Merry Christmas, dear reader! I hope your holiday has been full of cheer and festivity. The holiday season is always such a blur; we look forward to it all year and, just as soon as it arrives, it’s over. But that’s part of what makes it a special time of year. It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if the holidays lasted three months, would it? Right?? It probably wouldn’t be good news for our waistlines, either!
This Christmas was especially fun because I was lucky enough to spend it with my family at our cabin in northern Minnesota. It was a complete 180 from our tropical Christmas in Florida last year, and it was an absolute blast! I had visions of bundling up and snowshoeing across the frozen lake, and coming home to steaming mugs of bourbon-spiked hot chocolate (I spent a fair amount of time thinking about it, clearly). While my mom and I did snowshoe one day, most of our time was spent bundled up by the fire playing games or watching Lilyhammer on Netflix. We also had to make time for decorating gingerbread houses, which has become a hilarious new tradition in our house. They were especially cute this year:
gingerbread house decorating in action
Of course, it wouldn’t be the holidays without a sizable array of treats. My mom has a binder full of Christmas recipes that she’s used in years past, which is a culinary treasure trove. It was hard to narrow our list down to just a few items, but the ones we chose were a mix of classic hits (cutouts, peanut brittle and gingerbread) and new delicacies (homemade peppermint ice cream, courtesy of my favorite new kitchen appliance).
mini masterpieces
Since my dad and brother share an affinity for brown spirits, the bar was fully stocked. We always have a bottle of champagne on Christmas morning as we open gifts, and wine with dinner most nights. I’m looking forward to a much-needed detox next month! But after a (mostly) dry semester, it was fun to enjoy a few drinks.
Although Christmas is over, I still have another three weeks before spring semester begins. In my stocking this year (yep, that’s still happening) was a new cookbook on Indian cuisine that I’m totally psyched about, and I’m hoping to experiment with that before school consumes my life again. Here’s to much joy and health in 2014!
katie cooks 