Happy (late) holiday season! We had an unusual Christmas this year because we (*gasp*) were home! In our own house!!
Normally, since none of our relatives lives in the same town as us, we travel for holidays. I don’t think I’ve spent a single Christmas in my own home since I moved out of my parent’s house. I’ve always gone somewhere. Markus and I usually alter between going to mine or his parents each year. This year was my parents’ year, but we felt it would be so fun to stay in our new house so we asked if they wouldn’t come to us instead? And so they did. 😊
We cooked a lot of nice food (I mean: my stepmum cooked. She’s the queen of the kitchen haha!) and watched movies and played games and walked the dogs. Very cosy and relaxed. I think I can get used to having Christmas in my own home. 🤶
The pink Christmas tree
I’ve shown it before, but that was almost 10 years ago so here it is again. The pinkest tree in all the land!
Over the years it has become an increasingly spooky tree too. I love the sparkly tombstone ornaments! In addition to the “haunted holidays” one, I also have one that says “merry cryptmas” and one that says “festive fears” lol. There’s also glittering skulls and ghosts and even a few bats. Who says you can’t have a little Halloween in your Christmas? 😁💀
This might be the last year for the pink tree though. It’s getting old and is losing its needles all over the place. We had whole piles of it in the living room the day we set it up. Not to mention the trail of pink it left on the driveway from the garage to the front door… Regulations around plastics are much stricter now than they were 10 years ago when we bought it, so this one is most likely made from “badder” plastic than new trees. Bad for both living organisms and the environment. Probably not good to spread a bunch of pink PVC in your yard.
So it should be retired. I’ll be sad to see it go, but at least I can say I used to have a pink Christmas tree. Not everyone gets to have that. 😜 We’ll see what kind of tree, if any, we have next year.
Runa’s birthday
26th December was Runas birthday! Our Christmas pup turned four years old. ❤🎁🎈
Her present was a big slice of liver pâté that she shared with her partner in crime Molly. Molly is my parents’ Australian terrier and Runas best friend. Together they can and will steal every sock you own. They have a terrible influence on each other in that department. They’ll disappear for a single second and then come running holding a sock each! 😂 Don’t know how they keep finding them… I swear I’ve closed all closets and drawers and they still manage to find socks to steal.
Runa had also gotten her own Christmas dress. I’m not normally one to dress up my dog (and even if I were, most outfits don’t come in large dog sizes) but Markus found this and decided she had to have it. Have to admit, she looked pretty cute!
New Year’s Eve
New Year’s was spent the same as almost every New Year: at home.
Ever since I got my first dog I’ve made it a habit to stay home for New Year. Neither my old dog nor Runa was/is particularly scared of fireworks, but I still don’t want to risk it. Don’t want to leave a dog home alone IF something happens. Just because your dog is fireworks-proof now doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way if triggered by a particularly nasty bang. By staying home I can monitor the situation and step in if neccessary.
When we lived in town it was World War III every New Year, with people lighting fireworks everywhere for hours, but this village is quiet. We saw a handful of fireworks across the lake, but that was it.
Markus and I also got to cat-sit for our neighbours!
I was so happy they asked us – I figure it must mean they’ve deemed us normal and trustworthy. 😁 Moving to a new place is always a gamble in terms of neighbours. You never know how you’ll get along. So far these people seem very nice and friendly, and if they ask us to check up on their cats I assume they think the same about us. 😊 (It also means we can now ask them to petsit for us, which might come in handy.)
2021 was a huge year for us as it was the year we finally bought a house. Started looking in January, closed the deal in May, moved in August… That was like our project for the whole year. It feels like I’ve done nothing else.
But it’s been fun! Stressful, very stressful, but fun. Everything came together much smoother than I anticipated. We’ve been so lucky.
As for 2022 my only plan is to get to know my new house and my new village. The world is still in upheave pandemic-wise so no point making plans to travel or do anything outside of our bubble just yet. All we can do is wait and see what happens.
Anyway, hope you had a nice holiday season – and will have a great new year! 🤗
