Two (& a half) Texans in Canada

Friday, December 23, 2011

Deck the Halls!

Decorating for Christmas has been a little different each year of marriage.

1. The first year was in El Paso. We didn't have an idea about how our lives were going to change come January 1. John's job and move to Norway came so sudden. I loaded up on decor for our tree and it was beautiful!! I have this gorgeous tree topper made by a family friend and lots of ornaments waiting for me in some storage unit in Houston somewhere.

2. Norway, was minimal. We had a tree. Minimal decor. Seriously, Norway is one of THE most EXPENSIVE countries in the world. I did splurge (after Christmas) and buy some beautiful holiday table linens, Advent candelabra.

3. Shanghai, again minimal. Not sure if you are aware of this...but Christmas decor isn't easy to come by in China. Unless you want red, shiny tinsel or a plastic Santa face to hang on your wall.

So up with this tree full of IKEA balls:

Notice the pot it came in. Not normally sold for temporary use.

We did find this AMAZING decoration at a market.

What English speaker doesn't want FACE during the holiday season?? Tell me that!

4. Nanjing....fake tree and we headed home to Texas for Christmas! Nothing new.

5. So here we are in Canada!! Options are a bit closer to home, but get this, the minimal yet sentimental decor from our collective years together was left in a box in China. Yes, it's still in China. So once things settle, I get to deal with the staff at our Nanjing residence one last time and try to communicate what to send to us. Heaven help me!

Back to Canada decor...so, here we are again, with no decorations to start with. I had to improvise a bit!!

1. Left over branches from the Christmas tree! Ribbon and balls!

2. Carter's feet!!

3. A tree with all new ornaments...again.

And

4. My handmade tree skirt!!! Cost all of $11.

5. Our first set of Family Stockings! Yay! (found on Etsy!)

6. Fancy Looney Store (Dollar Store) Noel sign.

7. Biggest Poinsettia plant ever! I won it at Bible Study! Yesss!

8. Walmart garland, spruced up with ribbon and candles. Fancy, fancy!

Our 5 Christmas cards! Whoot whoot! Please, don't feel bad, this is the most we've gotten since El Paso! Major boost since moving from three stamps down to two stamp mailing! We are so excited that people are mailing us stuff again!

I love decorating for Christmas!! I wish I could keep this stuff up year round. Our new residence honestly feels like a home. And we haven't really had this feeling in a while. So so nice!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Way Back Wednesday

A friend of mine from college hosts a little blog link up once a week called, Way Back Wednesday. It's pretty cute! You post about something from back in the days before blogging!

So here is my first Way Back Wednesday post...you should do it too!!

Our second Christmas as a married couple, we were living in Norway, and the max John allowed off of work was 5 days...so we decided to stay in Europe.

This was the view of our town in Norway, Kristiansand. See the little intersection there? That is the main shopping street! Were were living downtown! Big city folk here! (That's a joke, see how small this place is!?)

The whole town shuts down for holidays so we'd be stuck inside. SOoooooooo, where in Europe did we decide to go?

Paris! Can't you tell?

I still don't know how to take night pictures. Deal with it. :)

We ate lots and lots of crepes.

Bought really sophisticated hats, scarves and pocket watches.

Okay, he didn't really buy the pocket watch.

Went to the Louvre.

Went to Christmas Eve Mass at Notre Dame.

Funny: We thought we were going to the most traditional service we'd ever experience. Instead they had one very artsy service. Literally. It was art played on a big screen with someone speaking about them (or speaking about something) in French. We stayed 2 hours...then snuck out early. Crazy.

Moulin Rouge during the day, to pick up our tickets.

And at night.

This was my choice of activities.

Still at Moulin Rouge.

Funny: I convinced John to go by explaining that these women who were dancing and singing would be topless!!! He was so excited! Thinking WOW, Sarah and I are both going to love this. About half way through he leaned over and said "how long is this thing??" The singing and dancing killed the toplessness for him. I knew right then convincing him to EVER go the Nutcracker was out of the question.

This is a random public bathroom. I just thought it was funny.

You're welcome John!

More crepes!

This was in the Latin Quarter!

It's pretty touristy, but sooo much fun! Lots of restaurants with loud music and breaking plates.

So the story behind this is...I get randomly selected out of crowds for strange things. If the person on stage or your professor is going to call on someone, it is me. It's horrible. But I've learned to go with the flow or admit I did not do my reading the night before.

So here, they pulled me from our table to dance in the middle of the restaurant with this other family from China. Nice. Notice people watching or participating from their tables? No! It was random and embarrassing.

Then they wanted me to sing with the band.

I have the worst voice ever!!!

And John was nice enough to take lots of pictures.

Parised out!

Final night!

You would take pictures with the restaurant staff too, if they had giving you lots of free wine!

Last view of the Eiffel Tower!

This is probably how we were seeing things too. Kidding!

Funny John. Poor guy actually fell one second later, breaking the little fence.

And the morning after all our free wine! Whew! Thanks Paris!

Well, we somehow don't have the best pictures of everything we did. Actually, we only seem to have very random ones! But what a fabulous week and a Merry Christmas! At least we have the memories!!