Woohoo! It’s pretty much the end of November and I am totally looking forward to celebrating Christmas. Do you know what I love most about having my birthday fall on the last day of October? The fact that November flies by so quickly, and brings with it the start to the festive season.
My birthday went really well. I started the day with breakfast from Starbucks, then drove around and dropped off gifts for my interns. Friends of mine surprised me at different intervals during the day with deliveries of cake, chocolate and flowers and in the evening, hubby and I had dinner delivered from The Keg. Overall, it was a lovely day and I had such a great time. The weekend following my birthday, friends of mine came over with their daughters with more presents. I truly enjoyed the company and it felt like my birthday stretched on, which was a nice feeling.
Oh, and guess what came in the mail?! Yessss, you guessed right. Well, partially. The memoir by Mariah (The Meaning of Mariah Carey) and both books by Barack Obama (The Promised Land and Dreams from My Father). I know I didn’t mention ordering the books by Obama, but I felt like it would be kind of cool to get both books by him to see how he thought of himself back then versus how he thinks of himself now. As you probably can tell, my favourite type of books to read are biographies, which means that I cannot wait to start flipping those pages. I’ve also decided that since I like buying myself gifts for various occasions, I should start buying myself gifts for Christmas, because well, why not?
As Christmas is around the corner and as there won't be another newsletter before then, what new season traditions are you hoping to pick up and which are you replacing now that things have changed? Do you have a strategy on spending quality time with your loved ones this time around? Are your trees up yet? Are your stockings in place? And how is your gift shopping going? Eeeeek, I’m getting all giddy and excited. LOL I love seeing the Christmas decorations slowly going up and the crisp November air starting to feel festive. I honestly love looking out my windows and seeing all the beautiful night lights. It’s almost as if no matter how many Christmas holidays we’ve had in the past, each year is equally unique, full of love, joy and warmth. Aww, my face just lit up.
Also, I don’t know about you, but when it comes to food for the holidays, I can’t wait for mom to drop off some of her amazing sorrel and for me to order some mouth-watering rum cake from Georgieporgie’s. Feel free to quote me on this. If additional weight wasn’t a thing, you best believe that I’d be having sorrel and rum cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner, on repeat. But since calories are a thing, God bless our hearts, we’re just going to have to compromise and limit it to maybe just breakfast, everyday for the month of December. Gosh, who knew? I’m really starting to get good at this thing called “compromise”.
So I’ve been day-dreaming lately and maybe I’ve watched way too many holiday movies during my downtime, but I can’t help but picture myself in a room on a cold December evening with a cozy fireplace, the firewood crackling, Christmas music playing softly in the background, snow gently falling and hubby and I gracefully waltzing away across the room. You get the picture. But your girl’s got to snap out of it because first of all, I don’t have a fireplace, and second of all, ain’t nobody got time to cut up firewood in the cold. And if there was music playing in the background, it would definitely be soca. Period. But I can't deny that I’d love to have freshly baked cookies and hot chocolate while cozied up with hubby, binge-watching our favourite holiday movies! I’m looking forward to watching a
Christmas Story and Coming to America because I think both movies are hilarious. Come to think of it, I probably should start pulling together a list of binge-worthy snacks, wine included.
I know most of us are used to having our families around us during this festive period, but I hope that even with the restrictions set in place, we can all create memorable experiences like we would have if we had our friends and loved ones gathered together. It’s going to look a lot different this year, but let’s make sure that every moment counts!
