MY HOLIDAYS by Michaela

We're officially on holiday now and thought we'd share with you what our Christmas looks like this year. Lotta left town today to spend the holidays with her family. She'll be sharing her list tomorrow.

I have all my gifts wrapped up and ready, we've set up our tree and will be decorating it tomorrow together with our daughter. I've even made the centerpieces for Christmas Eve dinner already today. Now I'm looking forward to spending a few peaceful and jolly days with my loved ones.

Christmas Eve we'll be celebrating with my parents in law at our place. We'll have dinner and drinks and then wait for Santa Claus to bring the gifts. On Christmas day we're visiting some other relatives and mainly just relax and spend time with our daughter. On Boxing Day my friend and her husband are  coming over for pancake breakfast. I can't wait.





Holiday Cocktail: I want to make a special holiday cocktail this year as a welcome drink for my parents in law. It's the first time that we're spending Christmas Eve at our place together with them, so I'd like to make them feel extra-welcome. Doesn't this Winter Wonderland Martini sound yummy?
For finner we're having the traditional Finnish Christmas food consisting of veggies and sweet potato casseroles, fish dishes and salads. We'll be skipping the traditional ham and have a herb & garlic stuffed wil turkey instead.

Our Tree: Our tree is a traditional pine tree that we decorate with whimsical ornaments in all shapes and colors. [Tree image via Welke.nl, from Scandinavisch Wonen mag; Ornaments from Chocolate Show]

Our Holiday Decor: I love to fill the home with pine and cedar twigs at this time of the year. Not only do they look festive and lovely, but their scent is what really gets me into the cozy holiday mood. I also make some gingerbread houses every year. Our Christmas dinner table centerpieces are made from winter greens, red berries and a few pretty, red flowers that match the cloth napkins. For the time that my daughter is little, I want to create a somewhat traditional and cozy holiday feel for her, so I'm sticking to the winter green with pops of red color scheme. [Images: Gingerbread houses, Winter greens in bucket - Pretties & Posies, centerpieces]

Gift Wrapping: Although I love beautifully designed wrapping paper, I always go back to kraft paper for most of my gift wrappings. This year I'm pairing it with twisted twine and these lovely winter bird gift tags. I also embellished some gifts with red woolen string, some with gold tinsels, velvet and satin ribbon and others with simple packing string. I just couldn't stick to just one style with all the lovely gift wrapping inspiration we've been finding and sharing this year. [Images: Twines, Kraft paper, Tags]

Gifts: I used to go all out with gifts for everybody. I'd buy and make things over months and give something to every friend and (distant) family member. These days I like to concentrate my gift giving to the ones closest to me, especially my daughter. To the rest I send Christmas wishes and the money I used to spend on their gifts goes to charity instead.

For my daughter I got a little shop stand (that's really wedged into the back of closet at the moment) with accessories, even a little shopping cart. She loves to play shop and I know she'll be really excited about this gift. My husband is the most difficult person to give presents to. I know him so well, but still I can never figure out what to get for him. He's just the sort of person who doesn't need or want any "stuff". This year we have decided not to give each other anything, since we're heading to NYC on New Year's day for a short vacation and we'll be buying ourselves some gifts there.

My very own number one wish is this leather camera bag. As you can see, it's on backorder, but as soon as it becomes available again, I will be treating myself to this beauty. Finally I won't have to carry around that bulky looking, black regular camera bag anymore!

[images: Shop & accessories, books, bag]


Now I'll go to bed and get some energy for the holiday grocery shopping tomorrow morning. Now that last part, i'm not looking forward to.


Happy holidays!

Cheers,
Michaela