I tend to find Christmas more stressful than enjoyable. Which is strongly related to the fact that I have to share myself around 3 separate Christmases at 3 different locations, all in the one day. 
It's not that I don't want to see everyone, I just find it difficult to manage, and I try to spend a good amount of time at each place. This year went pretty smoothly and was relatively stress free. Here's a look at my three Christmases. 

Even though there's no real reason for not baking gingerbread all year round, I still keep it for Christmas time. I think that's what makes it more special. Like saving gingerbread, eggnog and Love Actually, right until December. So you get the full and good experience. 
You can make this gingerbread quite thin, so that it cooks hard and crunchy, more like the traditional Gingerbread, or you can have each cookie a bit thicker so that you have a softer cookie. Both are delicious, and the option is yours. 

In our Christmas Outfits.

I'm super excited to do more posts now that we have our couples Christmas present, a brand new Sony Camera! We are still learning how to use it, but it's super nifty, and now we'll be able to take great photos while we are on Vacation in February! Obviously a bonus is that I can now take sweet blog photos too!


I was super spoilt this Christmas by my family! And I wasn't even expecting it! Here are just some of the goodies that I was gifted, in preparation for my moving in January. I looove the blue DeLonghi Kettle & matching 4 slice toaster! They have brown leather accents which really tie in with the rest of the house. (You'll be seeing plenty of them in the future!)

My Joseph Joseph chopping board set, (I love Joseph Joseph!) I got a Stanley Rogers Knife Block, which is very nice, and grey towel sheets (so they're extra large). My Nan & Mum bought me a hair dryer & a beautiful white GHD Hair Straightener! Was not expecting that! Also not pictured are the gifts I got from Josh's parents. a Gordon Ramsay Royal Doulton Dinnerware set, 3 x Scanpan saucepan set and a Scanpan wok! #blessed



My Boxing Day plan was for Josh & I to head to the townhouse and start moving all the various homewares that I had accumulated through the year, and at Christmas, that were currently just stored in an empty room upstairs. We fully stuffed the car with all of our homewares, so much that I barely had any leg room, but I am little anyway.

Stupid smiling face please ignore

I started putting away all of our kitchenware, there was quite a lot, especially after all the Christmas presents. We had a few towels and sheets to put away in the linen closet as well. While it all seems quite lame it was all very exciting. This whole moving out of home and moving in together is finally starting to feel very real!

While I unpacked, Josh played with the camera, and then rearranged the furniture (the rug & lounge) and then put them back the way they were again, then he napped. But that was okay because now everything in the kitchen is where I want it!

From Instagram

Our bed & bedside tables got delivered the other day as well so that was wonderful. I really wanted to put them together that day as well. And we did (hooray!) But no pictures just yet, of our empty bedframe. But you can see the bed & duvet cover we bought here.

To finish up the day, we continued with our Boxing Day tradition of seeing the new (& last) Hobbit Film! It was pretty good, but we both agreed that the second film was the best one. Not ready to say good night just yet, we then went to another movie, Big Hero 6! Which was only just released in Australia. I enjoyed both films but Big Hero 6 was actually the best of the two! We just love Disney Pixar, and Baymax is the cutest.


I hope you had a great Boxing Day too!
Cya! xx

Featuring Sharp Shots from my New Camera! x

One of my goals this month was to bake Cinnamon Scrolls. Specifically using the Kanelbullar recipes from Kikki K. I've used their Swedish recipes in the past, to bake Pepparkakor (gingerbread), and it was amazing. So I was excited to try it.

Kanelbullar Recipe: 

What you’ll need for the buns:

• 2 ½ cups milk

• 375g melted butter

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 tsp freshly ground cardamom

• 4 ½ tsp dry active yeast

• 8-9 cups all purpose or bread flour

• 
  

What you’ll need for the filling:

• 125g melted butter

• 1 cup sugar

• 3 tbsp. cinnamon

What you’ll need for the final touch:

• 1 beaten egg plus 2 tbsp. water

• Granulated sugar

What you'll need to do:

1. Heat milk to a light boil, then turn off heat. Stir in melted butter, sugar, salt and cardamom. Let mixture cool until warm to touch, stir in yeast and let sit for 10 minutes. Move everything into a mixing bowl.
2. Add flour into mixture ½ cup at a time until dough is firm and pulls away from the side of your mixing bowl. Use a wooden spoon until the dough is difficult to stir, then use your hands for the remaining flour.
3. Cover the dough in the mixing bowl with a tea towel and let it rise for an hour until it has roughly doubled. Puch down the dough, then remove from bowl. On a floured surface, knead dough until smooth and shiny. Divide dough into two halves.
4. Roll each half of dough into a 33cm x 46m rectangle. Brush each rectangle well with the melted butter. Combine the sugar and 3 tbsp. cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over the 2 rectangles. Roll each rectangle crosswise to form a 46cm long cylinder.
5. Using a sharp knife, cut each cylinder into 20 equal slices and place each into a paper cake patty on a baking sheet. Cover with a tea towel and allow to double in size (about 45 mins). Preheat oven to 200°C.
6. Brush risen cinnamon rolls with egg wash and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Place in the middle of a preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until done.

I would use a fairly big bowl to make the dough in also, as it become a lot really fast.
I totally started this recipe late at night before I realised that there is about 2 hours of wait time. So make sure you have plenty of spare time before starting.  Enjoy! x

Reindeer Names | Eat Drink & Be Merry | Bauble Text | It's Cold Outside | Wonderful Time of Year | Joy to the World (free printable!)

I really love the more stylish and chic Christmas decor, as opposed to over the top red and green tinsel kind of decorations. These prints are both festive and chic in their gold and white & chalk styles. Christmassy without being "too much".

The "Joy to the World" print at the end is actually a free printable too! 

In previous years when I have made gingerbread cookies, I have used my favourite recipe of Traditional Pepparkakor the Swedish Gingerbread. It makes amazingly delicious crunchy gingerbread that I just love, and I was planning on doing the same again this year, but I actually came across a box of Betty Crocker gingerbread cookie mix at Woolworths. Which must be new as I've never seen it before!

I'm a big fan of gingerbread so I decided to give this one a go, since the only ingredients you need to add are egg yolk, butter and honey. Why not? Sometimes I feel lazy! Okay, more than sometimes.

I set up my Christmas music on the iPad and began mixing.