We rang in the new year with my sister and a couple of her friends at a seafood restaurant with vintage decor. A grown up New Year’s Eve, as my sister said, with three-tiered seafood towers, never-ending cocktails, a champagne toast at midnight, and a round of shots (or was it two? or three…) to keep us honest.
(Apologies in advance for all the grainy, fuzzy, blurry photos taken – as all good New Year’s Eve photos are – while possibly inebriated.)
Every year, for the past couple of years, I have listed (at least mentally) “read more” as one of my goals. This usually meant setting a goal in Goodreads with the number of books I planned on tackling, reading about half my book goal in January and February, falling off track from March through November, and then scrambling to complete my goal by cramming in as many books as possible during the holidays. My yearly book goals were often pretty low – from 12 books (one book a month) one year, to 24 books (two books a month) another year. I learned not to set my goals too high because I ultimately I never seemed to meet the challenge.
Last year, I just barely accomplished my goal of reading 20 books, so this year I thought I’d challenge myself to read 25. I ended up blowing that number out of the water by reading 80 books, exceeding my goal by 320%! As someone who has always loved reading, but could never seem to “find the time” to read, I think I finally found the right mix of factors that motivated me to read consistently throughout the year.
As expected, the last week flew by too fast. We watched musicals and movies, hiked trails, and played Mario Olympics, but mostly we spent our time walking to the grocery store, baking all kinds of goodies, playing board games, watching lots of stupid tv, and just being goofy together.
Today we tried to cram as much as possible into the time we had left before my mom, brother, and nephew flew back to Texas. Sly made breakfast tacos. My brother, nephew and I baked ginger snaps. We gave my nephew some money and sent him to the store to pick up some eggs. My sister and nephew ran a to the market and then to a Thai food place and picked up lots of goodies. I forced everyone to sit down for a poorly lit family photo. We ate one last huge meal and then said our tearful goodbyes.
Tonight the remaining crew — Sly, the sis, and I — along with a couple of friends, are heading out to a new-ish restaurant to indulge in even more food, drink a lot of champagne, and ring in the new year together. I know everyone has been hating on 2016, but I can’t say 2016 was an all-around bad year for me. There were many difficult and heartbreaking moments, but also amazing and beautiful moments as well. Just like any other year.
Goodbyes are always sad for me, but I’m looking forward to the new year. Here’s to new beginnings. Here’s to 2017.
Happy New Year!
It’s been a bit quiet here on this blog with all that has been going on lately (traveling, visiting in-laws, another friend’s passing), but I thought I’d briefly stop by and post our annual holiday video that we make every year in lieu of paper cards.
We’re headed back to the States today, having found a last-minute “unicorn” flight. Besides the arduously long travel time, we’re really looking forward to seeing both sides of our family who will be all in the same place for the first time in 5? years. I can’t wait to eat, play games, eat some more, and just hang out and do nothing.
Hope y’all are having a wonderful holiday season, and if I don’t pop up back on this blog for another long while, happy New Year as well!
Previous holiday videos can be viewed here.
Our tiny Seoul apartment, located about 30 floors up, came with a view of the city against a backdrop of mountains. The space was just big enough to fit a bed, a tiny couch, a table, a flat screen TV, a tiny table with two dining chairs, and a compact kitchen that folded into a closet. In total, we guessed our apartment to be, at most, 400 square feet, but with a view that stretched out forever beyond the oversized window, it hardly seemed to matter. It was more than enough for our needs.
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Well, not really. Though technically it will be November 9, and I will have (thankfully) slept through the final mad stages of this crazy election and wake up just in time to see the results…
… that is, providing the results are uncontested …
Our Seoul café hopping continued in Mangwon with a visit to Coffee Conhas, a portmanteau structure that combined the former residential building’s concrete-walled building with a stack of re-purposed shipping containers. The mix of old and new, industrial and vernacular somehow managed to fit right in its residential surroundings, as if Coffee Conhas had always been part of the neighborhood. From street level, we didn’t really notice the container buildings hovering in the air, though maybe we were distracted by the friendly pup who stood guard at the cafe’s entrance.
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We recently read an article about how Mangwon was “becoming Seoul’s hippest neighborhoods,” so while in Seoul, we made sure to carve out a day specifically dedicated to cafe hopping. The first cafe on our list was Hungo Ringo Bread, known for their house-baked goods and in particular, their green tea pound cake. That a fat kitty roamed the cafe (who remained hidden while we were there) was an extra added bonus.
The moment I saw the sign for Hungo Ringo, I knew we would be in good hands. Hand lettering + hand-drawn illustrations + hand-drawn illustrations of kitties = automatic points for awesomeness.
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