merry merry christmas

this december has been surprisingly cold outside. when we first came to korea it was cold but we were told not to turn on the floor heat in the apartment because the cost of it was so high. (apartments here have heated floors instead of central heat) so we plugged in an electrical heater and thought nothing more of it. turns out, it was just as expensive if not more so. our bill was the highest in our building (something i'm slightly proud of) and a government official was sent to our house to find out why we were wasting so much electricity. i guess we know better for next year.

we were debating whether or not to get a tree but the holiday season just doesn't seem the same without one. we went to homeplus (the local supermarket) to look for one. we saw a lot of decorations and decided to come back the next week to pick some out. by the time we got back to the store, around the 10th of december, everything was sold out. they had a sad looking fake tree and some bulb ornaments left. we decided that we would try out luck at finding a tree out back, and by out back we mean the mountain that sits behind our apartment complex. the mister did an amazing job at finding the perfect charlie brown tree and even made a stump holder for it. i was in charge of making homemade ornaments and decorations...never again. it was kind of like our idea to string popcorn for our tree last year. we made it half way around one side of the tree and stopped. i enjoyed the first hour or so of making the ornaments and then wanted to give up. i have never folded so much paper in my life. you would think i was majoring in origami. but now it's done and over and we're going to try to save all of them for next year somehow so we can sit back and enjoy more of the season.

korea is predominantly christian but when it comes to christmas there's not a lot of celebration. the day is more seen of as a day to hang out with friends and your significant other than it is to be with family. we spent the day making crepes and mexican food with friends and watching old christmas movies. the perfect way to relax before heading back to work the next day.

these are salt dough ornaments that are really common to make with children. we tried them with our kindi classes too.

this one was probably the easiest of them all. you simply cut a star shape out of cardstock paper and fold along each point. then fold the insides so it kind of pops out. then glue two of them back to back to make a tree topper or the ornaments.

the amazing bottom that jeremy made for the tree

we'll be heading to japan tomorrow and we can't wait for a getaway! i'll be sure to get pictures posted when we get back! merry christmas!

gobble gobble

it was our first thanksgiving in korea and thankfully there were no fires! i think that alone classifies it as a success. despite being away from our families during the holidays, we have so much to be thankful for this year. not only do i have an amazing mister to spend my time with (who cooks an amazing turkey by the way) but we have great friends in korea (who saved my butt by helping me with all the cooking!). we also have great jobs this year and jobs lined up for next that enable us to save money and travel a lot. AND we have signed the contract on our new apartment! we could not be more excited. after much searching and A LOT of help from our korean co-teachers (its a little difficult to negotiate with someone who speaks no english...go figure), we are happy to say that we will be moving in january to our new place. finding a place of our own in a foreign country definitely has its difficulties but we had a relatively easy time finding a place we love. with all the help we got and with everything falling so perfectly into place, we can't take credit. it was definitely a God thing.what's thanksgiving without a mustache wearing turkey? compliments of mister diamondabout a month ago, jeremy found (ahem! stole) a wild pumpkin and brought it home. just in time for me to learn how to make homemade pumpkin puree for pumpkin pie. i'm still amazed at how many things we buy canned, processed or already prepared in the states. when i lived there i had the mindset of not going out of my way to make things from scratch because i figured that it was too difficult. i constantly surprise myself at just how easy things are to cook from scratch and how little time it takes. cooking thanksgiving dinner in korea certainly has its challenges. first off, my main helper and close friend, alissa is now 9 months pregnant and had to sit down between cooking because of contractions. not that i was a slave driver and making her do it, i was just afraid that we would have to rush her to the hospital in the middle of it all. thankfully, dinner was finished, and no baby came. another challenge came to the oven and space situation. we do not have a proper oven by american standards here in korea. the one in the picture is actually alissa's that she brought with her and ours is slightly smaller than that. as you can see, the turkey just barely fits in there. we had to set up an extra table in the living rooms and run an extension cord out there so we could have enough room to cook everything. after 6 hours of cooking, we're finished! proud mister slicing and dicing. the whole group for dinner