New Year's resolutions

So, this year is already over again ... It's the first year that we've lived in our new house and I love what we have already accomplished here! It's already a home for us, although of course there are many rooms that aren't finished. 

I observed that my full-time job, family AND the house have worn me out a little and that I often don't have time for myself or things I just "want" to do instead of "have to". So I made a few New Year's resolutions:

Schon wieder ein Jahr vorbei... es ist das erste Jahr, in dem wir im neuen Haus gewohnt haben und ich freue mich über alles, was wir hier schon geschafft haben! Es ist schon richtig unser Zuhause geworden, obwohl natürlich noch einige der Räum und einzelne Ecken im Haus unfertig sind. 

Ich habe aber gemerkt, das sich mit meinem Vollzeitjob, Familie und Haus ganz schön an meine Grenzen komme und viele Dinge nicht schaffe, die ich gern tun möchte. Daher habe ich mir ein paar Dinge für das kommende Jahr vorgenommen:

Some of these may sound strange for other people, but I hope I will be able to stick to them!

1) We did not go anywhere this year, because we prioritized expenses for the house over vacation, which was okay for one year - next year I think we will go somewhere in the south (Spain?), warm and sunny. 

2) I would love to cook more, but as everyone in the family is eating out at school or work, there is hardly any necessity to cook at home, except at some weekends. Most of the time my husband does the cooking, but I feel that I want to get involved more again. Feeding my family more healthy food is something I want to do.

3) Working so much and then enjoying the free time with my family made me neglect my social contacts in the past!

4) I've been wanting to do that all the time, now it will be one of my top priorities in the house next year. I have already collected a few wonderful ideas...

5) I did a Pilates class last year, but did not like the course instructor nor the  the place where it was held... and the other women were ALL so much older than I. But I will try to find something like that again - with a nicer instructor, women my age and a nice place... I already have a gym in mind. ;)

6) JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT! I have to read so many books and magazines for work, but I will try to read a little for pleasure, too! I can skip TV instead!!!

7) This is the hardest point! But working at the weekends is at the expense of family time which I am not willling to accept anymore!!!

I put boxes next to the resolutions, will print it and put it in my study where I can (hopefully) check regularly what I have accomplished.Keep your fingers crossed for me! I wish you a Happy New Year with a lot of time for the people that you love!

Manche meiner Vorsätze klingen vielleicht merkwürdig für andere, aber ich hoffe wirklich, dass ich sie einhalten kann. Mehr Zeit einfach mal für mich und für meine Familie! Ich habe mir direkt Kästchen zum Abhaken dazu gemacht und werde die Liste an meinen Schreibtisch hängen und im Auge behalten. Hoffentlich kann ich alles nach und nach als erledigt abhaken! Drückt mir die Daumen! Ich wünsche euch allen ein Frohes Neues Jahr und viel Zeit, die ihr mit euren Lieben verbringt. 

Have you "qwirkled" yet?

That's the name of a game that my daughter got for christmas: QWIRKLE. Whatever that means??

In Germany it won a prize for games this year and although the game is not really new - I read that it was published in the USA in 2006 already - it was sold a lot in Germany now and was probably found under a lot of christmas trees this season.Yes, it is fun, easy to understand, and we've played it every day since christmas! Even our 6-year-old daughter can play it, although she needs a little help here and there.

Das Töchterchen hat dieses Spiel bekommen, "Qwirkle". In den USA gibt es das schon seit 2006, aber nachdem es 2011 hier einen Spielepreis gewonnen hat (Spiel des Jahres), wird es hier wohl in diesem Jahr unter etlichen Weihnachtsbäumen gelegen haben. Und wir meinen zu recht, denn es macht wirklich Spaß, es ist anspruchsvoll - ja, man muss nachdenken, und ein kleines bisschen spielt auch Glück eine Rolle, aber nicht so viel, dass man frustriert ist, wenn man es nicht hat. ;) Sogar das Töchterchen kann es schon gut spielen, mit ein bisschen Hilfe ab und zu.

My husband gave me a Kindle e-reader and have read a novel on it already. It is light, simple to use and does not take up a lot of space in a purse. I like it, although I am a person who does not even use a cell phone... You do not have to wait for a book to be delivered, isn't that the best thing ever for the impatient person that I am! You just klick on a book and it's on your kindle a minute later where you can start to read it immediately. I love it!

Ich habe von meinem Mann diesen Kindle eReader bekommen, und habe sogar schon einen kompletten Roman darauf gelesen. Wirklich ein tolles Gerät - es ist kein Monitor, sondern das Schriftbild sieht wirklich aus wie gedruckt auf Papier. Also hat es auch keine Hintergrundbeleuchtung, und ist daher für die Augen nicht anstrengender als ein Buch zu lesen. Dabei muss man keinen dicken Wälzer in der Hand halten, sondern nur dieses handliche leichte Gerät (etwas keiner als ein Taschenbuch). Und in der Handtasche nimmt es auch kaum Platz weg. Also ich bin echt begeistert, und das obwohl ich noch nicht mal ein Handy benutze, weil ich einfach nicht so super technikbegeistert bin und jeden Schnickschnack haben muss... Toll ist natürlich auch, dass man ein Buch einfach bestellen kann und schwupps - ist es innerhalb einer Minute auf dem Gerät und man kann direkt anfangen zu lesen. Für mich ungeduldige Person genau richtig!

I also got gift certificates for Ikea and am so happy about these! So I can get another shelf for my study, which I am really looking forward to completing soon. 

Außerdem habe ich zwei Gutscheine von Ikea bekommen, total super. Für mein Arbeitszimmer fehlt mir ja noch ein Regal, das wird dann wohl als nächstes "dran" sein. Mal sehen, wann ich Gelegenheit habe ins Möbelhaus zu fahren.

AND I got a gift certificate from a  clothes shop I like so I can get myself a pullover or something. That is way better than when I got pullovers or blouses during the last years, because most of the times I didn't like it or it did not fit - or worst, both. I always gave them away right after receiving them.

The worst present we got was ... a bathroom scale. My in-laws gave one to us. For the third (!!!) time. The first one I just trashed. The second one I gave to a friend when she wanted to lose weight and did not have one to check up on her successes... she was very happy, esp. as the scale was a really good one. Now we got the third one and will wait for an opportunity to get rid of it. We also mentioned (again) that we have NO NEED (!) for a scale. It's one of those things we regard completely unnecessary, as we think it's better to have a healthy body awareness - if you feel good & healthy, it's not important how much exactly you weigh. And also aren't these scales the perfect dust catchers in the bathrooms! Yuck.

Well, apart from that, we had a wonderful christmas time with our families. Traditionally we spend Christmas Eve at home, eat a roast duck and open the presents together, after that we busy ourselves with the presents, play games together and such. On the first christmas day we visit my in-laws, eat a roast goose, exchange presents, spend some time together... and on the second christmas day, we visit my mom (and now her new husband), eat something nice (it's something different every time), exchange presents, spend some time together ...   Very nice. 

Weihnachten war sonst wieder ganz traditionell, an Heiligabend bleiben wir immer zuhause und feiern für uns mit Entenbraten und danach Bescherung und dann beschäftigen wir uns den ganzen Abend mit unseren Geschenken und spielen usw. Am ersten Weihnachtstag fahren wir zu meinen Schwiegereltern, dort gibt es Gänsebraten. Und am zweiten Weihnachtstag sind wir bei meiner Mama und essen dort zusammen (dort gibt es jedes Jahr etwas anderes) und haben viel Spaß.

The next few days I will try to accomplish some little projects and chores in the house that I won't have enough time for once school starts in January. I also have a lot of corrections to do, but can't bring myself to start off with them yet. 

In den nächsten paar Tagen will ich ein paar kleinere Projekte im Haus machen und was man sonst halt nicht so schafft, wenn erst die Schule im Januar wieder losgeht. Ich habe auch eine Menge  Klassenarbeiten zu korrigieren, aber kann mich im Moment noch nciht dazu überwinden damit anzufangen.

Look what we did!

For the first time ever - 

we made a gingerbread house! As we don't have a lot of time for that we did not bake the pieces ourselves, but bought a kit from Ikea. It comes with all the baked parts which you have to assemble with icing! My daughter loved to do it. When we put the first two walls together, we held them up with a cereal box, but after we had put all the walls together and attached the roof it was pretty stable. Then came the fun part, when I helped my daughter decorate it with a few M&Ms and sprinkles.

Well, it is a little bit awry, but we are very proud of our handiwork!

Zum ersten Mal überhaupt haben wir gestern Abend ein Lebkuchenhaus gemacht! Da wir nicht so viel Zeit hatten, die Teile selbst zu backen, haben wir ein Set von Ikea gekauft, in dem die Teile schon fertig sind - man muss sie nur noch mit Zuckerguss zusammenkleben. Die ersten Wände waren etwas schwierig, da haben wir sie mit einer Cornflakes Packung abgestützt, aber als alle Wände und die Dachteile zusammen waren, war es einigermaßen stabil. Am meisten Spaß hat natürlich das Verzieren, Töchterchen hat mit etwas Hilfe einige M&Ms und Streusel an das Häuschen geklebt.

Es ist zwar etwas schief, aber wir sind sehr stolz auf unser Werk!

outside 9B

We are so excited, it is snowing for the first time this season. Everything looks so peaceful when it's covered with white.

outside our dining room - bird feeders in our tree

 outside our living room

outside the same living room window: our little tree

outside  our daughter's bedroom,

the little tree is right in front of her window

some more christmas decoration

Today I put some more christmas decoration in our entry. I had seen wonderful ideas in my favorite magazine that made me want to put something on our banister. And here it is:

 

Two christmas baubles (I like the one that looks as if I had dipped it in sugar), a little pink and red ribbon (the pink one says "Merry Christmas" on it), some fir-sprigs and three straw ornaments. I am glad I did it, the entry really looks a little festive now.

On the stairs there is our angel which you can see better in this post
I got the white lantern at Ikea a while ago. As we haven't found "the" piece of furniture that goes there in this little niche, we stacked two wine crates there until we find something that we want to put there.

Furthermore, I put a little decoration on the door. I sewed this a few years ago, three stars and a gingerbread man that I put on a string. We did not even live in this house then, but look how wonderfully it fits on that door!

well-organized kitchen

Well, I wish our kitchen were so well-organized, but it isn't (yet). Anyway, one mini-project can sometimes improve the situation a lot: Our spice jars used to be bunged into one part of the drawer which you can see in that picture... (I forgot to take a before-picture AGAIN.) When we cooked, we had to  rummage in that drawer for the right jar. Also, the different kitchen papers were in a small shelf on top of the fridge, where it was also difficult to find the one that you were looking for.

The solution: a spice rack that uses the space inside one of the hanging cabinets... we tried to affix it to the inside of the cabinet door with double-faced adhesive tape, but it was not strong enough - we underestimated the weight of the spice jars! After a few days it came off, and we decided to screw it on the inside of the door. Even though we used very short screws so we did not break through the door, it has maintained perfectly. 

Now the spices are on the inside of the cabinet door, within easy reach and close to other dry food, like rice, flour, sugar... I keep those in my Tupperware (c) Spacemakers which are stackable and make perfect use of the space that is there. I will also try and get matching spice jars.

It's a pity you can't see the  supercute polka dot drawer paper I put in here.

Then I used the drawer space - after putting nice berry-colored polka dot drawer paper in it - and put the different papers in it: baking paper, plastic wrap, ziploc bags, aluminum foil ... It is very nice that we don't have to dig for it in the other cupboard anymore. Yes, that is my little kitchen project.

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas

We love the time before christmas, and of course our daughter enjoys the time and loves to open her little box every morning... this year I found this beautiful DIY advent calendar instructions complete with patterns (free printable download) at Raumdinge. Thank you, Valentina!!!

It took me about three hours to cut, fold and glue the boxes, but they were worth it and look really good. Valentina suggested to hang them, but as my husband and I built this ladder shelf last year for the advent calendar, I placed all the houses on that shelf, and I think it looks great.

Around the shelf I put a green christmas garland with lights, some ornaments, cookie cutters and red ribbon.