4 The Love of Math: Favorite Things Blog Hop & Giveaway!

I am very excited to participate in "Our Favorite Things Blog Hop & Giveaway"! Each of the bloggers participating has reduced the price of select items in their TpT stores, written a blog post about a few of their favorite things, and donated a prize to the giveaway. To view other blog posts and to enter the giveaway, make sure to click on the link at the bottom of the page!

Here are a few of my favorite things:

I LOVE making candy and baking cookies, then delivering them to friends and family. Last year we moved during Thanksgiving week, and missed out on this tradition because: A)my daughter had pneumonia all throughout December and B) we didn't know anyone in our new city. So far this month everyone has been healthy and I can not wait to cook & deliver treats to the friends we've made over the past year. My favorite treat to make is turtle candies! They are easy to make and taste delicious!

I use regular chocolate chips for the chocolate part, but my dad always uses melting chocolate that he purchases at Costco for this. Apparently it is a lot cheaper, and works well! For nuts I like using pecans, but have a ton of walnuts I need to use up. Either type works great!

We will also be making sugar cookies. My favorite cookie recipe can be found here: Best Sugar Cookies. They are really easy (which is great for someone like me who is horrible at anything that involves using the oven) & they taste delicious!

My favorite store is Publix! If you live in an area without a Publix, I'm sorry!! :) Publix is a grocery store we have in the south. The store "motto" is "where shopping is a pleasure." Shopping truly is a pleasure at Publix. Their selection is phenomenal and customer service is truly amazing. They go above and beyond and are so friendly! In fact, when my husband and I got married rather than hiring a caterer I choose to order trays and things from Publix (because I LOVE their food that much!) My favorite area of Publix is their bakery. They sell the most delicious croissants and breads along with many other treats (like canolis yum yum!)

For the past year I've been driving 50min every other week to visit the Publix nearest to me. Recently though, we had a store open just 20min away - which of course makes me so happy! I plan on ordering trays for holiday parties from Publix soon - which will make celebrating the holidays way less stressful! I also love that throughout the holiday season they have an option to add a donation to your grocery purchase that goes towards feeding hungry families in the area. In the past few weeks since our store opened I've visited 6 or 7 times and paid for at least 10meals for families in our area!

One of my favorite gifts to give is a bookstore gift card. When I was a child Santa brought my 4 siblings and I gift cards to Barnes and Nobles in our stockings EVERY year. A week or so after Christmas my parents would bring us all to the nearest store and we would spend hours picking out books to purchase with out $10 cards. Those trips were so fun, and the memories I have from those trips are priceless! The nearest bookstore to us now is about 45min away and it's Books a Million. My daughter will be receiving a gift card from there from Santa (my husband and I will receive one too!) and I wanted to share a gift card with one of you so you can have a fun book shopping trip too!

Make sure you enter the giveaway by clicking the link below, to win this and other prizes! The prizes are truly amazing!

In addition to the giveaway, bloggers involved have priced certain TpT store items at 50% off, I've chosen to discount some of my winter holiday themed items! The sale is only for a limited time, so make sure to act quickly! Here is a link to items I have discounted: #Favorite Things 2014

I would love to hear some of your favorite things! Do you have any fun traditions in your family, any store obsessions, and/or a favorite gift to give? Let me know in the comments! I can not wait to hear what you have to say and read the posts other bloggers have shared about their favorite things!

**Note: bloggers LOVE comments and we LOVE gaining followers. It would be lovely if contributors to the giveaway received at least a few thank-yous! :)

Our favorite things Oprah style: the best giveaway of the season! My bloggy friends and I welcome you to the best, biggest, most cheerful event of the season: