The Real Deal

We love the holidays.  And by we, I mean the women in my family!  My mom, grandma, and I would start decorating for Christmas on November 1st if we could.  Excessive?  Absolutely.  But the Christmas season is incredibly short, so we like to soak up as much of it as possible before it’s over. About a month or so ago, my mom made reservations for a pop up Christmas bar in St. Louis.  There are a few around St. Louis, but the one we were going to is called Miracle STL.  We had a kind of off time for a reservation, 4:30 on a Tuesday.  All of the tables in the bar are reservation only, but the bar is first come first serve.  You can also only stay at the table for a certain amount of time, depending on how many people are a part of the reservation.  We had 3 people, so we could stay for an hour and fifteen minutes.  That way people aren’t hogging tables and everyone can get a chance to enjoy the bar! There were two drink menus,...

One thing that I’ve always been obsessed with are Charcuterie boards.  Cheese is one of my favorite foods, and all the different combinations on one plate make for a great appetizer.  I’ve even gone out with my mom and all we’ve eaten is the cheese board and been full and satisfied! I’ve been wanting to make our own charcuterie board since over the summer, and we’ve just never had a good time to do it.  My family is very small, so most of our gatherings are very informal and we didn’t want our board to go to waste.  We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year, and my mom and I thought that this would be the perfect time to finally break out the cheese board.  We did spend quite a large amount on everything for the cheese board, but it was so worth it and it all went over well. CHEESE Brie // This was probably everyone’s favorite out of the entire board.  My mom topped the brie with cranberry sauce (not the jelly, the regular sauce), wrapped it ...

As you all know, I make Spotify playlists seasonally with my favorite songs at the moment.  Instead of including it in my Winter playlists, I have a playlist on Spotify called “Ultimate Christmas”.  This way I get my Christmas music fix in and can keep all of my favorite songs together. I add to it almost every year, so here is what I have on it so far! MISTLETOE // JUSTIN BIEBER ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU // MARIAH CAREY LAST CHRISTMAS // WHAM! ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE // BRENDA LEE HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS // MICHAEL BUBLE SANTA TELL ME // ARIANA GRANDE DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS? // BAND AID STEP INTO CHRISTMAS // ELTON JOHN IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS // MICHAEL BUBLE BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE // IDINA MENZEL, MICHAEL BUBLE HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) // JOHN LENNON HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS // SAM SMITH COLD DECEMBER NIGHT // MICHAEL BUBLE IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR ...