My Holiday confession is a shocking one I tell you. I love to bake all kinds of goodies, but can you believe that I have never made my own gingerbread cookies? I know it’s a disgrace as I bake all varieties throughout the year. Don’t get me wrong I have built the gingerbread houses that come in kits, but that never seems quite the same as baking homemade versions. It just doesn’t seem right. With Christmas like 2 weeks away I am running out of time to make this happen. I really have made a big problem for myself. I’ve looked online at the daunting recipes with tons of ingredients I don’t keep in my small spice rack. 

I can remember cooking a ton of recipes with my grandmother when I was little but I don’t think Gingerbread ever crossed the countertop as we baked many great recipes. Remembering is what I try to do as I lost my grandmother years ago, but I can still remember so many yummy recipes. I thought the best way to keep memories alive was to continue to do what we did best which is being in the kitchen cooking tons of recipes. I achieved greatness 2 years ago when I replicated my grandmother’s divinity recipe. That is as tricky as it gets, but well worth the trial and error. 

As my mom asked me what did I want to make on our Annual Christmas baking day, gingerbread cookies were the only thing on my mind. There is something magical yet traditionalistic about gingerbread cookies. Gingerbread cookies are surprisingly iconic and fit in with the best Christmas traditions. 

So what’s the plan? Well I am planning to find the best Gingerbread recipe, successfully find all required ingredients and bake the cutest and most tasty gingerbread cookies ever. I say, “plan to” as I am still looking for the perfect recipe. However, now that I have a plan the search it on! If you have any great recipes for Gingerbread, please leave them below. Until again, Merry Christmas!

Take a break. Take a Saturday morning off. Do something for yourself. For once, take a moment to enjoy life. I know easier said than done, but seriously think about it. Sounds crazy, maybe so but it’s a necessity. We all live very busy lives that often leave us a bit lack luster. As a workaholic I understand how life can spin out of control. Every once in a while we all need to let off some steam. Well my Saturday morning is how I do it.

However, even I will admit that we need to recharge the batteries every once in a while. As something that’s not married, has no children, but chooses to work as many hours as my body can take I find that by the weekend I am pretty much spent and still trudging on.

I am not a morning person by any means, but I have found a routine and compromise to help keep my sanity even in the most stressful times. It’s actually pretty simple. I take Saturday morning for myself. Before the madness of my workaholic kicks in, where I head into the office to work on a backload of work, I spend the morning doing whatever I want. Most of the time, this ends up with sipping hot coffee while watching whatever is playing on food network. I do work a bit on my planner for the next week and jump into a tad bit of work by going through emails as they come in.

Between my personal email accounts and work account I am not sure which email gets overloaded first, but I would say I receive about 200 emails a day so taking a moment to cull through them is crucial. I typically listen to a playlist of music when culling through emails, as this also seems to help get my brain working properly.

By the time I get through this it’s time that my inner thoughts are ready to kick me out the door. So I quickly get a shower and head into work. I normally spend anywhere from 6-20 hours of my weekend in the office.

I like to work but I also think that taking some time for you is very important. Regardless if it’s spending time in the pool or laying around watching TV. You need to take time for yourself as much as you can so that you can take moment to enjoy life and be yourself.Happy Monday, I hope you had a wonderful weekend!