Christmas Favorites
Happy Friday friends! December is going by SO fast and I’m missing it already.
I’m honestly asking myself how long I can leave my Christmas decor up without being unreasonable. At the moment, I’m hanging out on our couch typing this post and the tree is lit up right in front of me and I love it. So festive and cozy. Can year-round trees be a thing please?
Regardless of wanting to leave my decor up forever, I’m definitely going to make an effort these next couple weeks to squeeze in all the Christmas music, baking, and diy-ing before January comes. So, in the spirit of savoring Christmas, I wanted to share a few of my most favorite Christmas favorites from the last few weeks.
1 – cheesy Christmas movies and books
While I love the cheesy-ness of a good holiday flick, I love a holiday book even more. I picked up this one from the library when I realized it featured a familiar author (Sarah Sundin, who writes a lot of WWII fiction), and the title also was a hint to one of my favorite Christmas songs, White Christmas.
It turned out to be, you know, the typical cheese-fest that is Christmas-themed literature. But still, I couldn’t resist. The bummer? Apparently everyone else at the library couldn’t resist either and I didn’t get to finish the last short story before returning it. I promptly requested it again and have been waiting to find out what happens ever since (the three short stories are all connected). Not exactly a nail-biter, but still, I wanna know!
Do you have any favorite holiday must-watch movies or must-reads on your list?
2 – vintage ornaments
Like so many vintage things, these ornaments have amazing character. Look at how pretty the piece is that you hang the ornament from (uh, the hanger? I got nothing). I think every modern ornament I’ve ever bought has exactly the same style of hanger (probably because it’s cheap to manufacture), and it’s #boring. Character and charm win me over every time.
3 – the only sugar cookie recipe you’ll ever need
Anyone else shrink back in dread at the thought of rolling out sugar cookies? I still remember my first experience with these. We were baking with my grandma, and it was just a mess. Warm, sticky dough, cookie cutters that should have been reserved for pros (you know, like deer with ANTLERS), and cookies being torn to pieces as we tried fruitlessly to remove them from the counter.
(photo from Food Network, here)
However. Sugar cookies can honestly be downright easy to make. You need a good recipe, thoroughly chilled dough, and reasonable cookie cutters. This recipe from Alton Brown is the best I’ve tried. Shoutout to my sister for constantly singing its praises until I converted.
And if you really want to get all Christmas-y with it, you can decorate them like these beauties from my friend Kaylin:
4 – letting go
I’ve been frustrated with myself this month because I had so so many post ideas and projects I have wanted to start, finish, and get on the blog before Christmas. It’s easy to compare myself to other bloggers who are able to come up with brilliant new ideas, put out multiple posts a week, raise their families, and stay active on social media. But, try as I might, I just haven’t been able to make it happen in the time that I have. And I’m coming to terms with that and just doing my best.
There is something absolutely refreshing in that. In recognizing that I am doing the best I can do, and God can do with that what He will.
Maybe you can relate. Being in the place of knowing that (short of giving up all sleep) there is absolutely NO way that the to-do list will be completed. That the goals will be met. The dreams realized. So, we do our best. Give it our all.
And we let go.
If you’re in that same spot, just be encouraged today to remember that we don’t have to place our hope in our abilities and accomplishments. The Christmas season is a time of remembering the great work God did in sending His Son for us. Sending Him so that we might have a real living hope (1 Peter 1:3-7). Thank God that my hope isn’t in my own humanity!
Well, this post ended up taking a bit of a different turn than I expected, but I hope you enjoyed reading and found something to bless and encourage you this season.
Thank you so much for reading! Have a Merry Christmas!
