Winter Break

This week officially starts my week of finals. I have a lot of papers to write, projects to finish and tests to study for, along with trying to keep up with my last week of work before I go home. This semester has gone by faster than the other two I have been in combined. When they say that college goes by faster than High School they are not joking. I feel like I just moved back into school a month ago and it is already cold and snowing and time for me to head back home for a month away from school.

A month is not that bad, a month is really nothing. I will go home and not have to worry about anything except working at home and seeing my friends. No classes to worry about or finals or papers for another couple weeks that I cannot wait for. But for a month I will not see my friends from school, I will not have a room across the hall from my best friends or across the street from my job. I love my bosses and I will miss them for a month.

During winter break I will be up on the slops at the mountain in my town snowboarding with my friends who attend different colleges and swapping presents during the season. Attending parties for Christmas and New Years with these people and my family.

Winter break for me is all about spending time with the friends I never get to see and my family. Enjoying the time I have until I have to venture back to school and get my butt back in gear to working. I cannot wait for the snow though and to see everyone I want to see.

What do you do during your winter break? Tell me in the comments below. And goodbye for now as this will be my last post for a while, at least until I get back from break. Have a great break ya’ll!

Christmas Movies

I did a post for Halloween movies so it is obvious that I need to do one for Christmas time movies. I already did a post on my family traditions and how we watch Scrooge every year and how that is not my favorite Christmas movie. But what is my favorite is a classic. I am going to let you think for a second before I admit what it is. There are plenty of movies probably going through your head right now, A Christmas Story, Home Alone, Jingle All the Way, Unaccompanied Minors, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, or The Polar Express. But my favorite is not actually any of those. In your head you probably know now what it is, if not any of those. It is The Santa Clause staring Tim Allen. That is my absolute favorite Christmas movie. I love the concept of the real and make-believe and it honestly makes you believe it is real. You learn how Santa can get into houses if there is no chimney and you have his son Charlie who will always believe in Santa because his dad is Santa.

Other than the Christmas movies I listed there are many, many more. Here are just a few:

• Fred Clause
• Lethal Weapon
• Die Hard
• Trading Places
• Just Friends
• Jack Frost
• Home Alone
• Home Alone 2
• The Polar Express
• The Santa Clause 2
  

  The Santa Clause, My favorite Christmas movie

• The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
• Scrooge/A Christmas Carol
• Frosty the Snowman
• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
• Elf
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• A Christmas Story
• Unaccompanied Minors
• Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Jingle All the Way
• Deck the Halls

I know this is a big list, but this really is just a few of the hundreds of Christmas movies. There are so many and even some of these movies I have yet to see. What is your favorite movie during the holiday season? Or if you cannot decide your favorite, what are your top 5? Let me know below! My top five would be, I cannot even decide on my top five so here is my top 7 but not in this order except for the Santa Clause because that will always be my favorite.

• The Santa Clause
• Elf
• Home Alone
• The Polar Express
• Unaccompanied Minors
• Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Jingle All the Way

Black Friday

Black Friday. The day that shopping is in full swing. This day is one of the biggest shopping days for America. I do hate to say it, but I was even apart of this shopping day. People everywhere flock to stores in hope of getting the best deals, whether it is be for them for people that they need to get presents for. You could get an 800 dollar television for 500. That is how great the deals are on this day. Along with Black Friday comes Small Business Saturday, Which is when a lot of smaller business’ have deals so people will buy things from them that day and then there is also Cyber Monday. That day is for all of the deals on-line. Free Shipping usually, 50% off regular price, all of that.

Personally I do not like Black Friday. It is a day for people to become so crazy that some get hurt. Yes, it is the start of the Christmas season but that does not mean that you need to go all out and buy everything in one day.

You were just Thankful the day before for everything you had and now you are going to go out and buy things that you do not need? That is just not right.

You should be thankful for what you have and think about that. I am not saying that there should not be a Black Friday; it just should not be the day AFTER Thanksgiving. People should still be spending time with their family. Now Black Friday has gotten so bad that stores open at 7 or 8 pm the night OF Thanksgiving. In my opinion, you should be spending time with your family at that time. I spend that whole day with my family, eating, drinking, talking, watching movies and being together. That is what Thanksgiving is about.

If you do Black Friday shopping then good for you, like I had said, I did it too, I just did it much later in the day on Friday. I did not rush out the door the night before or the morning of Friday. I took my time and did things before and after to not worry about it. I still went shopping, I still got amazing deals, but I did not have to get up at the crack of dawn to get what I wanted.

What do you think about Black Friday? Your opinions. Let me know below!

Holiday Traditions

Holiday traditions, we all have them from the people I have known throughout my life. Whether it be singing Christmas carols for Christmas or always going to the Grandmothers house for Thanksgiving no matter what, it is a tradition. My favorite tradition in my house is every year since I can remember on Christmas eve my parents give me, my brother and my sister all pajamas as well as a pair for the two of them. As we have gotten older they have even gotten some for our significant others on the holiday. It is something that I look forward to getting every year and I mean come on what college kid can’t use more clothes, especially pajamas?

For the kids that still believe in the magic of Christmas then putting cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer is a must. I asked my roommate what a family tradition of hers for the holidays was and it is having a Christmas eve party every year with her family and her Grandmother makes pajamas for all the grand kids and they change there for the Grandmother to see.

The musical my family watches every year.

Some people bake the same things every year with their family. I talked about what I love to bake every year in my last post. Check it out here. Some people decorate the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve every year. They may eat a ham instead of a turkey for Thanksgiving. My family every year on Thanksgiving night after we are all full and sit down to have our first glass of eggnog of the season and try to stuff more into our stomachs with desert, we watch Scrooge. For those who do not know what Scrooge is, well it is A Christmas Story by Charles Dickens, but instead of the usual play it is a musical. Click Here to learn more. This movie also gives my father official permission to listen to Christmas musical freely and no one can complain.

For some I know the day after Thanksgiving, other than being black Friday, it is also the day that they get their Christmas tree or put up their fake one.

What is your holiday tradition? Tell me in the comments below.

Holiday Baking

How can you not like this cake?

What is your absolute favorite thing to bake during the coming holidays? Got ideas in mind? Is a Pumpkin Pie or a batch of sugar cookies amongst them? Well when I think of my holiday baking I do with my family Pumpkin Pie is one of the top five and my version of sugar cookies is also there. My favorite by far is German Chocolate Cake. Some of you may have no idea what this cake is; well let me tell you that you should. Here is the recipe for this sumptuous cake.  Then there is Pumpkin Pie as I said and Red Velvet Cake. Then I have sugar cookies. Not just any sugar cookies but citrus sugar cookies with a homemade butter cream frosting. It is to die for. I cannot give you a recipe for I do not have one. My mom found the recipe out of a newspaper article and we decided to try the amazing treat. They are something I make whenever I need to bring food to a party or for my friends.

How this next thing is something that you can have during your thanksgiving dinner with the turkey or next to the ham at Christmas dinner or for desert at either of the two. It is called Sweet Potato Casserole. Smothered with marshmallows and sweeter than some of the things that we put out that are our actual deserts, my dad and brother will have this for dinner and dessert if they have their way.

My baking list for the holidays:

1. German Chocolate Cake
2. Pumpkin Pie
3. Red Velvet Cake
4. Citrus Sugar Cookies
5. Sweet Potato Casserole
6. Almond Crescents
7. Pizzelle
8. Raisin Puffs

The few last ones there you are probably wondering what they are, almond crescents are a cookie I make with my Nana every year that my uncle and I fight over. They are almond extract infused with slivers of almonds within sugar cookie dough; they are cooked for longer so they are harder and then once they are out of the over are covered with powder sugar. A pizzele is an Italian waffle cookie, very thin, buttery with anise infused and also covered with powder sugar. And raisin puffs are a raisin cookie, which are fluffy and are a mixture of allspice and cinnamon. These three are all childhood cookies that I make every year with my Nana and only her. The only reason she still makes Pizzeles is because I ask for them every single year.

I wanted to talk to someone who has had many, many more years of baking than I have, my Nana. The person who has taught me how to make many of those deserts and the other half she taught her daughter, my mother, who then taught me. Since I can remember I have been in the kitchen cooking or baking with one of those women, they are some of my greatest memories. When I was speaking to my Nana I asked if she could tell me something that not many people know about baking and she said “If you are making cookies and it calls for both brown sugar and granulated sugar, use all brown sugar. The sugar will be the same measurements just all brown sugar. If there is 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar and 1 cup of granulated sugar it will be 2 1/2 cups of brown sugar. This makes the cookies chewier This can only be done if the recipe asks for BOTH sugars though.” This is a very useful piece of information I think because people always wanted chewier cookies from what I have seen since I have been baking. Next time I bake cookies I will use this. In the recipe I use for Chocolate Chip cookies it calls for both sugars so I will try it for those. Will you try this?

What do you do during the holiday? What is your favorite thing to bake or your family tradition for baking? Let me know below!