I'm soooo glad it's finally Christmas break! Homework and soccer were taking up basically all of my social life, so now I actually have time to blog. Here are some of my favorites of Christmastime and I hope you enjoy reading them.
1. Favorite ornament: My favorite ornament is a sparkly, glittery, silver snowflake-ish looking ball that has been my favorite ever since I was little. (Mom always puts it near the top of the tree because its fragile).
2. Favorite tradition: Sitting around the fire eating Nicoise salad on Christmas Eve is one of my favorite traditions. And opening one, and only one, Christmas gift that night. It's always entertaining trying to eat our dinner peacefully before our dog, Benny, eats it from the low coffee table where we have Christmas Eve...good times. I think one year he got part of our food and mom got really mad and shut him in the family room...that was the last time Benny ate dinner with us...
3. Favorite gift: My favorite gift...hmmm...I would have to say last year when my parents allowed me to lease a horse for three months and I got to ride 4x a week. It was one of the best days (and months that followed) of my life. I love riding horses and I adored the horse, Midnight, that I was able to lease. I was thrilled and had a ton of fun riding Midnight around the ranch for the weeks that followed. It was a gift that meant a lot to me and I know it was probably a pain for them to drive me to the ranch during that time because we were really busy.
4. Favorite Christmas meal: This is no competition...my mom's cranberry strudel for breakfast beats anything else we have all year. It's that delicious. Cranberry filling (with nuts) and flaky, buttery, phyllo "crust" surrounding it. I would do almost anything for it.
5. Favorite Christmas cookie: This is a hard one... I would have to say either gingerbread cookies or peppermint bark (from Williams-Sonoma). I absolutely love making gingerbread cookies because they are soooo delicious =) and they're pretty much the only thing I know how to make. Peppermint bark is...well, there's no way to possibly describe the scrumptious taste and smooth texture. So if you've never had peppermint bark, you definitely have to try some. (It's basically layers of milk chocolate and white chocolate and peppermint...what more could you want!)
6. Favorite place to be: For Christmas and Christmas Eve, I love to be in front of the fire with my family in our house in San Diego. But, after Christmas (or before) I am obsessed with snow and I love to be anywhere it snows...Deer Valley, Big Bear, Ohio... Basically anywhere that's cozy and has snow is my favorite place to be.
7. Favorite memory: My favorite memory of Christmas is a couple years ago when I told my family that I wanted to read the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas Eve. So I got out my Bible and I read the Christmas story from Luke. I don't really know why this memory has stuck with me for so long, but I will always remember reading it to my family. (We should have videotaped it.)
