Christmastime is here

Although we are going to be in the US for Christmas this year (less than a week!!!), Sunday afternoon we decided to do some minor decorating around the flat. Nothing elaborate (first, because we don't have a lot of space; and second, because we don't have decorations yet. We're living the nomadic graduate student life.), but we did decorate our tree.


Never mind that our "tree" is actually a collection of dried branches that sit in a "vase" (read: water pitcher) on our coffee table (read: white particleboard cube supplied by Trinity Hall) year round, it's still our Christmas tree. Our families' trees will already be decorated (I think) by the time we arrive, so it was our only tree decorating opportunity this holiday season. To anyone who wants to make fun of our little tree Charlie Brown Christmas style, I will have you know that our tree is an example of cutting edge modern design. In fact, the IKEA Holiday Catalogue featured a similar creation last year.

Conclusion: being creative and resourceful is cool; Scandinavian cool.
(Photo credit: IKEA)
So, yes, we decorated our Christmas tree while watching Jingle All the Way (a 90s Christmas classic). Will cut out paper snowflakes and I made tiny foil stars. We also had two real ornaments recently purchased from the Cambridge fair trade store to adorn our "tree" this year.


After tree decorating, it was time to bake. I had been wanting to bake Christmas cookies since the city of Cambridge put up Christmas lights at the end of October. However, I pledged to refrain from baking Christmas cookies until after the LSAT, so as to not distract myself. Since Saturday was the LSAT, Sunday meant cookies. As luck would have it, I had a Secret Santa potluck at work this week as well as our small group Christmas party; both events which required cookies. Sweet. I made three different kinds -Molasses Spice Cookies, Raspberry Icebox Ribbons, and Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Chunk - approximately 100 cookies in all. Needless to say, this round of baking completely satisfied my cookie baking craving (sorry, family, if you're expecting cookies; I'll make you something else). Most of the cookies have been eaten or given away by now, otherwise I would have supplied a photo for your drooling pleasure. You'll have to use your imagination instead.