Christmas holiday bucket-list

Well, I don't know how many people out there really appreciate Christmas, I guess the numbers are higher among those who have children. We all have high expectations that it should be a special day, but in the end when Christmas arrives, it is just a boring day on which you eat too much and get bored and maybe fight with your family members because you are not used to spending so much time with them anymore(or in rare cases, like mine, you feel just depressed because the whole planet seems to have a good and meaningful time while you seem to have failed at life-ing).
Anyways, as this year I'm all in on redefining everything, I will try to not have any expectations related to this day.

In the meantime I decided I need lots of stuff to do as I will be lying around 12 days at my parents' place. And I like my habits, it seems that habits give us something stable and familiar in a world that changes beyond our control.

Christmas reading list.
As everybody hopefully already knows about me, I am an avid reader. I also tend to select my reading based on the season. This means in summer when it's hot outside I will read something which takes place in hot exotic(to me) places. This usually ends up being stuff by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Therefore this winter, my reading includes books in cold environments:

• The snow child - taking place in snowy Alaska
• Snow falling on cedars - taking place on a small isolated island

For those of you still looking for a perfect Christmas read, I can already recommend:

• The perfect winter reads: Beartown - don't remember why I associate this with winter, probably because it was with ice-hockey, anyways a suspenseful read.
• The Essex serpent - because it reminds me of Charles Dickens, see below for details.
• A Christmas carol - Charles Dickens is "THE" winter author, so you can read anything from him, but I guess this one is the most suitable because of it's Christmas theme

Also, I guess I always like to read about people I can admire and learn from so my reading list includes(it seems I need some strong female roles in my life):

• Michelle Obama's autobiography
• This book about powerful women

Christmas cookie extravaganza.

Just now while thinking about all the stuff I do for Christmas, I realised that this season suits me well.

I am bat-shit crazy about baking Christmas cookies. Each year I spend hours and days baking well-loved and known cookies and trying out new recipes. My Christmas cookie list has no end, includes mostly Martha Stewart recipes but also has some german recipes in between:

• Linzer cookies - they are pretty and delicious, but the dough can be a pain in the ass which needs lots of refrigeration
• Chocolate snow-caps - they have chocolate and they look pretty, what is there not to love?
• Thumbprint cookies - well, I absolutely love thumbprint cookies, they are easy to make but still have the fruity deliciousness from the jam filling
• Eisenbahner - a.k.a. train tracks - oooo I really swoon for these ones, it is a difficult task but worth every effort

Also, for me Christmas is the perfect time for yeast dough(with loads of cinnamon), so maybe this year I'll try these new no-cookie recipes:

• Cinnamon buns - this recipe is amazing and I have four witnesses to prove it!!!!
• Babka - really easy and the only thing I can say is chocolate overdose
• Maybe some salted yeast dough like this sicilian pizza - caution: sicilian pizza has a fluffy dough and not the thin crust you are used to

Christmas movies.

As I already mentioned in the reading part, no list could be complete without "A Christmas carol", this is the case also with the movie. Some background info: Charles Dickens needed the money so he wrote this book, which culturally and literary speaking I guess was in those times the equivalent of a Justin Biber song nowadays, but anyway it was a huge hit and sold out and is still one of the most belowed Christmas stories. 

• There were so many movie adaptations that I can choose each year a new one without having seen them all. This list, ranking the adaptations from worst to best can be of great help.
• Romantic comedies not necessarily related to Christmas - here everybody can choose one, I am really not picky, it just needs to be something light and slightly romantic to get you at least in imagination out of your holiday gloom(e.g. Bridget Jones' Diary, He's just not that into you).

Christmas music.

Well, I guess everybody likes the usual suspects so I won't list here the sons everybody knows, instead you could try:

• Tschaikowsky - The Nutrcracker
• This german jazz band with some german jazz carols
• Jamie Cullum's version of All I want for Christmas is you - because it's the ultimate Christmas song and everything Jamie sings is just wonderful