Back to work...

Just as I suspected, I spent the day doing laundry and doing crafts. Actually, I can't think of anything I would have rather spent my Sunday doing. Laundry needed to be done, and crafts relax me. My latest project is the "Little Skier" that I saw in a holiday craft magazine. It's a pinecone body, with craft sticks as skis, toothpicks as ski poles, and wooden heads. I'm almost done with the entire family. They looked so cute in the picture, that I couldn't just make a couple, and the more I thought about it, I wanted everybody to get one. So, I won't post the pictures until after Christmas; I don't want to spoil the surprise. :) Just know that if you are immediate family of ours (parents, siblings, spouses of siblings, or nephews), you should be expecting some pinecones in the mail.

So, here's our tree:
The star refuses to stand straight up, no matter what we try. Well, no matter what Brian tries. I'm too short to try anything. :) And also, I'm making our tree skirt. I started making a tree skirt about 3 Christmases ago, and never finished it. Now I've decided I don't like that old pattern and I have chosen another one. Have no fear; this is the year!
These are some ornaments that have been labeled as my favorites, for one reason or another:
This is dated on the back as being from Kindergarten, 1985. I remember all of us getting them to take home, but I don't know how involved we were with the painting. I'd like to think that I painted this, and Mrs. Weeden just wrote my name on it, but it looks a little too neat to have been done by a 5 year old. Who knows.
The Wilms' musical contribution to our tree. :)
And of course, another horn ornament, big and heavy, but I love it:
I think I have 11 horns on our tree now. My horn teacher in grad school had 2 trees, one normal tree and one he referred to as his "horn tree." I guess being a music teacher means getting a lot of gifts from your students, mostly, for him anyway, in the shape of a horn. I wouldn't mind...

And last but not least, for Mom, since she won't get to see it this year, the aforementioned Nativity scene:
Still just as cute as I remember, and of course, it was boxed up so that Baby Jesus was next to the "I ♥" :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So, today was my 3rd day off in a row, and I was feeling a little stir crazy. I woke up early to do some crafts, and all I have to show for it is that now my dining room table is covered with paper, craft sticks, pinecones and paint. I got a lot done, but none of them are completed, so it just looks like a kid was making a mess on the table. Once they're finally finished (should be tomorrow) I'll post pictures. I just know they're gonna be super cute!

Brian only worked half a shift today; his boss let them each pick a day this weekend where they didn't have to work the full twelve hours, just as a nice gesture for spending the entirety of Thanksgiving weekend at work. So, we went out for Christmas lights and some more ornaments, and we spent the evening putting up and decorating our tree. Again, I'll post pictures eventually, probably tomorrow. I've just been too lazy to get the camera out. Besides, if I wait, I can show off everything, my crafts, our tree, and my favorite nativity scene that mom always saved for me to put up every year, and eventually let me keep. Other than our lovely tree, it's the most prominent decoration in our living room :)

Saturday nights always make me sad...Saturday nights mean Sunday is just around the corner, and Sundays mean instead of doing any fun day-off stuff, I'll be doing things in preparation for the work week, like washing uniforms, and cleaning the kitchen. You know, stuff nobody likes to do. Oh well, Que será, será...

Happy Turkey Day!

Today's Thanksgiving! I was so ready to have this weekend off...I have no idea why this three-day work week seemed so long. Nonetheless, this year was our first Thanksgiving together, our first in Germany, and also our first time attempting this meal on our own, so it was exciting.

We woke up and made a pumpkin pie, and while that was cooking, a short shopping trip for a meat thermometer needed to take place, then the cooking could begin. And now, for the pictures:


I'd like to point out that Brian did not do all the cooking, I was just the one with the camera :)
And also, that is my apron he's wearing, courtesy of my Mamaw. He's grown quite fond of it and has expressed an interest in having one of his own, possibly something more manly. Personally, I think purple floral looks good on him.

So, after hours and hours of waiting for our little oven to do its job, we were finally ready to set the table and enjoy our feast.

We, of course, had way more food than two people needed, but we both had our favorite foods that we just couldn't exclude. And it was really important to us, since we're so far away from our families this year, that we be able to have a big dinner together, just the two of us, and enjoy the holiday the way we would have if we were home. For now, home is here, so we want to make the best of it.

Today is also my Dad's birthday. While talking to him on the phone, we both realized that this is the first Thanksgiving I've missed with the extended family, probably ever, with the exception of the Thanksgiving dinner I had in Virginia Beach when I was in AIT. Every other year, throughout college, grad school, and even after joining the Army, I've made the trek back to TN to be with everyone. But I'm not alone, and I'm safe, so things could definitely be worse.

Tomorrow starts the Christmas season. I've been very adamant about my no-Christmas-music-or-decorations-until-Thanksgiving rule, so tomorrow, while Brian's at work, I'll be unpacking the decorations and putting up the tree. Should shape up to be a busy day, but the good kind of busy. Now our days will be filled with gift wrapping, shopping, and visiting the Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas markets, which are huge here in Germany). Our anniversary is next week, so this is an especially exciting time of year for us.

We're both exhausted from the cooking extravaganza today, and of course from the turkey and the wine, but we wanted everyone to know we're thinking about them, we love and miss our families, and we hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are!

Schnee! Schnee! Schnee!

This weekend I saw my first snow in Germany! When we got here last January, it rained a lot and the weather was crappy, but I don't think it ever really snowed. We woke up this morning with a light layer of snow outside, but it went away pretty quickly. I played a concert tonight with an orchestra about 45 minutes away from home, and when we were walking to the car afterwards, it was finally, really snowing!! All the cars in the lot were covered, the roads were still snowy, and it snowed all the way home!!
I was so excited, I made Brian stay outside while I grabbed the camera! :) Now I'm sitting inside, snuggled up in a blanket, drinking egg nog. It's too bad I have to work in the morning...

Where do all the weekends go?

I always seem to have big plans for the weekends. In my mind, at least. There's always some craft project that if I only had several hours all at once to devote to it, I could totally finish it. Or there's always some corner (or entire room) of the house that if I only had a whole morning to tackle it, it could be completely cleaned and organized the way I want it. I always want to go places, see things, buy stuff, enjoy concerts, and I somehow convince myself every week that this will be the weekend that I do it. Now, just like every other weekend, it's Saturday night, and I'm wondering how I made it through an entire day without really getting anything done!

My job really isn't that hard, and it certainly isn't that stressful, so when I come home from work, I usually don't come home exhausted and just sit around relaxing all evening. We actually have a cleaning schedule, so that we devote one day a week to a different room in the house. That way, every room gets a very thorough cleaning once a week (excluding the obvious cleaning-up-after-yourself that occurs every day anyways), and we don't find ourselves spending all day on the weekends cleaning the house. It's posted on the fridge, and believe it or not, we're doing a pretty good job at sticking to it. But I think that's what makes me so lazy on the weekends. Don't get me wrong, it's not like we spend hours cleaning after work; it never takes long, then we have our after-dinner, relax on the couch, play on the laptop, do crafts time. So when the weekend comes, my brain says "Yay! No work! No cleaning! No need to get out of your PJs!" To be fair, we did get out of our pjs, we went to the PX to make some returns and fill up the gas tank, and we did some grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. Not to mention, we packed up 4 boxes between the two of us (one return and 3 boxes-o-goodies) to take to the post office and send away. And actually, Brian spent all evening yesterday building some kind of super computer that now functions as our entertainment/TV/DVD/Blu-ray center (please don't ask me to explain, because I have no idea what it is, nor why I agreed to such a crazy eye-sore), so I guess we really didn't waste that much time after all. It just seems that way sometimes.
Oh well, the weekend isn't over yet. Tomorrow's another day, I suppose, and who can be upset about 3 day work weeks?

Countdown to Turkey Day

I've decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner. It's my first major holiday feast, and not being much of a cook in the first place, I'm a little nervous. I don't have a particularly busy weekend planned, aside from a concert I'd like to see on Saturday night, and one I'm performing in on Sunday night, so that's when I'm planning my menu and doing the near-last-minute grocery shopping. Brian's work schedule for Thanksgiving weekend is poopy (he works Friday through Sunday), so we want to spend some quality time together and have a great holiday away from home.
I'm sure our families have different standard holiday-get-together foods, so the following have been proposed: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, three bean salad, and deviled eggs (possibly purple; those are my favorite). We'll see if anything is changed or added once we determine how much time we'll have to fix stuff (not to mention, how do you make a turkey?!)

Birthday Pics

Here's some pictures of the birthday boy. He's fielding calls now of birthday wishes, so I haven't snapped them all yet...











This is definitely a nerd shirt. I think the one below is one of his favorites.

Oh, Happy Day!

Today's Brian's birthday! I helped beef up his nerdy t-shirt collection, and there will definitely be pictures as soon as I bring my camera over to the computer :)

B found out last night that he had to go to a class today, meaning he wouldn't have to go to work tonight. Good news, except that he's kind of gotten himself onto a night shift sleep schedule, so I don't think he was prepared to actually stay awake all day. He was tired when we both got home, and we've decided to spend the night in, relaxing with each other and "Dancing With the Stars." We had one of his favorite dinners (tacos) and finished with a delicious slice of pumpkin cheesecake. Fall birthdays are the best.

My First Blog

Well, here we are in Germany. We've been living here for almost a year now, and I've spent a good deal of that time checking up on the blogs of some of my friends. For some reason, it never occurred to me that maybe I could make one of these for myself...until today!

When we got here in January, we were expecting a three-year tour, but now it looks like that time could possibly get extended. It has a lot to do with my move to a different unit, how much time said new unit will require me to stay there (3 years, or just the remainder of my current tour?), and ultimately, if I'm willing to re-enlist (or possibly extend) in order to do so. We'll see. I'm sure I'll talk about that more later.

I've been spending a lot of time crafting lately. I dabbled ever so briefly in the art of paper crafts and tried to make my own Christmas cards; I very quickly determined that I don't have the patience, nor the attention to detail, to ever do that again. So, I will stick with crochet. To me, it's just more enjoyable, and honestly, I'm just good at it! ;) I'm making lots of Christmas-y themed things right now, like stuffed snowmen and Santa Clauses, and I really need to make our tree skirt. I started making one two Christmases ago, and I never finished it. By last Christmas, all of my belongings were boxed up on a boat on its way across the Atlantic Ocean. So, this might be the year that I actually finish it. I'll post pictures of my Christmas crafts eventually. Most of them are partially finished. I haven't found a craft store that suits me here (they don't have Michael's or Hobby Lobby in Germany), so I'm awaiting a few packages from online craft stores (CraftsEtc.com is awesome!) that should include such things as jingle bells, pom poms, craft sticks and paint. I'll have a big reveal once I get my stuff! :)

Tomorrow is Brian's birthday--the big 2-9! I'm not sure how excited he is about it. He's on night shift this month, so he'll get to enjoy the daytime part of his birthday alone, since I have to work, then I'll get home just in time for him to be leaving. Kinda sucky. I'm trying to get off and come home early, so hopefully that will happen. B went all out for my birthday this year, with tons of presents and a weekend in Paris, so I hope I don't let him down! We'll be able to celebrate this weekend. I can't wait!