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Friday, December 31, 2010
Happy New Year's from Maine
Happy New Year's. :) Can't believe it's almost 2011. We are spending the weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine. I love Kennebunkport, such a cute little place. We have been here a few times, only one other time when we actually stayed here but plenty of times we stopped driving through when we came back from other places.
Lots of snow on the ground but it's actually pretty warm out so it's nice to walk around. Had lunch at Federal Jack's brewpub when we got here and then walked around browsing the various shops. Our inn is about a 20 min walk outside of the center of town. (another picture here) We have reservations at an Italian restaurant for New Year's Eve tonight. At least it's not freezing cold so the walk won't be so bad.
No real plans for tomorrow yet. We do have reservations at 12:30 for a New Year's brunch and after that we will probably just do a scenic drive along the coastline. Winter in Maine is actually very pretty despite the cold. And luckily it's actually not even that cold. We have experienced much much worse here.
Hope all of you are having a nice New Year's too. Not sure about New Year's resolutions yet. Probably the same as always, lose a few pounds, cook more at home, declutter some parts of the house and the backyard, etc. Can't believe our trip to Australia is only 24 days away now.
Mail update: Wrote letters on the way here to: Jessica/DE and Carmen/Malta. Received letters from/still owe replies to: Celia/MA, David/IN, Becki/KY and Jetta/Finland.
Posted by Hanna at 05:09 PM in Holidays | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Christmas Post
As usual my Christmas post is a few days late but merry belated Christmas to everyone. :) I hope you all had a nice Christmas surrounded by the people you love.
Mike and I had a nice Christmas. Christmas Eve we stayed home as usual. Our tradition is to get some yummy snacks, open a bottle of wine and watch movies. This year we had some cheese, crackers, bread & dipping oil and shrimp cocktail from a local food store Stew Leonard's. Caught up on some of our recorded shows on TiVo.
Then Christmas morning we went over to Mike's sister's place and opened our gifts with her and her son & daughter which was nice. Low key, laid back morning. Can't complain about all the nice gifts I got. A Jamie Oliver Italian cookbook, some books on tea, stickers, cookie cutters shaped like tea pots, a gift certificate to Teavana in the mall (do you see a theme here?) and last but definitely not least a new camera. It's a Canon Digital Elph SD4000. All the reviews are really good so I am looking forward to trying it out.
After our gift exchange Mike and I went to NYC to spend the rest of the day there. We had a fun day just walking around, checking out all the decorations on 5th Avenue, the tree in front of Rockefeller Center, the tree & ice skating rink at Bryant Park and more. Had some drinks at a bar in Grand Central (always great for people watching) and all in all a really nice day. It was amazing how many people were out and about though despite it being Christmas Day.
Sunday we stayed home, slept late, etc. which worked out since we were buried by a blizzard anyway. We ended up with about 2 feet of snow. It was the third biggest storm in the last fifteen years so yeah pretty big. And for the first real snow of the season it was definitely A LOT of snow. I am done with shoveling, everything hurts and I am really sick of the cold and wind. Brrrrr.
On a bright note I am looking forward to our weekend in Maine. Will be spending New Year's in Kennebunkport which means 3 days off from work. Yay. :) Looking forward to that.
Mail update: No letters have gone out. :( Received letters from/still owe replies to: David/IN, Carmen/Malta, Becki/KY, Jessica/DE and Jetta/Finland.
Posted by Hanna at 08:11 AM in Food and Drink, Holidays, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, December 19, 2010
It's beginning to feel a lot like ....
Only one week until Christmas. I don't even know where this year has gone. We decorated our tree today. I was pretty hesitant about the tree this year due to our kittens but I figured we would give it a shot. I didn't put too many breakable ornaments on the tree and didn't put much on the bottom so hopefully they will stay away from it as much as possible. We will see. :)
Click here if you want to see a picture of my little Christmas village.
Also booked our flight to Australia this past week. I am super excited about that. We will be arriving in Sydney on January 26 and leave again Feb. 6. We will be there for 11 nights. Will spend the first 7 nights near Sydney, then 2 nights on the Gold Coast and 2 more nights near Sydney. Been looking through guidebooks, getting ideas of what to see and do. There is so much cool stuff. I am really looking forward to being there. Not looking forward to the LONG flight and crazy jetlag but not much to be done about that.
Booked a hotel for the first 7 nights and also for the 2 nights on the Gold Coast. Still trying to decide where to stay for the last 2 nights.
All done with my Christmas shopping for the most part. Just need to pick up a couple gift cards and also need to wrap everything. But I am hesitant to put anything under the tree so the wrapping might not happen until Christmas Eve. We will see.
What are everyone's plans for Christmas and New Year's? We will be spending New Year's in Kennebunkport, Maine. Looking forward to that as well. I really love Maine and Maine in the winter has a special feel to it as well. Very New England-y.
Mail update: Letters went out to: Nina/WA and Charles/TN. Received letters from/still owe replies to: David/IN, Carmen/Malta, Becki/KY, Jessica/DE and Jetta/Finland.
Posted by Hanna at 04:40 PM in Holidays, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Monday, December 13, 2010
Cape Cod Weekend
And of course the weekend flew by way too fast. Had a really great time on Cape Cod though. Always wanted to go and just never did until now. We stayed in Chatham but also explored Provincetown and Hyannis. I loved the scenery, the marshy areas and beautiful weathered looking houses. See another photo here
Chatham was great. Lots of shops, everything decorated for Christmas. We had tickets to a historic inn tour which was fun, were able to see a bunch of different inns from the inside, have some treats, cookies, punch, etc. at each stop. Walked on the beach, found some shells, had a great dinner and super yummy breakfasts at our bed & breakfast. The room we stayed in was gorgeous, with a fireplace and a whirlpool tub. Made me never want to leave again. So nice.
Mail update: Wrote a letter to Alex, now just need an updated address. Mailing letters to Lotte/Denmark and Celia/MA today. Received letters from/still owe replies to: David/IN, Carmen/Malta, Becki/KY, Charles/TN, Jessica/DE, Jetta/Finland and Nina/WA.
Posted by Hanna at 07:57 AM in Food and Drink, Holidays, Travel | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Enjoyable December Sunday
Enjoyed a nice Sunday at home. The cats were helping with putting up my Christmas decorations so now at the end of the day they are all sleepy (see picture). Managed to put up all my Christmas decorations around the house minus the tree. I am still not sure what to do about the tree. You can see a picture of my Christmas village here.
Also made myself some Christmassy ringtones for my phone, updated my website with a Christmas layout and did a couple other things online and around the house. So all in all a fairly productive Sunday. Not happy that it's Monday already again tomorrow.
Really looking forward to Cape Cod next weekend though so that means only a 4 day work week this upcoming week which is nice. Lots to do and arrange before then but at least there is some fun stuff at the end of the tunnel. :)
Mail update: Wrote a letter to Alex, now just need an updated address. Received letters from/still owe replies to: Becki/KY, Charles/TN, Lotte/Denmark, Jessica/DE, Jetta/Finland and Nina/WA.
Posted by Hanna at 07:07 PM in Holidays | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack