As some of you may know, last year's Christmas was a Christmas dream. I made tons of Christmas treats, decorated our house from top to bottom, bought fancy wrapping paper to wrap all our presents in, and had plenty of lovely "tea times" with some very special women.
This year, however, our house could not look more different. We bought these ornament balls at the grocery store the other day. We bought some ribbon at Ikea. I put them in a bowl. Then I sat down. I had just finished Christmas decorating.
It's all pretty sad, I know. But what can you do? All of our beautiful decorations are at home and it certainly wasn't priority to bring the Christmas pot holders with matching tea towels. Just not going to happen. So we settle on a bowl of ornaments.
I can't complain, though. Really. We have some pretty sweet plans for the Christmas holidays and I am making my sister's famous thumbprint cookies today so things are looking up.
So while you're sitting 'round your Christmas tree this holiday season, lights aglow, Boney M playing in the background, snacking on some delicious white chocolate fudge, think of me. In Russia. Gathered 'round my ornament bowl. Listening to Charlie Brown Christmas. Eating thumbprint cookies. I'll most likely be thinking of you.
So today we went grocery shopping. But it wasn't just your average trip, I did some research, talked to Sara, and reached way down inside myself and pulled out some inspiration. And then I came home and baked cookies!
Okay, they're not exactly like the cookies I would've baked in Canada. I used all white sugar because the brown sugar here is basically white sugar consistency, chocolate bar cut up instead of chips, vanilla sugar instead of vanilla extract (which doesn't exist in Russia) and everything else was pretty much the same. I discovered I had baking soda in my cupboard all along and Sara gave me some baking powder she got in the US. The results were.....average, partially because my oven heats very inconsistently. But the house smells great and I couldn't be happier.
Here's a picture of the results. I figured you needed a break from pictures of me holding whatever product I was discussing. Yikes, three posts in a row like that, you'd think I had some kind of complex or something.
I also made my first batch of borscht a couple of days ago. It's got beets, potatoes, carrots, onions, mmmmm, very yummy. A little dollop of smetana (sour cream) and some fresh dill and it tastes oh so good.
So as you can see, I'm quite the little domestic diva here. Now we just need some farmer sausage and I'll feel right at home.......
As some of you may know, last year's Christmas was a Christmas dream. I made tons of Christmas treats, decorated our house from top to bottom, bought fancy wrapping paper to wrap all our presents in, and had plenty of lovely "tea times" with some very special women.
