dollyrogerflag | Holiday Art & Photodump (Reply)

As I mentioned in my last post, my holidays were super productive! I told Bern that this year's December was one of my best Decembers because we actually went on different Winter dates, and we didn't even break the bank by doing so! Our money was spent on local food businesses, One Piece merch (Bern saved up for our shopping date), second hand items, & a fresh Christmas tree.

Art Dump

My Dollcember prompts: Angel & Gingerbread, complete.

I joined Secret Santa drawing for Christmas on a Discord chat. I hope the giftee likes the drawing of their OC! At the moment, I am working on a "Snow Queen" prompt.

Holiday Photodump

As a simple basic consumerist b*tch, we got some One Piece merch and a milk tea— some being my birthday gifts and holiday treats.

At the end of 2025, I was happy to be able to do more outings, and not get cooped up at home — we actually tried different food places in one month!

We were supposed to head to Lucky Baldwin’s Pub that night— it turns out their kitchen closes early, the posted time on we found on their website was meant for their bar time On the spot, Bern searched up some places in SGV, found a late night — that place was pretty good! Seems like there were a handful of late night joints in the 626 area. Cozy environment, family dining, easy orders, easy parking, no complicated small talks. The James Wang advertisement on food mats will forever be iconic. I feel protective of some of the SGV food places— I will NOT recommend them to random people (sheltered LA transplants) because I don’t want to send bad vibes to the businesses

Christmas Village Night Market-- A night of hangout, people watching, food & shopping. We got a couple of vintage ornaments and ordered arepas from Sus Arepas. One of the few food truck places that's actually good & not overpriced (Note: No, I do not support McD)

Holiday dinner, I baked milkbuns & prepared apple salad. And yes, I made pumpkin pie, fried chicken, stuffing & roasted potatoes (no pictures). Fun fact: Before my dinner prep, we spotted a former Twin Peaks actress at a grocery store that month! It made our night I knew she was a small lady on screen, she's even smaller in person! She was very recognizable because her of iconic voice and her large eyes.

Oh, I even spent the whole week preparing and assembling my cake. I got my cake layers recipe from Sugarologie's Cakeculator and I improvised the rest. Swiss merengue buttercream, confetti layers, orange curd filling, chocolate ganache, chocolate cookie sandwiches, & maraschino cherries. I know my cake decorating skills are very mid, but the cake itself was quite delicious! It didn't even last in our fridge for very long. I made some wishes-- Happy Birthday to me.

We finally attended a Bob Baker’s marionette show in Sierra Madre. The crowd wasn’t too crazy, we picked a late night performance & received an ice cream after the show— it felt like a fun treat. I enjoyed seeing some of the Mid century puppets’ designs! Bern and I hope to catch more of their marionette shows in the future! The location of this place is quite charming. Bern and I also did some downtown strolls admiring the decorations.

We found a pizza shop that screams Frasiercore, 90s coffee shop aesthetics trapped in time. Andddd their pizza slice was delightful!

I even spent a few days baking cookies-- gifts for my families and friends.. traditional buttercookies, matcha buttercookies, & brown butter chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I was practically living in the kitchen BUT I will gladly bake for them again. My brother and my sister-in-law liked the cookies!