250 Cookies Baked: Check!

Good morning! I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas- I know I did. Our Christmas Eve cookie baking adventure was a huge success, which definitely set the tone for the whole day. I just read Rachel's Christmas recap, and I loved the way she wrote it, so I'll do the same. 

I bet your Christmas was fabulous, but was it......

bake 250 Christmas cookies fabulous?


eat one too many snowman cookies fabulous?



deliver said cookies in person on Christmas day and see faces light up fabulous?

coffee and hot cocoa in front of the tree on Christmas morning fabulous?

Penguin wrapping paper fabulous?

Beautiful handmade bracelets fabulous?

Tell me about it in the comments below!

xo, Hima

In With the Old, and In With the New?

Hey y'all- no witty first line for you today, because I'm too excited for Christmas!


It's tomorrow y'all. I've been keeping track on my Christmas countdown since December 1st!

I've been seeing a lot on all of your blogs about Christmas traditions, so I decided to share some of my family's traditions. A couple of weeks ago, I talked about how we decorate the tree together, but we don't stop there.

Every year, we pile into the minivan with blankets and some food and drive around looking at the lights- Christmas music on full blast of course. This year, Bee made our family a CD (mixtape sounds SO much cooler) full of Christmas music, so we jammed out to that.

San Jose has a huge Christmas in the Park festival every year, and we've made it out there a grand total of twice. Regardless, it was lots of fun, especially the ferris wheel.

yes, I know the quality of this is about as low as my dogs tail when she knows she's in trouble. Deal with it. 

Look how cute this little train is! 

I know that a lot of these are trivial, but they mean a lot to me. Even though we're all growing up, and I'll be in college in a mere two years, I'll always remember decorating the tree together, or sharing a cup of hot chocolate at Christmas in the park. Amid all the junior year craziness, I know my family always has my back, and these traditions just affirm that. 

Every year, we make more and more traditions and this year marks the "let's make Christmas cookies for the neighborhood!" tradition. 

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone, and take time to appreciate your family a little more. 

xo, Hima

16 days.

until the greatest day of the entire year. That's right, even better than my birthday. 

If you can do the math, you might have realized that I'm talking about Christmas. 

y'all. I love Christmas. 

I'm talking the Pandora Christmas station 24/7, Hallmark movies upon Hallmark movies, randomly wearing Santa hats around the house, mugs of steaming hot cocoa, and Christmas sweaters galore. 

Basically, my inner 5 year old comes out.
Something about the general happiness and the giving spirit makes me so happy!
The overabundance of sweets is definitely a pro too. 

See what I mean? And yes, we are well aware that the ornament to tree ratio is entirely too high. 

In my family, we always decorate the house together with Christmas music on full blast- I look forward to it all year!

The nice thing about manual focus is the ability to do this. 

What, your dog doesn't have a stocking? 

#iworeitbetter

On Saturday, I volunteered at an event at my school where the teachers bring in their kids and we do Christmas crafts with them for a couple of hours + they get to see Santa. 

Highlight of my day: Shelby (above) running back from the car and hugging me around the knees before she left. Heart-melted. 

What are your family Christmas traditions? Tell me in the comments below! :)

P.S. I was featured on All Things Christmas for my cupcakes from last week- check 'em out! 

xo, Hima