Winter/Holiday Bucket List

Winter and the holiday season may look different this year, but that doesn't mean it can't still be a wonderful, festive time. Here's a list of general winter and holiday-related activities I'm going to be doing during my winter break.

• Bake lots of cookies. This holiday season I plan on using the oven as often as I can to bake all kinds of cookies including gingerbread cookies, frosted sugar cookies, and ginger snaps. I’m planning on filling Christmas-themed tins with cookies to give as gifts. Of course I’m also going to eat lots of cookies myself!

• Build a gingerbread house. In the past, I’ve built gingerbread houses from store-bought kits and graham crackers, but this year I’m hoping to make the gingerbread structure from scratch. Wish me luck!

• Drive around to see Christmas lights. Unfortunately one of the largest displays in the Richmond area, A Phifer Christmas, is not putting on a full display this year because social distancing would be nearly impossible. A handful of other houses decided not to decorate or to make their displays smaller this year, but there are still numerous houses around Richmond that have already turned on their lights.

• Watch holiday movies all month long. I’ll be following along with a countdown-to-Christmas movie list I made, which includes 25 of my favorite holiday movies.

• Listen to holiday music on repeat. I’ll be keeping the radio in my car tuned to a Christmas station and listening to my Christmas playlist at home.

• Play in the snow. Hopefully Virginia will see a little bit of snow at some point this winter, whether it’s this year or 2021. I love when it snows because it’s beautiful and also because I can build a snowman or snow sculpture, sled, have a snowball fight, and make snow angels.

• Ring in the New Year. I think we’re all looking forward to the start of 2021 for many different reasons and some of the same reasons. I’m looking forward to finishing my senior year of college, starting on a path towards a teaching career, and possibly even adopting a cat to keep me company.

• Go ice skating and/or skiing. I would love to do some outdoor activities this winter like ice skating and skiing, as long as they’re socially distanced.

• Read for fun. Each semester I have a stack of books to read for my English classes. So far, I’ve liked almost all of the books that I’ve read for classes, but I never have the time or energy to choose and read my own books. I’m hoping to get through as many books as I can during my very long winter break, and it’s off to a good start with one already done. Later on I’ll share a post with reviews of what I’ve read!