My Winter Bucket List

It's already snowed in Cleveland twice, but since the calendar declares that winter doesn't technically start until December 21st, I'm assembling my winter bucket list like I haven't already completed some of the things on it. (Spoiler: I have. This list is a bit of a meet-in-the-middle situation.)

I borrowed this idea from Tobia, who put together a fun winter bucket list of her own. Go check hers out... & let me know what's on yours! 

1. Mail our holiday cards... on time.

Every year, I order cards from VistaPrint (or Mint, if I'm feeling especially flush), & every year, I send them out just a liiiiittle too close to the holiday to really be Christmas cards. This is sort of fine, since half the people I'm sending them to are Jewish, but... still. It wouldn't kill me to drop 'em in the mail with a reasonable holiday lead-time for once. 

2. Attend a holiday pop-up.

I love a good Christmas-themed holiday pop-up bar, & there are a few of them in Cleveland this year (as rounded up by Cleveland Bucket List). The week after Thanksgiving, Mike & I hit up SLEIGH at the Jack Casino in downtown Cleveland, which is open Thursdays through Saturdays from 6pm to 2am. We had festive cocktails (try the Gettin' Blitzen) & an order of Buckeyes.

3. Exchange cookies. 

My friend Lindsey & I are exchanging cookies this year, mostly because we each specialize in a cookie the other loves. I can't get enough of her salted peanut butter cookies, & she loves my brown butter chocolate chip cookies, so she proposed a trade, & who was I to turn down a batch of my favorite cookies? 

4. Watch the holiday boy band special.

*NSYNC' Christmas album is my all-time face, so I've been very excited about ABC's A Very Boy Band Holiday, featuring members of *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men, NKOTB, O-Town, & 98 Degrees. I suspected my mom might be into it, too, so I asked if she wanted to watch it together, & now I'm planning to head home for the night to watch it with her. 

5. Set up my Home Alone tree. 

I can't wait to show you all of my Home Alone-theme Christmas tree, which features ornaments (& some other things serving as ornaments) directly related to the show — everything from a toolbox ornament to some actual Micro Machines to two turtledoves. I've been planning it for a year & can truly say that I'm obsessed with the end result. 

6. Watch a few bad holiday movies.

Home Alone hardly counts as bad, but I've gotta get in viewings of both of them, plus Elf (also not bad), Love Actually (sorry), & whatever absurd made-for-TV-movies strike my fancy. My friend Christina suggested Holiday in Handcuffs starring Mario Lopez, so that's probably on the docket. Oh, & don't forget The Mistle-Tones, which was truly terrible & embarrassingly enjoyable. 

7. Enjoy a Christmas Ale with sugar on the rim.

I'm not a big beer drinker, but there are few beers I love more than a Great Lakes Christmas Ale with a sugared rim. My friend Megan, whose uncles own the brewery, say this isn't how it's supposed to be enjoyed... but I can't help it. I'm a sucker for that sweet, festive presentation that I can only get once a year. 

8. Set an intention word for 2022.

Did I even do this for 2021? Honestly... I think I did, but at this point, who can recall? This year, like the one before it, has been a bit of a clusterfuck (sorry, sorry), & I, like so many others, am again ready to start anew & hope that a flip of the calendar means a change in luck for us all. Maybe I'll try to manifest that with an especially positive word?! 

What are your plans this holiday season? Anything you really want to do that you've never done before, or that the pandemic kept you from last year?