IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS...

Christmas, the holliest, jolliest, happiest time of year, a time to have some good family time. Not only is it the time where little kids get super excited at the idea of Santa, leaving cookies and milk out and trying to stay up to get a glimpse of his shining sleigh and prancing reindeer; it's also the time when, depending on what you enjoy, we can get excited for food, giving presents, receiving presents, wearing a cute Christmassy outfit, wearing your favourite red lip, the sunshine (or snuggling up in your warm blankets and pyjamas for those in the northern hemisphere), the smell of a fresh Christmas tree (or an artificial one), making your room and house all festive (basically making everything you can think of festive) and some nice family time. 

I love decorating the tree. Most years I go away with my family to another part of Australia to visit the rest of our family, but this year we're staying here and they're coming down here. Since it's the first time we've been able to have a tree in years, we borrowed a tree from a friend who's was much bigger and nicer than our lame, short, artificial tree from over seven years ago. We figured we'd borrow one since she was going away and didn't need the tree, and it's the first time we weren't going away, so save money yeah? :P I was so happy with the decorations I was able to get. We ended up getting some glass and ceramic ones from Myer since they were 35% off and some ceramic and porcelain ones from Lincraft since they were 50% off. I went for a red, gold and white/silver theme. I intended going for a red and white/silver theme, but I wanted an angel ornament and the only one I liked was in gold, so I thought I'd add some gold to it. I was really scared that the glass baubles would fall off and break (or I'd drop them), but I didn't, which I'm happy for. We also found these really nice scented stick ornaments that smell like fresh Christmas trees and hollies. We hung some up and the tree smells so nice! Too bad you can't smell it...

Here are some shots of our tree an my favourite parts of it. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and my glass ones and the snowflake are definitely my favourite ornaments. If you might see, I did hang one of my Domo's up on the tree as an ornament too. I figured that his mouth does have some red in it, and he's pretty cute anyway, so why not? ^-^

Another thing that I believe is a big part of Christmas is the crackers. The thing is, I find crackers to although be fun to pull apart, the jokes are lame (and some don't even make sense), if it does come with chocolate, it's the bad dollar store kind and the other things inside useless and junky (which is not worth what you pay for them). I thought I'd make my own! I found these make your own cracker kits at Lincraft in their 50% off sale, and picked up a couple. Yeah they do come with the lame jokes and the paper crowns, but I left out some of the jokes because some of them were so lame and didn't make any sense. I still kept the crowns and stuffed them in because even though they're useless, they're kind of traditional for crackers. I made some for females and some for males, since I thought some cute rubbers from Daiso and EOS lip balms I found at Costco were great cracker stuffers along with some good Lindt chocolate balls.

I've also been thoroughly enjoying wrapping the presents. I wrapped all of the presents for cousins and everyone else under the tree except mine. I alternated between a cute light brown wrapping paper with red birds and various swirls/designs with red ribbon and brown kraft paper and red ribbon. I got both of the paper at K-Mart, and I got the kraft paper for only $5 and 10m of it? I thought that was a steal, 'cause I love the look of it with a nice brightly coloured ribbon. It's much thicker than wrapping paper, but it's still tearable, so it doesn't take too much fun out of it for the people who like to rip their paper, despite making me sad as I watch what I thought looked beautiful and took time ripped into shreds in a matter of seconds...and yes, I am one of those people who care about how pretty wrapped presents look. ._. 


I also love cooking and baking. We're doing most of the cooking, and I'm helping my mum out in the kitchen. I love potatoes, so I have to make huge amounts of roast potatoes (because who would say no to roast potatoes?) and I'm also making tiramisu and two ice-cream flavours with mochi. Mochi is one of my favourite toppings for ice-cream as it adds a bit of chewiness and texture to it. Mochi is made out of glutinous rice flour, water, sugar and optional colour and flavouring. When I eat it with ice-cream I prefer it plain with no colour or flavouring. This is the recipe that I use (which is not mine, but adapted from Honeysuckle Catering's Mochi Ice-Cream Recipe):

1/2 cup glutinous rice flour
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
Cornflour for dusting

Combine glutinous rice flour and water in a bowl. Once combined well, add sugar and mix until combined. 

Cover with some plastic wrap and put it in the microwave and microwave for 2 minutes (since I have a 1100 watt microwave, I do 1 1/2 minutes to be safe). 

Take it out and stir so it doesn't burn, and recover and microwave for a further 30 seconds. Take it out of the microwave and let it cool. 

Once it's cool enough to touch without burning yourself, put it on a well floured surface and knead until it's not sticky and well covered with the cornflour. You don't want it too sticky that it sticks all over your hands, and not too floury that all you get it flour when you eat it. 

Roll in out into a sausage shape, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Before you're ready to serve, cut it into bite sized pieces and top your ice-cream with it. 

It tastes better if you eat it the day you make it, or the day after (if making at night) as it gets hard after a couple of days. 

For the ice-cream I'm making this year, I haven't fully decided on the flavours, but I'm tossing up between caramelised pecan, candy cane, matcha green tea, vanilla bean and strawberry (which some I haven't tried, but will probably have to go with trial and error), not only because they're super festive (colours and flavours), but also because it's a great way to use up those candy canes that lie around. I love peppermint hot chocolate, but since we're blessed with the sunshine at Christmas, hot chocolate isn't the ideal drink. I don't really like eating candy canes plain, but in ice-cream? Everything's better in ice-cream! This is the recipe I use (which is not mine, but adapted (to Australian measurements) from Gemma Stafford's 6 Holiday Ice-Cream Recipes):

400ml condensed milk

500ml whipping cream/heavy cream

1 cup pecans, chopped

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup candy canes/peppermint sweets

Put the whipping cream in a bowl and whisk with an electric beater or stand up mixer until stiff peaks form. Pour in condensed milk and whisk until well combined. 

Split mixture in half. For caramelised pecans, place pecans, brown sugar and butter in a pan on medium-low heat. Once sugar has melted and browned, pour on to baking paper and when set, crumble into pieces. Mix into the ice-cream base. For candy canes, crush into small bits and fold into ice-cream base. Put into containers and freeze. It makes about 500ml each and tastes absolutely amazing.

I've used this recipe and added macadamias, honey nut cashews, vanilla extract and honey and it tasted amazing! I figured it would be Vanilla Honey Nut? It tasted good though, and that's what matters right?

For beauty, red is where it's at. Red and white is my kind of Christmas, since I'm not too fond of how green looks against my skin. I mean, where can you find green lipstick in the store anyway? I leave the greenery to my Christmas tree ^-^

I love my Etude House Fresh Cherry Lip Tint in 01 Cherry Red and Etude House Kissful Tint Choux in 01 Red Choux for my lips. It looks like a cherry pink-red on the lips rather than a true red though. I prefer the tints over lipstick because I can choose if I want slightly red lips or the full on red look. It's also super moisturising and doesn't come off when I eat and drink, avoiding those lip prints on your glasses, food and it won't get on your teeth! Although the lip print might be a good way to tell your cup apart from everyone else's! 

I've also been loving the NYX Butter Glosses in general. First of all, they smell absolutely amazing (compared to the Mega Shine Glosses; the artificial cough-syrup cherry scent is what put me off them despite their amazing reviews), like sweet sugar and vanilla cupcakes. As someone who loves to bake often, it's definitely a good scent in my books. The colour range is really nice, and I have the shades Red Velvet, Tiramisu and Angel Food Cake. Red Velvet is a nice red wit a blue undertone. which I really like on. Tiramisu is a pink based nude on my skin tone and Angel Food Cake is like a mauve-pink. Also, thumbs up for all the names, they make me crave cakes and desserts!

For nails I love the Kester Black Nail Polish for Bellabox in Coral Me Maybe, the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Brick Wall and the Essence Colour to Go Nail Polish in Fame Fatal. They're all very different kinds of reds, Coral Me Maybe being a bright coral-red, Brick Wall being a dark wine red and Fame Fatal being the true red. I have Coral Me Maybe on my nails right now. I got it in my October Bellabox, but it is available on the Bellabox store as it is made exclusively for Bellabox. It says on the Bellabox store: 

Exclusively created for Bellabox, this chip-resistant nail polish introduces a high-shine finish to your nails with a striking bright peach/coral shade. Made in Australia, this environmental friendly vegan polish protects our surroundings while helping you strike a trendy statement. It is free from toluene, DBP, camphor, formaldehyde and formaldehyde resin.

You can get away with two coats, and it goes on smoothly and has worn well for five days until chipping to the point where you need to redo them. Maybe it's my Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat, but I like it. The formula is great and the colour is nice and bright, but personally I wouldn't spend $20 on a nail polish ($6 is where I draw the line, considering I tend to want so many of the colours; I can't afford to want 10 colours and pay like $15 for them xD). Brick Wall is an Autumn/Winter favourite, but I thought I'd throw that one in there too. The formula is thinner than most polishes, but the Hard as Nails line wears really well, better than all my other nail polishes without a top coat (but the opaqueness of the colours do vary). The Essence polishes are always a fave for me, since the majority of the shades are really good. They go on smoothly with two coats for the most part, wear pretty well and the brush is fat, making it easy to apply the polish. For around $3 a piece, they're really worth it. I'll probably be wearing the Kester Black and the Essence one more. I mean, it's summery and bright days for us here, so why not embrace that? (Meaning, I still wear heaps of grey and black, but the colour on my nails make me somewhat summery..?)

Christmas music - one of my favourite aspects of Christmas. Can I just say now that Michael Buble's voice IS Christmas? It makes Christmas even more Christmas if even possible and I just love it. It's the album I've been jamming to since October (no shame) and puts me in the Christmassy mood. I love the whole album, but my favourites are 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas', 'Jingle Bells', 'White Christmas', 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town', 'All I Want for Christmas', 'Winter Wonderland', 'Santa Baby', 'Holly Jolly Christmas', 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)' and 'Blue Christmas'. 

I'm also loving Glee's Christmas Albums Volume 1 and 2. My favourites are 'Deck the Halls', 'Baby it's Cold Outside', 'Last Christmas', 'Jingle Bells', 'All I Want for Christmas is You', 'Santa Baby', 'Extraordinary Merry Christmas', 'Christmas Eve with You' and 'River'. 

Also, I've been obsessed with Amy and Ellen's Christmas single, 'Jesus, All We Need'. I love it, not only because their voices are absolutely breathtaking (as are they), but also because I love the lyrics 'cause to me, they perfectly represent the true meaning of Christmas. Also because the tune is lovely and, ugh I just love it. I mean, does the forty times I've listened to it in the past three days and the 5 stars I've given it say anything about it? 

Well there is one Christmassy full blog post, and by the way, less than a week 'till Christmas? WHO ELSE IS SO FREAKING EXCITED??!???!!

- Jess xo