happy december!

december is the most magical of months.

i can feel the christmas spirit already!

(okay, maybe that's because i've been playing christmas music since november 1...)

i cannot wait to get started on my christmas shopping!

picking out the perfect gift for someone is just as good as, if not better than, receiving a gift, in my opinion.

today is also my last (official) day of classes for the semester.

man oh man, how time flies.

just got some loose ends to tie up

(in the form of 2 15-page papers and a final exam)

and then i'm home free!

hope this first day of december is warm and snuggly for you!

Christmas Wrap-Up

The Archer family Christmas this year was relaxed, chill, low-key, etc. and I could not be more thankful for that. My life in Berkeley is so crazy that it's nice to just hang out when I come home. Here is my Christmas in pictures:

On Christmas Eve Eve, I went on a baking tear and wound up baking about 12 dozen cookies. I baked from 11AM to 6PM straight without taking a break to sit down (and didn't even realize how badly my feet hurt!) Needless to say, I gave out a lot of cookies as gifts and my family will have cookies for weeks!

These were my favorite of all the cookies I made! I found a recipe on a blog (which is actually what really inspired me to write my own) and decided I needed to make them. They were a huge pain to make as they are incredibly labor-intensive (and I heard they kind of taste like play-doh, but I didn't actually try any) but they sure look cute!

My favorite part of any Christmas dinner is my mom's Mulligatawny soup. She's made it for years, and in the years since I stopped eating meat she always makes me my own chicken-free batch! And she uses vegetable broth for all of it. Lucky for me, my mom is infamous for making way too much food for every holiday meal, so she freezes the extra soup and we can eat it months later. My mom's recipe comes from a cookbook she got as a wedding present, but a comparable recipe can be found here.

After we all recovered from our food comas, we played a game of Apples to Apples (family tradition at any holiday celebration). If you have yet to play this game, get on it! It's so simple but so much fun. I mostly like it because I always win (I know how to cater to my audience!) The cards you have at the end are supposed to describe your personality, but I don't know how accurate mine were (I mean, c'mon, smelly?).

Dress: old, I think it's from Nordstrom; Scarf: Urban Outfitters; Belt: Forever 21

And to round out the Christmas pictures, here are my youngest sister Paige and I. She's only 16 but she's as tall as I am and is growing up to be one of the most gorgeous women I've ever known. She's also really funny. Our middle sister Kendall had to work on Christmas Eve. :(

Today I feel like I have a food hangover. But don't worry, I'm eating more. My mom's sister and her family are Jewish (but celebrate Christmas with us), so my aunt always makes potato pancakes when she's here. Delish.

Plans for the rest of the day: I have to answer some emails and finish up some sorority stuff, which I'm working on now. Kendall has to work again this afternoon, so Paige and I might drop her off and shop, then pick her up and we'll all have dinner. Because I clearly need to keep eating. Oh, life. I also have a bunch of arts&crafts projects I wanna try this break, so I might hit up Michael's for supplies.

Upcoming: pictures of my favorite presents! And the (potentially worthless) New Year's Resolutions post. Maybe if they're written down in the blogosphere I can actually stick to them! We'll see.