Baby It's Cold Outside

I only have a few moments here, but I thought I should write, seeing as I haven't had much time lately to do so. I'm sorry! Today I just have really been thinking how happy I am this winter. And how much I truly love Christmas. So, in light of this, I would like to write about my favorite things this time of year. In case you all care. Here we go...

1. Christmassy Movies: So far this year I have watched Serendipity, Family Stone, Elf, and a little bit of The Grinch That Stole Christmas. I have plans to watch The Holiday-which is ADORABLE, and Love Actually. Parts are inappropriate, so I just fastforward. haha
   
2. Christmas Songs: Anything old school and jazzy I LOVE. And well, pretty much any Christmas song. But my favorites are "Let it Snow", "Cool Yule" by Louis Armstrong and "Baby It's Cold Outside". When I hear Christmas songs in my car it makes me so happy...I feel like everyone should be singing together, as one giant choir.
3. The sound the snow makes when I am walking on it late at night, and its completely silent...except for the crunchin beneath my feet.
4. Shopping. I honestly hate shopping for myself, but love shopping for other people. I wish I could spend thousands!
5. Baking. I love to bake goodies. But I also like to eat them too. I actually told my smarties box the other day that I loved it. Because at the time, I did. I love chocolate.
6. Christmas Lights at night. During the day they're pretty ugly. But I love white Christmas Lights. They should have them everywhere. I will write the mayor.
7. Being with family and friends. This is the one time of year where there is ALWAYS an excuse to have a party or get together. And eat. I love it.
8. And last but most important. Jesus' birthday. I really am so grateful that we can celebrate that still, so many years later. There is this Relient K song and the lyrics say "The first time that you opened your eyes did you realize that you would be my Savior? And the first breath that left your lips did you know that it would change this world forever?" And it just gets me every time. It's crazy to think of Jesus as a baby...and he really did change the world forever. I feel blessed to know him.
   

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know... but not really everything...about ME!

So a little Miss Jen has tagged me, and I am supposed to write 7 random/weird facts about myself. Hmmm. Okay, let's think here.

1. I hate bananas. I think they are disgusting. Alone. But I love them in absolutely EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. Anything banana flavored I love too. Banana Creme Pie is my favorite!
2. I love scrapbooking. I scrapbooked my entire New Zealand trip (6 months of school and travel), and it took me an entire year to do. I absolutely love shopping for stickers and paper, and getting pictures developed.
3. I haven't gained or lost a pound in almost 2 1/2 years. Before our wedding I worked out 3-4 times a week for about 3 months and didn't lose a single pound. Things just re-arranged themselves...haha I have stayed the EXACT SAME!
   
4. My absolute favorite tv show is Gilmore Girls. I can't even tell you how much I like it. It's embarrassing.
   
5. I honestly don't think I cooked anything more than macaroni or grilled cheese before I was married. And now, I LOVE cooking. I secretly want to take cooking classes, and become a gourmet chef! I get excited when I look at a cooking magazine, or book that has beautiful photography of food.
   
6. It makes me really uncomfortable if I see people I know make wrong decisions. I will cry or internally grieve to the point where it physically affects me if I can see someone doing something that is bad for them. Sometimes it sucks.
7. I don't like scary movies. AT ALL. I would rather sit at home alone and miss out on hanging out with people than watch a scary movie. I think they are bad for you.

I guess I am supposed to tag people now. I will tag whomever comes to mind!

1. Erin V
2. Ian Sheh
3. Nini Lettner
4. Darla
5. Robbie
6. Danny- haha I will force him to post!
7. Nathaniel
   

SANTORINI BLISS

So... the last thing I wrote about was London. I know its been a long time since I wrote, but hopefully I will still be able to remember what we did. And if I can't I'll just make up a cool story. heh heh

TALLY HO! From London we flew to Santorini, Greece. OH LA LA. It was glorious! Santorini is all that remains from an enormous volcanic explosion that happened a long time ago. So it feels pretty crazy to be on it. This island is called the "Honeymoon Capital" of Greece...so its very lagoonish and beautiful. But the one surprising thing was that there weren't really very many trees. Everything seemed quite dry. Nonetheless this was our favorite island...and we still thought it was stunning. I think its just the feel of being surrounded by beeeeautiful water, combined with the fact that the people were generally friendly there, and as I mentioned a while ago, the FOOD was AMAZING. I cannot emphasize that enough. You will notice that I loved the food from how much I talk about it.

FYI...Santorini is the island with the white stone washed houses. The other islands had them too, but this one had the most.

We stayed in Fira (Thira is the Greek name). It's the capital city of the island. We stayed at a hotel called Artemis Village, where we hung out with Artemis and his wife Anna. They were awesome! They own the hotel and run it almost all by themselves. Super cute Greek couple. They drove us around everywhere and made us coffees and frappes in the mornings too! We felt right at home. This is the view from the hotel. The hotel I think had 13 rooms. It was charming and quaint.

At any time of day the view from the part of the island that we were staying on was beautiful. Everything is built on the mountainside, so it all lit up as the sun set.





I read this book on our journey. It was hilarious and very thought provoking, but parts of it made me uncomfortable! Ask me more about it if you want. I will share. But I don't feel like writing about it right now.
One day we rented a 4x4 and cruised the entire island. It was honestly the greatest time ever. We ended up at this one place called Amoudi Village, which was probably the coolest little fishing town I have been to in my entire life. And the most gorgeous at that too. There were donkeys that looked so hot and thirsty that truck people up and down the mountain side in the hot sun. We opted to drive down and walk. Look at these poor things... who could really justify sitting on one?! Anyways, it's a shame we didn't have anything to eat at this village though. We just have to learn to LIKE fish, so we will eat it, and enjoy eating it too. It all looked good on people's plate's though as we walked through the restaurant's. It's any seafood lover's dream.



We ended up in the city of Oia...where we walked around and looked at houses and patios. And ate mini ice cream bars from this Mom and Pop shop!

Okay, I'm sorry but this was the best gyro I had in my entire like. I actually bought a container of their tzatziki 'to go' because it was so dang good. I am happy I documented this moment.

We went to this amazing restaurant with a water view, where I enjoyed the BEST Mexican hot-chocolate in my entire life. I am actually still longing for one more sip. It was the creamiest most delicious thing I have ever had. I don't even want to talk about it.
Our morning brew. On our patio!!!!!!! Thanks to Artemis and Anna.

This is by the poolside. Danny snapped like 20 photos of me enjoying my apple juice. What can I say.... I love apple juice.


Now....I also have to mention how this was the best gelato that I had our entire trip. Okay? Watermelon flavor. It was pretty much like eating a watermelon on a cone. It was THAT real.Artemis drove us to our ferry along the WINDY mountainside roads. I felt like we for sure were going to tip, as road rules don't exactly exist there. Our next destination was Ios. The party island. It was hard leaving Santorini because you always find yourself asking if you will enjoy it as much as the place you're at now. I will tell you more about it soon...and then you will see if we liked it or not!
Santorini I highly recommend for all your relaxed romantics out there.

POSTS TO COME in the near future...

So I owe my fan base (basically 2 people) an apology
for not writing lately. We have been travelling and unsettled up until
now...and my photos are all saved under random things that are unknown
to me because Mr.Computer Whiz (aka Danny) put them on some external
hard-drive somethingruther , and I can't find them. So that is my
excuse...lame and pathetic...but nonetheless,an excuse! It's a shame
because I have a lot to say too! But now I have to go to bed because I
have to work tomorrow...Saturday (BOOOOOOO!), so I need to get to sleep! I will post fun things soon, I promise!

We are doing good though. House sitting and dog sitting at the Taylor's
while they travel Israel...and we're slowly preparing for our big move!
Anyways, the other random fact that I would like to share with you
while I have a moment is... Get this. Yesterday I was on my lunch break
at work, and I timed it, and it actually took me 10 minutes to eat an
"apple pear" or "Chinese Pear"...whatever you want to call it. TEN
MINUTES. That is howhonkin big those things are. And by this message I am sure you have a great idea of how much fun I have on my breaks at work. I know. True fun.

GOODNIGHT!

A Foggy Day... in London town!!!!

SIDE NOTE: We are home safe and sound from HAWAII! Just in time for the first snowfall. Can you believe it?? I have literally been bundled up in a blanket the ENTIRE day. I come from the hottest of hots to very cold! I am surviving though! I know, I know... no sympathy. ;)

So here is my little diddy on London. You can expect more blogging from me now that we are home for a month, before we move. I promise! I will get you caught up! So back to London...we arrived there not knowing how long we were going to stay. We stayed with family friends in their BEAUTIFUL penthouse in downtown London. It doesn't get much better then that! After a few situations arose we decided to stay for 4 days. We spent nearly ALL our time walking around. We didn't really go into any buildings or museums or anything! Gives us an excuse to go back I guess. The most we did inside was a little bit of shopping! For the rest of the time we enjoyed London's uniqueness on the outside. Here's a mini nutshell.



The architectue in London was absolutely STUNNING. I loved everything I saw, and I swear everyday I saw a new place I would LOVE to live. It was all so old/modern and unique!! I wish I could rip this property out and plop it in Canada.


My most favorite place we went to was the Nottinghill area. I LOVED IT. They had a huge road just covered in booths with antiques and really unique knick knacks, and clothing, and old books, and jewellery. It went on and on and on, for what seemed like forever. We walked for over an hour. It was so much fun looking around at everything. But you have to watch your purse like crazy because pick-pockets are supposedly everywhere.

This building was COVERED in potted plants. It was IN-sane.


This building was neat. It was called the CANADA HOUSE. London was cool because they have all sorts of Canadian monuments and buildings, gates, etc.


They had these red telephone booths everywhere. So London!


Here is the place we stayed. It's the corner unit. It has the most darling patio...I am so bummed I didn't get a picture of it. But it had a really cool view.


London cabs. Too cool.


West Minister Abbey.


The Parliament Buildings. We would walk and go for a picnic in the field beside it everyday. Picnics are the greatest invention in the entire world. I'm sure of it!

So that is pretty much an extremely brief summary of life in London. I have to be honest, I wasn't expecting to love London as much as I did. It was really...SO BUSY, and there were SO MANY people and cars everywhere. But the chaos was kind of fun. And it was truly a beautiful city. There is so much to do. Anyways...next stop is... the Greek Islands!

Welcome to Shannon, Ireland!

Second stop for our September trip was Ireland! Let me explain myself. Okay, so about a half a year ago, Danny and I got travel vouchers on our way home from
Chicago because of our flight mess-up. So we used our flight vouchers
to get us to New York...so that is how we ended up there. We figured it
would help us to cut up the jet-lag.(And we wanted to see it!) And then
we were looking for a cheap way to just get us to Europe. And New York
was having a seat sale to Shannon, Ireland, a small airport town. So we
booked tickets there, and that's my story. Ireland wasn't exactly in
our plans this time around so we took our time there to recover from
the time change. And let's be honest. New York didn't help AT ALL. By
the time we got to Ireland I was so tired, I was a zombie-woman! We
both slept until 4:30 pm. And this pic below is us after showering and
waking up. THANKFULLY the hotel let us check in at 8am. Crazy! So we
slept all day. We stayed at theBunratty Shannon Shamrock Hotel. First
warning: anything with the word "ratty" in it should be avoided at all
times. But we somehow missed that warning. And stayed there. Let's just
say, the decor was probably from the 60's, and I'm pretty sure the
mattress wasn't actually a mattress, but rather a fat piece of
cardboard.


Once we woke up, we went exploring! This town is SO little, I can't even tell you. I think it had about 3 restaurants, and 6 shops. MAYBE. It was super cute though, and very green. Especially since it rained when we arrived. Everyone is SO Irish
there...it was actually funny. Their accents were so thick sometimes I
actually couldn't understand them. And they sound SO incredibly Irish
you think they're joking. I often felt like saying "Dude, are you being
serious right now with that accent?!"


We had one full day in Ireland the next day. We walked around and looked at the castle. And ate at Durty Nelly's. YUCK. I'm sorry but the Irish do not know how to cook. (very broad generalization I know. I apologize.)


The only thing Durty Nelly's has going for it was this sign that I liked.




Seeing as we are literally unable to escape the fact that we are big goofs, if we're really honest with ourselves...we went into this cute, funky shop that sold tons of toys and books, and girly things...and we tired on their shower caps. Don't ask me why.


And we went for a nice walk. To the cemetery. You
get kind of desperate when there is nothing else to do... :) I'm
kidding. We were just passing by, and it looked really neat. We
eventually made our way to a cool coffee shop above a store. Had a nice
long chat, and then headed back to our hotel.



Our hotel had this sun room that we used to read and
journal. It was cozy. I am pretty sure reading is Danny's favorite
thing in the entire world. He could win an award for loving books more
than anyone else. I'm sure of it. I think he counted and he owns over
500 or 600 books. Like, who does that at age 27?


So that's Ireland in a nutshell. Stay tuned for London.
p.s. Hawaii is going great! We have been soaking up the sun and loving every minute of it. What a true blessing. I feel grateful. We are home at the end of the week!

NEW YORK NEW YORK... the first bit of our September trip

Hey folks! Somehow my post that I saved got deleted. So here is a little diddy I'm throwing together for your enjoyment. With some pictures smacked together. We are in Hawaii right now, LOVIN IT....thus there is little to no time to write on this thing. BUT I have not posted for so long I feel like I am getting behind! So the focus of THIS post is NEW YORK! We were there for a few days at the beginning of our trip and then again at the end for one day. So here are SOME pics.

1. The first 2 are at the top of the Rockafellar Centre. Is is STUNNING up there! You can see forever.
2.This is a picture of me sleeping on the airport floor. Yeah. What can I say. Best sleep of my life. NOT.
3. Next 2 pics. Times square. Such high energy. People EVERYWHERE. Street vendors, shopping, madness until late in the night. It was very neat to experience.
4. Next 4 photos are at the Mary Poppins Broadway!!!! You know it. It made me feel like I was a little kid again. I actually spent a lot of time sitting on the edge of my seat.
5.Grand Central Station. It's hard to photograph the beauty/coolness of this place. But it was actually quite unique inside. HUGE. And pretty artchitecture with paintings on the ceiling.
6. Central Park! I will have to post more pics of this later. But words cannot express how HUGE this park is. Honestly, this park is probably 15 times larger than I expected. It is blocks and blocks of land. Fields, and roads, and a zoo, concerts, a free CHECKERS hangout place. We played a game. I kicked butt. Hence the look on Danny's defeated face. Central Park is extremely green and so incredibly beautiful to walk through.
7. We were on the David Letterman show! The main guest was Hilary Clinton, which actually ended up being really interesting. I mean if Kate Hudson or Brad Pitt had been on I would have been a little more excited. But I can be into politics too. Who knew?!