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Christmas at the Tran residence

This year we´re celebrating Christmas in Norway with our friends and my husband´s family. Although it´s nice to go back to my mother country, Romania, which we do every other year for the holidays, it´s kind of comfortable to be at home and go about things my way. So my man brought a Christmas tree and we decorated it with Sam and Beo prowling around it and sniffing the forrest smell, I baked and cleaned and bought some pretty light chains and the imperative hyacinths, the only thing missing is a Christmas wreath, which I´ll make after taking Sam for a walk in the woods. We´re done with finding and wrapping the gifts, what´s left is buying the food and the drinks and finding the pajamas and Home alone 1 and 2. Meanwhile, I´ll be spending time baking some more and making some Christmas chutney while listening to Christmas carols. How are you spending the holidays? Merry Christmas to you all!

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Christmas is around the corner

Today I´m home with a cold and feeling sorry for myself. Don´t really feel like doing anything, think I´ll just drag myself on the couch for the rest of the day. Meanwhile, Nina Simone, a pot of green tea and some books keep me company. The cat is purring beside me and I threw a couple of wooden twigs in the fire. Dreaming of Røros, where we spent a weekend last year, it´s such a beautiful winter destination! Lots of snow, good food, jolly people and friendly Norwegian forrest cats. A mine community in the 16th century established this town with colorful wooden houses and today it´s on Unesco´s World Heritage List. It´s like going back in time to when we still believed in Santa Claus. Take a look!

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Weekend

Weekends are holy. I stopped working weekends about a year ago, unless there´s a particular emergency to justify it. Saturdays focus on me and my needs since Vuong often works, but include a longer walk with Sam, our lovely samoyed. Today I invited a couple of friends for pancakes and coffee, otherwise I´m just reading and observing the apartment, can´t wait till the hallway is done, next week, I hope! I´ll be sure to post lots of pictures since our weekend project turned out to last for 2 months. Have a good one!

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At home

Tired again. I make some changes and then I end up right back on the old path- working too much, eating junk or just drinking coffee and then plunging in bed. Today was one of those days again. I was supposed to be home at 3 and take another walk in the woods with Sam and instead I wasn´t home until 8 and too tired to even speak. Don´t get me wrong, nobody´s forcing me to work this much, it´s just that in this game, you´re either in our you´re out. I kind of feel that I have to. And I love my work while I´m doing it, so it´s easy to forget how tired I feel afterwards.

Enough about that. There´s something about fall and the cold sneaking up on us again, I feel so grateful for having a home, a place of my own, a warm and cosy cave to creep into. I never feel so attached to my home and my little family as I do this time of the year. Thought I´d share some pictures of my home and loved ones with you.

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Missing everyday life

We´re on holiday in Mallorca and it´s great! You have the weather, the beach, cava, the seafood, the shopping.  But the thing with holidays is that they always make you think more about your everyday life. And somehow you miss it more than you´re supposed to. You start thinking that you should be more creative while cooking, enjoy a good breakfast more often, find the time for a hobby, this sort of things. You hear about people going on a surfing holiday, others on a cycling holiday while you, you´re just happy to be away from daily routine. That´s until it sneaks up on you and you start missing the cat, the dog, your toiletries, your plants, everything. And then it´s good there´s only three days left before going home.

Little Sam
Little Sam

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