FROM: STELLA

TO: LAURA

1. How cute are these marshmallow snowmen!? They are perfect for hot chocolate on a cold snowy day. 
2. Even as an “adult” – I love advent calendars! My mom used to always get them for us as kids and even just the basic ones with little pictures were such a wonderful Christmas treat each morning in December! I love that people have gotten so creative with them these days and now you can do things like chocolate advent calendars or Santa’s Wooden Workshop Advent Calendar or even make an advent tree like this one by the Petite Prairie Family!
3. This drone footage is making me miss Boston and New England winters so much. I am headed home to NC next week and really hoping for a white Christmas.
4. My family always does a huge Christmas Eve dinner that I always look forward to. This year we have a slightly smaller than usual group (though it’s still ~15 people!). I am doing lots of recipe research and loving the look of this Garlic Butter Herb Prime Rib and these Chocolate Covered Persimmons with Crushed Pistachios!

FROM: LAURA

TO: STELLA

1. For Christmas this year I’m asking my fiancé not for any presents but for 50 things to leave our house. We (ahem, he) has slightly hoarder tendencies and it is my life’s mission to keep our house organized and minimized. I am actually looking at acquiring a few things to help in this organization (antithetical to the minimalist in me) like this tiered catch-all, these bulk dry goods storage canisters, and these storage cubes, all of which I happen to think are v aesthetically pleasing, too, which is just a plus!
2. I made these sweet potato latkes for the first night of Hanukkah this week. My arm is still a little sore from box grating all those onions and potatoes but they were super yummy!
3. Stella and I are heading to Montreal in January, so in anticipation of the red-eye we’re taking (😳😬😴), I ordered this travel pillow that arrived this week. I’m not a great flyer to begin with and red eyes usually leave me only slightly more than dead, so this will be an experiment if a pillow and following Stella’s travel tips can help keep me human.
4. This week’s episode of The Longest Shortest Time had me in stitches I was laughing so hard. The episode’s focus is infertility which is definitely one of those heavy topics that usually leaves me in sad tears, but the two comedians profiled that dealt with troubles getting pregnant have made the best of a rough situation, and we all get to listen to a lighter side of how this conversation usually goes.