My Perfect December Evening
As I may or may not have mentioned just a couple of times these past weeks, life has been busy. To the point where I’ve basically forgotten how to do nothing, probably. To counteract that, I figured I needed a nice and relaxing night in. You know, the kind that makes you just sort of ready for bed just by how mellow you are? Yes, this is my perfect December evening!
So on a typical December night, I’m home anywhere between 18 and 19. Thursday’s are my latest nights – I work until 22h – while Wednesday is my day off. Well, that’s to say. On Wednesdays I basically just work from home, but at least I get to do some wearing fuzzy socks!
Those fuzzy socks actually bring me seamlessly to the first point of importance: the outfit.
Comfort
Alternately – the outfit could be called “comfort”. Because let’s be real, if I want an amazing night in, I need to be comfortable. And that starts at the very base level. My hair goes up in a bun, the working clothes come off and the Harry Potter-comfy pants go on.
Let’s be real, there’s enough meme’s out there that everyone knows by now – or should know, at the very least – that pants are horrible.
Seriously.
Food and snacks
The perfect thing to eat in December? All the comfort food. Oh, and soups. You gotta have those soups! (Those links are to my Pinterest, by the way. I’m not kidding when I say I take my comfort food seriously 🙂 )
The main philosophy: make sure you have as little dishes and effort as possible. The ideal thing would be to have a crockpot or a pressure cooker. I have neither of those, though. I asked for them for Christmas, but as of now: nothing. So the next best thing is, naturally, all the oven baked things. Any pasta you can make in one pot and then bake off in the oven? Done. Enchillada’s? Done. Cury’s? Perfect. Even onion soup that you can bake off with the little croutons in there with a bunch of cheese on top? Delicious.
The main thing is that I work relatively “normal” hours but I have an hour’s commute in both direction. As the bf doesn’t really cook – one, he can’t (I would fear for our place) and two, I love cooking, even if I don’t want to lose too much on it – taking food tends to fall on my shoulders. What the bf can do, however, is put things in the oven.
The result: I have now grown to love making things I can just about completely prepare, and then have him finish up in the oven. Seriously, nothing’s better than coming home to the smell of enchiladas that are just ready.
Well, maybe cookies. I always want to eat all the cookies. Haven’t really had time to make them yet, though. It’s on my tdo list for sure.
Relaxing
As I’ve said before, I’ve sort of reached the point where I’m not really all that good at relaxing anymore. Doing nothing is completely out of the picture, for sure. So if I want to make my head quiet down a bit? Here’s my options!
To continue from the previous point: cooking is actually one of my favourite ways to relax. It’s actually practical, but the repetition of cutting and preparing food somehow always manages to calm me right down. I loathe the dishes though, but again: that’s where the bf comes in. If he’s not going to be cooking, guess who’s going to be doing the washing up?
Naturally, you can only cook so much during one week, or even day. The alternatives used to be tv, most of the time. Somehow, I’ve not really managed to pick up a lot of series I still like. I’m slowly getting back into Brooklyn 99 and I absolutely love The Crown – midst binge on season 2, how amazing is that :o. There’s a quiz, De Slimste Mens ter Wereld (The Smartest Human in the World) that I love watching whenever it comes back each fall. But that’s three things, and too much evening to fill it with.
There’s blogging, of course, and I have tons of homework to correct on any given day. But we’re talking about a relaxing evening – somehow, work of whatever sort, doesn’t really seem to be doing that. There’s tons of people who will enjoy a long bath, but I get bored too easily for that.
So my top-3 list for the perfect relaxing night? Watching “my” vloggers, reading, or playing old fashioned games.
(It’s clear Sinterklaas knows what’s up in this house :p )
All of this, of course, combined with hot tea, preferably some crisps and the perfect background music. You guessed it: all the Christmas music, right now at least.
Anyways, how about you? What does your perfect December night look like? Be sure to let me know below! And go ahead and check out the rest of this year’s blogmas posts!
-Saar
