To be honest, I probably figured it out way before that but the first big plan I made that went completely awry was my birth plan with HBear 😆. Ninja, our midwife and I all planned a natural childbirth filled with love and soft music. After 30 hours of labour, I realized that the music made me throw up, I had to get an epidural because I was being rushed into an emergency C-section, and my midwife was there but a doctor performed the birth. Birth Plan?!?! Did I really think that I could preplan something that was completely out of my control? 😂
Oh and then there is our wedding! When we chose to get married in a desert in August who could’ve planned a red alert thunderstorm? Not I! Did I really think that I could preplan the weather? 😂
Since 2020 I have embraced the “not everything goes as planned” lifestyle. When everything in your life is up in the air it seems to be a lot easier to go with the flow. Yes there have been some major disappointments. Yes I have been angry that I try to make plans and they all go up in smoke because pandemics, wildfires, heat domes, flooding and polar vortexes?! However, I got lax. I forgot that 2021 was the year of plans 💥 I got too darn excited to celebrate my 1st Christmas with my nieces. I should’ve known 😒.
2 days before Christmas Eve SBean spiked a fever. The next day it hit me. I called the doctor but they are closed until January 3. I called the Covid testing site but they are so overwhelmed right now that they couldn’t offer us a test and instead told us to quarantine for 7 days. Yesterday we were finally able to take tests and they were negative! Today is our last day of quarantine and our colds are finally starting to subside!
It wasn’t the way I wanted to spend Christmas but like I keep on telling SBean, Christmas has not been canceled! We had a wonderful Christmas with just our family and our new puppy. We postponed our family dinner and opening her presents until we are feeling better to make sure that we are as safe as possible. It’s not what I wanted but it was the right decision.
I hope everyone had the Christmas they planned and if not, 1 that was just as good! My hope for all of us in 2022 is to be able to start making plans again 😆💛.
Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? Episode #256: A Squeaky Christmas HERE! This week, we (& Oliver) get together after a quiet & wonderful Christmas. Topics: wrapping rolls, friends, Time Winery, Syd falls ill, Christmas Eve & Day, cold, 90’s music trivia, xmas magic & documentaries.
This week on Our Liner Notes Matt and Chris welcomed me to discuss the music of some of our favourite Christmas films! Check out part 2, HERE!
Ever heard of Half Baked Harvest? It’s a food blog. No, it’s an amazing food blog! I started following her years ago but her recipes looked so intimidating! Maybe it’s because she’s a fantastic photographer and all of her food looks like it would take hours to make. One day I tried one of her recipes and the flavours were outstanding and to my amazement, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was! Since then I have tried a ton of her recipes and not one of them have ever disappointed us! I’m not going to lie, for the average home cook some of these recipes using ingredients you may not have. Some of the recipes may encourage you to try techniques you’ve never tried before. But isn’t that the fun part of cooking?
Every Christmas morning since I can remember we have had my Mom’s overnight Christmas casserole and cinnamon buns. When I was little the cinnamon buns were from Pillsbury and they were out of a tube. Can’t lie, I love those things! When Ninja and I began celebrating Christmas as a family we got cinnamon buns freshly made from Safeway and they were so yummy! Over the past few years we have picked them up from Cobs Bakery and 1 year I even made them myself! This year we wanted to try something new, this year we wanted to add chocolate to our breakfast! This recipe looked incredibly intimidating but was actually incredibly easy! We made them the day before and popped them into the oven in the morning with our casserole and ta-da fresh baked cinnamon chocolate pull apart bread! Thank you Half Baked Harvest!
Chocolate Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Wreath
Adapted from Half Baked Harvest
3/4 cup warm milk
1 envelope rapid rise yeast
1 tablespoon honey
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the milk, yeast, and honey. Let sit 5-10 minutes, until bubbly on top.
Add 4 tablespoons butter, eggs, 3 1/2 cups flour, and salt. Using the dough hook, mix until the flour is completely incorporated, about 4-5 minutes. If the dough is still sticky, add the additional 1/2 cup flour, adding more as needed until the dough is smooth to touch.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
In a bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon. Butter a tube pan.
Transfer the dough to a work surface and cut into 4 equal pieces. Working with 1 dough piece at a time, on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle (roughly 14×10 inches).
Arrange stacks in the buttered tube pan, standing up like little books, allowing gaps between dough pieces.
This week started off with a lovely visit with some old friends. 6 years ago I joined the board for SBean’s preschool and made some amazing relationships with some pretty phenomenal women. It was so nice to see them after all this time! HBear & SBean had baking play dates with their friends who happen to be sisters and then SBean went to her DanceBesty’s birthday party. HBear and her GBestie attempted hot cocoa macarons with marshmallow buttercream and they were absolutely delicious! Ninja finished our family Christmas puzzle and the girls cuddled him up! I got a much-needed haircut and Ninja and I went on a much-needed date night to Time Winery! We had a wonderful tasting at the wine bar and then a delicious dinner capped off with an amazing dessert!
We watched Christmas movies, baked gingerbread man, and made Christmas wreaths. The Girls went to Grandma and Grandpa’s for their annual gingerbread house making and HBear helped Grandma bake her famous shortbread!
On Christmas Eve HBear made us a delicious charcuterie board for lunch while we prepped for Christmas breakfast. We needed to get out of the house but didn’t want to come in contact with anybody so we took Oliver for a walk on the beach! It was cold but gorgeous! Because we are already out we took a drive through the city looking at all the beautiful Christmas lights! When we got home the Girls opened up our Christmas Eve box from Maynard. This year he gave us the movie Scrooged, yummy snacks, and cute matching PJs! We played a Christmas game, got ready for Santa and then off to bed!
Christmas was nice and relaxed. When the Girls got up at 8 AM they saw that Santa came! They both got the present they asked for, HBear got her electric drum set while SBean got her Movie Magic LOL Surprise. We all spoiled each other rotten and we weren’t done opening her presents until almost lunchtime! Of course we had my Mom’s famous Christmas breaky with our pull apart bread and yet still sound room for Ninja’s Christmas dinner, beef tenderloin, roasted potatoes, glazed carrots, and huge Yorkshire puddings with gravy!
Despite our head colds and despite our change in plans, I feel so blessed. Happy Holidays friends, I wish you all nothing but the best in 2022!
