This was such a fun Christmas season! Lots of parties, baking and time to chill once the holidays were over. Here’s what I was cooking and baking in December:

  • Jess had a Chrismukkuh Party and she asked if I could bring some Hanukkah cookies, which was my pleasure (she loaned me her cookie cutters and I used my favourite recipe). I was so, so, so happy with the way they turned out! Because I’m insane, I also made these Sweetheart Sablés, switching them up to be Christmas themed. Definitely harder to get the Christmas tree shape on the inside looking as good as the heart, but I still liked them overall.
  • It was definitely the month of cookies, because Jess and I also organized our 2nd Annual Cookie Exchange at work. I wanted another showstopper so I made these rich, fudgy chocolate cookies, with Nutella and a Rolo stuffed inside.
  • I was trying not to overdo it this month (“it” being my social calendar and sanity) so only really did one holiday outing, which was to the Clockwork Bar at the Royal York. We toasted the end of the work year, had some bubbles and snacks and it was a super cute and cozy night.
  • That kicked off two weeks off work for me, the main project of which was making Barbie’s Gingerbread Dream House. I have wanted to make a fully homemade Gingerbread House for YEARS, and Sally has a recipe and template for a little house, which worked out perfectly. I also went deep on Gingerbread House TikTok (which is a thing) and tried to replicate a Barbie-themed house I saw. I worked on this bit by bit over the course of a week and I am 100% obsessed with the way it turned out! Like I probably have 100 pictures of it on my phone!
  • For Boxing Day/Mom’s Birthday, we were just having a pizza party BUT I wanted to have a nice, fresh salad, and to my surprise, this Fall Bliss Salad from Smitten Kitchen was gobbled up by almost everyone (there were goat cheese crumbles on the side as some of my fam was not into that).

Other non-foodie things I was obsessed with this month:

  • Obviously I went to see the Renaissance movie with my Beyhive on the day it opened and it was INCREDIBLE. Not only do you get to watch the concert again, but Beyonce takes you behind-the-scenes to show you all the work that went into ALL aspects of the tour: choreography, stage, sets, lighting, setlist, dancers, and MORE. Obsessed.
  • I took Lydia to see Anyone But You, not knowing if it was going to be good or garbage and it was SO FUNNY and SO CUTE! Such a good rom-com! And the best needle drop… maybe ever?!
  • Once again my reading was all over the place this month. First up was some trending literary fiction which (Yellowface) which I liked a lot, but found went off the rails a bit at the end. Then I moved onto The Nightingale, which my friend Maxine has called her favourite book of all time. I tend to avoid anything set in WWII but gave this a try and ended up loving it. It’s super long and quite sad though, so I took a break in the days leading up to Christmas and read some holiday themed smut (Wreck the Halls, A Holly Jolly Ever After) before finishing up The Nightingale on December 31.
  • More random things from my two week long break from work: I got my brows laminated at Motherpluckers! I had a Pickleball lesson! I was obsessed with my Trader Joe’s 12 Days of Beauty Advent Calendar!

Flashback!