, therapeutic grade essential oil on the stone, you'll experience the benefits of the aromatic experience for hours or days at a time depending on the oil you select. Here's to wearing a fashionable piece of jewelry that's secretly at work improving your health!

4. Holiday Essential Oil Blend

I love the doTERRA® Holiday Joy blend! It combines Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Wild Orange, and Clove with Siberian and Douglas Fir for a fragrance that truly smells like Christmas. I've diffused it almost every day since Thanksgiving! It's that good. Want to get your own? I can help!

5. Essential Oil Carrying Case

This case by Lava Essentials is one of the cutest essential oil carrying cases I've seen. Perfect for travel, the case has 18 individually-padded slots plus 2 larger slots. It can hold 5ml-15ml essential oil bottles and can fit up to 30 15ml bottles!

6. Modern Essentials Book

This book is the go-to resource for essential oil beginners and veterans alike. One thing I've learned since getting into essential oils is that there is always something to learn. This book outlines the history and science behind essential oils, as well as recipes and blends you can use in your everyday life. My favorite section is the reference guide in the back that provides quick answers to which oils are best for specific ailments.

7. Wool Dryer Balls

You would be shocked to learn the amount of chemicals there are in our daily lives. That's why we're starting to slowly replace everyday household products with natural solutions. I recently partnered with Keep It Real Natural Living on Instagram to provide a discount code for her amazing wool dryer balls. What's so great about wool dryer balls? Here are their benefits:

• Eco-friendly and help to reduce your carbon footprint
• Great for sensitive skin
• 100% natural and organic
• Locally handmade (from my hometown, which is even cooler!)
• Reduce wrinkling
• Softens and preserves laundry
• Laundry dries faster, saving you time, money, & energy

8. Essential Oil Clutch

These clutches from Sew Grown are perfect for toting around your primary essential oils daily. They can hold 8 glass bottles sizes 5ml to 1 oz, 8 15ml bottles, or 10 roller bottles. I love the idea of having all of my go-to essential oils secure in this clutch and throwing it in whatever bag or purse I'm using for the day!

9. Rose Lotion

This lotion from doTERRA is one of the more indulgent doTERRA SPA products. It not only smells amazing, but it also helps to moisturize and promote smooth, glowing skin. Even better is the purpose behind this product - the full purchase price of this lotion is donated to the doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation™.

What are your favorite essential oil products and accessories? Did any of these products make it on your Christmas shopping list? Let me know in the comments below!

O Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas decorations up last weekend! I'm just now blogging the photos because I was hit with some kind of plague this last week and barely had enough energy to make it through the work days. But I think I'm finally on the mend now, thank goodness. Hopefully I'll start feeling like myself again by Monday.

Christmas decorating is always my favorite. This year we put on Miracle on 34th Street and Tim made us our favorite crockpot soup while I decorated away. My favorite part of the whole process is the finishing touches. I love making sure every ornament is placed perfectly, the stockings are hung, and little extras like candles and pine cones are in their perfect place.

The best part about decorating the tree is going through all of the ornaments. So many of them hold sentimental memories from throughout the years. A few of my favorites are pictured below.

The glass ball was a gift to us from my mother-in-love(law) for our first Christmas as husband and wife. It has our wedding invitation inside!

The car ornament is part of Tim's collection. When he was growing up, him and his siblings each had a theme (his was cars) and every year they would receive a new ornament for their collection. Such a cute idea! My mom does something similar for us kids - she sends us snowflake ornaments every year. One of my favorites is pictured above on the right - the green glitter one deserves all the heart-eye emojis ;)

Tim's mom also gave us our first nativity set. We absolutely love it! It's the perfect size. And we can't forget about the stockings! I'm obsessed with this plaid pair. Although I'm pretty much obsessed with any and all things Christmas decoration-related ;)

How did you deck the halls this year? I want to see photos! Feel free to link me to your blog or social media channels below so I can check out your cute decorations.

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

This was a very different (and very happy!) Thanksgiving for my side of the family. Meet Mila, our newest niece. She came into the world on November 6 weighing 6lbs 11oz. She is a teeny tiny bundle of pure joy and sweetness. If I could add the heart-eyes emoji to a blog post, you know I would.

It was so special for Tim and I to meet miss Mila this Thanksgiving. To top it off, we arrived about 9 hours before my mom, brother, and brother-in-law, so we got her all to ourselves the first day (more heart-eye emojis). At just over 2 weeks old, she was the sweetest little snuggle bug the whole time we were there. I loved holding her while she was sleeping and "talking" to her while she was awake. 

Tim and I arrived on Wednesday morning and helped my sister and brother-in-law do some Thanksgiving grocery errands before heading back to their home. When we got back, my sister dove right into Mila's routine - feeding, burping, changing, sleeping, and repeat. Ah the life of newborns ;) It was so special getting to spend some one-on-one time with my sister before the rest of our family arrived. We caught up, talked about life and motherhood, and doted over Mila, the nursery, and all of Mila's cute clothes and accessories.

That night after my family arrived, we ate our traditional night-before-Thanksgiving meal: crockpot soup (a delicious, organic red pepper tomato soup) and a spread of breads, cheeses, apples, and crackers. It's always one of my favorite nights of the trip.

Thanksgiving morning arrived and we watched the parade (and football on split screens), cooked breakfast, relaxed, and prepped for dinner. We also snuck in the cutest photo shoot of little miss Mila in her Thanksgiving outfit. I can't handle the cuteness!

On the left: the first family Thanksgiving photo with the beautiful mama and papa <3

On the right: Our family has so many wonderful and talented cooks in it. Lucky for us, that means holiday dinners are always perfection. And this year was no exception! Just look at those delicious plates.

And for dessert we had homemade ice cream, made by my brother-in-law's sister, Rebecca. She made pumpkin pecan and coffee ice cream flavors. Holy moly, you guys. They were both amazing. I think an ice cream maker will be one of the next gadgets I purchase for my KitchenAid mixer.

Black Friday consisted of more baby cuddles and a visit to what I like to call our family's gathering place, Yard House (we hit one up almost every time we're together), before heading off to the airport. We, of course, did another photoshoot with the babe before leaving the house.

Three generations: Grandma (or Glamma as we like to call her), my sister, and Mila

Auntie Bre (me!) and Uncle Shawn

Uncles: Shawn, Manny, and Tim

It was indeed a very special and happy Thanksgiving this year. I hope yours was as well!