Category Archives: Christmas

Winter Alert: Hot Chocolate Musings

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Posted by on in Christmas, Kitchen

We’re beginning to experience the blustery winter winds in Chicago so naturally I’m already thinking ahead to Christmas.  One of my favorite traditions we’ve started is watching a holiday movie together each weekend from about mid-November up until Christmas. There are so many great movies from Planes, Trains and Automobiles to Christmas Vacation to Elf that I feel this is really the only way to get them all in before Christmas is over.  I usually make some sort of special breakfast/dinner to go along with it and we enjoy spending a lazy day together indoors. This year I’m looking to jazz it up with a little hot chocolate bar.  My mother started this a while ago with our family Christmas. She’d make a big batch of hot chocolate and then layout a bunch of delicious “extras” to top it off. 

Well, Williams-Sonoma is ahead of the game and has put together a hot chocolate spread in their Thanksgiving 2012 edition.  Having no self-control whatsoever when it comes to hot chocolate, I immediately bought a couple of items.  I can hardly wait to use them!  Here are my top picks:

Peppermint North Poles | Chocolate candy-coated peppermint sticks…enough said,

Shaved Chocolate Topper | I ended up getting one in milk chocolate and while chocolate.  It felt like Sophie’s Choice to pick between them, so I chose both.

Mini Marshmallows | I didn’t buy these from W-S because we usually opt to get fresh ones from Whole Foods when they start making them in their bakery. Regardless of where they come from, they are a necessity for hot chocolate.

Bailey’s Irish Cream| For those days when the virgin hot chocolate isn’t enough.

Bailey’s-Drink

Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate | Everyone has a favorite mix they use and Ghiradelli happens to be mine.

ghirardelli-double-chocolate-hot-cocoa-packets

Santa Mugs | For as long as I can remember, my mom has had the tradition of buying us a new Santa/Christmas mug each year for Christmas.  During the winter months we use these for coffee, hot chocolate and soups to make things just a bit more festive.

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What’s your favorite wintery beverage?

Pinterest Pretties

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Posted by on in Christmas

Tomorrow I start my two week vacation (wahoo!), so needless to say It’s hard to focus at work today.  I’ve been pinning some pretties on Pinterest of things I’d like to do next year for Christmas.  We’ll have a new apartment in a new city so it only makes sense to do some new decorating and baking!  Here are some of my inspiration pins for 2012…

make wool plaid stockings 
Try new yummy cocktails 
Add a Charlie Brown print to our holiday wall art
use a blue and white color scheme
last but not least, make it unique!
So those are some of my ideas for next year.  I don’t usually plan ahead for next year, but I’m burnt out at work and needed to find some inspiration somewhere.  Since I’ll be traveling tomorrow and back in my old stomping grounds until the 26th, here’s wishing you all a happy holiday this year!
-Melissa 

Christmas 2011

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Posted by on in Christmas

This year I am super late in posting photos of what our apartment looks like with all of the Christmas decorations up.  I decorated our “Christmas corner” (aka a floating bookshelf) early, but the rest has come together over the last two weeks.  Without further adieu, here are our Christmas decorations for 2011…

Our branch tree was the first thing to go up.  Since James insists on a real tree, I have to set this up to tide me over for a few weeks until we can go get one.
This is the shelf of things that couldn’t fit anywhere else. It looks very thought out and intentional though, right? 
Candles, candles and more candles!
Christmas corner! 
Branches and glitter trees.  Loves it.
Everyone needs a ceramic owl. 
Our lovely sleigh candy dish and moose candle holder on the tree table.
Last but not least, here’s the tree! Notice that some of the lights have fallen off the tree during our cats many attempts to climb it.  
We’re definitely rocking the rustic Christmas vibe this year in our casa.  We added a few new things to our Christmas arsenal this year, but for the most part we used our decorations that we stock-piled last year.  Have you decorated for the holidays yet?  Are you a last minute person or do you decorate the day after Thanksgiving? :)  

Christmas Corner 2011

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Posted by on in Christmas, Design

This weekend I did my Christmas decorating a little early.  I put up most of our Christmas decorations, except for the tree.  James wasn’t sold on the idea of doing it before Thanksgiving so I had to do all the decorating without holiday music playing in the background!  That’s okay though, because we’ll make up for it when we put up the tree! :) I thought I’d share some photos of my progress to date:

Here’s our floating shelf that serves as a faux mantel during the month of December
Here’s a closer shot of the goodies 


This is for all intents and purposes the “snowflake hallway.”  I noticed that our hallway paint color was similar to that of the foil snowflakes–and that’s where I got the idea to make the snowflake hallway.  There are more hanging there, I just wasn’t able to get a good shot of it this morning. 

And last but not least, the Christmas tree branch.  I bought the branch at Crate and Barrel for $20–best purchase ever!  This is a great way for people to decorate in small spaces and for those that don’t want to get a full blown 5 foot tree.

So that’s our decor to date. After Thanksgiving I’ll put out more, but I thought I’d share a little teaser beforehand. Have you started decorating yet?  When do put up your holiday decorations?