Blogmas Day 5: How to Make Your House Smell Like Christmas!!

When it comes to Christmas, one of the things I enjoy the most are the smells (the nice ones, that is XD)! If you’re lucky enough to have a live Christmas tree or garland, then the fresh pine scent will permeate throughout your house. Or, if you’re a baker, then spending the month baking Christmas treats will ensure a constant stream of sweet & savory, sugar & cinnamon wafting through the air. But maybe you’re like me, and have cats who TRY TO EAT THE CHRISTMAS TREE, or maybe baking’s not your forte, but you want the smells of Christmas in your house, but not via a sickly sweet candle. If that sounds like you, then I have the easiest solution…crockpot/stovetop potpourri!

You may most likely have some of these ingredients in your spice rack or pantry already, so gather up the following, along with a small crockpot or saucepan, and prepare to make some CHRISTMAS SMELLING MAGIC!!!

Depending on your smell preference, you can adjust the amounts, but in the picture above, I used the following in a 1.5 quart crockpot:
– 1/2 cup of FRESH cranberries
– 1 medium orange; sliced in circles
– 4 cinnamon sticks
– 1 tbsp of whole cloves
– 1/8 heaping tsp of nutmeg
– 2-3 cups of water, depending on size of crockpot/saucepan.

All you have to do is place all the ingredients in your container of choice, add the water, stir gently to mix, then heat on a low setting; once the mixture gets warm, you will start to smell the lovely scent of Christmas!

As the water evaporates, just add more to top off; if the scent starts to weaken, just add more ingredients, as needed, to refresh. This is a simple and easy DIY that only takes less than 10 minutes to throw together, but you’ll get hours of Christmas-y aromas to enjoy!

Blogmas – Day 23 – Christmas Eve Traditions.

One sleep ’till Christmas!! Woot woot!!

This morning was just a nice and restful morning. Did some preparations for dinner later on in the evening. Our contribution to dinner was sausage balls, and it’s an easy recipe; it’s only a 3-ingredient recipe:

Ingredients:
– 1 lb of sausage
– 1 jar of Cheez Whiz
– 1 box of chicken flavored Stove Top Stuffing

Directions:
Mix the sausage and cheese together. Once all cheese is incorporated into the sausage, start adding in the stuffing, until everything is thoroughly mixed.  (***Pro-tip #1: put stuffing into a food processor to chop/grind into a finer powder. Easier to mix, and less chance of biting into a large breadcrumb later.)

Using a melon-ball scoop, or something similar, start scooping out 1-inch balls, and place them on a greased cookie sheet, or a cookie sheet lined with non-stick foil.

Have your oven pre-heated to 350°F, and cook the sausage balls for 20 minutes. (***Pro-tip #2: after cooking for the first 10 minutes, flip over sausage balls. Gets a nice toasting on both sides.)

After 20 minutes are up, let the sausage balls rest for 5-10 minutes so they can cool down and firm up a bit.

After prepping the sausage balls for cooking later, we were off to church for Christmas Eve service. The Christmas story, lighting the final advent candle, and closing with Silent Night, it’s definitely a favorite tradition.

When service was over, it was back home to cook the sausage balls, before heading over to my cousin’s house for dinner. This has become a new tradition for us the last few years, as this is when they exchange gifts with their dad’s side of the family. We do our exchange on Christmas morning.

Once dinner was over and we visited for a while, it was back home to do another tradition, which many people do on Christmas Eve, and it’s the last minute present wrapping! XD

For my 3 youngest cousins, I did a DIY Cookie Jar, that Zoë mentioned in her Last Minute DIY Christmas Gifts video.

It turned out pretty great, except my jars were a bit on the larger side. Oh well! The boys won’t care! LOL

Then once all the presents were wrapped, it was time to sit down, relax, and complete this blog post.

Today was the last day of my beauty advent calendars! T.T I forgot to include day 11 in yesterday’s blog post, so I’ll just include it here. 😀

Day 11:
– Benefit’s “They’re Real! Remover”
– feelunique.com: Salcura’s “Winter Skin Warming Hand Therapy”

Day 12: 
– Benefit’s “Rockateur” blush
– Nuxe Paris’ “Rêve de miel” ultra-nourishing lip balm

It’s now officially CHRISTMAS!! YAY!! Now, off to bed so I can open presents in a few hours lolz.