ONE // Christmas Cookies
My mom has always been a great cook and baker and the holidays were her baking Olympics. I kid you not when I say she made a variety of at least 30 different cookies, bars, squares and others every year. She would gather ingredients on the counter for weeks before getting started. The day she decided she was baking, she'd get up at the crack of dawn and get to work (usually spending all day in her pyjamas). Once use kids would wake up, it was all hands on deck! My brothers were her right-hand men and she tasked them with the actual important bits while I was the dishwasher and my sister was on packing duty. My mom did attempt to give me more meaningful tasks at some point, but after burning the motors in three different kitchen gadgets and failing to melt Chipits, it was back to washing dishes, ha ha! I have come a long way since then. Now that my baking skills have improved tenfold, and that I have most of my mom's recipes, I can do the Christmas baking myself. Since it's just the two of us this year, I did not want to go overboard so decided I'd make a batch of sugar cookies. In some ways I am very much my mother's daughter, but in others very much not. I made one batch of cookies over three days instead of making 10 desserts in one! I made the dough one evening, rolled it out and baked the cookies the next, and iced them the following day. My reasoning was that the dough had to be cold before rolling, so I didn't want to have to wait around for it to cool. By the next day, the dough was plenty cooled so I rolled and baked. You can't ice warm cookies, so I let them cool completely and iced them on a Saturday because I need lots of time to do that. It took me about two hours or so to ice 66 cookies. I took my time and made them pretty with three different colours of icing. They are by no means the most beautiful cookies, but they taste great just the same!
TWO // Steeping Together Podcast
When your favourite tea brand launches a podcast! The other day, I discovered that David's Tea had launched their very own podcast. Being the podcast and tea enthusiast that I am, I had to check it out! Big surprise, I love it! Listening to this podcast is as soothing and comforting as a warm cup of tea. It's like tea for the soul, ha ha! I'm a few episodes in and absolutely love the inviting ambiance and the interesting topics of discussion. I've been drinking tea for many years now, but there is still so much for me to discover. I'm really loving the way David's Tea is building and creating a community of fellow tea lovers to gather around their common passion. If like me you like tea and podcasts, then this one is for you!
THREE // Fleece Pyjamas
For the last five years or so, I've been getting a new set of festive pyjamas. I have always loved a good matching pyjama set and am big on flannel and fleece, ha ha! As much as I love the very Christmas themed options, I tend to lean towards more wintery patterns as I wear them all season long. I'm actually a big fan of the Giant Tiger Carisma pyjamas and they usually have a great selection every year. This year, I chose the navy polar bear fleece set. I love that it's a bit festive with the red scarf and trees, but also very wintery with the polar bears and snowflakes. I'm very happy with my new set and love how soft and cozy it is.
FOUR // Burgundy Cushion
Well, now I have an entire year's worth of covers for my living room cushion, ha ha! I have one cushion on a chair that I like to switch out with the seasons and I had yet to get one for the holidays. Well, I've remedied that with this beautiful burgundy velvet cover. I love this deeper shade of red and have a lot of it in my Christmas decoration colour palette, so it's a perfect fit! I'm a huge fan of switching out cushion covers with the seasons. It's such an easy trick to switch up your decor without investing too much money or cushion storage space. I tend to keep my seasonal covers in my seasonal decor boxes. That way, I always know where to find them! It's such a game changer!
FIVE // Christmas Sweater
If you've been following for a while, you'll know I love a good Christmas sweater. I'm not talking about the ugly variety (although always down for those too), but the more traditional fair isle or cutesy Christmas variety. While I didn't come across a wide selection this year, I did snag this adorable sweater at H&M! I fell for the festive gingerbread and candy cane design! The colour palette was also a big plus for me as it has some cognac, which is a shade I love having in the rotation this time of year; I find it sets off nicely against red. The other bit I like is that the pattern also keeps going on the back of the sweater, which is not always a given. Finally, it's super cozy! I have a few similar style sweaters from H&M and they are seriously so comfy.
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