By Victoria Q

Santa Claus is coming to town~~

Yeah!! There’s only 1 week left before the exciting holiday season of the year! This year I’m going to visit my best friends, whom I have last seen in March 2021, just before the national lockdown happened.

Okay, let me tell you a little story of what happened from my side. I’m busy creating recipes and planning for Christmas lately. I have to get my posts and recipes ready so that I can walk away and enjoy the Christmas holiday with people I loved without worrying and rushing to do everything after coming back.

Yesterday my family and I spent the entire day making Chocolate Chips Cookies, which I’ll share the recipe with you all soon. If you read my previous post on “Handmade Christmas Gifts”, this is also a part of the Christmas gifts I’m planning to give to my friends.

My friend’s sons were there to help us with the baking yesterday. Well, they weren’t actually helping with the baking because they’re just 5 years old and 4 years old apparently. But they got excited seeing us baking and wanted to join us so I had them do the easy tasks such as preparing the ingredients, measuring and sifting the flour.

Even though it’s a busy day because we had to make a few batches of the cookies, but we had so much fun. The kids were also happy at how delicious the cookies turned out to be.

I can’t deny it’s quite tiring lately because I have to get my posts and recipes ready before Christmas, which mean I have to work on essays at night and try out new recipes over the weekend. But I enjoyed every single moment of that. Sometimes I get exhausted and don’t feel like writing at night, then I’ll play Christmas movies and enjoyed a cup of hot tea or chocolate. That’s how I spent my 2 weeks prior to Christmas.

Back to the present, I’m taking 4 days off during the Christmas week and I already had it well-planned.

Mum and I decided to have a potluck dinner on Christmas Eve so friends and families can spend time catching up with each other. Potluck dinner means we’ll have a lot to prepare, and the family members will help us out. Doing this can cut down on costs for dining out in a large group and also a great bonding time among family members.

The next morning, I’ll visit my best friends, which takes about 4-5 hours drive, and stay with them.

There are a few things I wanted to do with my best friends when I get there:

• Shopping and exchanging Christmas books: One of my best friends and I love reading so much. But our favourite genres are very different from each other. She’s more to dark and mystery books, and I’m on the romantic and magical side. Romantic Christmas movies and books are always my things and I’ll never have enough of them.
• Exploring bingsu (shaved ice) shops: Before I moved back to my hometown, my friends and I often spend time exploring new food and café-hopping together. This time, we’ll be exploring bingsu shops. We love bingsu so much – matcha flavour, honeydew flavour, watermelon flavour, chocolate flavour, we’ve probably tried everything you can name of.
• Have a Christmas party: Put on makeup, dress up prettily, and take tons of pictures. We planned to have a small party among ourselves at home. Red wine, ice-cream cake, and perhaps some Korean fried chicken. Do you think it’s a weird combination of red wine and fried chicken? Well, we love it so much!
• Making homemade vegan dishes: I’m still on my journey to become a vegan, taking baby steps slowly and steadily. Monday to Thursday is my vegan day. So, on 27^th December, which is Monday, my friend said she’ll make vegan dishes for me. That’s probably her first time making vegan dishes because I’m her only vegan friend. I’m proud to be the special guest and I can’t wait to try it out.
• Go to the gym together: It’s been so long since we spend time in the gym together. We love exercising but we rarely spend time in the gym. This is most likely because we love to spend time outside of the house, exploring the city. But these days, we just missed the gym time.

That’s it! I’m so excited and can’t wait to share how my Christmas holiday goes on. How about you all? Any plans for Christmas?

If you haven’t already read my previous post on “Handmade Christmas Gifts”, read it here:

Handmade Christmas Gifts