The 10 things I love the most about Christmas Time

Every year seem to be passing by quicker and quicker and I finally found out why! My friend had the simplest explanation. Each new year is an additional year to the years you have lived, making each year a lesser percentage in your life. So this year, is my 27th year, making it a 3.7% of my life, instead of 3.84%. Mathematics apart, Christmas luckily comes around and this year, I am looking forward to these 10 things.

 1 . Going back to Brittany

This is always an easy one. It is funny, growing up, I thought home was so boring, there is nothing to do, it is not cool ect … I think a lot of people can relate! Now I live in the city, I appreciate the little things I am missing from the country side. The slower pace of life, the local products, the tiny villages, driving ( oh I do miss driving! ) and obviously my home and our animals. This year I am actually going to take the Eurostar and go to Paris first to see my sister and my best friend that live there, hopefully stroll around les Gallery Lafayette and enjoy Paris at Christmas!

2 . Seeing family

I am pretty lucky most of my family lives close by. But I do now have cousins that live in Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice ect … and everyone always comes back to my grandparents ( from both side of my family ) for Christmas. I have a medium size family and we are all very close! I have 13 cousins and now some smalls cousins that keep growing so quickly! We spend Christmas dinner catching up, eating and drinking with my uncles and aunties and grandparents often until 5am …

3 . Food

Doesn’t matter whether it is Christmas or not, I always look forward to food whenever I go home! But Christmas as you can imagine is even more special. Mum makes foie gras, grandma prepares the pigeons for Christmas dinner, my chef cousin, me and my sister start cooking during the day and all of the cousins help out to make appetisers for the party! We get sea food from the fisherman, for delicious crabs, oysters or scallops that we fry with butter …! Obviously in addition we enjoy the food with some Cremant de Bordeaux from my uncle’s vineyard or some sweet Jurançon from my dad’s cave. This year I told both my grandma I was going to look after the desert, Christmas yule logs are probably going to be the winners!

 

4 . My Birthday

I am a December baby and I love it! Everyone is always so happy and even if it is hard to get everyone together, I try to do a dinner or brunch with my girls. It is usually either dinner at Il Bordello (my favourite Italian in town- also my girlfriends now!) or this year we are doing prosecco brunch at Fish Market which is super nice too! I usually go away for my birthday but this year has been crazy and I just don’t have the time, but hopefully next year!

5 . Advent Calendar

For a while I made my own advent calendar as I don’t really like the “cheap” chocolate that my mum used to give us haha. This year, I was so lucky to have been given the most beautiful advent homemade advent calendar from this lovely lady that contacted me on Instagram(You can find her on instagram @Modernscribeuk ). She is starting her own business in calligraphy and has filled the calendar with gifts from local artisans! I love promoting small business whenever I can, so this was the perfect opportunity.

6 . Not really bothered about presents this year

Don’t give me wrong, it is always so nice to receive presents. But now as a grown up, I feel like I value more my birthday presents than my Christmas presents! All I want for Christmas is to go home, sit by the fire, writing recipes and blog posts, eat good food with my family, have a lie in ( haven’t had one of these in a while!) and cook.

 

7 . Ending the year on a good note to start fresh

I like the idea of finishing the year to start a new one fresh! We all talk about good resolutions for next year ect, and I like the idea of reflecting on the year when it comes to the end. This year has been pretty crazy for me in terms of where my life is going, but in a good way. It is going to sound very cliché, but I always say, whatever it meant to happen, is going to happened 🙂

8 . Making Ginger Bread House + Homemade presents

This is a tradition we don’t have in France, but I love it! I love spending time making ginger biscuits, and building my own ginger bread house! It is also so much fun to make with the kids! I ran an event at Soho Farm House this year, and check here to see all of the houses we made! I am also going to make some more homemade presents ( That I am going to share on the blog for last minute ideas! ) and it is probably going to be around chocolate 🙂

9 . Winter fashion

I have an addiction for coats and hats. Which correlate to my love for winter fashion I guess! When December comes along, I take out all of my hats, beanies, caps, and can wear a different coat everyday! I have also a pretty good collection of jumpers, and there is nothing else that makes me feel cosy than putting a jumper on. So there you go, another reason to love the cold weather!

10 . Christmas Nails

So this is super lame I know … but Christmas always means I can have Christmas nails! I am talking red glitters, different colours on each, some bobbles stamps and Christmas trees 🙂

 

Pictures by Jennifer Moyes

Love,

Manon