Christmas in Cambridge!

   About a week before Christmas it was time to decorate the flat! We got our adorable little tree at the market. As many of you know, I'm a firm believer in Christmas lights, so mum got a string of lights that's 20 meters long (almost 22 yards)! Joshua and I hung them all around our flat.

   On Joshua's first Sunday here we had a lavish Sabbath Tea. Scones with clotted cream & jam, several kinds of cheese, salami & ham with crackers, a meat pie, fruit, & (of course) tea.

   A few days before Christmas we received our Abel & Cole Christmas box! Complete with tangerines, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, brussels sprouts, cabbage, herbs, & complementary mistletoe.

Christmas Day!

   Christmas morning dawned and we all gathered in the living room anticipating the day's delights! We ate Night Before French Toast & sausage for breakfast while the potpourri on the stove made the room smell live cinnamon and cloves. Then it was time to open gifts!

  This year we did something a little different with our stockings. Normally Joshua and I would be the only ones with stockings, but this year we decided that everyone would have one. Dad gave everyone a certain amount of money to spend on everyone else's stuffers. It was the funnest thing to go around Cambridge searching for the perfect little gifts! 

   On Christmas eve we tried to fill our stockings, but mum and dad's were too narrow and mine and Joshua's were too small. So we got creative and used backpacks for dad & Joshua, a bag for mum, & a pillowcase for me. 

   It was the best thing opening our "stockings"! We went around in a circle pulling out one gift at a time and guessing who gave each thing. Gift giving is my love language, so I was almost more excited for everyone to see what I got them than to see what they got me. 

   After our gifts were opened we had a lovely relaxing day reading, resting, eating, enjoying each others company, & remembering how our savior came to earth as a little baby. It was a very blessed day. 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas . . .

   Hello everyone! Sorry about No Blog November. And December. Oops. Not much happened around here until a week ago when my awesome big brother arrived! It's been lovely having Joshua here. It feels strange and normal at the same time though, which is confusing. But I've managed to deal. We've filled up this first week with Christmas shopping, eating, and just hanging out. I'm very content. 

   I also finished my first semester as a Senior in high school! I'll be posting again now that I'm on break. Yay for space to read, knit, blog, & watch Netflix!

   I can't believe it's almost Christmas! We've got our little flat decorated with lots of lights and there are buskers on every street playing Christmas carols. I'm this close to being done with my Christmas shopping and I've made some brilliant buys (if I do say so myself). I can't wait for Wednesday! Eek!

  I also can't wait to tell you what Christmas in Cambridge is like, but for now I just want to say thanks for sticking with me through my no-post season. I'm glad to be back.

   What are you most excited about this Christmas? Baking favorite cookies? Watching old Christmas movies? Shopping for presents? Let me know, I'd so love to hear from you!
 

Favorite Things

• Westies
• Potato waffles with fried eggs
• Walking in the rain
• Sweaters
• Making Christmas plans
• Fireworks
• Tea parties
• Mailing packages
• Weekends
• Curly hair

Favorite Things

• Foggy windows
• Books that make me cry
• Abel & Cole boxes
• Long emails from friends
• Double cream
• Sending mysterious letters
• Getting a 97 on my Greek exam
• Collecting pinecones
• Chocolate Chess pie
• Knitting

If you get this reference, you are awesome.

I'm in love . . . with BBC

   It's no secret that I adore the British Broadcasting Corporation. I thought I'd share my all time favorite shows & miniseries with you! Enjoy!

Doctor Who

   Oh how I love this show. I can't even put it into words how much I love it. I now have the difficult/impossible job every Whovian faces of trying to explain it in a few sentences. Saying it's about an alien that travels around and saves planets doesn't even scratch the surface of Gallifrey. It's about friendship, loyalty, love, loss, courage, & pain. And epic awesomeness. 

   If you don't know anything about Doctor Who, here's a brief overview (emphasis on brief). The Doctor is a Time Lord who travels through all of time & space in his time machine called the TARDIS. He gets lonely so he has companions that go on adventures with him. When The Doctor is mortally wounded he regenerates by changing every atom in his body. New face & personality, but same Doctor. Right now it's the 11th Doctor that's flying around saving the universe.

   Yes, there are some really cheesy episodes with bad CGI & a weird plot. But the further you get in the series the fewer and farther between those cheesy episodes become till they are pretty much nonexistent. Series 6 & 7 pretty much blow my mind every time I think about them.  

   Really it comes down to the characters. They are so deep & complex & you love them so much! You laugh with them & cry with them. Seriously. Lots of crying. But it's worth it. 

   The 50th anniversary special is on November 23rd. And I. Can. Not. Wait. It's going to be so epic I just . . .  I can't . . . I . . . yeah. (Sorry, that's my only fangirl moment in this whole post.)

   If you want to give Doctor Who a go I can't recommend it enough!

Sherlock 

   Another epic BBC show. It is exceptionally well done! It's Sherlock set in modern times. With most old books making a "modern" TV show of  it would ruin it at best. But not so with this! The writers have brilliantly managed to weave things like technology into Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories. And quite simply, Benedict Cumberbatch is incredible as Sherlock. He is Sherlock. At the moment all Sherlockians are freaking out because Season 3 has an air date. After two years we will finally, finally learn what happened!

Great British Bake Off

   Okay, complete change of genera. Baking. But seriously guys, this show is so much fun! It's not like American contest shows where everything is hectic & critics are harsh. Everyone is friendly & it's just good fun! The finale about a week ago & I'm so sad it's over!

Pride and Prejudice

   This is the only film version of Pride & Prejudice that my family acknowledges. It's exceptionally well done & captures the book perfectly. If you haven't seen this yet, you must watch it!

Emma

   I struggle to decide which is my favorite Austen story, Pride & Prejudice or Emma? I identify with Emma a lot, so she helps me see my strengths & weaknesses. I will say that I do not struggle with matchmaking. Anyway, this BBC version is lovely & the actors are perfect for their roles!  

Little Dorrit

   If you're in the mood for a dark Dickens tale Little Dorrit is an excellent choice. Dickens is a master of complex plots. This one features a stedfast heroine, a vile villain, a sweet love story, some laughs, & lots of people you just want to punch in the face. He's especially good at making those last characters. But that's part of what makes this a great watch!

Cranford

   This miniseries is set in the village of Cranford & follows the lives of it's residence. It's a sweet story about love, loss, & the struggle of everyday life. You grow very attached to the characters & long for everyone's story to have a happy ending.

   So there you have it! These are just some of my favorite things produced by BBC. It's amazing how stories can capture your soul. To BBC: thank you.

   Do you love BBC as much as I do? Have I left off your favorite show or miniseries? Let me know in the comments!

P.S. I will mention that I'm also a Downton Abbey fan! But even though it is a British show it is not made by BBC, so I didn't include it in this post.

Macaroons & Dauphinoise

   We really do eat healthy. Mum is so good at making delicious & nutritious meals for us. The problems come when I want to make things. Because I like sugar. And cream. 

   So all the things I make & post on here are not the healthiest things to eat. But they are the tastiest. Here are two new recipes I've found!

   A few weeks ago I went over to a friends house to watch The Great British Bake Off finale! I figured since it was a bake off finale we needed a treat to munch on. Enter the first recipe: coconut macaroons. I used this recipe {here} and they turned out beautifully! I definitely want to make them again. I suppose that's the problem with scrummy deserts. You want to make them again. *Sigh*

   Last week we had some friends over for a wonderful dinner with lots of veg! I wanted to make something for it & we had lots of fresh potatoes. Enter the second recipe: cheesy dauphinoise (basically, potatoes baked with cream & cheese). I roughly followed this recipe {here}, but made a few changes.
   Firstly, I used gruyere cheese instead of cheddar.
   Secondly, instead of heating the cream first, I simply mixed all the ingredients in a bowl (except for half the cheese), poured everything in a baking dish (sprinkling rest of cheese on top), & baked for an hour & fifteen minutes.
   The result? Creamy divineness.

   A word on double cream. We do not have double cream in America. It is one of the things I will miss most when we go back home. It is so thick you can almost stand a fork up in it. Almost. You see in the picture above how it looks like the dauphinoise is dripping with butter? There's not a teaspoon of butter in there, it's just double cream. Mmmmmmm...

   So there are two divinely delicious recipes that you absolutely must try. I'm sorry. Do you have a favorite recipe that is so unhealthy but so worth it?

Doily Gift Bags {DIY}

   Before I left for England I wanted to do something special for my amazing friend Emily. So for her birthday present (which was right after I left) I made her seven gift bags. She gets to open a new one on the first of each month & she has one for each month I'm away!

   Emily did something similar for me. She wrote me a letter for each month I'm in England. They encourage me & make me laugh the first of every month.

   My mum also wanted to do something similar for one of her close friends (who happens to be Emily's mum) and made a bag for each month with a recipe & some (non-parishable) food items. 

   These monthly gifts are so fun. If it's for someone you won't see for awhile, each gift/letter they open means one less month till they see you again! Toward the end of each month I find myself counting down the days till I can open my next letter! I also get excited for her to see what I've gifted her that month.

   My love langue is gift giving & I adore DIY projects. So this has me written all over it! I'm enjoying it so much that I'm thinking about doing it for presents in the future. It gives your friend something to look forward to & a monthly reminder of how much they mean to you.

   Since I needed to make seven bags they had to be simple & inexpensive, but I still wanted them to be cute. I saw these bags {here} & knew they were just what I was looking for. I tweaked them a bit & added a few touches here & there. They resulted in these Doily Gift Bags!

Supplies:

• Brown paper bags
• Paper doilies 
• Ribbon
• Small tags
• Hole punch
• Stapler 
• Scissors  

1. Make a card to go in each bag with the month on one side & a note about the gift on the other

 2. Label tag with the month the bag is to be opened in

3. Place the gift(s) & card in bag & staple closed

4. Fold the paper doily in half & straddle it over the top of the bag

6. Place two hole punches in the middle of the doily about an inch apart 

4. Thread ribbon through holes and gently tie a bow

7. Thread tag strings through doily holes & tie a little knot

8. Cut sides off doily 

9. Admire your beautiful gift bag

10. Give to a special friend!

   I won't say exactly what I put in Emily's seven bags since she still has several to open. But here are some ideas for filling your bags!

Something to use:

• Candle
• Box of stationary
• Bookmarks {here} {here}

Something to decorate:

• Christmas ornament
• Hooped embroidery {here}
• Photos of the two of you
• Painted picture 
• Garland {here} {here}

Something to wear:

• Scarf
• Headband
• Jewelry {here} {here} {here}

Something to eat:

• Chocolate bar
• Box of tea
• Cookies in a Jar {here}

   The possibilities are endless! You can even make themed gift bags. How about things that smell good? Candles, lotions, & potpourri. Or be like my mum & have a food theme. Recipes & ingredients.

  So choose a friend to bless & go buy some paper bags & doilies! Do you have any other themed gift ideas? Let me know about your brilliant ideas in the comments!

A is for Apples (lots & lots of Apples)

   Yesterday was Apple Day at the Botanical Gardens! It was very windy & a bit chilly, but the sun was (thankfully) shining and we enjoyed ourselves immensely!

   For Apple Day there were two big tents set up. One was an apple tasting tent with over twenty-eight different kind of apples to try! Another tent had hundreds of apple varieties on display along with apple goodies to buy.

The most interesting apple I tasted was the Pitmaston Pineapple. It really did taste like pineapple! And I just realized that "pineapple" has "apple" in it. Woah. So I suppose this Pitmaston Pineapple is more of a pineapple than an actually pineapple is! (Did anyone follow that?)

There was even a Sleeping Beauty apple! It wasn't available for tasting, but I'd imagine it would be softly sweet.

   After we were full of apples we wandered around the Gardens. The sun was shining & the were leaves turning all shades of red. I happily strolled through the trees & over bridges snapping pictures.

You know, stairs are always exciting. Who knows what's on the other side? 

I thought it would make an interesting Alice in Wonderland story if there was a magic tree that was cut down & the hole to Wonderland was inside it. (I checked this one but it was only a foot deep. *Sigh*)

"I think it's a coot!"

   Autumn is here! The vibrant red & yellow leaves float down from trees & cover walkways. I'm always amazed at how God created nature to make such beauty as it goes to sleep for the winter.