I got up early this morning as I haven’t in forever (8.30: high-five, anyone?) but of course I couldn’t force myself to do stuff for school and so instead I ended up making Christmas cookies. Heart-shaped ones for I always want the cheesy factor to reach sickening heights on Christmas during the months leading up to Christmas.

I made the regular kind and then I tried my own variation by adding instant Latte Macciato. It should give us an interesting result, don’t you think? For all I know, when baked the instance powder turns toxic. Right now, I’m just waiting for the cookies to cool off. They’re a little darker than the hearts and also, they’re just plain ol’ round cookies like Jesus imagined them to be.

And speaking of cheesy, I own what is possibly the cutest box for cookies ever produced in Taiwan sent down straight from heaven by Santa’s angelic elves. What? Just look at it!

By the way, since I mentioned Latte Macciato - Maastricht University has some of the best coffee places EVER. Now, personally I can’t handle the coffee (Name that pre-Scientology - as far as we know - Tom Cruise movie.) but they also have the most amazing coffee-like hot drinks and tea as well, which I think is awesome. The best, and deadliest, part is that they always add tons and tons of whipped cream on top. It is bliss, is what it is, I’m telling you.

At the visitor’s center (which is a charming building that happens to be situated on my walk from my faculty to the library) and in the church-turned-bookstore Selexyz (read this article about the bookstore, it is pretty awesome), there’s a Coffeelovers. But then there are also different uni coffee points, in the Economics faculty for instance. Now that it’s beginning to get colder outside, I am so going to spend every last dime I can find on hot beverages at uni. And then of course I’ll be spending horrific sums on tent-like sheets to make myself some pants that will actually cover my soon-to-be-gigantic thighs.

I haven’t been in a real Christmas-y mood since… mid-October? Yes. That’s when I finished some of the decorations I’m going to put up. Then last night, though, I finished another little star to put in the window whilst I was listening to Christmas music and I would now like to present to you The Most Amazing Christmas Songs That You Of Course Already Know Because There’s No Escaping Them On Christmas. Ready?

The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole
Santa baby by Kylie Minogue
White Christmas by Bing Crosby
Last Christmas by Wham
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer by Gene Autry
Please come home for Christmas by the Eagles
I’ll be home for Christmas by Frank Sinatra
Driving home for Christmas by Chris Rea
Santa Claus is coming to town by Frank Sinatra (or the admittedly cooler alternative by Bruce Springsteen)
It’s the most wonderful time of the year by Andy Williams
A merry little Christmas by Frank Sinatra
Let it snow by Dean Marti

… and finally Rockin’ around the Christmas tree by Brenda Lee (there has to be a better version by someone else, right?). Her annoying pronunciation and intonation make it seem as though she sang LATER WE’LL HAVE SOME FUCKIN’ PIE instead of, later we’ll have some pumpkin pie. Which is actually kinda funny.

For your general amusement, and trust me YOU WILL SMILE TO YOURSELF, you should check out this very typical German kids’ Christmas song and video: In der Weihnachtsbäckerei.

Now please, even if you have never commented here before (especially then!), tell me your favorite Christmas songs! I need to have more than this. I’m obsessed like that.

Final fun fact: it appears that every fifth word in this text is linked to an external source. Yay.

This post is going to be even more unstructured than the usual rambling that made hbn.com famous what it is. And I apologize.

• First of all, I need to mention Emmy and Rachie because not only are they the first people to constantly comment here, they are also from Kentucky and, obviously, très awesome. Furthermore, they somehow changed this blog’s main theme of the past weeks from the obsession with the US election to a walk down Kentucky memory lane.

You see, Emmy and I are going to change lives one day - the plan is still a little vague as to whether this is going to happen before or after I visited her and Rachie or before or after Emmy came over here to Germany. Either way, they both are about as amazing as one can possibly be when spontaneously meeting people online. And, as I said, their stories about life in KY have sent me into a scary WAIT. I’VE SO TOTALLY DONE THIS WHEN I WAS THERE, TOO. CAN I COME BACK NOW? phase that I don’t think I’ll be getting out of anytime soon. Which is a little inconvenient because I got stuff to do around here, yet I do seem to lack the will power to rid myself of Kentucky Kentucky Kentucky everywhere.

• So, secondly, in true memory lane fashion - and because Emmy talked about this on her blog yesterday - I searched my laptop for these amazing picture of - yes, that is a corn hole game. It may just be the prettiest corn hole game you’ve ever seen! I built it together with my uncle after I returned from my stay in KY. Today, I’m not so sure anymore as to why because, really, people here just roll their eyes when I suggest a game of corn hole. They’re all like, scoff scoff, CORN. HOLE? WHAT. - followed by a mockingly raised eyebrow.

But anyway, my uncle and I built the wooden frames and then started painting them. I went with red and blue (hello, UK and UofL, duh!) but then I kinda changed the colors into more of a babyblue and cranberrie. Yeah. Oh well.

The building of the frames was no fun, I can tell you that much, but drawing the KY logo on them was even less thrilling.

Especially that damn horse head. It is a pretty horse head, though.

I went to my grandma to sew the bags because at the time I didn’t know anything at all about crafts like this and she just whipped out her sewing machine and we had eight bags (I think it was eight) in no time, voilà.

I also painted on the shape of the state. Now more than ever do I suddenly realize why red was apparently the right choice of color for the state. Seriously, I love you people in Kentucky, BUT GO VOTE OBAMA. Geez. (As I understand it there’s no hope for a blue KY, though. Not cool, KY, not cool.)

And then this is what it looked like in unbelievably bad light so that you can’t even see how much effort I put in the drawing of unbridled spirit.

And tadaaa, that was that.

• In all honesty, I don’t know why I am blogging this right now. I don’t know why I’m not studying for the upcoming exam next Thursday. Because I do need to study. I can’t just do it the night before or the morning of because that’s not how my brains work. Thing is, no one really knows just how they work.

At the very least, I could be reading To kill a mockingbird of which I loved the first eight chapters I have read so far. But no, instead I’m bumming around online with a kitchen full of dishes to clean, a bed to make, clothes to watch, a desk to organize, birthday cards to write, legs to shave, and philosophic theories to learn by heart.

Honestly, what gives? And why can’t I concentrate and be grown-up and responsible and take care of these things?

• Because the thing is, tomorrow morning when I get up I won’t have time to study either since I need to go shop for groceries and also I wanted to see if any of the shoe stores around carry either one of these:

I need these shoes.

I currently wear these which are supposedly ankle boots and they’re great but they’re neither as comfortable as I believe those rather ugly but somehow cute dark suede boots would be nor as cool and cowboy-ish as the used-looking heeled boots.

I need those boots. But most of all, I need to get a grip and pull myself together. It ain’t gonna work this way.

Picture source: here.

Okay, so some might say it’s too early but I have been looking forward to this for probably ten months and so over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been starting to gather things here and there to make my Christmas season especially bright this year. The advent calendars I wanted to make for my host sisters turned out to be too big a crafts project for me to take on, but I made some stars to put into the three windows of this apartment of mine.

They are so easy to make - even for someone like me who has never really done anything crafty before - and I’ll make more to put literally everywhere.

I also bought an advent wreath already, albeit not a very traditional one. It only needs candles and it’ll be ready to go. I remember when I was younger, we used to have the oldest advent wreath anybody’s ever seen. Somehow a wooden structure held up the candles; only very narrow candles could fit into it and so they would burn down before Christmas and it was just generally pretty damn ugly. But my brother and I were as excited as they come when each Sunday morning the next candle was lit.

And now I have my first own advent wreath which still feels a little awkward, a little too fresh. There are no memories yet. So far it’s just a random piece of Christmas decoration so… - yeah, why not, let’s call it Polly. Her, I mean.

There. I already feel better about this.

Also, when I was out shopping today, I bought this plate because you can never have enough reindeer plates. In fact, this may be one of my mantras: the world needs more reindeer plates.

But isn’t it all so pretty? So very, very pretty?

Since I’m already so deep into this whole Christmas enthusiasm (much deeper than one should be in mid-October), I think I may make some cookies this weekend. And place them on my reindeer plate. And then squeal with anticipation.

Honestly, though - scarfs and mittens and warm boots in the snow? Hot tea and glühwein? Christmas markets in Aachen and in Maastricht and in my hometown Bielefeld? Candlelight, seductive smells and excessive Santa decoration all over the city? Picking out a Christmas tree and the fresh forest scent of the tree, that special Christmas scent, in the living room? Good food and glowing faces everywhere, red cheeks when you’re walking through the cold and feeling so wholesome upon returning to the ridiculously over-decorated apartment?

If only it could all get here faster.