anchor.diff:  Homemade Banana Bread
   
   +++<u>Declutter your Life</u>+++
  +
   This one is a big one and might seem unachievable, but you need to approach it a step at a time. You should start by gathering information through research and reading. The minimalists have many wonderful blog posts to help you http://www.theminimalists.com/start/[get started].
   
   I used to have a big house with 14 rooms, including 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 living rooms, a double-garage, a pool, lots of furniture, trinkets and useless decorations. Now, I live in a 1 bedroom apartment. There are only two of us after all and we don't need more space. We only keep the necessities and it feels like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can focus on what is important. This also means that welcoming guests isn't stressful because cleaning the entire place takes less than an hour a week! The lack of clutter will already remove half of the weight off your shoulders. To learn more about decluttering, read these fine articles: https://zenhabits.net/declutter-course/[The Minimalist Way to Declutter] and http://www.becomingminimalist.com/decluttering-principles/[10 Decluttering Principles to Help Anyone Clear the Clutter]. 
  
positive.code: 
  image::roxystefan.jpg#small[Holiday Selfie ZestyRoxy]
  
  For all four "big" days/evenings, we stayed home and cooked lovely meals together. We also spent 2 of our 10 days off in Hamburg, our favourite German city. There we watched Rogue One at the http://www.savoy-filmtheater.de/ [Savoy Theatre]. This theatre is wonderful because it shows films in their original version, which can be hard to find in Germany. They also have Vegan popcorn - salty, sweet, and caramel! We walked around the beautiful city, peaked into shops, had treats at the Weihnachtsmarkt, and bought our favourite coffee at the http://www.speicherstadt-kaffee.de/[Speicherstadt Kaffeerösterei]. For dinner we ate delicious vegan pizza at http://www.pizza-bande.de/ [Pizza Bande] and Sushi at http://www.raw-like-sushi.de/en/ [Raw Like Sushi] (foodporn at the end of the post). The rest of the time was spent relaxing at home reading, napping, doing yoga, baking, or out with friends. Our biggest outing this holiday season was our friends' small and wonderful wedding.
  
  I have to be honest, it has been the most wonderful Christmas time since I stopped believing in Santa Claus. The past week was so calm, relaxing, and fulfilling. I had time to let go of work, find myself again, and do what I love. I even found new passions and interest; this only happens when my brain is calm. 
  
  
negative.code: image::coffeetime.PNG#small[Holiday Coffee Time]
  
  +++<u>Fuck Gift Giving</u>+++
  
  We are all adults here. I hope. Kids if you're reading this... ah fuck it. If you can read, you’ve seen these words before. As I was saying, we are adults and we know what we want and what we need. We can go out and buy whatever we want, whenever we want. In fact, we can open a magical box, type in our wishes and use a magical card code that sends an invisible promise of money to get these wants and needs delivered straight to our door. You could do this solely with your little finger, if you choose to. But that would be a waste of time in my opinion. Point is, we don't need gifts and we don't need to give gifts to be happy and merry.
  
  During the holidays, my favourite thing to do is eat and share the food-love. Homemade food-love cures all. If you must give someone a gift, make it consumable, preferably edible and homemade :) Examples are: Cinema gift card, pay for a dinner with them, give them wine, bake them cookies!
  