Christmas Season Begins

It's DECEMBER! I did it. Yesterday, November 30th I sat down and wrote the last 8,000 words I needed and I completed NaNoWriMo this year!!!! I'm so excited. Now I can sleep again.

Although I have titled this post as the beginning of the Christmas season, I've got to backtrack a bit first...to Thanksgiving!

I got to celebrate an amazing Thanksgiving with my friends from church and I made two traditional things, green bean casserole and "pink stuff". My sister insists that "pink stuff" is the proper name for the cherry pie salad you see above. Now, normally when my grandmother makes it, it at least is pink. I could only find dark cherries however so mine is Purple Stuff. It does not look nearly as appetizing as my grandmothers, but it tastes good and really, that's what matters :P

 

I also took a picture of the green bean casserole...but it was just the top layer of crispy onions. An incredibly boring picture, but rest assured. I can cook a yummy batch of green bean casserole now.

 

 

I went to the Christmas market this week. Albert Square is all decorated for Christmas and there is a bunch of booths out that sell Christmas paraphernalia, crafts, and food :D My roommate was disappointed that the food wasn't all traditional British stuff and was actually all themed from other countries...but it made sense to me. They don't do this entire event for us international visitors and British people wouldn't fight the city center traffic to eat food that they are going to make at home, or get at the local pub ;)

The building is Manchester Town Hall. The clock tower light changes color which is very cool. I tried to get a video of it but the moment I got my camera switched to video it wouldn't change. You will just have to imagine it :P

The big light up guy under the tower is santa! My pictures didn't turn out very clear of the lights, but it's very cute and reminds me of the Santa on Invader Zim :D

 

And now the season of Christmas baking begins :D I've started off with a delicious crustless cranberry pie, suggested by my mother. My roommate is a fan of this one and I will have to bake something new soon...probably tomorrow!

 

I want to do the cookies with a mini-reeses melted in the middle, but Sainsburys doesn't sell mini-reeses. I have found them at a few stores but they are a bit expensive because they are sold as a specialty American item rather than finding them in the baking section...It's a hard life.