Month: October 2024

Christians should not celebrate Halloween

Posted on by crazydreamsgirl

Hello, My bucket list, friends! I know that this is a very different post from the posts that I usually write, but I really felt like I needed to write it. Before I get into my article, I have two things I need to say. First, this post is speaking to my fellow Christians. I’m not speaking to everyone. Although I think it would be amazing if Halloween disappeared from our culture and was not celebrated widely. In this article, I’m specifically discussing why Christians should not celebrate Halloween. The second thing  I need to say is yes, I have celebrated Halloween in the past. Beginning last year, it became clear to me that as a Christian, Halloween is something that I should not be participating in. I regret that I participated in celebrating Halloween in the past, but I will not try to hide that fact. Now, with that being said, let’s get to the reasons why Christians should not celebrate Halloween.

1. We can’t explain why we celebrate it or what we are celebrating.

I can easily explain why I celebrate the holidays that I do. It doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas or the 4th of July. I can tell you why I celebrate it. However, if you ask someone why they are celebrating Halloween, they probably won’t be able to tell you. Unless they are a Wiccan or a pagan celebrating it for religious reasons, then they might be able to give you a reason. However, the average person more than likely won’t be able to provide an answer.  I know I couldn’t provide a good answer when I asked myself that question. It is odd to be a part of a celebration that you don’t understand. I know that some Christians may choose to say that they are celebrating All Saints Day. However, dressing up and asking for candy has nothing to do with All Saints Day. From what I have been able to research, All Saints Day is celebrated by attending church services, visiting cemeteries,wearing red roses, lighting candles, and sharing meals. The way that Halloween is celebrated is very different from the traditions of All Saints Day. It makes no sense to say that you are celebrating All Saints Day while following the traditions of Halloween. It is confusing when Christians celebrate Halloween because there is no valid reason for Christians to be celebrating it. Unfortunately, Halloween has become very commercialized in American culture, and some Christians may feel like if they  do not participate or do not let their children participate, they will be looked down upon or feel left out. Halloween is a huge deal in public schools and some workplaces, so it can be difficult to avoid it. However, I will  further explain why it is best for Christians to not participate in celebrating Halloween in the paragraphs below.

2. Halloween has a focus on death and darkness.

It can’t be denied that Halloween has a large focus on death, fear, darkness, witchcraft, and fortune telling. These are all things that the Bible warns us about. Some examples of this can be found in 2 Chronicles 33:6, Revelation 21: 8, Leviticus 19:31, Deuteronomy 18:10-12, and Leviticus 19:26. Christians who celebrate Halloween will often say that they don’t dress in scary costumes or display decorations that glorify witchcraft. However, these things are a central part of Halloween and are nearly impossible to avoid. If you attend a Halloween party at someone’s house or let your kids go trick or treating, it is almost certain that you will come across these things. Do you only allow your child to go to houses that don’t have decorations that are focused on witchcraft and fortune telling ? Do you refuse to take pictures with people at the Halloween party who are dressed as witches, wizards, and fortune tellers? Even  if you personally don’t dress up in costumes or use decorations that go against the Bible. You will more than likely be celebrating alongside people who are. I also  find it strange when Christian churches celebrate Halloween . They may use a different name for their celebration, but they do the things that are traditionally used to celebrate Halloween. Changing the name is not enough to separate ourselves from a holiday that is focused on death and darkness. I once interviewed for a teaching position at a Christian school, and I remember thinking that it was odd when the person interviewing me said that they have a huge Halloween celebration every year. Even though many Christians who celebrate Halloween try to separate themselves from the darkness of it. It is clear that death and witchcraft are a core aspect of Halloween, making it nearly impossible to separate your celebration from those things. Even if you try to justify it by saying that it is just a fun day to dress up and eat candy. All you need to do is walk down the seasonal isle at a department store during the month of October. You will find items like devil horns, witch hats, crystal balls, bloody body parts, and more items that clearly glorify things that the Bible speaks against. It is hard for me to understand why it would be ok for Christians to take part in something that clearly endorses things that the Bible warns about.

Halloween is an important holiday in the Wiccan and pagan religions.

As I stated above, the Bible mentions witchcraft and not in a favorable way. Halloween is an important holiday to those who practice witchcraft. It is impossible for me to justify Christians participating in a holiday that holds spiritual significance to witches, but Christians can’t explain why they take part in it. Christians who celebrate Halloween can’t explain what they are celebrating. As I mentioned above, they may claim that they are celebrating All Saints Day, but they don’t do any of the things that are associated with celebrating it. Unfortunately, Halloween has become such a large part of our culture that we don’t seem to question it. However, when you do what I did and ask yourself why you celebrate it. You may just start to realize that it does not fit in with our Christian beliefs.

Thank you for reading! 

Love,

Christina Epperly

Coca-Cola flavored Oreos and Oreo flavored Coca-Cola

Posted on by crazydreamsgirl

Hello, my bucket lit friends! I love trying interesting foods and drinks. Last month I got to try two very interesting flavored items and I’m excited to let you know all about it so let’s get to it!

Coca-Cola flavored Oreos – I was very excited when I saw Coca-Cola flavored Oreos. I knew I had to review this product. Let me tell you these cookies did not disappoint! I loved the popping candy that was inside of the cookies. The cookies did a good job of capturing the Coca-Cola flavor without being overpowering. It was hard to stop eating these cookies. I wish I could get them agian!

Oreo flavored Coca-Cola – It was a little while after I tried the cookies that I got around to trying the soda. I still have some of it left. I’m going to get right to it. The soda was pretty good but not amazing. It is hard to describe the flavor, but I did get some Oreo flavor. I would still recommend  giving this soda a try, but the cookies were the clear winner here.

Thanks for reading my reviews.

Love, Christina Epperly

A new phone , thrift shopping, going to the movies and more

Posted on by crazydreamsgirl

Hello, my bucket list, friends! Well, I’m now writing about the month of September. I’m going to try to get through my September posts with pretty quickly. It was a pretty normal month that did not have  very many highlights. However, there are some things that happened in September that I would like to talk about, so let’s get to the first post about September 2024

9/5 – I did some at work shopping on this day. There were some really good clearance deals, including on Squishmallows! I got a very cute squishmallow that I had been wanting. I also got some 4th of July items and other summer items. I did a lot of at work shopping this month. However it would take a while to talk about all of it so I’m probably just going to write here so just know I got a lot of cool stuff at work this month including toys, stickers, and more!

9/7 and 9/8 – This was the weekend I got a new phone! I loved my Samsung Galaxy flip 3, but It was getting old and was not working well, so I got the Samsung Galaxy flip 6, and I love it! It can be stressful switching phones, but it was so worth it. I love my new phone and I’m so happy that I got it.

9/10 – This was a really great day. I went shopping at my favorite local thrift store. I bought a lot of fun items, including a hair bow, a little Squishmallow, glittery letter stickers, and a flamingo icecube tray. My favorite item that I got was a Barbie from 2004 that was still in the box! I was so happy when I saw her. I also went to one of my favorite toy stores on this day. I got some stickers and a really great squishy toy. I also went to my favorite local coffee shop. My friend met me there after a while. It was so good to see her. We went to the toy store and I showed her the squishy toys and she got one and I got another one. It was a really great day!

9/11 – Today, I went to the movies with my parents. We saw the movie Reagan. It was such a good movie. It was long, but the movie was so good it didn’t even feel like a long movie. It was very interesting and both my parents and I enjoyed it. I also saw my friend at the movies. We were going to see different movies, but it was so cool to see her two days in a row.

Thank you for reading about some of my September adventures!

Love, Christina Epperly

Summer 2024 bucket list game results

Posted on by crazydreamsgirl

Hello, my bucket list, friends! I have one more post to make before I move on to my posts about the month of September. This was the second year in row that I played the summer bucket list game. I honestly did not do as well at the game as I thought I would do, but it was a good summer, and I enjoyed it, and that is all that really matters.

10 points

ride a carousal – yes, more than once !

eat frozen yogurt – yes I went to a frozen yogurt place in Idaho

do a craft kit – yes

get a colorful summer dress –  no

get a Slurpee –  no

get new flip flops –  yes

take pictures in a photobooth  – yes

go thrift shopping –  yes

go to the movies –  yes

get a new Barbie doll  – yes

draw a summer picture  – yes

tie-dye something  – no

make a mini music video that includes a bubble machine – no

Make smores  – yes

Make a sand castle –  yes

Make a summer playlist  – yes

Eat a big soft pretzel – yes

Go to a park I’ve never been to before and go down the slide – yes

20 points

go to a state I’ve never been to before – yes

ride a rollercoaster – no

Win a prize from a claw machine – yes

Make sidewalk chalk art – no

go to a zoo – yes

do my mall weekend tradition – yes

go swimming – yes

go to the beach – yes

buy ten or more items from the Dollar Tree – yes

go thrift shopping in a different state – yes

play mini golf – yes

Get a massage – yes

play games in an arcade – no

Make a plush at Build a Bear Workshop – yes

Go to a museum – yes

Go shopping at Five Below – yes

Make playdough – no

50 points

go to water park – no

Get a small pool for my deck – no

Get my nails done – no

go to a concert – yes

go on a vacation – yes

get a new tattoo – no

ride five or more rides at one amusement park – yes

complete a 5k – no

Attend a sporting event – no

Go on a road trip – no

Go to a national park – yes

Go to a state park – yes

Get my face painted – no

Jump on a trampoline – no

Swim or float in a lazy river – no

100 points

Take a picture with a celebrity – yes

Get to 600 or more blog followers – no

Post 10 or more times on Vocal – no

Post 25 or more reels on Instagram – yes

Cross off 5 or more regular bucket list items – yes, I crossed off exactly 5 items!

Do five or more product reviews on my blog – no

Get 10k or more views on an Instagram reel – no

Get 100 likes on a blog post – no

Make a different smoothie five days in a row – no

Have a Barbie themed birthday cake for my 34th birthday ! – no

post five or more videos on YouTube ( Shorts count) – no

My score was 950/ 2,370

Once again just like last year, I think the low score has to do with the fact that I didn’t cross off many of the high value items. However, as I said at the beginning of this post, The most important thing was that I had a good summer and I’m happy I did cross of the items that I did. Oh and I’m already planning to do much better next year!

Thanks for reading!

Love, Christina Epperly

Summer 2024 in review

Posted on by crazydreamsgirl

Hello, my bucket list, friends ! We are now in my least favorite season fall, so I will distract myself by reflecting on my favorite parts of summer 2024 . I miss summer very much and I can’t wait for it to come back next year! With that being said, let’s get to my favorite parts of summer 2024.

Vacation and travel

Missouri – This was my first vacation of this summer, and it was a truly amazing time! I crossed off two bucket list items, went to a toy museum, and explored so many exciting attractions. ( You can read about it HERE, HERE, and HERE )

Tennessee – I love the state of Tennessee! I didn’t want to leave. We went on some great tours, held colorful birds, and much more! ( You can read about it HERE , HERE, and HERE )

Idaho – I went to Idaho in August to visit family, but we also went on some fun adventures, including lots of thrift shopping and going to a reptile zoo! ( You can read about it HERE )

Las Vegas – On the way back from Idaho, I got to spend a few hours in one of my favorite cities! It was amazing but I was not happy when it was time to leave! ( You can read about it HERE )

Bucket list items

Shoot for the starts mini golf – I put this mini golf course on my bucket list because it looked really cool, but I didn’t have any plans to visit it . I was so excited when I discovered that I was going on vacation to where this item was located. I had so much fun here! It was a great item to cross off! ( You can read about it HERE )

go parasailing – This was such a fun item to cross off of my bucket list! I did this on my vacation to Missouri, and I would love to do it again sometime! ( You can read about it HERE )

go to the Exploratorium – This bucket list item is only about an hours drive away from me, but this summer, I finally got the time to go explore it. I highly recommend going to this very fun and exciting place. ( You can read about it HERE )

Decorate a shirt or hat with puffy paint – I had so much fun decorating a bucket hat with puffy paint! This was a perfect item to cross off during the summer. ( You can read about it HERE )

Get a pair of jelly shoes – This was a very easy item to cross off, but I really love the green jelly shoes that I got from Amazon. ( you can read about it HERE )

Shopping fun

My summer mall weekend tradition – I love this tradition of mine! This year my wonderful friend came with me! It was a great two days of shopping! ( You can read about it HERE)

Thrift shopping – I got to do so much thrift shopping this summer! I went to thrift shopping both locally and on vacation! ( You can read about some of it HERE, HERE, and HERE )

At work shopping – The place that I work at is full of so many great items! I often go shopping at work during my breaks, and this summer was no different! I got many great toys for my collection and other fun items. ( You can read about some of it HERE,HERE, and HERE )

Souvenir shopping – During my vacations, I got a lot of fun souvenirs. You can read about it in the vacation posts that I linked above.

Five Below – I love this store, but I don’t get to go often. When I was sick with bronchitis, I had to pick up some medicine near this store. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to go shopping here, so I put on a mask, gathered up what energy I had left ,and I went shopping at this very fun and well priced store. ( You can read about it HERE )

Beach fun

July beach trip – This beach trip was not planned ahead of time. I had an appointment that got canceled, so I ended up going to the beach and building sandcastles. ( You can read about it HERE )

August beach trip – On the first day of August, I went to the same beach that I had gone to the month before. I really like this beach because it is small and dog friendly.( You can read about it HERE)

Celebrating

Father’s Day – This was a great day because I got to go to lunch with my family. With my busy schedule, that does not happen a lot. ( You can read about it HERE )

July 4th – I love the 4th of July ! It is such a fun holiday. I had a great time celebrating it this year. ( You can read about it HERE )

My birthday – I turned 34th this August. I had a good time celebrating my birthday. ( You can read about it HERE )

Other fun highlights

movies – I went to see two movies this summer the first one was Garfield and the second one was Harold and the Purple Crayon. Both were great movies! ( You can read about it HERE and HERE )

Galaxy Con – This was such an awesome convention. I loved getting to take pictures with celebrities. ( You can read about it HERE )

Painting a cute frog – I got a cute art kit at Five Below, and I had a great time painting a cute green frog! ( You can read about it HERE )

An evening at the Boardwalk – I got to visit a local amusement park this summer, and I made it on five rides including the carousel. ( You can read about it HERE )

swimming – I went swimming on vacation but I also went swimming at a local gym. ( You can read about it HERE )

taking fun photos – One of my friends knows how to pick out the prettiest places to eat, and we always have fun taking pictures. ( You can read about it HERE and HERE )

Drawing my summer 2024 picture – I love this summer tradition of mine! I had a fun time drawing this years picture. ( You can read about it HERE )

As you can see, I had a lot of fun this summer! I can’t wait for next summer to hurry up and get here !

Thanks for reading!

Love, Christina Epperly

The bucket list item I forgot about!

Posted on by crazydreamsgirl

Hello, my bucket list, friends! This does not happen to me often, but I forgot to tell you about an item I crossed off my bucket list! I crossed one of the easier items off of my list, and that list item was to get a pair of jelly shoes! I’m a very nostalgic person, and since these shoes were very common when I was growing up, I wanted to get a pair for nostalgic reasons! I’m pretty sure I had a pair as a kid, and I was excited to have a pair as an adult. I ordered a pair of green jelly sandals from Amazon. Now, these shoes are made for style and not for comfort! They look great, but this is definitely not a shoe to wear when you have a lot of walking to do. However, I do love that I crossed this item off of my bucket list, and I love my green jelly shoes!

Thank you for reading!

Love, Christina Epperly

Things I love August 2024

Posted on by crazydreamsgirl

Hello, my bucket list friends! It is finally time for me to talk about the things I loved in August 2024! It was a pretty exciting month that included a trip to Idaho and pictures with celebrities. It was also the month of my 34th birthday. With all that being said let’s get to the things I loved in August of 2024.

Going to see Harold and the Purple Crayon and then shopping at the Dollar Tree – I got to see a great movie with my friend this month! I highly recommend watching this fun movie. After the movie I went to the Dollar Tree. ( you can read about it HERE )

Going to Idaho – I went to Idaho to visit my family and I went on some very fun adventures while I was there. ( You can read about it HERE )

Spending a few hours in Las Vegas – On the way back from Idaho I got to spend a few hours in Las Vegas. ( You can read about it HERE )

Going to the beach – On the first day of the month I went to the beach. ( You can read about it HERE )

One year work anniversary – I celebrated one year at my current job! ( You can read about it HERE )

Going to Galaxy Con – I had so much fun going to galaxy con! I loved getting to take pictures with celebrities. ( You can read about it HERE )

My Birthday – I had my 34th birthday this month! ( You can read about it HERE )

Dinner with a friend – I got to have dinner with a friend this month and it was wonderful! ( You can read about it HERE )

Photoshoot fun – I went out lunch with a friend to a place that was perfect for a photoshoot! ( You can read about it HERE )

At work shopping – I got so many fun things from work this month! I always get excited when new items come in ! ( You can read about it HERE )

My summer 2024 drawing – I love this tradition I have of drawing a picture every summer. ( You can read about it HERE )

Meeting George Kittle – On the last day of the month I took a selfie with George Kittle! ( You can read about it HERE )

Thank you for reading about the things I loved in August 2024!

Love, Christina Epperly