553. Christmas Week

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a nice Christmas/holiday season!!! As you can see, I took a little un-expected break off from blogging/social media this past week. I went to my mom's and dad's places for a few days over Christmas to spend time with my family and it was nice to just relax for a few days and have a semi-break from the online world. We went to a midnight mass on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day, my sister and I went to watch the new Star Wars movie. On the other days, we (mostly I) had Planet Earth marathons. I got my dad the Planet Earth 2 dvds as one of his presents which I was actually very excited about as I've been wanting to watch them since the release this year. The first Planet Earth is still my favourite documentary series ever. After I finished watching the new ones I started re-watching the original ones again. The film quality of the new series is really amazing and very impressive how they managed to capture some of the scenes on camera. They inspire me to want to see all parts of the world someday. Besides watching that, we also watched movies, baked two cakes and a loaf of bread, made a lot of soup (I was quite sick for a few days) and I took Hennessy out a lot for walks and to play in the snow. My parents live about half an hour north of me so there was a lot more snow up there than I have in downtown. & it was Hennessy's first time going in snow almost as tall as him.

This was a chocolate picture I wanted to give my sister. I bought it a few days before I was supposed to give it to her, and left it in the bag beside a window. Then when I took it out for a look, I was horrified to see half of it had melted!! lol. I had to rush to try to get another one but unfortunately they had all sold out by then..so I bought her some others instead. & still gave her this one as well. Interesting fact about me: I actually don't like chocolate at all. I love all other types of sweet stuff though (such as candy) but not chocolate. Everyone I know loves it though so I gave it a lot this Christmas.

My new Adidas/Stellasport/Stella McCartney "disco tights" (with my pet shoes)!! I love them so much. Since I started doing yoga and needing yoga/exercise clothes, I've been obsessed with Adidas..Stellasport in particular. I want to get the whole collection.

A few nights before Christmas, my sister, my mom and I went for a dinner at Day & Night Steakhouse. We come here quite a lot. Their lobster bisque soup is really good and my favourite is the butterfly garlic shrimp (in the photo below)







At another place for more desserts

Now here are a bunch of random photos during our days uptown! I brought Hennessy into the backyard to play but I think the high level of snow made it quite difficult for him to run around lol. Would've been nicer in freshly fallen snow.


This is Blueberry. We had him since I was in grade 7 I think..so he is quite old now :( He is a blue point Himalayan cat.


In my dad's aquarium...





Found a very comfy spot/wishing I would stop snapping pics



Chocolates by David Chow (2 are missing/eaten already). I gave this to my sister as well.


My sickness/chicken noodle soup

This is my favourite!! It's sooo good. I love gingerbread. This is a gingerbread cake/bread from Williams Sonoma. We also made a chocolate chip one (below). With my mom I also made a loaf of bread (completely from scratch). Bread actually takes so much more effort and time than cake does. You have to knead the dough a few times and wait some time in between to let it expand before kneading it again. The result was well worth it though. It tasted really good..I took some pics but unfortunately I deleted them by accident =\



I also made a lot of vegetable soup.

I came back downtown a couple days ago. Yesterday my mom came down and we went to Yorkville for some shopping. We had lunch at a cozy Italian restaurant called Dimmi. I love the atmosphere here and the pasta is delicious!






So this could be my last post for 2016!! I think 2017 will be quite an eventful year for me. Well so far I have a couple major things planned. Maybe I'll talk about them more next time. I hope you all have a wonderful and fun new year's eve!

FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | BLOGLOVIN'

552. Recent Life | The Week before Christmas

I love the Christmas season! I always do more and take a lot of photos during this time that I can barely keep up with my blog. I also love buying presents and festive food like the gingerbread and macarons above (from Nadege)..as well as Williams Sonoma of course! They're always my favourite 2 places to shop at this time of year. So this week has been quite eventful..here is a big photo update:

Last Sunday my friend and I went to the Christmas Market at the Distillery District. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing because I hadn't planned to go there this year. But that day it finally snowed here in downtown, and I felt it would've made the perfect atmosphere! I know they are usually extremely busy on weekends, but because there was so much snow that day not a lot of people went and we didn't have to line up at all. Apparently some people lined up 2 hours on some days. It was so much fun and festive!








Apple cider is my favourite winter drink!! I remember the first year when I went to the Christmas Market (it was also the first year they did it), I had so much Glühwein and was obsessed with it. We had it beside a fire pit which now they don't have..actually they do have them on a restaurant patio this year but it's not as authentic. The first year they actually made the fire with logs and they had to keep turning the logs and putting more in as they burned. The ashes kept flying in my face but I loved it. This year they only have gas fire pits (I think) and not that many of them as before.



I really want to visit a Christmas Market in Europe one year..especially in Germany. It's one of the things on my bucket list. Maybe next year...?

For dinner we decided to come back to our area/Beer Bistro. I always get the salmon dish when I come now. It's the best salmon I've had in Toronto. They changed it now unfortunately..but this one is still good. One of the reasons I love blogging is to document my life so I can read back in the future..here is an example. THIS (in the first photo) is what their salmon used to be like.

Afterwards, we went to the Royal York Hotel for some dessert at their Library Bar. I wanted to come here to see their Christmas decorations as well. It always feels so cozy here and I love coming around the holidays. This year it looks like they didn't do much decor though..before they had a train going around the tree, a huge gingerbread house, Christmas Carol carvings/statues, etc.






Festive nails!

Finally here is a non Christmas related photo lol. They are hair products I bought from Japan. It's my favourite..the scent is soooo nice (smells kind of like peach). I've bought them here as well but obviously they're a lot more expensive here. In Japan they're just like regular drugstore hair products. They're really good though. I wanted to buy more while I was there but they were just too heavy to bring back.

Here is my view which you've probably seen me post a million times already..but I can never get tired of it. The sky looked really cool that evening so I had to take a shot. It looks better in person though.

Gingerbread snowman!! I bought a box of these as well as the white/sugar cookie version. They're sooo good. Gingerbread is my favourite food during the holidays (while apple cider is my favourite drink). They are from Mad Batter Bakers - I think they make the best gingerbread.



For apple cider, my favourite is from Williams Sonoma and Second Cup (but the Second Cup ones are really hard to find).

Last night I went out with a friend from my building and her friend who I met for the first time. We went to Cactus Club's rooftop lounge. It was a lot of fun! Luckily Cactus Club is connected to my building from the underground path, so we didn't have to venture out in the snowstorm or bring coats either. Also I was able to wear heels instead of the moon boots you see behind me in the photo below hahah. After that we came back to our lobby bar for some late night food. & met some interesting engineers after their work party in my building's ballroom.


Here was my outfit!



FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | BLOGLOVIN'