You would think that after all these years of baking, I would know how to do it by now. But no. Today I put the loaf in the oven, got distracted talking to my neighbor, and when I remembered—it was already charred black on the edges. 😭 And I cried. Not a little frustrated sigh, but actual tears.

It happened again today, and I don't even understand when this became my reflex. 😔

There was this couple next to me and they were holding hands but barely talking. They looked like they were posing for a photograph that no one was taking. The vendor selling hot drinks was smiling so hard it looked painful.

It's in the small, consistent choices she makes every single day that add up to creating a home 🏡

Christmas has so much noise around it – shopping, decorating, planning, all the external activity.

I go out to feed the animals while it's still dark, and there's frost everywhere, and the world is sleeping.

At first I was frustrated because I kept making mistakes – the dough was too sticky, then too dry, I burned a whole batch, I couldn't get the shapes right.

New Year and Christmas aren't about perfect plans or how things "should be." They're about moments 🤍 About laughter at the wrong time 😄, about warm hands 🫶, about conversations until the night 🌙, and about the feeling that you're not alone 🎄

Anything goes these days: 🥂 Eat an extra piece of cake, 🍰 Laugh louder than usual, 😄 Believe in miracles, even if you haven't believed in them in a long time. New Year's and Christmas are like a pause when life says, "Breathe!" 🤍

New Year's is a wonderful thing 🎄 Everyone suddenly becomes a little kinder 🤍, a little more cheerful 😄, and allows themselves to be alive. Even adults 😉

Refusing to pretend everything is fine is my greatest Christmas gift to myself. 💙

This year, my father decided on a particular style—traditional, elegant, simple. And instead of having my own ideas about what I wanted, I simply asked him: "How can I help bring your vision to life?" 🕯️

The mystery of the Incarnation becomes clearer when I sit in silence before the Nativity scene. 🕯️

Baking the traditional Christmas bread means remembering my grandmother's hands. 🍞

Waiting for snow on Christmas morning makes me feel like a small child again. ✨

You can always tell who's being genuine during the holidays. Some people light up when they see you—like your presence actually matters to them.

You can always tell who's being genuine during the holidays. Some people light up when they see you—like your presence actually matters to them.

I've been watching my mother arrange the nativity set for Christmas, and I realized I don't actually know how to do this myself. She makes it look so easy—the way she positions each figure, the way she creates a landscape, the way she tells the story through objects. But when I try, it feels awkward and unnatural.

I grew up thinking Advent was just the countdown to Christmas—the calendar you get from church, the chocolate behind each door, the decorations going up.

The recipe is the same one my grandmother used, and her grandmother before her.