Christmas Abroad

As promised, I am back to tell you about our amazing trip to Austria. We spend three glorious weeks with my family. It had been more then 20 years since we celebrated the holidays with them last. It was a picture-perfect experience. The house, filled with laughter and chatter, the smell of the most delicious home cooking wafting through the air at all times. We feasted on traditional dishes and gorged on the most incredible cookies.

I was glad that Aidan got to experience a different kind of Christmas traditions. It was refreshing for us grownups as well. A celebration away from the hustle and bustle of shoppers and malls, from the pressure to find the latest, trendy gift. 

We instead were able to focus on family and togetherness.

I have always lived in a big city. I am used to being one among many, incognito if you will. Even living in the suburbs there is a certain anonimity that can be reassuring. But experiencing the holidays in such a close-knit community as the one of my family lives in, was refreshing. 

They live in a small village about 50km outside of Vienna. Everybody knows each other, helps each other. Every day, a new neighbour would call at our door with home-made goodies. (I suspect that we were also a curiosity to check out... the far off relatives, you know. ) My uncle, the beekeeper, shared his bounty with villagers as well. On Christmas eve we all joined in a little church ceremony during which our Christmas tree magically appeared at home, to the children's delight. They were in awe, their belief in the magic of the holidays renewed.

This Christmas will remain a cherished memory for our little family. I can only hope that we will have others like this in the future!

via Instagram

via Instagram

A New Year

This was supposed to be a "Happy New Year's" post, but time got away from me. 2015 is off with a bang, and I am already playing catch-up.

2014 was an interesting year for me, for my little family. Interesting and difficult, fraught with worries, but overall a good year. It's brought us closer, made us stronger, as such experiences usually do.

I find I have learned to be more confident, positive. 

All these lessons did however make it hard to be a consistent blogger. I am hoping to change this in the coming year. I have a few ideas I am hoping to pursue, projects I'd like to share, items to knit, photograph, places to visit and tell you all about. Plans, so many plans. I want to turn this blog into a place my readers will want to visit over and over again. 

I will be back shortly to tell you about our recent trip to Austria.