A late Happy New Year :-)

Happy New Year to everyone. I know it is a little bit late, but I was not feeling that well. I updated my german blog though :-) I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season and a good start in 2015.

Our Christmas was just lovely. We baked and cooked a lot in December, watched Christmas Movies and cuddled on the couch, I got to wear my Ugly Christmas Sweater evey friday in December and just enjoyed the time with my hubby. I skyped a lot with my family in Germany as well and let them see how we spend our December.

Christmas 2015 we celebrated at my mother-in-law's place. We all came together on Christmas Eve :-) She made a great dinner with ham, mashed potatos, brussel sproats, rolls and pineapple stuffing. After dinner we all sat together in the living room to unwrap some presents. It was so much fun :-) later that evening we all went to church and met up with my brother-in-law's parents. It was a lovely mess and I was able to sing most of the songs - thanks to 97.1 WASH FM :D they played Christmas music since Thanksgiving Day - a tradtion of the radio station. Afterwards we all went back to the house for some coffee and dessert.

Back home it was time for my hubby and me to unwrap our presents. This year I put a lot of thought in it. We had a lot of presents under the tree, but small ones, things we need and loved to have. My hubby got some Yankee Candles, his favorite sweets, passport covers for our first big journey together, a book to learn german and the big surprise: a indoor grill :-) we just got a grill in May 2014, but than we moved. We are not allowed to use our grill on the balcony and since than our grill isnin my mother-in-law's basement. So I thought that would be a great present. He also got some steaks to it ;-)

I got really spoiled this year by my hubby. First he suprised me with a camera for Nikolaus which is why I expected something really small for Christmas. But I got a bodymist and body lotion from Victoria Sectret, sweatpants and a sweatshirt from Under Armour aaaaand a Michael Kors purse :D Oh my gosh :D so lucky to have such a great man who sometimes spoils me too much hihi I love everything he got me. I was suprised how nice the Body Lotion is and my purse :-) so nice!

Christmas Day my sister-in-Law, Kelly, came over for breakfast and she spent the rest of the day with us. For dinner we went to my father-in-law's place. He made a yammi stew :-) on friday most of americans had to go back to work, but not us. JT got off from his work, so I decided to take off as well and enjoy a long weekend with my hubby :-) We both got sick on our long weekend but we decided to got for a walk to the Great Falls Park in Maryland to enjoy that first sunny saturday in days.

For NYE we invited JT's friend, Ronnie, and his girlfriend, Abby, over for Dinner and movies. We had a great night. Abby and I went grocery shopping and than cooked Rouladen with Knodel and Red Cabbage - my favorite german dish. It was so much fun to cook with Abby. The guys were playing N64 and after dinner we all played Mario Kart on N64 and Wii :-) it was so much fun!

Last week we had our first Snow Day of this year. We enjoyed it at home and later that afternoon - when the snow stopped - we went out for a nice walk to Savage Park. Afterwards we stopped at this cure french bakery and got a little dessert for the way home :)

My last two weeks of my winter break started today :D time is flying I guess. I will enjoy this as much as possible and just do nothing. Or not nothing but enjoy the time with my hubby, see friends, go outside, party and than it's time to say "Bye-Bye social life"! :-/

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 :-)