Archives for December 2014

A year in review: 2014

December 31, 2014 filed under: reminiscence

I haven’t consistently done annual recaps in the past, mostly because I was traveling over the holidays and didn’t find the time to do them, as I had so much stuff to catch up on. However, this year – inspired by some other bloggers – I decided to do a little summary of 2014 and highlight some of the things that happened over the course of this last year.

January

January is always overshadowed by my family time hangover that I am usually nursing until well into the new year. I shared how we celebrated Christmas and talked about who I am at the moment.

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February

In February, J and I went down to SoCal for a weekend and spent a day in Santa Barbara and some time at the beach. It’s always a nice treat. I also took a knitting class with my dear neighbor-turned-friend, D. February was also the month when I started yoga classes.

March

March is my birthday month and I had a fun day with J. I also got to spend a girls’ day with my friend Susi, including “shopping” at Neiman Marcus, lunch and a pedicure.

Golden Gate Bridge

April

In April, I got to meet and spend a day with my new friend Jenny in San Francisco and was able to turn another URL friendship into a IRL friendship. J and I also went back down to SoCal for Easter. Then I showed you how I use my Erin Condren Life Planner.

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May

In May, my sister and I were able to pull off a surprise for my parents for their 40th wedding anniversary and J and I spent another weekend in SoCal and celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary later that month. I shared some thoughts about what we’ve learned in 8 years of marriage. I also was being summoned for jury duty in the US for the first time.

Photo of the week: farmers market

June

June was pretty mellow. I called out an Internet stalker on my blog and I hung out with neighbor-friend quite a bit (since she was going to move away soon). We also started watching the FiFA World Cup 2014, of course.

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July

In July, J and I went on a belated anniversary trip to Las Vegas where we went to an awesome concert and also witnessed Germany becoming Football World Champions again.

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August

In August, I spent an awesome weekend in LA with my friend Caryn and we went on a Warner Brothers Studio Tour and saw Paul McCartney in concert! I also took a surprise trip to Germany for my niece’s first day of school and totally knocked my sister and the rest of the family of their socks. My sister also got a new cat and I finally got to ride horses again.

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September

In September, I got to spend more time with my family in Germany and took the munchkins to the fair ground (for cotton candy!). I also got to go on a work field trip to Mammoth Lakes at the end of the month and I got to spend a few hours at Yosemite National Park, my favorite.

October

In October, I went on another work field trip and also got to check off a thing on my bucket list during that trip: I got the chance to visit Devil’s Postpile National Monument. I gave my blog a little face-lift, we celebrated J’s birthday and I got to hang out with my friend Susi and J and I went to the pumpkin patch. I also announced the opening of a collaborative Etsy shop that I started with a friend.

November

In November, I had a lot to say as I participated yet again in NaBloPoMo. I voted in another US election. I talked about the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago. I shared my favorite TV series and my favorite warm winter breakfast. J and I went to the annual Causeway Classic College Football game (as always). We celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving and I shared the things that I am most thankful for.

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December

In December, I went down to SoCal to visit a dear friend and hang out with my in laws for a weekend. I also tried to enjoy the crap out of this holiday season. J and I saw the Nutcracker the weekend before Christmas and visited San Francisco for a day. We celebrated Christmas at home, just the two of us, for the first time and although it wasn’t the same as being with my family in Germany, we made the best of it and it was a nice and quiet Christmas (mini tree included).

This, and so much more!, was 2014. I can’t believe another year is coming to an end. Time seems to fly faster and faster every year. But, since I am anticipating a wonderful 2015, I won’t be too sad that this year is over. I am looking forward to some exciting changes at my job, I am planning to travel and see (and also meet for the first time) some of my friends and most of all, I am looking forward to my family visiting California in the summer! I can’t wait!

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you have a great start into a fantastic 2015!

December Favorites

December 30, 2014 filed under: lists!, love, monthly favorites

1.) I think I’ve drank my body weight (and then some) of Trader Joe’s vanilla cinnamon tea this month. It’s so delicious with a splash of milk and some rock sugar.

2.) I have mentioned it a few times already, The Holiday is not only one of my favorite Christmas movies, it’s one of my favorite movies in general. I don’t know how many time I’ve watched it by now, but I know one thing for sure and that is that I will never get tired of watching it one more time. I know I am not alone with this!

3.) I love my rainbow-colored loop scarf which I knit (I think) two winters ago. I can’t count how many times people have complimented me on the scarf. I love it so much that I wish I could knit more and give them away to everyone I know, but alas, you guessed it… the yarn has been discontinued. I mean, what the hell?

4.) It’s not Christmas time for me without After Eight. I don’t know exactly why, I only know that my Mom always buys it around Christmas time for our “Weihnachtsteller” (Christmas plate) and I am the one who eats most of them (because I love dark chocolate and mint!).

5.) I had my Ugg Knightsbridge boots for a few years now, but they’re still my favorites in the wintertime, because they keep my (forever) cold toes nice and warm. Plus, they look ~~a little~~ a lot nicer than the original Uggs boots in my opinion. Not great, but not bad either.

6.) Ok, I think I was a bit too excited about this bottled, imported Glühwein (mulled wine) from Germany, but if I can’t travel to the Glühwein this year, the Glühwein had to come to me.

Our #quietchristmas

December 29, 2014 filed under: holidays

I don’t know if you noticed, most of the pictures I posted on Instragram over the holidays were hashtagged #quietchristmas, because that’s what it was. Quiet.
We’re used to traveling over the holidays and seeing a whole lot of people in a very short amount of time, so staying put this year and not seeing anyone for Christmas was a very different experience.
Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure how I would feel on Christmas Eve. I had been pep-talking myself for the last few weeks that it would be fine and that we would make it a great Christmas. Different, but great. And you know what? It was.

I am not saying that I didn’t miss hugging everybody on Christmas Eve (and I definitely missed my Dad’s exquisite cooking), but besides feeling a little down directly after my Skype session with my family on Christmas Eve morning (when they were all gathered at my sister’s house), I actually was able to enjoy our quiet Christmas. Sometimes not having any plans IS the plan and it’s not the worst plan one can have.

I decorated our little tree in the morning, I drank copious amounts of gingerbread coffee, I watched “The Holiday” (my favorite) in the afternoon and I put together a “Weihnachtsteller” (Christmas plate) as we would find at my parents’ house and because clearly Christmas is not Christmas without After Eight (and Christmas cookies, Dominosteinen (gingerbread cookies filled with marzipan, apricot jelly, covered with icing of dark chocolate) and toffifee).

I set our dinner table (menu cards included — that’s one of my duties for every Christmas Eve dinner) and we cooked ourselves a delicious three-course meal.

We unwrapped some presents after dinner (because we open presents on Christmas Eve in Germany) and then watched “It’s a wonderful life”, one of our Christmas movie favorites!

We had coffee out of our new mugs on Christmas day morning and then emptied our Christmas stockings that we had filled for each other. Originally we didn’t plan to exchange gifts this year, but I thought it would be nice to combine traditions and have some stockings! We watched more Christmas movies and then later went for a walk through the close-by neighboorhood to enjoy the Christmas decorations. Honestly, I find nothing more festive than seeing the decorated and illuminated trees in other people’s windows!

We had a cozy “second Christmas holiday” on Friday. (J thinks it’s one of the best things about the ‘German Christmas’ that we get a second holiday off (the 26th)and that we should clearly – in the spirit of combining Christmas traditions – acknowledge the 26th as another holiday. Fine by me!

I spent most of the day on the couch reading, knitting and just enjoying the time off.

Last but not least I’d like to thank all of you who sent Christmas cards (and even little presents!) this year. They honestly made this holiday season extra-special. I did send cards, too, of course, but in case you haven’t gotten it yet… I’ve heard that the postal service is taking its sweet time this year (or they are hopelessly overwhelmed with the amount of mail this year — which, I guess, considering the fact that the postal service has been struggling to stay afloat, would be a good thing after all). So maybe you’ll still get a little surprise after the holidays!

I do apologize though that I forgot to snap any pictures of us. Maybe I’ll remember this next year!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas as well, friends.
Thanks for being, in one way or another, part of mine.

2014 in pictures: week 52

December 28, 2014 filed under: a year in pictures

Christmas tree • The Holiday • Christmas plate •
cozy • our Christmas dinner • decorations •
knitting • a puzzle! • Christmas cards •

A Christmas weekend trip to SF

December 27, 2014 filed under: California, holidays

Last weekend, J and I decided to spend a day in San Francisco. We usually don’t get to go around Christmas time when we’re traveling overseas, but this time I wanted to go see the decorations at Union Square and enjoy a day in the City. We picked a beautiful day for our day trip!

We first had brunch at The Plant Café at Pier 3. Someone had recommended the place to me before and it didn’t disappoint. The food was delicious and we had a full French Press pot of Blue Bottle coffee, which was very good.

The weather was perfect really, a little cloudy, but relatively calm and warm. We walked along the piers and enjoyed the views.

There was – as always – a beautifully decorated, huge Christmas tree put up at Pier 39.

We hung out for a while at Ghiradelli Square…

… and then took a nice, long walk back to Union Square, where we had some hot chocolate and enjoyed the decorations!

Union Square

San Francisco is always worth a trip, but it’s especially lovely during Christmas time!

Christmas Tag!

December 26, 2014 filed under: holidays

I saw this post on someone’s blog (forgive me, I was clicking around and did a quick copy + paste for the blog idea, but then forgot to remember where I found it. Hmpf.) and you might have seen it around too. So, I give credit to whoever came up with this fun little meme!)

1. What is your favorite Christmas movie?

All of them? Ok, I am kidding, but I do love Christmas movies. The one I could watch over and over and over again is “The Holiday”. Hands down my favorite. (I managed to watch 12 Christmas movies this year!).

2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

Christmas Eve! This is how it is done in Germany and it’s been a really weird adjustment to realize that Christmas Eve is not really the ‘big day’ here in the US. Now we’re combining traditions to make the most of Christmas! We had a fantastic dinner and opened some presents on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas morning, we emptied some stockings and had another great meal later in the day. Oh, and did you know that in Germany, we get not one, but two Christmas holidays? So we declared December, 26 a ‘holiday’ for us as well. Gotta make the most of it :)

3. Do you have a favorite Christmas memory?

Not really. My favorite memory is just always being with my whole family on Christmas Eve.

4. Your favorite festive food?

Baked apples with almond splints, cinnamon and vanilla sauce.

5. Your favorite Christmas gift?

That my family is going to come visit next summer. (We skipped presents in my family this year to make this happen!)

6. Your favorite Christmas scent?

Vanilla and cinnamon! (Well, I actually love it all year round!)

7. Do you have any Christmas eve traditions?

Yes! As previously mentioned, Christmas Eve is the most important holiday in Germany and we usually go to a Christmas service in the afternoon and then all gather at my parents house (all being my sister and her family, my aunt and cousin and J and me… and my granddad and great-aunt, when they were still with us, sigh!) and then we would wait for the “Christkind” (christ child) to come and deliver the presents (that is usually just a thing for the kids who have to go upstairs and wait for a little bell to ring). We exchange presents – one at a time, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the gifts – and then sit down to a multi-course meal that my Dad (and Mom) put together every year! It’s always fantastic and never the same. The dinner usually goes into the late hours of the evening and then we’d still hang out until after midnight! It’s the most wonderful night of the whole year, I tell you.

8. What tops your tree?

A straw star.

9. As a kid what was the one (crazy, wild, extravagant) gift you always asked for but never received?

Ha, like every girl, I wanted my own pony, but of course, never ever got it.

10. What’s the best part about Christmas for you?

I kind of answered this question in a previous post. I literally love everthing about Christmas, but when it comes down to the wire, time spent with my family is the most precious part!

Photo of the week: Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2014 filed under: photography

Hello friends! This is the last but one photo for the ‘Foto der Woche‘ – project and it’s my favorite time of the year, so don’t be surprised, here’s my Glücklichmacher #51:

Merry Christmas (taken December 24, 2014)

Christmas is my favorite time of the year and this is our tiny Christmas tree. We usually don’t get a tree since we travel over the holidays, but since we were staying put this year, I insisted on getting (at least) a small tree. It makes my heart so very happy. Merry Christmas, my friends! Have a lovely holiday!