Partial lockdown is boring.
Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s the right thing to do, and if I’m being honest, we’re pretty boring people on a day-to-day. I do miss the gym, though. We’re pretty creative in our 30 sq meters (300 sq feet) but it not quite the same as a bouldering gym. 😜
In other news, it looks like we’ve marched straight into winter, and there’s even a chance of snow! I thought for sure we were going to have to buy new winter coats after I spent an hour unpacking and repacking all of our stuff stored under the bed and found nothing. Turns out, I put them in an *easily accessible* place, which was truly easily accessible had I just remembered I’d put them there.
Like I said, it’s been pretty boring.
Regardless, here are a few things that made us happy this month!
Tattoos
If you read my October Joy Report, then you’ll remember I lost my cousin in October. Shane lost his grandparents roughly a year and a half ago and had been wanting a tattoo to honor them. I had just been wanting a new tattoo, period. After Tony’s death, it felt like it was the right time for us to do it. Shane could remember his grandparents and I could remember Tony. The universe was in our favor. The day before the partial lockdown started, they worked us in.
Shane went first, and ended up with more than he ever really imagined – in a good way! His grandparent’s owned a leather shop, and the bull in the tattoo is from the leather shop logo. The mountains and scenery are representative of the mountains where his family is from.
I got a galaxy cat. I’d been wanting something colorful and cat-like anyway, and when my mom and cousin said they were getting galaxy-cat Tony tattoos, I was definitely on board. It’s a fun and beautiful way to remember my fun and beautifully spirited cousin – and he just really liked galaxy cats.
Shane’s 35th Birthday
My honey bunches turned 35! I literally never call him that so I’m not sure what possessed me to do that now, but I’m going with it. Do you know how hard it is to plan a surprise for someone when they are working from home and you are literally always in the same room?
It’s hard.
I was able to sneak out under the pretense of forgetting cheese (which I actually did forget) and buy supplies to make a cake and somehow successfully hid all the cold ingredients behind carefully placed butter and yogurt. He only figured it out when the smell of cake started wafting during his Zoom meeting. So, that’s a win! I had original hopes for a night on the town, but we got take-out and ate ourselves sick on cupcakes. All in all, I think he would say it was a good birthday.
Thanksgiving
Speaking of eating ourselves sick…
We had a true Thanksgiving this year!
The last time we celebrated Thanksgiving was our first year in the Netherlands. We payed close to 100 euros for a special-ordered turkey that was entirely too big for any of our appliances (we only have a toaster oven and a crockpot), and Shane ended up trying to cut it apart with a bread knife (our only serrated knife). It was a mess. I also payed way too much to import canned pumpkin, marshmallows, and crispy onions for green bean casserole. It was a lot of work, and we celebrated late since it’s not a holiday in Europe (go figure). To top it off, I couldn’t find a live-stream of the Macy’s parade. It was a nice meal (with some good friends), but after that year, we just kind of gave up.
UNTIL 2020!
Shane found a turkey in the grocery store and everything changed. I had to swap the pumpkin pie for apple, but those crispy onions? GOT ‘EM!
Shane took the day off work, and we cooked, drank festive cocktails, talked to family, and I even found a live stream of the (modified) parade! Honestly, it was a really great day.
The Umschreibung
aka the endless staircase.
Turns out, this art installation is not too far from our climbing gym and the ‘nicer, fancy’ grocery store. So, when I was on the hunt for those crispy onions, I decided to make a pit-stop! It was fun to find a little hidden gem and see a new part of town.
Meatball
I mean – look at that paw placement. She kills me with cuteness.
And with that, we’re on to December! Conveniently, der letzte monat des jahres was part of my Duolingo lesson recently. I’m planning on going hunting for to-go Glühwein stands… I’ll report back.
Tshüss,
The Shwits 