Hiking with Natasha

Our one and only day together was gorgeous!  We hiked up to the monastery and enjoyed the warm sun on our skin.  We had lunch at the brewery, made olibollen and gnocchi for dinner.  Oh, and schemed about ways to see each other in the coming months.  There was a lot of scheming.

Two-thousand Twelve in Brief

Twenty-twelve, was by all accounts a tame year for us.  We spent the year hunkering down, without many trips or treats.  (Okay, there were treats, just not as many as in years past). That isn't to say there wasn't a lot of change in 2012.  Natasha lived at our awesome house with us for the summer, we moved to a different town and we went down to a single income while Shane went back to school.  Here is a bit of our year, in recap.

January: There was an amazing winter storm that kept us home for days, and we do love snow days.

Christmas 2012

December 25th is gone again.  The most hyped day of the entire year, sadly lasts no longer than any other.  Ours was pleasant, comfy and nice.  Shane and I woke up early, opened our gifts to each other, (we split the prepaid dates this year and I'm madly in love with the results) while I baked cinnamon buns.  We divvied up the pan and celebrated with our respective families all morning.  My Opa was admitted to the hospital Christmas eve (which has to be the worst day to go in) so I paid him a visit around lunch time.  We spent the afternoon at Shane's parents house and had a lovely steak and lobster dinner (Did they win the lottery and not tell us?).  When we got home we went for a lovely evening stroll and crashed early into bed.  Here are a few pictures of our lovely day:

Opening stockings

Mayhem.

Wow.  So I just checked and it's been 11 days since my last post.  Oh man, I'm terrible.  I wish I had posted more, but honestly I had no time.  None at all.  I didn't even tell you about my birthday.  It was awesome, but you knew that.  You folks were the ones that spoiled me!  Then I worked, Natasha and Dylan came over for dinner.  I hosted a cookie swap.  I ran a lot.  Then I got sick, it ruined my plans for an entire weekend.  I did some shopping.  I made a lot of treat bags to give away as gifts.  I got spoiled some more for Christmas.  I ate the granola I was going to give away.  I made more granola.  There was no peppermint extract left at the store.  I went on the hunt for peppermint extract.  There was a wine and cheese night.  There was the mall two days before Christmas.  Not on purpose, I got major sick the few days before.  Now there is more treats to be made for more gifts. And more work I need to do to make money.  Then there is Christmas, brunch, dinner, work and two more dinners.  We might watch a movie, we did watch the Hobbit. To top it all off they did construction outside our place for a week (we have a new patio!!).  Things have been insane.    And all that time I would have spend blogging I have spent driving instead.  Forgive me.

Candy Cane Whipped Shortbread

This time last year was a whole lot like this year, and the two years before, with one noticeable exception: I've grown up.  And I don't mean that in a good way.  I feel like I've officially reached old lady status with a new number only two days away.  I know I'm crazy, I realize I'm young with all the good stuff life provides still ahead of me. But! But, that ecstatic feeling I got around Christmastime even just two short years ago, I miss that, and there seems to be nothing I can do to get it back.  For the record: my age hasn't affected my self-centered birthday feelings, I've still got that in spades.  When I was young (12 months ago) I was able to feel things still.  When something was pure and good I got a tingle that ran through my body like an electric shock, when something was truly horrid I had a shiver up my spine.  I feel like these feelings are all stuck inside my heart, wrapped up in boxes and chains waiting to break free, but they sit so deep I can't quite reach them. All that sits in their place are the memories that I used to feel more true.

My Life

You know people who are confused about who they are or what they want to do with their lives? People who are searching and confused, lost and unhappy.  I'm not one of those.  Maybe you are, it's okay, there is no judgment here.  You are allowed to feel that way, I don't think it makes you weird, in fact it's probably normal.  I've just never felt that way.  I know exactly what I want.  I know what I need to achieve to be happy and I know how to get there.  It's inside me to make things happen, it always has been.  If I want something, I mean really want something, I get there come hell or high water.  I'll say it's a perk of being me.

December 7

Shopping by yourself, it's a catch 22.  On one had you are free to do whatever you please.  No, "let's go over there", or "I just wanted to check out the price of toilet paper at this store too". No giving advice on how others spend their money or wether those skinny jeans make them look fat (answer: yes, always).  Instead you can shop every isle, spending as much time as you want circling the Christmas mugs, and whittle away too much time listening to the Christmas tunes on that player that has like 100 CDs in it (and of course not buying any).  You can try clothes on until you're actually satisfied. (You can actually go in twice without feeling guilty).  But on the other hand there is no one to tell you how the clothes look.  Or wether you really need those peppermint kisses or the purple onion towels.  Your shopping will be more fun, but not as effective.

December 3

We started into December (the crazy-whirlwind month it is!) by setting up our tree.  Until Saturday we had only a fake tree, but when we brought it out that morning we could tell the rats had been having a rat-tastic time in the box all fall.  We quickly wrapped up the box and brought it down to the Salvation Arm.  It was time for our first real tree!  The tree farms opened for the season on Saturday, conveniently enough, and we chose Snow Dog Tree Farm as our destination.  Upon arrival we were greeted by the largest dog I've ever seen, the Snow Dog himself.  The enormous dog with paws like dinner plates was very happy to see the first customers of the season and he followed close behind us smelling Butter's scent rolling off our bodies.