Montag, 8. Dezember 2014

Nikolausweekend

The Nicholas weekend I started with a painting class. My friend Kim has birthday on nikolaus Day and we all met up Friday night and celebrated her birthday at Pinot's Palette. But it was not just any painting class ;-) Wine and Paint - great concept. The theme of the evening was "Jolly Christmas Lights" and as we all sat in front of our screens and followed the directions, we all painted a wonderful Christmas tree. I think that it is a really great concept and I will definitely go to another class ;-)

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette

Photo Credit by Pinot's Palette
my Christmas Tree


On Nicholas day JT had to go to work and I went shopping. Our fridge was empty again ;-) but before getting groceries  I stopped at Target - as always ;-D We are allowed to wear Ugly Christmas Sweaters each Friday in December at work. Unfortunately, I did not find anything, but I bought some Christmas gifts for my family ;-) back home, I have made myself comfortable with a cup of tea from Adventcalendar tea and waited for JT. When he got home, we had lunch and he took a long nap.

In the evening I wanted to go to Ellicott City. Where do you think we went to? correct to the Target :-D unfortunately I did not find a sweater again and so we went to Kohl's to browse around. And happy me I found THE perfect Sweater for me. Now I am the proud owner of my first Ugly Christmas Sweaters :-)

Nikolaus gift from my parents
Yesterday we went to Baltimore to visit the local Christmas market. It's the Baltimore Christmas Village and it was the second year they organized this. This year it was even more beautiful and almost like in Germany with mulled wine at outdoors stands, crepes and bratwurst ;-)





In the evening JT went shopping and I packed gifts, cooked a german kale dish and watched a little TV. And look what St. Nikolaus has brought me ;-) JT came home and hid a gift in between my wrapping chaos.



I got a really great camera :-) Now I can finally make nice photos and a lot of them :-D taking pictures with your phone is not that much fun. It's a Canon PowerShot ELPH340  with case, SD card and a spare battery. The hubby know I do like to make a lot of photos and one battery would not be enough :-D

Thank you very much St. Nikolaus :-)

Freitag, 5. Dezember 2014

Winterbreak, Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Winterbreak - finally!!! :) The first week is already over and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. My fall semester was a complete disaster and definitely has exhausted me. Since spring break I was just busy. New job, summer semester, my parents visiting us, our move and the fall semester. But I can proudly say that I finished both classes really good. Consumer Behavior I have reached 86.7% and in International Marketing I have reached 90 % :) not bad, although I barely had time and I totally forgot about a project term paper :D 

What is it else happened ? I got a tablet from my hubby as birthday/wedding gift :-) seems like I am getting spoiled this year. But with the tablet I was able to check on my discussion forums and work on same papers from my couch. Sitting at a desk 8 hrs a day and than sitting during the night at it as well -  nahh not so motivating....




I also got a wonderful package from my friend Anni from Germany with socks, german candy, Adventcalendartea and a really great scarf from Primark. My first piece of the famous Primark ;- )

 




It went again to Aldi and like last year I bought a lot german candy :-) likeToffifee, gingerbread cookies and a Baking mix for Black Forest Cake.



Thanksgiving came around and before a short work week and our long weekend we woke up to a bad suprise on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Someone had vandalised our car and broke the driver site's window of JT's car. So we had to file a police report and report everything to our insurance. Thanks to the Statefarm App that was kind of easy. Besides all of this I also had to make my german potato salad because we had to be at Brady's First Birthday Party at 1pm. Can't believe how time is flying but this young man is already one year old :-)





On Monday I had to pick up a rental car and had to leave JT's car at the workshop. Thank God the insurance will pay almost anything. We only had to pay our deductible and 20% of the rental car :-) Wednesday after work I was able to pick up JT's baby and hubby was super happy again.

Thanksgiving we celebrated with my mother-in-law. She cooked us a wonderful meal with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cabbage, candied sweet potatoes, rolls and even small pumpkin pies made by me for dessert.




On Friday was the famous Black Friday. In the morning I went to Ikea. JT is not a big fan of crowds and it's usually packed at Ikea on a Saturday. But I must say, it was relatively quiet. This time I was also a very clever girl and went in at the checkout :-) I had a giftcard from my grandparents which we got as gift for our first apartment and I needed new ornaments for our Christmas tree. I needed gold ornanments for this year's tree. I got a light curtain, candles and well a loooooot of christmas ornaments :-D Well happily JT was already on the way to the gym when I came home with all the bags:-D

Mini Audi for a great deal

In the evening we went out to go to Micheals (craft store) and Target. I needed garlands and hooks to hang our stockings and advent calendar ;-) We made really good deal. The garlands were Doorbusters and cost only $1.87. After that we went to Target to get hooks, but on the look out for them we found this great deal An 8-piece bedding set 65% cheaper ;-) We couldn't say NO to that deal and it fits great in our apartment.



In the evening we watched a movie on Netflix and I decorated the apartment, so everything was ready for the weekend. We had invited our friends plus baby to Friendsgiving :-) I cooked a delicious roast pork with apple, honey and cinnamon (Here you can find the recipe). Here is the final result of our Christmas decoration :-)








Samstag, 1. November 2014

Happy Halloween :-)

I hope everyone had a great and safe Halloween :-) I myself spent it with dearest friends and there little one. We went trick or treating with the whole family and than handed out some candy for kids ;-) Unfortunalty, Jt couldn't join us, because he had to work overtime on friday. The rest of the night I spent with my hubby, some wine and pizza :-)

I wanted to share with you guys the cupcakes I made the day before Halloween. I was not feeling that well which is why I just got a cupcake mix. But i got the good ones :D my hubby loves this kind, because they have a chocolate filling in it. 

For the decoration I went to Micheals and got some gummy eyeballs, monsters and pumpkins :-) at the store I got Icing from Betty Crocker in typical Halloween colors - blood red and green!

Halloween Cupcakes








I just love to bake and cook for family, friends and my co-workers. I made a total of 24 cupcakes. Four stayed home for my hubby, four for my friends as thank you for taking me trick or treating and the rest of them were for my co-workers as Halloween treat :-) and since they were all gone I guess they were a hit ;-)

Freitag, 24. Oktober 2014

1. Weddinganniversary

One year ago I married my best friend on my birthday :-) we had an amazing year with ups and downs and a lot of new experiences :-) We had a really nice day together with eating our wedding cake which my sister-in-law made the day before and a wonderful dinner at Ramshead :-) Last year we went to the Restaurant/Bar for our Wedding-after-Party ;-) It was so much fun!

10-24-2013
I am excited what life brings us next and to spend the rest of my life with him. I love him so much :-) I am so happy that he was so stubborn two and a half years ago ;-) our plans for the future: enjoying our togetherness and traveling!

Happy Birthday-Girl ;-)


Sonntag, 19. Oktober 2014

Pumpkin Patch :-)

Today was our Sunday Fun-day and we went to Middleton to pick some pumpkins for this season. We went to Jumbo's Pumpkin Patch which was a great hit. There was no entrance fee or a fee for the hayride, the pumpkin price was 47 ct per lbs and they had a huge selection of pumpkins. 









We had a really fun time and got two wonderful pumpkins. It only took us one hour to choose the best ones :-D Our pumpkins weight 42.4 lbs and cost us $19 which I think is a great price. JT got me last week a really small pumpkin from Weis to cheer me up a little bit and ended up paying $5 for it. Anyway next weekend we will carve our pumpkins and make some roasted pumpkin seeds :-) I am super excited.

On our way back home we stopped for lunch at the Döner Bistro in Frederick. We had some german beer and my favorite food: Doener :-) the place is a little bit pricey but we are just there two or three times a year, so I don't care :-)