Happy December everybody, bring on the Christmas fun!
Ugly Sweater Parties I ❤U
This year will be my first Christmas away from home. While I am sad that I won’t be around my family during the holidays I am looking forward to spending Christmas here in Iceland. Any country that has 13 Santa Clauses must know how to do Christmas right!
To kick off the holiday season this weekend was filled with Christmas themed fun! Here is a recap of my weekends Eat, See, and Do.
Eats
Clockwise from top left
- What better way to start off Christmas time then with freshly baked cookies?? I love creating new recipes, usually with the goal of making them somewhat more nutritious, especially since I can’t seem to control myself around sweets:) These cookies are packed with some of my favorites, dark chocolate, oatmeal, dried cranberries and walnuts, they did not disappoint and the batch didn’t make it past the weekend! Next time I make them I will be sure to write down the recipe to share with you all, they definitely will be made more than once this Christmas season!
- Chilly weekends require chai lattes to stay warm, or give you a boost to start all that Christmas baking!
- Clearly I was hit with the cooking bug this weekend. Whenever it gets cold outside I just want to make all my favorite comfort food. At the top of my list is always my Dads chili. While it doesn’t look amazing in the picture (does chili ever really look good in pictures though) I swear it was delicious. The perfect winter dish for a cozy night in, watching Elf of course.
- Friday night I met up with some of my classmates for a celebratory dinner for completing our level one Icelandic course. The dinner was amazing and we spent the meal sharing holiday traditions in our home countries. I learned about holiday traditions in Japan, Bulgaria, Singapore and Czech Republic. Such a fun night and I loved hearing how others celebrated Christmas in their home countries.
See
My favorite find this weekend was this beautiful shop located in the Harpa. It was like walking through a winter wonderland!
Located on the popular downtown street Laugavegur is an adorable Christmas shop called Litla Jólabúðin. Outside the store you will find the Icelandic Santa’s mail box where I was sure to get my letter in, just wanted to be sure he got my change of address:)
Growing up my family used to always go to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in our town. When I heard that they would have a Christmas tree lighting this weekend I was more than excited that I would get to continue the tradition here in Iceland. While we were waiting for the tree lighting I got to enjoy some traditional Icelandic Christmas music. Christmas music makes me happy in any language:) Aren’t the streets so pretty! All the Christmas lights have more than helped to brighten up these dark days.
Do 
Time to get crafty and put up your Christmas decorations!
While I was baking away someone got busy putting up the Christmas decorations. And that pretty holiday project shown here, ya that definitely wasn’t my creative skills at work. While I love the idea of crafts my pinterest boards are about as far as my crafting skills go. Lucky for me I have one crafty guy, so I just keep him happy with yummy food and he fulfills my crafting dreams:)
Now it is time to get back to crafting. After another trip to the craft store today I am determined to make my pinterest board a reality.
Wish me luck!
Question of the Day?
Anyone else craft making challenged? What Christmas crafts are on your must make list this year?
