Giving
Giving is pretty black and white - either you do or you don't. Lend an ear to someone who needs one. Give a hug to someone who needs comfort. Encourage someone who needs guidance. Make someone laugh when they’re down. Break bread together, listen to what moves you and pass it on, give when and how you can in little ways every day. That small moment of giving might change more than just that moment for the person receiving. When you break it down, giving is a pretty simple and natural thing.
The holiday season is fast approaching. Give back to your community by shopping locally at the spots that sustain our neighborhoods. Bring friends, family and loved ones to your favorite local restaurant. Get out around town at all the events Royal Oak has to offer to all of us this time of year - and bring your neighbor. We all live, work and play in our community; let’s include giving to it too.
I was given quite an amazing gift by being able to meet and briefly work with Chris Yatooma on this issue's cover story. Chris is not only the owner of Citizens State Bank, headquartered right here in Royal Oak; he’s also the founder of an amazing organization called The New Foster Care - with an audacious plan to change the system and give back to the kids in that system. Read more about Chris and his team as they change laws and create real solutions to the adult foster care housing crisis.
You’ll also meet Leanne Stadler of Mirepoix Cooking School, located upstairs from Holiday Market — a Royal Oak standard for more than 70 years. Leanne’s gift is confidence: she helps home cooks believe they can create something extraordinary. Inside, Leanne shows you that same generosity, by sharing her signature Bananas Foster recipe. It’s sure to light up your holidays!
Walk through some of the best boutique shops around town. In this curated shopping guide, you’ll find all things unique for the people in your life—the ones you have to give to and the ones you want to give to. (I can’t be the only one with that crazy-big family scenario.)
The last treat for you comes from Chanille Carswell, a/k/a the brownieDr. An attorney turned baker, Chanille encourages all of us to choose joy—and choose brownies!
Cheers to you and yours,
AMY
GILLESPIE, PUBLISHER
December 2025
PUBLISHER
Amy Gillespie | amy.gillespie@citylifestyle.com
MANAGING EDITOR
Marshall Zweig | marshall.zweig@citylifestyle.com
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Marshall Zweig
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Amy Gillespie
Corporate Team
CEO Steven Schowengerdt
President Matthew Perry
COO David Stetler
CRO Jamie Pentz
CoS Janeane Thompson
AD DESIGNER Rachel Kolich
LAYOUT DESIGNER Kirstan Lanier
QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Brandy Thomas
inside the issue
A Bridge Called Hope
This banker turned tragedy into Michigan’s boldest
Bananas
Aglow
Mirepoix Cooking School shares a holiday dessert recipe that’s “fire”—really Curated Shopping Guide
Shop Local for the holidays with these unique finds
Exhibit A: Joy
This former litigator turned childhood memories into Berkley’s sweetest precedent
city scene
WHERE NEIGHBORS CAN SEE AND BE SEEN
1-7: From Modern Supply and The Detroit Record Club, who had a joint party for their four-year and six-year anniversaries: “We want to give a huge thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate our anniversaries! It was so great to see you - enjoying community, music, coffee, champagne, music, coffee, churros and a little shopping. Seeing familiar faces and meeting new friends made the event truly special - we’re already looking forward to the next one!”
A BRIDGE called hope
THIS BANKER TURNED TRAGEDY INTO MICHIGAN’S BOLDEST BET ON YOUTH AGING OUT OF FOSTER CARE
ARTICLE BY MARSHALL ZWEIG PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMY GILLESPIE
The first thing I notice about Citizens State Bank owner Chris Yatooma isn’t his title or his success. It’s his conviction: earnest, straightforward, seeing beyond what is, to what will be. It’s the kind of conviction you hear in someone who turned the worst day of their life into a blueprint to help others.
Chris was eleven when his father, Manuel, tragically lost his life during an incident at a neighborhood party store in metro Detroit. He’s honored that loss by channeling it into purpose, building something that helps others who’ve also known great pain. His Michigan nonprofit, The New Foster Care (TNFC), carries an audacious mission: don’t just help young people in foster care—change the system that is failing them.
“I was blissfully unaware of the plight of kids in foster care until 2016,” Chris admits. “Then I learned that one in three age out into homelessness. One in four to imprisonment.” He pauses, the numbers still landing heavy. “I thought, that can’t be right. So I went and researched it … and it was. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”
The data may be grim, but Chris’s philosophy is grounded in equal parts faith and purpose. “Everything I have, God has given me,” he says. “I believe everyone can help others. God has entrusted me with skills and resources, and I want to use them to help those who need it most.”
At first, he did what he thought a good businessperson should do: write a check. “But the more I looked, the more I realized this is a solvable problem,” he says. “We can bring programs, experience, and resources that can change these outcomes.”
So he built an organization designed like an ecosystem, not a band-aid. “We work on three fronts,” he explains. “One, with the legislature to reform the foster care system. Two, with the state to bring in programs that already work elsewhere. And three, to fill the gaps. That’s where our Bridge program comes in.”
TNFC’s Bridge program focuses on five life domains: education, employment, housing, mental & physical health, and ties to the community. Every youth is supported by a Transition Navigator, Peer Support Specialist, Education & Employment Coach, Personal Wellness Coach, and Attorney. “One team, one plan, working with the youth to change the trajectory of their life,” he says.
To make that support even more all-encompassing, Chris expanded his vision. TNFC once helped participants find housing; now it’s building it. His newest project is Hope Apartments, a remarkable $105-million development that will bring the Bridge program under one roof. “It’s the largest investment for youth aging out of foster care in the history of the country,” he tells me. The project will feature 275 apartments, and a 60,000-squarefoot community center with a gym, theater, art room, community garden, learning labs, and even plans for a green roof.
There will be offices too: TNFC operations will be moving in alongside the young adults they champion and serve. “Hope Apartments will be a vibrant community,” Chris says, “not a complex.”
By their math, 3,000 units statewide would solve Michigan’s entire housing gap for youth aging out of foster care. Hope Apartments alone, stunningly, gets them almost ten percent of
the way there. “In business, you learn how to solve problems," Chris notes. "In foster care, you see problems people think can’t be solved. But they can. They absolutely can.”
When I ask to meet someone who’s lived the transformation firsthand, Chris’s team connects me with Gabriella Mallory, a former participant turned social worker whose journey stands as a testament to what the program makes possible.
Gabriella was reunified with her biological family just before turning thirteen, a transition that left her unprepared and unsupported. “In my head,” she recalls, “as long as the state was involved, I’d no longer be abused or neglected. Once they left, I thought, ‘I’m about to go back to hell.’”
Years later, through The New Foster Care’s Bridge program, she discovered something she hadn’t felt in a long time: safety that didn’t depend on a case number. “For the first time, I didn’t have to survive," Gabriella explains. "I could just live. That’s what The New Foster Care gave me: space to breathe.”
When Gabriella completed her bachelor’s degree in social work at Wayne State, the organization that once supported her now wanted her on the team. “They saw something in me I was still developing in myself,” she says. She began at TNFC
as a Peer Support Specialist. She’s now a Transition Navigator, helping other youth find the same footing she fought for.
“When a participant says, ‘I messed up,’ I help them rewrite that sentence,” Gabriella explains. “We’re not helpless. We’re relearning, unlearning, trying to release trauma from our bodies. We’re not numbers. We’re people.”
Chris calls stories like Gabriella’s “proof of concept.” To him, every statistic hides a life that could still change course. That’s why he brings his same calm persistence to legislative halls. “We’ve helped pass 13 laws,” he notes. “One of the biggest was redefining ‘kinship,’ so more children can stay with godparents, close family friends, mentors—caregivers who understand their unique stories and histories—instead of bouncing through stranger placements.”
Chris’s advocacy is direct and human. “I’m transparent,” he says. “I just say what I’m thinking, with respect and kindness. And when I talk to lawmakers, I tell them, ‘You get to help someone today. You get to change lives.’”
That mix of heart and structure, faith and follow-through, runs through everything Chris says in this interview. Even his definition of wealth has shifted, and he wants other business leaders to join his paradigm. “Let’s start to think about wealth not in net worth,” he says, “but in lives impacted.”
“Everything I have, God has given me…if you’re trusted with resources, you’re responsible for people. God has entrusted me with resources to help others.”
Listening to Chris, I realize his perspective isn’t theory. It’s autobiography. The boy who lost his father at eleven has built this extraordinary bridge, one that helps a profoundly disadvantaged population avoid more troubled waters.
Citizens State Bank’s president, Dan Fischer, sees Chris the same way: “The reason I’m here is because of Chris,” Dan says. “I consider him one of the finest human beings I’ve ever come across. His heart is even bigger than his checkbook.”
As the conversation wraps, I ask what Chris would say to a young person aging out of foster care. He pauses for a long moment, then says simply, “You can do anything. Anything you put your mind to.”
It doesn’t sound like advice. It sounds like belief— forged in loss, anchored in faith, and now, built into the walls of hope he’s building for others.
HOW TO HELP
The New Foster Care believes every young person leaving foster care deserves a bridge to adulthood, and a place where they can feel like they belong. Join their mission at thenewfostercare.org or call (248) 884-7645. The New Foster Care’s programs replace instability with opportunity: safe housing, coaching, education, and community connection. Whether it’s through donations, volunteering, mentorship, or advocacy, your support helps provide safety, stability, and a bridge to independence.
ARTICLE BY MARSHALL ZWEIG PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMY GILLESPIE
BANANAS AGLOW
Mirepoix Cooking School shares a holiday dessert recipe that’s “fire”—really
Growing up, my mother Barbara had two showstoppers in her holiday repertoire: Cherries Jubilee and Bananas Flambé. She didn’t make them often…just on those special nights when the good china came out and she wanted guests to be dazzled. It worked: the flash of flame felt like magic, a brief, bright light of homemade joy.
That same sense of hands-on creativity and shared spectacle fills the second-floor kitchen above Holiday Market in Royal Oak. Mirepoix Cooking School has been a gathering place for 17 years, featuring classes that blend technique with lighthearted encouragement.
Co-owner Leanne Stadler, who operates Mirepoix alongside parents Gina and Craig Mangold and uncle Tom Violante Jr., carries on the legacy of her grandfather Tom Violante, founder of Holiday Market. “He always said, ‘People go where they’re appreciated,’” she shares. “That’s how we run Mirepoix: excellent food, talented chefs, good wine, good people. It’s our ‘recipe’ for success.”
When Leanne took Mirepoix over eight years ago, it was “in need of some TLC,” she tells me. Outside of major cosmetic renovations, Leanne focused on what
she calls “the secret sauce:” chefs who are as gifted at teaching as they are at cooking. Today, the school hums with team-building events, birthday celebrations, date nights, and corporate holiday dinners that fill nearly every slot through December.
Bananas Foster is the newest addition to the Mirepoix repertoire: “Everyone wants to light something on fire,” Leanne laughs. ‘It’s simple, delicious, and visual—the perfect finale for a hands-on class or a holiday party.’”
Leading the evening is Chef Jenna Michlin, who shares the dish’s history: Bananas Foster was created in 1951 at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans to showcase bananas, then one of the city’s major imports. It’s been sweetly lighting up celebrations ever since.
Jenna traded a corporate career for the culinary classroom. “I love teaching,” she says. “I’m happy to go to work every day and watch people learn and grow.” She’s taught cooking elsewhere, but prefers the vibe here: “There’s a lot of autonomy for each participant. Autonomy breeds confidence.”
Among tonight’s guests is Mark Caddy, who attended Mirepoix’s very first class 17 years ago; he’s been back more than a hundred times. “I brine my holiday turkey overnight and put butter under the skin,” he shares. “I use a lot of their ideas.” L.C. Craig brought wife Candace a few years ago for their anniversary; tonight they’re back with her sisters and cousins for her birthday. “I love to cook—I cook all the time,” L.C. tells me. “But you can always learn something.”
“In one place they can learn French, Italian, Asian, Mediterranean, German, and Greek cuisines.
[My grandfather] always said, ‘People go where they’re appreciated. That’s how we run Mirepoix: excellent food, talented chefs, good wine, good people. It’s our ‘recipe’ for success.”
Regular guest Kari Lawry comes twice every holiday season: once for her family’s “holiday cook-off,” and again for her company’s team-building party. “My family and friends start talking smack about it in June,” she laughs. “It’s grandmas teaching grandkids, friends laughing, everyone sharing time together. My husband always toasts to the gift of time, and that’s what Mirepoix gives us.” Kari says she always leaves feeling “more confident in my culinary skills, and a whole lot more connected to the people around me.”
That sense of connection is exactly what Leanne wanted to preserve when she inherited her grandfather’s dream. “When people leave here, I want them to feel proud of themselves,” she says. “They fill their hearts when they come.”
Fire up this special Mirepoix holiday dessert, and hearts won’t be the only things glowing.
MIREPOIX COOKING SCHOOL’S BANANAS FOSTER
Serves 6
Ingredients
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 6 Tbsp brown sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 3 ripe bananas, sliced lengthwise
• 6 Tbsp dark rum or bourbon
• 3 Tbsp pecans or walnuts, chopped
Directions
1. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
2. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon until the sugar dissolves.
3. Add bananas and cook 1–2 minutes per side, until heated through.
4. Pour in rum or bourbon; carefully ignite and baste the bananas until the flame subsides.
5. Transfer half a banana to each bowl, top with ice cream, and finish with chopped nuts.
Chef Jenna’s Holiday Twists
• Add a pinch of nutmeg, cardamom, or pumpkin spice for a festive flair.
• Swap rum for brandy for subtler sweetness.
• Toss in candied nuts or a splash of orange juice or apple cider for warmth and brightness.
Mirepoix Cooking School is located above Hollywood Market, at 1203 S. Main Street in Royal Oak. For events and more, visit mirepoixcookingschool.com or call (248) 541-1415.
Curated Royal Oak SHOPPING GUIDE
If you’re like me, it gets harder and harder to shop for people every year. Local unique finds are what seem to win over everyone - even the hardest family member or friend to shop for. Explore these local boutique shops for some of the very best finds around town. Modern amenities, quirky local staples and priceless heirloom pieces for the kids, mid-century modern and antique whimsy – these three shops have the full range covered.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing any of these stores, let me introduce you to: Modern Supply Co on Woodward Ave, Rail and Anchor on Washington Ave and DeeDee’s Fine Vintage on 14 Mile Road.
Shop local for the holidays with these unique finds
Modern SUPPLY CO.
At Modern Supply, we solve the challenge of finding modern home decor and thoughtful gifts that balance form and function. Every product is chosen with intention, aligning with our elevated design aesthetic: modern sophistication, refined minimalism, and effortless elegance. Whether you’re shopping for a beautifully crafted home accessory or a meaningful gift, our selection caters to discerning shoppers who appreciate quality craftsmanship, cohesive style, and a curated lifestyle. We offer unique gift ideas for design lovers, from minimalist ceramics and eco-friendly kitchen tools to luxurious self-care items and seasonal gift sets.
KITCHEN + BAR:
Elevate your holiday happy hour with modern barware and artful details. From ceramic flasks and designer playing cards to craft mixers, Modern Supply makes gifting for cocktail lovers effortlessly stylish.
SELF CARE GIFT PACKAGE:
Pamper with purpose. Modern Supply’s clean beauty collection ranges from soaks and scrubs to bath soaks and facial steams. Include clean burning candles and nourishing herbal teas, to cover all the senses. Modern Supply’s Bath + Body and Self Care finds turn daily rituals into mindful moments of renewal.
PANTRY GIFT PACKAGE:
Mix your favorite cocktails with the best of the best. An elite brushed matte-black finish with titanium protects against scratches and corrosion for a sleek, highly durable cobbler-style shaker.
Rail and ANCHOR
A modern day general supply store with all kinds of home goods items, kitchen and bar finds, unique style finds, apothecary items for men and women, fun books and puzzles for adults, toys, books and games for kids. It’s chock full of locally designed and made items that celebrate Royal Oak, Detroit, and Michigan craftsmanship.
JKM CANDLES GIFT BUNDLES:
Jenny Rostkowski is a candle maker based near Detroit. She uses 100% soy wax, along with premium fragrance oils and a variety of stylish vessels, to create a diverse array of candle styles to fit every aesthetic. Her curated fragrance combinations are unique, inspired, and intoxicating.
DRINKWARE GLASSES, SHAKERS AND RECIPE
BOOK GIFTS:
The ultimate home-bar companion, this set has everything you need to mix, serve, and toast in style, whether you’re hosting your next get-together or enjoying a relaxed staycation night in.
MAILEG HEIRLOOMS COLLECTIBLES:
We like to think that your Maileg friends and their miniature belongings are more than just toys; they’re your loyal companions on your shared journey through vivid landscapes of make-believe, where every detail is a treasure to behold.
DeeDee’s FINE VINTAGE
Dee Dee’s is a specialty home décor and furnishings shop featuring vintage and antique furniture that’s been lovingly refreshed and reimagined. We believe that vintage furniture has soul and stories to tell, and we can’t wait to share these treasures with you!
MID-CENTURY MODERN STEMWARE:
Dee Dee’s offers a curated selection of vintage stemware, from etched crystal wineglasses and champagne flutes, to mid-century rocks, glasses, and barware. Combine with our Michigan-made Cellar Door cocktail ingredients for a complete gift!
ANDREA’S CREATIVE EXPRESSIONS
JEWELRY & GOODS:
Dee Dee’s specializes in offerings not found elsewhere, including jewelry and goods handcrafted in Illinois from upcycled flatware. Shop the collection of adjustable-length bracelets, dangle earrings, tea strainers, letter openers, and bottle openers.
PILLOWS AND TEXTILES:
All Dee Dee’s home textiles are handcrafted by our fabric artisan, Marilynn. Beautiful and sustainable, our décor pillows are filled with U.S.sourced, eco-friendly inserts. Our flannel-and-suede “Millows” and flannel-and-fleece “Flankets” are seasonal customer favorites!
THIS FORMER LITIGATOR TURNED CHILDHOOD MEMORIES INTO BERKLEY’S SWEETEST PRECEDENT
Exhibit A: Joy
ARTICLE BY MARSHALL ZWEIG | PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMY GILLESPIE
“
“Nostalgia was my theme: largely Southern flavors I grew up with, reimagined as brownies.”
On a cold December evening, swing open the door at brownieDr in Berkley. The room will answer with warmth, the kind that fogs your glasses and hushes the day. A tray of dark-chocolate squares cools beneath ribbons of caramel; another carries a crown of toasted coconut, a nod to the German Chocolate cake the owner’s husband loves, and her customers now chase in brownie form.
If life, like law, builds on precedent, consider this Exhibit A: a life can change course, and still arrive exactly where it was meant to go.
For 29 years, Chanille Carswell was a litigator, working long hours and late nights, and giving it every ounce of energy she had, until her success began to feel like exhaustion in disguise. Baking was the quiet counterweight. “I could get in there, put on headphones, listen to a book, and just… get lost,” she says. “It was my stress reliever. My quiet place.”
Then the world stopped. For the first thirty days of COVID, client work paused, and the silence expanded like a blank page. Chanille filled it with butter and research: she dusted off cookbooks, taught herself French pastries, and, almost as a dare, made brownies from scratch, giving them away to family and friends. People thanked her—and then they asked for more. In a year crowded with fear, that small square felt simple and pure and… right.
“I was working from home—my office is across the hall from my bedroom,” she says. “That was the longest walk every day to that computer to sit down and work.” And then the counter-truth: “I would just run downstairs at the end of each week, so excited. I’d be thinking about it all week, planning and researching every free moment.”
The lightbulb followed: this was the thing that made her happiest.
So she built a proof of concept, the way a good attorney builds a case: research, iteration,
evidence. She developed baseline recipes. She tested sizes (“some were the size of a baby’s head”), equipment, and presentation, decorating individual squares like cupcakes, then filling and frosting them as feature desserts. She chased flavors that carried memory: German Chocolate. Lemon Meringue. Dutch Apple Pie. “Nostalgia was my theme,” she says. “Largely Southern flavors I grew up with, reimagined as brownies.”
Not everything translated. The early pecan-pie brownie “was a mushy, horrible mess,” she laughs. But like any stubborn brief, it became persuasive in revision. At least five rounds later (maybe more), she had what’s now a best-seller: a glossy caramel-pecan crown over a plush chocolate base.
In February 2022, she and her husband lugged trays to a pop-up at Great Lakes Crossing for three weekends, virtually selling out each time. For Chanille, the verdict was clear. She applied to TechTown Detroit’s Retail Boot Camp to refine her operations, and got help writing a business plan from the Michigan Black Business Association. Her sister stepped in to build the site and logo, and take social media off her plate because, as Chanille puts it with a grin, “I was trying to do social media and it was pathetic. It was pitiful. I’m too old to really know how to do that.” Her mother came out of a twenty-year retirement to work the front. Her dad brings flowers, weeds the drive, fixes what needs fixing. It’s as if the whole family heard the gavel, and rose with her.
Even a voice from further back hangs out in the kitchen: Chanille’s paternal grandmother in Mississippi. She was the effortless kind of cook who measured by feel, and fed with love. “I didn’t inherit her recipes,” Chanille says, “but I think about her all the time.”
Like any savvy entrepreneur, Chanille knows delight begins with trust. brownieDr is built on
ingredients and consistency. She chose dark chocolate (“it’s rich but not bitter”), keeps recipes clean and replicable (“caramel is sugar, butter, cream—I make it”), and aims for Snickers-level reliability, but with the elegance and depth of a dessert made by hand. “If you loved it once, you should love it again,” she says. “That’s part of the brand.”
Scaling is its own challenge. “Staffing has been the hardest,” she admits. “If I want to grow, I have to let go.” On the day we spoke, her first baker had just started; she was able to replicate a house recipe perfectly. It’s a step toward Chanille’s long-range plan: a franchise model designed to run itself, so she can someday indulge her love of traveling. “I don’t need everyone to know my name,” she says. “I want to build something that sustains, and be comfortable enough to be present in my life.”
Service opened the door to law—Chanille began as a public defender—and service is folded into her plans for brownieDr. She plans to create roles for people with learning disabilities when capacity allows.
“Finding ways to give back matters to me,” she says.
But her brownies themselves give back to her customers. She shares a memory at Eastern Market, during All Things Detroit: a man bought a German Chocolate brownie and wandered off. Fifteen minutes
later he returned, walked straight to the booth, and hugged her. “He said, ‘Thank you, ’cause this brownie tastes exactly like the German chocolate cake my mother used to make.’ That was probably the most…” She swallows. “I was so touched.”
December at brownieDr arrives like a readymade memory: warm, celebratory, and full of deliciousness. This year’s holiday lineup features a Peppermint Mocha frosted brownie that melts like cocoa by a fire, Peppermint Crunch brownie cookies with a cool snap and festive shimmer, and a Sweet Potato Blondie infused with the cozy spices of home. Each is a small permission slip, not just for the holiday season but for every day: choose joy.
“That’s our slogan,” Chanille says simply. “‘Choose joy.’ There’s a lot of serious in the world, and it’s not going anywhere. But everybody has to find peace and joy where they can. If our desserts can be that bright spot, even for a moment, I’m grateful.”
Precedent established: when the world is heavy, we can still practice joy, square by square…until joy becomes the law of the land.
brownieDr is at 2752 Coolidge in Berkley. Visit brownieDr.com or call (313) 356-6330
DECEMBER 2025
events
A SELECTION OF UPCOMING LOCAL EVENTS
DECEMBER 1ST
Royal Oak Holidays
Downtown Royal Oak | 4:00 PM
The 2025 Royal Oak Holidays will offer five consecutive weekends of free holiday fun in downtown Royal Oak, starting in November and running through Sunday, December 21! Now merged with Winter Blast, favorite activities like the zip line ride, carnival attractions and ice sculptures will be featured at Royal Oak Holidays—and everything’s completely free!
DECEMBER 2ND
Jolly Days Cookie Crawl
Downtown Royal Oak | 12:00 PM
Experience the ultimate sugar-laden adventure at the Jolly Days Cookie Crawl! With an array of two dozen Downtown Royal Oak businesses participating, this event offers a delectable journey through a variety of locally-sourced, handcrafted cookies. Don't miss your chance to indulge in this unforgettable community event that promises to sell out in a heartbeat. Secure your Cookie Pass swiftly!
DECEMBER 3RD
Candle Making Workshop with Detroit Rose
Modern Supply | 6:00 PM
Elaine Stojcevski, owner of Detroit Rose, will help us discover the slow living art of candle making by tapping into memory and utilizing fragrance to develop our own signature scent and custom hand-poured candle. It'll be a night of calm, community and creativity. All materials (plus food and drinks) provided. Grab a friend and join us! modernsupply.co for more information.
DECEMBER 4TH
Holiday Magic Marketplace
Royal Oak Farmers Market | 4:00 PM
Join us for the annual Holiday Magic Marketplace located inside the Royal Oak Farmers Market. Dozens of local crafters and vendors will help you with your holiday shopping and decorating needs. Enjoy free cookies and cocoa, live entertainment, and a visit from Santa from 6:30 - 8 pm. Bring the whole family for an evening of holiday fun!
DECEMBER 5TH
Detroit’s Brightest Tradition: Wild Lights
Detroit Zoo | 5:00 PM
More than 500 dazzling displays and millions of LED lights guide you through a trail filled with wonder, warmth, sound and surprise. Whether it’s a bundled-up family outing, a cheerful date night, a gathering with friends or simply a moment to breathe in the beauty of winter, this event offers something meaningful for anyone who experiences it.
DECEMBER 6TH
Whiskey and Wine Fest
Royal Oak Farmers Market | 7:00 PM
Whiskey & Wine Fest arrives at the Royal Oak Farmers Market in celebration of all the wonderful varieties of wine, whiskey, and the folks that drink them! Varieties are being produced the world over, and are being enjoyed by new and old fans alike. Join us in celebration of each – whether you like one, the other, or both!
WINTER in a glass
HOLIDAY COCKTAILS & COZY CREATIONS
SPICED CINNAMON RUM FLIP
A luscious holiday cocktail with warming spices, rich texture, and a beautiful cinnamon garnish.
INGREDIENTS:
• 2 oz dark or spiced rum
• 3/4 oz cinnamon simple syrup
• 1 oz heavy cream
• 1 whole egg
• Dash of ground nutmeg
• Dash of vanilla extract
Garnish: cinnamon stick and a light dusting of nutmeg or cinnamon
Make Cinnamon Simple Syrup:
Combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, and 2 cinnamon sticks in a saucepan. Simmer for 10 mins, let cool, and strain. Store in the fridge.
Add rum, cinnamon syrup, cream, egg, vanilla, and a pinch of nutmeg to a shaker. Shake vigorously for 15–20 seconds to emulsify the egg. Strain into a coupe or stemmed glass like the one in your photo. Top with a cinnamon stick across the rim and a dusting of nutmeg or cinnamon. Optional: Add 1/2 oz chilled espresso for a coffee kick.
FESTIVE CRANBERRY GIN FIZZ
A bright, elegant cocktail with a foamy top and a hint of holiday spirit.
INSTRUCTIONS:
INGREDIENTS:
• 2 oz gin
• 1 oz cranberry juice
• 3/4 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• 1 egg white
Optional: splash of sparkling water or club soda
Garnish: fresh rosemary or thyme sprig
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a cocktail shaker, combine gin, cranberry juice, lemon juice, simple syrup, and egg white. Shake vigorously for about 20 seconds to create the frothy top. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass to get that smooth, foamy top. Add a small splash of sparkling water if you’d like a bit of fizz. Gently place a sprig of rosemary or thyme on top of the foam.
Whether you’re hosting a gathering or simply treating yourself, these holiday drinks are guaranteed to bring a little extra cheer to your cup.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANIE JONES
micsb.com
Supporting Dreams, Because Giving Grows All of Us.
At Citizens State Bank, we believe the most meaningful gifts aren’t wrapped — they’re felt all year long. From helping families save for what matters, to fueling local business growth, to giving back to the communities we call home; we’re here to make a difference that lasts beyond the season.
32500 Woodward Ave. Royal Oak (248) 833-6160