Decorating for Christmas: part 2

It was only after I'd published the post about decorating our Christmas tree that I realized we've decorated our house a bit more than last year. We don't have a wreath or anything like that (although I'm now wishing we had - maybe something for next year?), but we have a lot of lights.

I wanted to take advantage of the old doorway between our living room and our sort of study area by addings lights to the molding. This is actually something I wanted to do last year, too, but I never got around to buying an extra string of lights. We did now, though, so we just draped the lights over the corners and called it good.

 Never mind the mess. ^^

By the way, as you can see, the crib is already out. It has been for months actually, but I keep forgetting to post about it. I definitely will this week!

We also bought two strings of tiny LED lights to arrange on the table at our wedding last year. After seeing this post, I decided I wanted to do the same thing.

As you can see I haven't painted the lid yet (I will next year) but I think it looks okay for now.

 

Then I had one string of lights left, so after careful consideration (ahum!) I put it on top of our piano.

 

 

Is it obvious I love Christmas lights?

 

Oh, and I almost forgot to show you a picture of the sparkly deer I got a while ago.

 

 

B-E-A-uuuutiful!

Decorating for Christmas: part 1

After going out for our maternity shoot and taking my bump picture, Klaas and I finally decorated our Christmas tree. It looks pretty much the same as it did last year.

We hung a bunch of the same ornaments such as these...

We got this ornament when we went to New York on our honeymoon.

... but we also hung some new ones!

This one contains some dried flowers from my wedding bouquet. I also have another one, filled with petals from the bouquet at our civil wedding, but it's less pretty. Apparently white gerberas don't dry as pretty as roses...

We got this ornament when we went to Canterbury in August. I came across it at Canterbury Cathedral and after buying an ornament in New York last year, I thought it would be a nice tradition to bring back fun little ornaments from our trips (not that we go on many of them, but still). This one is actually a tiny nativity scene, which I thought was cool since I can't seem to find an actual set that I like, nor do I have room to actually put one up.

 

Of course I also had to post some pictures on Instagram.

 

I asked Klaas to take some pictures of me setting up the tree and decorating it and casually mentioned something about a time-lapse. Apparently this was all he needed to set up his photography equipment and start taking pictures at 20-second intervals. And what do you know, it even motivated him to help me decorate the tree, a first in the history of our relationship!

 

Bits and pieces

1. There's a new kitty on the block! We named him Sheldon and he sleeps a lot, which is kind of weird for a cat that goes by that name, but ah well. He doesn't seem too neurotic yet, though, so that's good! We were worried about that...

 

2. Juul is such a pretty, pretty boy. He always looks SO goofy. I think it's because his eyes appear to be so far apart because there's so much white in his face.

By the way, we had another triple date with Joke, Sofie and their men and we ended up playing Trivial Pursuit. Juul joined us.

3. Flo is making a habit out of using a pillow to rest comfortably.

4. This was a wedding present from Lien, who also did my nails and make-up. We only just got around to actually hanging it, but I think it looks really good there. The colors are neutral and balance out the green. This is one part of our house that looks extremely rustic. I've noticed recently that I need to keep this quote in mind. Life is a journey and love is what makes that journey worthwhile. It's so easy to get caught up in stupid little details and to lose track of what really matters.

5. Winter, be gone. Yes, your snow is pretty and all, but not in March. Spring, where are you?

Can you spot Flo?

 

I opened the door to get to work and this is what I found.

I spent over half an hour sloshing through the snow to get to the train station. I finally got there, jumped on my train and as I sat there, waiting for it to leave, I found out that school was cancelled and that I could go back home. So I went home, sloshing through the snow for another 40 minutes. I guess I'll at least have had some exercise... 

 

I'm hoping tomorrow will be better. I have no desire to arrive at school, only to find out that we can go home again. However, I guess having the day off is not the worst thing in the world - on the contrary!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Uh-oh, I'd better start cracking if I want to keep my New Year's resolution of writing two blog posts a week.

Taking the train home from work.

We've had a ton of snow earlier this week. Snow is so pretty. So romantic. So cool (both in the literal and the figurative way). So much fun. Until you have to ride your bike through that white mess at ungodly hours in freezing temperatures. Nevertheless, we took advantage of the unusual weather and took a walk in the snow with Flo and Juul.

Me-ow!

 

Can you see that building on the left, hidden behind the trees? That's where we had our wedding reception. Such a beautiful location, I think.

 

 

These pictures were taken with my phone and it was getting dark. Scuse me!

 

Klaas and I both really enjoy going for walks with the dogs, but for some reason, we don't do it all that often. We should make it a mutual resolution!



We got back from our honeymoon to New York City yesterday...

... and we're SO jetlagged. We went to bed at 1.30 am yesterday. Not because we were tired, no no, just because we realized it really was time to go to sleep. We slept until 1.30 pm.

I'll post a blog about it once I've gone through all of our photographs. Klaas made a ton of pictures, while I instagrammed for the people back home. Now I need to find a way to incorporate both the IG photos and the camera photos into one post. Any suggestions?

Klaas and I got this Christmas ornament in New York. It's incredibly tacky, but I actually really like it. I love that every year from now on, we'll be decorating our Christmas tree using this ornament and thinking back to how we went on our honeymoon around the same time years earlier.

 

My best friend Sofie also went to New York with her boyfriend and his parents. They arrived 2 days later than Klaas and I, so of course we had to see each other. We met at the Christmas tree in Bryant Park. It had started snowing just minutes earlier. The first thing she did was blurt out that her boyfriend had asked her to marry him earlier that day. I was SO psyched. FINALLY. I'd been waiting for that moment for about as long as I waited for Klaas and I to finally get engaged. So anyway, Sofie is going to be a briiiide! And I'm going to be a maid of honor! She gave me this ornament when she asked me.

 

 

When Klaas and I got married, I thought it was such a cool idea to ask Sofie to give a speech at our wedding. What I didn't realize at the time was that she'd probably make me return the favor. I'm scared already!

 

When we got home, Klaas got homesick (for New York), so he put on his Empire State Building sweater that he bought there and just sat on our couch.

 

 

Poor Klaas. He's feeling better already though.

 

One more thing: the day before we left for New York City, I had a cookie club meeting! It was our second and once again it was SO much fun. Twice a year the six of us get together to eat, drink, exchange cookies, tell stories and just have fun. I really needed this, because once you're out of school and start working, it's so difficult to stay in touch with your friends. By having two fixed dates a year, we always know when we'll see each other again. It's something we all look forward to every time.

 

 

The Quality Street tins are mine. I bought six and made Klaas eat them all, so I could fill them with cookies for our cookie club. I made ranger cookies, but I didn't have time to take any pictures. This recipe is my mom's favorite so far.

 

On excitement

This past week has flown by, what with all the final wedding preparations and work being busy (the exam period has started). Nevertheless, I wanted to give you an update on some little and not-so-little things that have happened this week.

December 3 was our fifth anniversary. Five years sounds like forever, I think. That's half a decade, people! I told Klaas I was making him a present (remember the super secret project I talked about?) and he got all annoyed because he didn't have anything to give to me. Now that our anniversary has come and gone, I can finally show you what our gifts were!

 

 

 

  

 

I made an album that contains 101 reasons why I love Klaas. They range from very serious to utterly ridiculous, but they're still all good reasons. Klaas was impressed and moved by how much time I'd invested in the project.

He got me an iPhone in return. Not quite as sentimental and moving a present as mine, but his motivation to give me one was in fact romantic. He said that he missed me having a smartphone because there's lots of cool stuff we could do if I had one, and it's true! I've already sent him lots of fun pictures and videos of Flo and Juul being cute or funny AND texting each other is free. :) I always made fun of Klaas for wanting an iPhone "just because the guys at work had one", but I'm kind of happy to have one too now. I'm such a hypocrite.

I absolutely love my new winter sweaters.

 

 

I talked about the pants in this post.

From the moment we decided to have a winter wedding, I figured I wouldn't mind the cold on our wedding day. I thought the thrill of getting married and finally being able to wear my wedding dress would keep me warm and excited. Now that winter has arrived I realize I may have been wrong. I woke up to this on Thursday:

An hour later it started snowing again.

Our flowers don't seem to mind the cold though.

Our town looks pretty in winter.

 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch some tv with Klaas. This time tomorrow we'll be husband and wife!

Late* nights at our house

* Well, not that late. But I wanted to take a moment to show you what our evenings are like. This is partly why I like winter, although I do tend to develop some kind of winter depression (which, I now discover, is also called "seasonal affective disorder"... How fancy!) by January. It's cold outside, everyone's indoors and we turn on the stove and snuggle up on the couch.

O'Malley is such a boob man. It's his favorite spot to take a nap.

Awwww, look at his little mouth!

Flo is so easily annoyed by Juul lately. This was a rare moment of coziness between the two of them.

No room for poor old me. :(

 

By the way: O'Malley caught a mouse yesterday and brought it into the house. The worst part? It wasn't dead yet. Yikes! It made little squeaks whenever he bit into it. 

 

Every once in a while I make a late night wrap. I've convinced myself it's a healthy snack, so please don't tell me it's not. It's basically just cucumber on a light cream cheese spread, sprinkled with some lemon juice and plenty of cilantro.

 

 

What are some of your healthy snacks? I really need to find some delicious snacks that won't make me feel bad when I eat them, haha!