It’s Christmastime In The City

Written by on in Dessert, Dinner, Lunch, The Lazy Chef, Tidbits and Treats

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and last night Bobby and I celebrated City Christmas! Our tree was decked out rather nicely this year, if I do say so myself.

City Christmas is what I have dubbed one of the most fantastic nights of the holiday season – the one where Bobby and I make a delicious dinner, drink wine and decorate our 5′ tall, apartment-approved artificial Christmas tree, all while listening to our favorite holiday music.

During the day, we made a trip to Costco (cha-ching…ouch!) and Target for some food and gifts. Bobby helped us fuel up for the long haul with homemade soup: chicken broth with frozen vegetables, turkey, DeCio Tomato Basil Garlic Pasta (an absolute must-try we found during our recent trip to Arizona!) and Parmesan cheese. It was perfectly filling for our adventure.

By the time we made it back from shopping, which included plenty of lovely Chicago 24/7 traffic, we were ready for dinner. Correction: We were ready for the wine that would be served with dinner.

Traffic was a PITA (my not-so-subtle food acronym for a major annoyance), but the wine was a welcome relief. Bobby went to town on dinner and served us up a delicious chicken stir-fry.

We also shared a bowl of edamame seasoned with salt.

Then it was tree time! We had a blast and caught up on some Glee once the ornaments were up and the lights were lit. A few hours later, I got the urge to make us a Christmas treat.

Chocolate-Nospresso Mint Snowcaps! These might have been the best yet – they kept their snowy caps better than any other batch I’ve made. I owe it to the double dosage of powdered sugar.

I was inspired to make these after being featured on my good friend Brittany’s blog earlier this week. She is currently doing a “12 Days of Cookies” series and these crinkle cookies were featured on the first day, along with Julie’s Brown Sugar Wheat Germ Cookies. Those are next on my list!

For now, Bobby and I will be gobbling up these minty chocolate delights.

Now that’s what I call a City Christmas. 😉

Do you have a Christmas and/or holiday tradition you look forward to every year?

Hope you all have been enjoying your weekend!

P.S. It’s snowing on my blog again! I love that WordPress feature.

Abrazos,

24 Comments

  1. What an awesome tradition, Jenn! We do something like this too each year. It’s good to just spend a night in and enjoy each other. These are seriously the best times with your husband (in my opinion). Dinner looked delicious too. I need to try those cookies!

  2. What a beautiful tree! It sounds like Seth and I have our own City Christmas every year right here in Raleigh. I have an artificial tree I put up every year too (I usually spend most of the season in Birmingham, so it doesn’t really make sense to get a real one). We like to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon) while putting it up 🙂

  3. It sounds like you and Bobby had a wonderful day of getting into the Christmas spirit. Your tree looks wonderful, as do the cookies.

    Every year I get together with my nanny, mom, sister and nieces to bake cookies. It’s such a fun day hanging out with the girls. I look forward to it each December!

    PS – I love the snow – it’s so festive.

  5. My roommate and I had a little decorating party, too- not as festive as yours, though! Although, we did light a Christmas-scented candle, so we had that going for us. Oh, and sticker shock always sucks at Costco, but your goods always last you for a really long time- so worth it.

  6. The tree looks VERY cute! And the cookies look amazeballs. I am so in a cookie baking mood again 🙂 I could make cookies every day in December and not get sick of it! We just got our tree yesterday- I need to decorate it!

  8. SUCH a great tradition! I’ve honestly not really had any traditions because I’ve moved a lot but I think that I am slowly building them up now. I’ve been living with the same awesome roommate for the past 2 years and, for the past 2 years, we spent the first Saturday after Thanksgiving buying a mini-real Christmas tree, decorating it and then had a party at our house. It’s been a really nice way to celebrate the beginning of the season with all our friends and I hope it becomes a yearly tradition!

    • Thanks, Irina! That’s awesome that you and your roommate by a real Christmas tree. The one thing I miss more than anything is the smell of pine needles! A scented candle just doesn’t quite compare!

  10. Aw – your tree is so pretty! I love it!

    I think next year I’m going to take a break from reading blogs in December – there’s just too many amazing baked goods out there that are begging for me to make (and eat!) them! 🙂 That being said, it’s still this year and I think I need to make some of those crinkle cookies! 🙂

    • Thanks, Molly! I agree with you – all of the baked goods are so tempting. I wish I had time to make all of them – and then give them to as many people as possible so I did not eat them all! 😉

  12. Lovely Christmas tree Jenn. Peanutbutter blossom cookies (I use sunbutter instead of peanutbutter due to peanut allergies) have always been a favorite Christmas cookie but these Snowcap Mint cookies are a new favorite…chocolate and mint…a great combo.

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