Hallmark Christmas Movie Cookie Game

 

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is sitting down with a hot cup of coffee after dinner and flipping to the Hallmark channel to indulge myself in some romantic Christmas movies. Call me crazy, but I really do enjoy these predictable movies. I say “predictable” because well, they are. Everyone knows the girl and guy are going to get together in the end. Frankly, that’s why I feel so relaxed while watching them!

I’ve come up with a little game to play while watching any Hallmark Christmas movie. I’d call it a drinking game, but I feel like the holidays should be spent somewhat sober. Instead, I’m calling it a cookie game. Every time you check off something on the list I’m about to give you, you get to eat a Christmas cookie. Should be easy, right?

Right click and save the image below so you can print it out and enjoy yourselves! Feel free to add your own items to this list in a comment below!

Simple Gingerbread Cookies

Well friends, a miraculous thing happened the other day- I baked cookies from scratch AND they didn’t burn. Gingerbread cookies always seemed like a difficult thing to make but aside from a few technical terms I had to Google, they were fairly simple.

I started out simply wanting to try my hand at making something tasty and sugary for Christmas. When I couldn’t find the pre-made Pillsbury gingerbread dough, I had to improvise by making the dough myself. Betty Crocker poked her way into my personality for a few hours and I was a baking wizard in my mom’s kitchen. Who knew such things were possible?

As it turns out, I’m not all that bad when it comes to baking. The gingerbread cookies came out warm and soft without a single burnt edge. Even my mom was proud of my new-found abilities! She actually enjoyed this baking endeavor of mine! If I had all the time in the world and a limitless grocery budget, I might actually do a little more in the kitchen.

Here’s the amazing recipe I used that got good reviews from tons of people! It really was tasty!

 

 

My Christmas To-Do List

Do you ever just have those days where all you want to do is sit at home and relax? With the Christmas season upon us, I feel like this is all the time! Between homework and my part-time job, I don’t have the time to sit around and do nothing. I haven’t had time to bake any cookies or decorate my little tree. Life just gets away from me!

In an effort to enjoy these next few festive weeks, I’m making a promise to myself that I’ll take one day out of every week to enjoy the season and relax at home. I’ll drink my latte, decorate my tree, bake some sugar cookies, wrap gifts, light a candle, cuddle up under a blanket, and just enjoy the festive nature of December.

Be sure to check off these to-do’s over the next few weeks!

• Decorate a tree
• String lights on bushes outside
• Try new cocoa recipe
• Bake cookies
• Have a Christmas movie marathon
• Cut out paper snowflakes
• Hang mistletoe
• Listen to Christmas music
• Enjoy a roaring fire
• Lounge in warm Christmassy pajamas

 

Warm & Cozy Weekend

Saturdays are made for relaxing and recovering from a stressful week. Unfortunately, my Saturdays usually have me working. With Christmas coming, I know my boss is going to be scheduling my weekends packed with work. Now that the temperature is dropping into the 30s, I hate leaving my house period for any occasion much less work. Anyway, for those of you who do have today to yourself, here’s 8 things that make my chilly days-in worth waiting a whole week for.

1. A Starbuck’s Gingerbread Latte

2. Fuzzy Ugg Mocassins

3. A plate of warm cookies

4. A flannel shirt (if I could find one that would look cute on me)

5. Christmas with the Kranks (fave Christmas movie!)

6. Cutting out paper snowflakes

7. Warm, cable knit blanket (this one is from Ikea)

8. Bath & Body Works candles

What does your perfect Saturday include? 

How I’m Paying Back my Loans Early

Today is the last warm day of the season I’m thinking. While parts of Minnesota got 40 inches of snow, my hometown in Maryland sported a breezy 68 degree day with abundant sunshine. Towards the end of my afternoon I noticed the breeze was getting a bit brisk for my taste. I don’t do brisk. I do warm breezes and sunny days. As much as I adore mittens, warm coats, Ugg boots (I know, so tacky), and PSL from Starbucks, I just prefer 75 degrees and a shorts and hoodie combo. How chic, right?

In my efforts to embrace the coming holiday season, I splurged at Starbucks and bought their new Chestnut Praline Latte and a snowman cookie. All I can tell you is to try that latte! I’ve never had a drink from there I enjoyed so much. The cookie, eh, well it was made in a factory far away from here and doesn’t have that home-made sugar cookie taste. But, hey, it’s sugar. I’ll take it!

This time of the year I enjoy window shopping and taking a look around stores to see what Christmas-y things they have on their shelves. I have the worst time restraining myself. Today, I think I did rather well. I’m trying to save money for after my graduation when I have to relocate to who knows where. Spending money is so easy, making money is next to impossible. In my endeavors to do the latter, I found a few freelance writing gigs. Now, if I could only get people to respond to emails faster then I know I would be on the fast track to getting out of the red.

Speaking of getting out of the red, if you’re like me you have some student debt to pay off from college. I’ve always wondered how on Earth I would be able to pay back every cent I owed to the government, but I’ve found a clever way to do it that I bet you’ve never heard of. It’s called FundUcation.com and this website hooks writers, marketers, designers etc. up with short-term freelance work with small businesses. The cool part is each time you get paid for a job the money you make goes directly towards your student loans. When you sign up, the website will ask for your lender’s name and your account with them. After you get your first job done, the payment will sync with your account and pay back some of your loans. The jobs don’t pay thousands, but they do pay up to $100. I talked to the founder of the website, Chris, and his vision was to make paying back student loans easier and faster.

There are so many brilliant people out there and I’m working my hardest to be one of them. Do any of you have clever ideas on how to make money? I’d love to hear them. Comment below and share with your besties!