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What is your favorite thing to do for xmas/new year's holidays?

Curios for new ideas on how to recharge, enjoy small moments, create more cozy and enjoyable holidays :)

Listening to old school Christmas music. Spotify has a good playlist. Drinking warm, spiced beverages, making fires and reading books!
oooh love good xmas songs <3 :)
Any playlist you can share? :) Also if you are inspired, check this thread for reading lists! https://elpha.com/posts/1yu5khdn/what-were-the-best-books-you-ve-read-in-2022
Bake cookies. I do lots of holiday baking around this time. Before Christmas I spent a lot of time wrapping presents, listening to Christmas music, and watching holiday movies.
Any favourite Xmas movies? And what is your favourite baking recipe?
Miracle on 34th Street is my favorite Christmas movie. I like the 1947 movie the best. It just doesn't feel like Christmas without watching it at least once. My favorite baking recipe is gingerbread. Every year I make homemade gingerbread cake around the holidays.
I love all these! :) How was your gingerbread this year?
Delicious! My fiance has especially been enjoying all the gingerbread.
YUM! Lucky fiance! :D
Nah I'm the lucky one. My fiance is an amazing cook so he's always cooking amazing meals for me. So baking for him is just one of the ways I show my appreciation to him.
We love partners who uplift each other #goalsWhat does he cook?
He cooks lots of different things. He's a big foodie so he loves trying different foods, using different ingredients, and exploring different cuisines. He cooks lots of things such as carbonara to duck breast. When we started dating, he made homemade stuffed peppers for my birthday dinner and cut up fresh fruit to decorate a store-bought cake he bought for us to share. A few months ago we went to one of his friend's friendsgiving party and he brought 3 different kinds of wings he made as well as duck fat gravy for the jojo wedges to go along with the wings.
Does he have a brother? A cousin who picked the same skills up? Just asking for a friend LOL
Haha he does have a brother, but his brother is married. He has a cousin but he's not a good cook. My fiance is such a good cook because he spent time working in kitchens when he was younger and learning to cook with his grandma.
Haha oh well
I exercise a LOT, I normally workout on the regular but during this phase I do it every day: I do some cardio (I am runner at heart so I must run), then I do some strength (arms/back/chest ie. upper body or abs or full body or lower only but I try to either stack or rotate routines). I also go on solo walks in different parts of the city, meet friends for drinks, or just catching up sessions with themI also listen to a lot of podcasts :)
stay at home and do house projects / personal creative projects. reading, too! :) I also used to ride a LOT when I had horses during the holiday season. I am starting riding again after a few month break in the new year, sad to have missed horses during the holiday season...there's something about jumping old live Christmas trees during a coaching session that is very nostalgic to me. it is a bit of a tradition we did as kids growing up in Pony Club. That & the smell of hay, pine, and cold air (northern hemisphere here) is just perfect.
Awe that's so wholesome! What have been some of the recent projects you've taken up?
photography (I have a small canon that I take maybe 1 decent photo out of 500, haha) & I started mentoring and decoding personal finance for women. It is mostly happening by happenstance at the moment, but I am looking to lean into more creativity with content and unique approaches that half lean into capitalism and half look for ways to buck against it :)
I love this! Maybe I should join one of your personal finance workshop? I was doing so well up until 2021 when I started business school (yikes hahaha)
I would love to soft launch some workshops/content with Elpha. You just gave me the mental push to expand from 1:1 sessions to something more workshop like. Ooof B-school is one of those things that totally can push your finances into crazy-town territory. I am a big fan of looking for ways in the tax code to give you a bit of cash flow back: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-benefits-for-education-information-center
OMG this IRS resource is GREAT - I definitely used some of the qualified education expenses last year but I feel like I could leverage a bit more! Need to talk to my accountant and get on my taxes earlier this year! :-DI am so glad I gave the mental push :-D and yes please def do workshops and let us know when you have them!
I've taken up doing LEGO sets. Totally disconnecting (Except to download the instructions), just working with my hands is quite relaxing.
ooh sounds super relaxing :) what kits are they, which theme?
A little Bonsai tree -- I can change it from green branches to cherry blossoms!
I am obsessed with Legos! Which one are you building?
I love the plant and artist ones (Also the Great Pyramid of Giza one, but that's quite a lot of pieces....maybe I'll work up to it before the year is done.)I finished the Bonsai Tree today and will probably get the succulent one next;https://twitter.com/runtcpip/status/1609023520154984450
We go to Holiday In the Park at our local Six Flags. My sisters and some of the kids come. The park has fire pits and s’mores and hot chocolate. Highly recommend as a great place to see lights and performances. We also grew up crafting and enjoy it. So we painted pottery one day, we painted acrylic pictures at my sisters house, and I sewed a few things at home.
That's amazing! Which location did you go to? That sounds like a really wholesome end of the year, Wendy. What did you sew?
Thanks we’ve made it a tradition and enjoy going. We went to Six Flags in Jackson NJ. My mom passed away earlier in the year and I saved a few of her favorite shirts. I made memory pillows, ornament hearts, and ⛄️ ornaments for my kids, sisters, and nieces. I ordered iron-ons from StickerYou to include a note.
I am so sorry to hear about your mother's passing :( sending you love and hugs! This is an incredibly sweet way to honour her memory :)