Over the busy semester, I’ve collected a lot of things that I wanted to do but never really got the time for. Winter break, however, blesses me with 17 blissful days without essay deadlines, APUSH readings or tests and quizzes, meaning I can finally do all the cool things I’ve wanted to. My list is a little bit scattered — some things I’ve wanted to do for a long time, while others I’ve only thought of recently — but I hope that this winter I can relax and check some of these items off my bucket list!
- Crochet a massive stuffed chicken
The massive crochet chicken inspiration.
I was walking around in a fair outside of Westgate Mall a few months ago when I stumbled upon a booth of crochet stuffed animals. There were frogs with long limbs, bees of all sizes and keychains, but this giant stuffed chicken with button eyes and a fluffy red comb drew all my attention.
Unfortunately, I’m too broke to be spending $70 on a stuffed chicken, but I can try to make it myself. Over quarantine, I got into a 4-day sea animal crochet obsession where I crocheted a whale (though I’ll admit it was quite deformed because it was the first piece I ever tried), a nice octopus and a squid. I haven’t touched a crochet hook since then, but hopefully the muscle memory, plus a lot of help from YouTube tutorials, will be enough to help me pull this off.
- Make pine cone brownies
Winter isn’t truly here without some warm and fluffy baked goods to eat. My sister and I found this pine cone brownie recipe on Instagram last year, where you bake a cone-like brownie core, stick circular cereal into it so it looks like a pinecone and then sprinkle on powdered sugar to mimic snow. Last Christmas Eve, we rushed to the grocery store to find the circular chocolate cereal, but it was nowhere to be found. This year, we know that we need to get the cereal online through Amazon, so we can finally make the cute pine cone treats.
- Binge-watch “Grey’s Anatomy”
Binge-watching TV during the school semester makes me feel so unproductive, but winter break is perfect for binging without the guilt. I started watching “Grey’s Anatomy” a few weeks ago, and right now I’m in the middle of Season 2. Will Derek break up with Addison to be with Meredith? Will Alex have a redemption arc? The suspense is killing me!
- Catch up on current events
Being horridly uninformed about current events can get embarrassing at times. Ask me anything about the past election and I won’t know anything about past “Eat the dog” edits on Instagram and whatever I hear around school. As a member of the school newspaper, I need to be more politically aware, so my goal is to read a few articles a day to keep up with what’s going on in the world. Maybe next semester I can finally start writing political opinion stories!
- Learn to sew and upcycle clothes
All over my Instagram feed, I see people turning old clothes and thrifted items into new, stylish pieces. There’s a girl who combines sections of different thrifted hoodies into one, another who turns skinny jeans into denim jackets and dozens more who turn simple tops into cuter ones. My sister had a sewing phase when she was in middle school, so I have easy access to a sewing machine and all the colors of threads I’ll ever need.
I tried upcycling a red romper I outgrew a few weeks ago, and — aside from a few questionable stitches — I think it went pretty well. There’s a few more old pieces in my closet that could be really cute with some adjustments, so I hope I’ll get the time to make them.
Although it’s unlikely that I will make it to all these within the two weeks of winter break, I’d be glad just to accomplish a few. Thinking about the coming break and all the freedom that I’ll have is what’s getting me through these next two weeks of finals torture. So, although it’s good to do some work over break, I strongly suggest everyone join me and set aside some time and do the fun things you’ve wanted to do too.
