Christmas Links

An instagram photo taken on the bridge to Balboa Island.  

Today's Letters (a blog I subscribe to) has a collection of their favorite Christmas songs here. My Christmas song playlist has been going for a few weeks - both from my own collection and on Pandora, but these songs (and the links recommended in the comments) are a refreshing add-in.

I like this NoiseTrade Christmas CD: Ten Out of Tenn. Have you tried NoiseTrade? You can get great music and leave whatever tip you like!

I have been collecting too many fun ideas on pinterest (and even making a few of them). I took these eggnog cookies to three different friends' houses last week and they were a hit! I want to make this eggnog pound cake or maybe this pumpkin gingerbread next.

I usually make white chocolate covered cranberries, but don't think I'm going to this year.  I did have some cranberries in the freezer though, so I made cranberry bread yesterday and it's yummy!  I also made these fig and date swirls from Lottie+Doof.  Sadly, I didn't have any anise, so I made them without, but they are still yummy!

When it's cold...

Colin sits in front of our gas heater. I've never had one of these before and was kinda scared of it when the maintenance guy and came to turn it on for us. Colin loves it though and warms up to it every morning.

New Years Eve

Our New Year's Eve was spent simply - at home resting, organizing, catching up from a week away. We went to Bruxie for dinner, a waffle sandwich place we found spur of the moment on Yelp. It was dee-licious! Colin got the buttermilk fried chicken waffle sandwich and I got the goat cheese, sundried tomato, and arugula waffle sandwich. Yum. We'll be headed back for sure!

After dinner we got free hot donuts as we stood in line for coffee at Krispy Kreme then went to see The King's Speech. A truly great movie in both of our opinions.

New Years Day Colin and I made the meal he'd been dreaming of: black-eyed peas, turnip greens, cornbread, and pork chops. I grew up eating black eyed peas on New Years day, but we didn't have a standard meal to go with them. Colin grew up eating the exact same meal every year, so that's what he craved. He was so excited to get it that he texted his family with a picture and then posted it to facebook, which is a very rare thing for him. His parents replied that they'd had the exact same meal a few hours before and his brothers replied that they wished they'd had someone to make it for them. It's fun to make him happy and create traditions together.

Welcome, 2011!

I am working on clearing out space in our apartment and in my life. Although I wasn't looking forward to going back to work on Monday, it actually ended up feeling nice to wake up and go and come home. I still remember the feeling of months of no work, so I'm appreciating starting out the year employed.

I got excited on New Years night (as we were killing time between dinner and the movie we wanted to see) when I found a tiny turquoise Moleskine for 50% off at Borders. I like to carry one around with me in my purse, so the smaller the better. Beginning a new year with a new planner feels nice, if a bit nerdy.

Two other things to get my new year to an exciting start are a coupon envelope made from recycled paper and tape and Living More With Less, which just came out in a 30th anniversary edition. I have loved the cookbook that is by the same author for a long time because it's great for living overseas and being mindful of what we make and eat. I haven't checked out the new version (I got the old one for free from my mother in law), but I can only imagine that it would be even better than the one I'm currently reading. It's challenging the way I think and live and I highly recommend it!

Our Christmas Tree

I'm getting ready to take our weird little Christmas tree down, so I took a few pictures of it. Earlier in the fall, I was thinking that if I did a craft fair, I'd like to have a few Christmas trees to display my ornaments and headbands on. I really wanted an old fashioned aluminum one, but a quick search let me know they were out of my price range.

On an estate sale trip one morning, I came across a stack of tomato cages that were upside down and I realized they made a Christmas tree shape. I left that estate sale with a stack of vintage clothes, a bulletin board that I've been using as a mobile workstation (it makes it easy to clear off the dining table to eat when all the stuff I've been making is on a movable board), a great leather purse, tomato cages, and other random stuff for $30! Warning: getting a great deal like that can be addictive and lead to piles of things you have great hopes for.

So, after the craft fair was over, I took the tallest tomato cage and made it into our little Christmas tree. An eco-friendly, economical, and fun alternative!

Christmas in Texas

We had a pretty great Christmas break in Texas. We flew to Abilene, in hopes to fulfill my Mother's dream of having Christmas at her house, and my sister and her family drove in the same night. We stayed there for most of the break and did a lot of resting, playing, and a few odd jobs as gifts to my parents.

Curtis took his first steps on Christmas Eve, but I'm not sure he's taken any since then. He's such a cutie!

Wesley got as much time on the iPad as his parents could stand.

We went to my sister's house for a few days to meet up with all but one of the girl cousins. Sarah, fresh from a semester backpacking and doing an internship in England, gave Wesley a dance lesson in his pajamas.


We were missing one important cousin who couldn't make it, but we enjoyed our time together a whole bunch. I'm already plotting when another Texas visit could be possible.

Still in Recovery Mode

The past two and a half weeks have been a blur of activity. When we got back from our Thanksgiving vacation visiting Colin's family in Arkansas, I went full speed ahead into my new full time job while at the same time trying to make as much awesome stuff as possible to sell at my first craft fair. We also threw some holiday parties and other gatherings in there which made it pretty crazy!

The craft fair was really fun. I actually made a profit and my etsy sales have greatly increased in the days following. I'm so thankful!

Colin was a huge help in getting ready for the fair, picking up my slack at home, and in being with me at the fair. Such a blessing! I have pictures to share of everything that I'll post soon.

Things are still getting back to normal since when I get back home from work I have to fill orders from the shop. There's still a few big piles of things waiting to be put away in the aftermath of the fair, but thankfully Colin's patient with that too.

I'm getting more settled in at work. We are able to sit still and celebrate Advent a few nights a week, which has been wonderful. A week from tomorrow we'll be heading to Texas! Exciting times.

Ice in Arkansas

We got in to Arkansas the night before Thanksgiving and the next morning the temperatures dropped while the rain came, so we got to experience a real Southern ice storm. It was beautiful since we didn't have to go anywhere and beautiful because you don't see things like this in Southern California!

Advent Wreath

This is my first real season to celebrate Advent. With a new job (finally! I have a full time job again!) and preparing for the Renegade Craft Fair, I am finding the time we're taking to stop and wait and remember necessary to return to a peaceful state of mind.

I made this "wreath" out of discarded Christmas tree clippings at Wal-Mart. I was thinking about buying a small Norfolk pine and cutting branches off of it, but then I saw the guy throwing these branches out and decided they would look even better. They were free, to boot! I was going to tie them together, but to make it simpler, I just laid them on a circular tray. I'm not using the traditional Advent colors of purple and pink because I wanted to use candles I already had.

This week, we've been lighting the first candle when we sit down to dinner and reading the scripture and singing a song together after dinner. The theme this week from the resource we're using is to wake up and be alert for the new thing that God is doing. So good.

Giving and the Holidays

I'm usually against starting holiday festivities early. When I saw the Christmas decorations going up in September at the mall, I though 'ick, consumerism.' But, if you came to our house for Colin's birthday party a week ago, you would have seen a little display of ornaments on an upside down tomato cage (our improvised tree), a vintage sled, presents wrapped in dictionary pages. Colin actually put it together when he cleaned house since I had all of those things on the living room floor.

Things have been a little different this year because I've been putting new items in my two etsy shops that are Christmas themed and making plans for this weekend's craft fair at church. So, holiday stuff has been on my mind.

I sent an e-mail to my family a few days ago asking if we wanted to stop giving gifts, or if we give them, to give something handmade, regifted, or give to a good cause. Colin asked about it last night and I told him "basically, we're not giving gifts." He started talking about the Biblical reasons for gift giving, that it brings joy, that it shows appreciation, etc. I kind of sighed, thinking that he was making things more complicated. Then I realized that I was taking the easy route by just saying no to gift giving. There are lots of great ways to enjoy the season without giving gifts, but giving gifts can be fun and thoughtful and great. Colin grew up in a family that doesn't celebrate Christmas, so he looks forward to giving and receiving.

All this has me thinking. I'm putting a lot of effort (well, it's my full-time job right now) into my etsy stores and selling things at these holiday fairs. So, I don't know what will be left in me to make more things and find thoughtful gifts for those who I would like to give something to. But, I also realize that I really enjoy making things for others and I enjoy giving. During the next few weeks, I'm going to post some ideas for thoughtful giving that puts less focus on consumerism and more focus on sharing the wealth. I'd love to hear from you and what you do, too!

our minimoon

Suzanne asked me recently if I had pictures from our honeymoon. I do. Here they are. We originally planned on going to New Zealand, as it's been my dream honeymoon spot in my mind. (Never really had a dream wedding in mind, but I did have a dream honeymoon spot!)
However, wedding planning got complicated, Colin was busy with work, and I was not excited about planning a honeymoon on my own. Plus, plane tickets were expensive because it was summer in New Zealand. So, we decided to plan a New Zealand trip for later. We're saving up our wedding gift money for that. Yay!

We did have a lovely honeymoon on the way back from Texas to California. (We drove from CA to TX for the wedding so we could have a car there for the wedding prep and because we were there for a few weeks.) We stopped in Santa Fe at a bed and breakfast called the Hacienda Dona Andrea. We were the only ones there, so it was like we had our own mansion with a breakfast chef.


The night we were driving in, it started snowing. The next morning, there was plenty of snow on the ground. We used the top of a storage container to try to sled, but it didn't really work. :)

We spent four nights there. Mostly just relaxing in front of the fireplace, taking walks, naps, reading, watching movies, enjoying the coziness. Most people go somewhere tropical on their honeymoon, I guess, but I really enjoyed the low key relaxed version that we took. We called it a minimoon because we are saving a more deluxe version for later.

We did go in to Santa Fe for a day - to the Georgia O'Keefe museum and a Japanese style spa, which was nice too.

I'm in Kentucky with my family, visiting my sister's family. So many interesting things to photograph here! Pictures of the nephew to come later. :)

Advent Conspiracy

I linked to this last year and thought as we're quickly approaching (or already in) the holiday season, it would be a good time to remind us about this again. This video does a good job.



Go to the Advent Conspiracy site for more inspiration!

Christmas is coming...

I spent a lot of the weekend with a family from my home fellowship. We saw the walking trail of lights in Marble Falls. This peace on earth picture tells a lot by showing only one part of the earth. Maybe we should wish peace for the other side too!

My friend Caleb and I made a tree from magazines, inspired by the ones Starbucks is using to decorate this year.

He showed me how to make one from a whole magazine by keeping the pages on the binding and just folding them. I love it!

And I started my Christmas cards last night while listening to my Christmas playlist. With the weather actually being cool and rainy in Austin right now, I'm almost in the Christmas spirit!

cold?

So everybody in Texas is complaining about the weather. I think it's kinda funny. For some reason, even though I lived almost my whole life in Texas, I love cold weather. I love wearing layers of clothes and warm hats and scarves and big coats. When I tell people I love cold weather, they usually say, "But aren't you from Texas?".

The weather in Texas has been below freezing for a few days, but it's been below freezing in Northeast China for at least a month, and that's because this winter has been warm and started late. Anyway, I guess that it's alright for Texans to complain about it because it's not normal.

In Seoul, it's quite a bit warmer than Yanji. I wore a pair of long johns on the plane over, but haven't put them on since. I haven't been wearing a hat or gloves much and I brought my short coat that I can't wear in Yanji right now. Someone last week asked if where I live was as cold as here. I told him it was much colder and his eyes got very big. He said he can barely stand to be here in the winter because he gets dizzy when he goes outside. I told him to get a hat.

a few more pictures

The snow sculptures were really great, so here are a few more just for fun. In one, I am striking a karate kid-like pose at the request of the photographer.

This dragon was really big and cool. We all tried to capture its magnificence on film, but alas, we failed.

Me, on the second level of the sleeper. It's the best place to be because nobody bugs you there and you're not too far away from the ground.

We got back at around 7 on Sunday morning to a deep and beautiful snow. These are the houses near my apartment. I think they're cute.

These are the military guys cleaning up certain sections of the base. They have these man powered snow plows. One person pushes and two or three people pull. Pretty effective use of a lot of men. What do they do when it's not snowing, I wonder?

harbin, part three

After a good rest in our warm and simple room that we got for 2o yuan per person per night (less than three dollars), we ate fruit and bread for breakfast, checked out of our room and left our luggage at the Korean restaurant where we had made friends the night before, and met our Korean friends to go to the snow park. It had been snowing earlier in the morning and started snowing again at the park. It was perfect!
The theme at the snow park this year was Canada, so there were maple leaves and other Canadian symbols like Niagra Falls sculpted in the park.
They were still sculpting some of the sections of the park.

Just before we left the park, someone noticed how amazing the snowflakes were. We tried to take pictures of them, but no one had a camera that could take such close pictures well. After spending a few hours looking at all these amazing snow sculptures, we were most amazed at what the maker sent that landed on our coats. They were simply the most intricate, beautiful, picture like snowflakes we had ever seen. Some of them had two levels and couldn't have been more perfect or beautiful. When we left the park, the flakes seemed to have turned normal again, but for a few minutes, we enjoyed the fascination of seeing those amazing flakes.

We spent the rest of the afternoon that day eating a huge Korean meal at the house of our new friends and then rested there until it was time for us to catch our train. We picked up our bags and got some kimbap (seaweed rolls) to eat on the train. I thought it was interesting that the only food we ate was American (McDonald's) and Korean the whole time we were there. I guess we should have ventured out, but those are the foods we are happy to eat and we were hosted by a Korean family, so we didn't try any new Russian or Chinese foods.

On the way back, we had sleeper tickets and met some students and teachers from our university, so it was much more enjoyable than our trip going. We had a lovely time in Harbin. I want to go back sometime!

Harbin, part two

This was the big event in Harbin that we went to see. We got on the bus as soon as it got dark (4:30). We were all bundled up: me with two pairs of long johns, three pairs of socks, more than three layers of shirts, my big down coat, gloves, scarf wrapped around twice, and hat. Some members of our threesome had on even more than me.
Unfortunately, the bus ride was super crowded and I started sweating under all those layers. All I could really take off was the hat, scarf, and gloves. They came off and I was gasping for fresh air everytime the door opened to let someone off. I had to walk around for a few minutes outside to cool down, but it didn't take long.
We were impressed with this city of ice buildings lit up from the inside. They had palaces, churches, tunnels, igloos, castles with slides, sculptures galore. It was beautiful. Worth the 150 yuan (about 18 bucks) I paid to get in.
We hooked ourselves together and slid down one of the ice slides on our rear ends. So fun! It felt like I was a teenager again at Wet and Wild waiting my turn to go down the next water slide. We stayed pretty warm most of the evening, it just got cold as we were waiting to meet up with our Korean friends again to go home together that we got cold, but we were warmed up by the packed bus ride home and almost thawed out by the time we reached our destination. We went to eat spicy rice cakes and steamed eggs at the Korean restaurant near the place we stayed. We impressed them with our (three white girls) ability to read, write, and speak Korean and we got special treatment.
Looking down from the top of one of the taller palaces. You can see a huge Buddha sculpted from snow and the other buildings in the park.