Hey there lovlies! Welcome back to another round of my year in review. I have already went over January, February, and March in week 1. Last week I recapped April, May, and June.  (Click on the group of months to recap if you missed any!) This week I am bring you my 3rd quarter. The busy months as I like to call them! Summer! Sit back and enjoy!

So many of you know, I share a birthday with a little holiday call New Years Eve. Have you heard of it? Oh you know, it's only one of the biggest party nights of the year! I have read a lot of lists on why December birthdays suck, but at least if you were born on December 19th you still get your own day so to speak. It's still rough, but it's not a world holiday. I wanted to share with you 10 reasons why December birthday, specifically on New Years Eve suck!

* Everyone is out of town. They go home to visit friends and family. Because of course no one calls their current town home anymore, its where ever they last lives for more than 5 years.

* The people who didn't go "home" have a party to go to. Cause lets face it, if your party isn't  "happening" then your plans ain't happening!

* Bakeries get a little thrown off when you ask for a "Happy Birthday" cake. Don't know how many times I've been asked to "come again?"

*Christmas happens. You just got a gift for Christmas. Why do you need another one for your birthday? Isn't one enough?!

* You get a "December birthday" card every year from at least 4 people (IF they remember at all). Can't anyone just forget its December and just send me a normal card?

*You try to be reasonable and move your birthday festivities to the beginning of the month. Your response: I just spent all my money on black Friday. I'm broke.

* You re-think your reasoning and realize early December is to early, how about mid-December? Response: Sorry I have a holiday party to attend! Darn!

* Your best friends swear they are throwing you the best birthday party yet! You walk in to streamers, noise makers, HAPPY 20?? everything, and 50 of your closest friends. Um awkward?

* Shoot! I live in the north. There's a foot of snow outside, its below freezing, and having the strength to look cute gets harder by the minute. Aren't sweat pants sexy?

* And my all time favorite reason why having a NYE birthday sucks: I get another 365 day to think about all the wonderful plans I want to make for next years birthday bash! Sweet! A girl can dream right?

It wouldn't be the holidays around here on The Trish List without talking about freebies. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't tell you all that there are LOADS of freebies and giveaways around the holidays. Companies new and old want you to buy with THEM and them alone. They will offer up all kinds of goodies and shiny discounts to nab your attention. Now I'm here to show you how it's done.


First thing you want to do is "like" all of your favorite brands on Facebook and "follow" them on Twitter. This will let you be the first to know when they are giving away stuff or offering amazing discounts. You aren't anyone until you have tons of social media friends. #AmIRight? This is one of the main sources for those free holiday gifts. True story. I have won many of my presents over the years.

Next thing you want to do is Google "25 Days of Christmas". Yes I know I am little late on this post, but you still have plenty of time to get in on some pretty sweet giveaways. Many companies host these types of giveaways along with Advent Calender type offers. Every day they "open" a new gift for you. The good news is, is once you are registered for these events, all you need to do is enter your email each time you enter.

The last thing I highly recommend if becoming members of a couple of sites. These sites are always looking for people to review products and will offer up some pretty cool swag. The holidays seem to be a good time to come out with a bunch of neat things. On Monday alone I received 2 boxes full of goodies to try and review, all free.

Check out Influenster. They offer up "VoxBoxes" that come with an assortment of products and have been know to send out Keurigs!

Another favorite is BzzAgent! They have been giving out lots of toys for the holidays.

And FINALLY check out Smiley360. They have some pretty cool campaigns and I have certainly been included in a lot of great studies.

So what are you all waiting for? Get out there and get some freebies!

*Went to a Real Simple event in a penthouse in NYC!





Make sure you check out how the rest of my year went!

So I got that look from my mom this weekend. You know the one where you are still storing all your crap from high school/college/first apartment stuff in their home? Yeah. I got THAT look. So I decided it was time. That stuff I HAD to keep 10 years ago probably isn't going to be used any time soon in my life. That doesn't mean it wasn't fun to look through it all. And I have been missing my social security card so going through some boxes wasn't exactly a waste of my time. There was a little mission.

One of the first things I noticed was all the boxes of Mary Kay makeup. Once upon a time I was a rep. I had tons of foundations, cleansers, and makeup. This stuff is about 4 years old at this point and probably should of been disposed of 2 years ago. It was hard to let go. It was a fun time in my life where I met some great people and experienced some fun events.


Next thing I noticed were the boxes from an apartment I lived in 4 years ago that I moved back into my parents house and then moved 7 months later. No idea why I didn't just take them all with me, but I just knew that is where I would find my SS card. There was a box full of beauty products. Most likely from my bathroom. Face masks that I loved, body butters with barely anything left, vitamins that were expired, nail polish that had separated, and hair products I probably won't ever use.  Almost all of this needed to be thrown away.


Another box had tons of cards, letters, and papers. Most likely from my desk. There were pictures, pens, markers, and change. A mug from my college graduation, earrings that I haven't seen in years, makeup brushes, expired credit cards, AND my social security card! It brought back so many memories. Some happy. Some sad. A part of my life that seems ages away.

Then I saw stuff from my time out in Los Angeles. I interned out there for a marketing company called Fanscape. I had business cards, movie stubs, and my Price is Right name tag! Back when Bob Barker was still hosting. And yes he did get talked into saying "The price is right bitch!". You know from Happy Gilmore? Great memory!


One of the last things I came across was all of my old compact disks (CDs if you will)!! I had a lot of them with some of the biggest artists of the late 90's and early 2000's.  Behind them were some VHS tapes! Oh my! Again lots of great memories.


I ended up bagging up lots of stuff, including clothes and toys. Someone else can get use out of these things now I'm sure. I picked out some sentimental things and packed them away for later. I'm happy. My mom is happy. It's a win-win.

Have you went through your childhood room? Did you find some great treasures from your past? Tell me in the comments!