The Aroma of Christmas!

In my family, it is a big holiday tradition to bake a TON of cookies for Christmas. Sometimes we share them with others...sometimes we hoard them to ourselves. BUT either way it's always a day full of flying flour, timers beeping, and the sweeeet aroma of cookies!!

Before we talk cookies lets talk about the very exciting little package I received in the morning before we started our cookie fiasco! I've been stalking the Lily Asher earring collection debating on which pair I need to buy first when I came across an amazing flash deal! I scored three beautiful sets of earrings so naturally I had to wear them right away!

Now I'll admit, I wasn't sure if they would be heavy or anything due to their size but I was so wrong! I've never had a more comfortable pair of earrings! These are definitely a must have! Visit Lily Asher for TONS of gorgeous prints, colors, and sizes!

Our cookies vary year to year but the one we always have to make are the sugar kringles. Now I'd love the share the recipe with all of you so you can experience these magnificent cookies for yourself, but I've been sworn to secrecy regarding the recipe. In fact I haven't even been given the recipe, so I don't know it myself. It's a cookie that my grandma has been handed down
and is now the keeper of the recipe! I can tell you that it involves the dough being rolled out on the counter, cut into little strips, then coated in sugar and baked. These cookies are so light and airy they just melt in your mouth!

I stole a glimpse of the recipe!!

Since I can't give out the sugar kringle recipe I'll give you my other favorite! A shortbread cookies with dried cherries and white chocolate chips, a take on a raspberry shortbread cookie recipe.

We follow the cookie recipe and add half a bag of dried cherries (this year we did a fourth of a bag of cherries and a fourth of cranberries) and half a bag of white chocolate chips (just eyeball it!). The glaze is good on the cookies but we don't typically put it on the cookies, they're fine without it!

My little Christmas helper :)

 Merry Christmas everyone!! and that's a wrap on our baking cookies and Lily Asher earrings!

Christmas Wear

Holy cow, eight days until Christmas, can you believe it?? I know I sure can't. I began Christmas shopping in September and thought I was getting a sneaky jump start on my shopping this year, unfortunately I haven't finished yet! I better get on that today I suppose. 

 



While on a recent trip to visit a good friend in Chicago she began pointing out holiday outfits while shopping and I realized I don't have anything planned yet! Fortunately I was at Forever21 and discovered tons of adorable outfits perfect for those holly and tinsel filled days ahead. Here is one of my favorite outfits:

 

During Christmas there is always an air of tradition from classical songs to baking cookies and decorating the Christmas tree and I treasure the classy feeling that accompanies the holiday. The cut of the silver dress exhumes class in my opinion, and the floral print adds an awesome texture without being too loud. Tights are always my staple for winter, they provide a tiny bit of extra warmth for those snowy days. The geo bib really emphasizes and compliments with neckline of the dress and adds a little pop of color without being gaudy. Now I typically prefer peep toe shoes, but when I wear tights I typically lean more towards a closed toe just to hide that awkward toe seam on tights. 

jacket

dress

tights

necklace

pumps

 

 

What is your favorite part of Christmas?

Any exciting Christmas traditions?

 

Trick-or-Treat!

A little recap of my final Halloween costume decision. Last minute I went with the ninja costume. Unfortunately I didn't have time to make a little ninja turtle-esque mask but check out these awesome swords!

I got pretty awesome and pulling these swords out like a B.A. ninja! (Luckily my boyfriend was there to help me put the swords back in their holders)

 My boyfriend knows my love for holiday decorations and picked up this adorable little "poison" bottle for 50% off at a cute little local store.

And of course here is our pumpkin we picked up at the patch the other day! We both love minions and the Despicable Me movies so we carved a little minion who unfortunately was a tad too large for our pumpkin but we made it work!

How did you spend your holiday? Any fun costumes?!