Since graduating college and living on my own over the past few years one of my new favorite holiday traditions is to make myself comfortable in front of the television after a long day and watch “25 Days of Christmas” on ABC Family with hot chocolate in hand and close friends and family at my side! This is one holiday tradition I cannot wait to get started and quite literally requires little effort to enjoy.

Not only am I addicted to classic Christmas movies such as “The Polar Express”, “Home Alone” and “The Santa Clause” I love brand new holiday movies as well, so it may come to no surprise that I am excited to watch the new original movie “Christmas Cupid” premiering on Sunday. Some people may call me passionate with my tradition of watching almost every holiday movie out there during Christmastime, but I’m sure there are lots of people out there that will do the same!

One of my other great passions in life is writing and illustrating children’s books. I have to tell you there is no better way to start “25 Days of Christmas” than with Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”!!! I mean Dr. Seuss, the creative genius that he was, is my idol, and I hope I am able to channel him in all my work dealing with my children’s book endeavors. The reason I love children’s books is simply because I love getting lost in the genius worlds that people are able to create through sheer imagination, and Dr. Seuss certainly had an active imagination. An image, a word, a saying can have an everlasting effect on someone’s life, as many images, words, and saying’s have mine. My favorite quote ever is this:

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind."
— Theodor Seuss Geisel

It is a rad quote, I know. It is short and sweet and filled with meaning, just like every word in a children’s book must be. Dr. Seuss has been able to ingrain himself in our culture and his legacy lives on through his beautiful books, astounding artwork, and most recently these magical movies thanks to Hollywood and the silver screen. I hope that one day I will have half the success that Dr. Seuss did, and that will be no easy task to accomplish. Until then I will continue to get lost in these fictional winter wonderlands in which I will watch over the next 25 days.

Did you know:

*Dr. Seuss or Ted, as he was called, wrote and illustrated over 44 children’s books.
*Over 200 million copies of his works have found their way into homes and hearts around the world.
*Theodor Seuss Geisel has been honored with two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award AND the Pulitzer Prize!
*Dr. Seuss was not a real doctor.