Goodbye 2013...

The Christmas Season is rapidly proceeding through the various celebration: Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day are past and done. Next holidays to look forward to are New Year Eve, New Year and the Epiphany.

I've never been a fan of New Year Eve. As a teenager I wasn't smart enough to attend parties and I usually spent the last day of the year at home with my parents and sister, reading myself through the midnight and into the new year.
When I started dating my hubby R. back in 2001 I also began to attend New Year Eve parties. I still remember the weird feeling of sorrow and guilt of that first time I left my parents on New Year Eve! At first it was fun, every year we did attend a party with our common friends and it all went fine for a good few years... untill all of them friends became couples with someone and as the group grew relationship between its members grew in complexity. Soon some people fell into quarrels and New Year Eve became a nightmare again. Who are we going to celebrate with?! Whose house will host the party this year? It was no more fun, but actually a stress to get everything sorted.
Last year, R. and I spent it home untill midnight watching some Disney movie and then went to a nearby town where they held jazz concerts.
This year we are thankful to a couple of friends who will get married on New Year Eve and will hold a big party for all of their friends. We'll get to celebrate together with our friends and with a smart party and all! No stress as to how to organize this New Year Eve party! Hooray them!

As the New Year comes many people rethink the year that's coming to an end and make wish for the year that's about to start.

If I have to rethink my year 2013 I can only say it's so far one of the best ever spent! In March we decided to get married and we spent most year getting ready for our big day, refurbishing the new home, organizing and dreaming of our future together. And now we're living the dream! How can a year ever be better than this one?! Sure, I lost my job in August when my contract wasn't renewed, and I am still looking for a job... But I am a lucky girl, indeed. Job will hopefully come in 2014 for me, I am as happy as a loved woman can ever be!

New Year Resolutions. Well, I almost quit making any some years ago, after many years of failing at keeping any resolution further than the month of March!
I can only make a wish for the new year, and hope I can make my best to make it happen.

First wish for 2014 has to be about my already happy life with beloved R. We can't be happier than this, the two of us! We love eachother and feel so immensely happy together. I wish it lasted not only all 2014 long, but forever! Love is something amazing and I am lucky to be experiencing it with R.!

For sure I wish I could read more. I have not read as much as I used to do this year, mainly because of job and wedding stuff that needed to be done. Now that I am more or less settled in the new home I wish I could go back to my old habit of reading everyday before bedtime. I miss reading.

I also wish I could keep up going to the pool regularly. Twice a week would be perfect, but I will be happy if I go once a week at least! There's a nice pool not too far from home and I have already gone twice there before the holidays. I will start again past the Christmas Season and I'm actually looking forward to it: it does help me feeling fit and relaxed.

I of course wish I could find a job to live of. I would do any job, as long as it left me time enough to spend with my beloved husband and to take care of our home. I am seriously considering going back to working for my parents, even if it's always been a job I wanted to avoid. Now that I am a wife I want to work any job that gives me something to bring home and still leaves me time enough to be a good wife to R.

I wish I did all of my compulsory assignments at the university, incl.the final professional training exam in June. I know it's a hard job and I must work hard to achieve it all in time, but I hope I will make it!

I wish I kept writing to my penpals regularly. Together with many other aspects of my private life, penpalling was kept on hold in 2013, mainly due to stressful job and wedding. But now I am almost caught up with all my mail and I hope to keep myself up to date with replies from now on! I owe it to my pals, who've been so kind and patient to wait forever for their letters to get a reply!

Finally, but not the last of my wish-list options, I wish I could bring my dog to live with hubby and I. The dog is already 5 and couldn't get used to the new home, so he's still living at my parents'. But I miss him so much! And I can see he misses me too, but he's way too scared of anything new and a new home definitely is the scariest experience he ever had to endure in his life. Hopefully he'll make it and win the fear so that I can keep him with us. We'd make a happy party of 3!

Do you have any resolution/wish list for 2014? What are your New Year Eve plans?

Happy Eve and may you all live a gorgeous 2014!

Merry Christmas you all!

So, our first Christmas was fan-ta-stic! I am absolutely satisfied with it and already look forward to next year's Christmas together with my R.!

On 24th night we had an Eve dinner at R.'s aunt. We were a party of 13 and we dined with fish from starters to main course. We then exchanged gifts and I received a beautiful box of my favourite parfume. Lucky me!

At midnight we attended the Christmas Mass and then spent one hour with friends and gave them some Christmas muffins we'd baked at home on 23rd night.

It was past 2.30 am when we came home and finally went to sleep.

At 9 am on Christmas day we were wide awake and we exchanged gifts sitting in front of our Christmas tree. We had so much fun and spent some quality time together!
I was spoilt rotten this Christmas also, I received many beautiful presents and I am thankful for them all!

books: because they are my favourite gift ever for every occasion!

a warm blanket for our cozy nights in, curled on the sofa with a good book; the box of my favourite parfume; a pool towel and a wool hat.

the three kings to add to our beautiful crib! An hamburger maker that I am looking forward to try, a cookbook and a wooden box of herbal teas. 

I can call myself a happy woman with all that I got!

The remains of Christmas day was spent at my parents' first, where we had a big lunch with my grandparents and aunt and R.'s parents. We had some nice time together and I was happy to have both our sets of parents together on such a special day. We had dinner at R's parents' with his side of the family: uncles, aunts, cousins. It was nice as well, Christmas means family to us and with family is the way we like it to be celebrated!

I am now relaxing on Boxing Day, with the perfect reading for this time of the year: A Christmas Carol, by Dickens.

Happy Season to you all!

'Tis the season to be jolly

Fa la la la la, la la la la....

We all know that Christmas means to most of us family, home, traditions. Dickens liked to picture in its Christmas stories the families get togethers. And it's the very same picture I can think of when saying it's Christmas season.

Yes, because Christmas means to me family. As weird and disfunctional a family can be, comes Christmas and they still find a way to get together and forget all (or almost all) problems for the day and feel the merry air of Christmas.

This year R. and I are a family, finally. We'll wake up together on Christmas morning and will open our gifts together in front of our gorgeous tree. We'll make it a tradition soon.

This year Christmas is both tradition and novelty for us, and I admitt it's so exciting to just think of it! We're only 4 days away! Can't really wait for it!!!

On 24th night we'll dine with R.'s family. They usually exchange gifts on that night. We've picked up a name from a jar and we have to think for a gift for that person whose name we chose. That'll be fun! It's my first year of this tradition, I mean I usually spent the Christmas Eve at home with my parents and sister and we had a simple dinner together and then got ready for the Mass. This year it'll be fun to do something new!
Comes midnight and R. and I attend the Holy Mass. I love that Mass, it's special. No Mass is as special to me. After the holy celebration we usually eschange gifts with our friends. This procedure may take up to one hour and we're never home before 2am on Christmas day! This year we'll give money we would spend for buying Christmas to some family who's in need. So we won't exchange proper gifts. Still R. and I thought we can bake some muffins and give them instead, one each friend. I found a perfect Christmas muffins recipe: honey and nuts. I tried them the other day and we love them so much!

On 25th morning we'll wake up (I hope I will be able to stay in bed 'till 9am but am not sure about it because I can be really excited on Christmas morning!) together and have our Christmas breakfast (I hope R. will allow me to play Christmas songs on our musicplayer!) and then open our gifts (that we've already placed under the Christmas tree at home).
Lunch we'll have at my parents'. This year R.'s parents are joining us and I am really happy about it: we'll have our whole family together. This year my sister and R.'s brother won't celebrate with us because they're at their respective partner's. But I think it's natural when you grow up and have serious relationships that you have other traditions to embrace and extended families to celebrate with.
In the afternoon I usually help mom tidy after the big meal and so I will this year. Then we'll drive to R.'s parents' where we'll join the rest of the family for dinner.

On 26th we usually spend a day at home, enjoying our gifts, but this year R.'s brother and his partner invited us at their place to have a meal all together with R.'s parents and his brother's partner's parents. Will that become a tradition as well?! Time will tell...

Our Christmas this year promises to be a merry and nice one. And I am eager to live it!

Dear Santa...

... Christmas is rapidly approaching and I count 8 nights only left to Christmas! I am growing absolutely excited about it, because you know how much I love this day! I practically live through the other 364 days of the year waiting for this very Christmas day! And this year R. and I have a house of our own and we'll wake up on Christmas morning together and everything will be even more exciting that it usually is.

With our wedding being only 2 months ago we can say we got everything we'd hoped for: a roof on our heads, a place to call home, our family (finally)... We can ask for nothing better and should really ask for nothing more. Still, a girl can always dream and I filled a list of things I would still love to achieve in a (close?!) future.

- An additional bookshelf for our many books. We have a tiny space near the sittee where we'd love to fit a bookshelf in. We still haven't found the right one for us, but I think this one I found online is amazing!

- A Workwerk hoover. I got a cheaper hoover when we married and I can do with it so far, but I know hoover by Workwerk are special. They clean a lot better than the one I currently own. But they also are incredibly expensive, so I think I'd better postpone this one wish to happier time (economically happier, I mean).

- A cook book by Martha Stewart. I need someone to inspire my cooking now that I have a lovely husband to please (oh, my dear one is easily pleased and he's always praising my cooking, still I like to surprise him with something new!).

- A table clock. I need one. I wish I had a digital table clock. A clock with alarm, in case I have to wake up earlier than R. if/when I'll have a job again.

- My favourite eau de toilette: Omnia Crystalline by Bulgari. Its scent is my favourite ever. If only it wasn't so expensive!

- Lastly I would love to get a Christmas tablecloth, one of those with matching napkins. I want to give small Christmas gatherings here during the festive season, inviting friends and family to join us in our new home, but I need a festive tablecloth to make my table look festive and warm.

I think I am already lucky having what I have, still dreaming and making list is something I can't really resist to!

'Tis the Season

With Christmas approaching having a home all of our own feels even more exciting than what it already is.
R. and I did our Christmas decoration shopping, looking for bargains and quality items at the same time wasn't easy task. Eventually we came up with some good stuff and still managed to keep our expense on a low level.

On Saturday we set up the Christmas tree. We have a fake (I come from a long tradition of fake-still-looking-like-real Christmas trees and I couldn't buy a real tree this year) 180cm tall tree that is hopefully lasting for many years to come. And decorations we bought are in gold, silver and red. Still I had to borrow some more decorations from my parents. They have many and won't miss a few of them. It took us a good couple of hours to set up the tree to a satisfying enough result, but it was worth it! We now have a lovely tree that warms our home with its lights and decorations.

We also set a nativity standing on a side of our tree. We were given a Thun nativity set for our wedding and we decided to go with this one for our first Christmas. It's not the typical nativity set I am used to, yet the final result isn't as bad. Actually we enriched it with some fake wood and pallet and some sheeps and it now looks nice.

I of course took a picture of our Christmas corner and want to share it here.

 

I am trying my best to make this home look festive, warm and comfy and so far I am pretty satisfied with the result. It's not too bad for a new home, judging from our breakfast table today, is it?!