2012 Review in Pictures

It's New Year's Eve!
Or as they say in Grenada, "Old Year's Day!" I think that makes a lot more sense. :) To commemorate the close of the year I am summing up 2012 in 12 pictures! Which is convenient because I can do one per month.

January
Ross and I had successfully moved to California and one of our first trips of the New Year was the the L.A. Arboretum. Ross was in love with this crazy squirrel who loved Ross only for the pecans he had in his pocket. We wasted in time in feeding the fat little guy (the squirrel that is).

February
My parents took us on a very impromptu trip to Yosemite on a three day weekend. It was both of our first times to the National Park. I like this picture because it is fun to imagine being anywhere close to that cold! I remember freezing my little canvas covered feet off. And of course, having a really great time hiking in the snow and exploring the incredible place that is Yosemite. I already want to go back.

March
We went with my family again to the Huntington Library and Gardens. I had always wanted to go there, but it was always a little to pricey. I didn't even get to see the Japanese gardens because they were getting remodeled but I decided that when I grow up into an adult with a job I could live here.

April
Ross's parents and close family friends the Morris family can to California. We met up with them in Solvang and had a really fun time hanging out in Santa Barbara and San Simeon. Ross had always wanted to go to Hearst's Castle so it was awesome to be able to finally go. It was great to be able to see his family too.

May
Ross and I braved the early summer heat and went to the nearby Devil's Punchbowl to hike around. We found a yucca stalk just a little bit taller and skinnier than him. The best part of the hike was getting drenched in the cool stream at the bottom of the Punchbowl.

June
I have Ross's fantastical photography skills to thank for this picture! Which is great because as it turns out, I don't have many pictures from June. One fun project Ross and I took on was to try out planting sunflowers in the backyard. We weren't sure if it would work because my parents mentioned before that sunflowers hadn't been successful in our yard in the past. Sunflowers are my absolute favorite and I figured we only had a couple dollars worth of seeds to lose. Annnnd, I am happy to say they turned out spectacular! Some grew to probably 9 or 10 feet tall. In this picture you can see a bee that was lovin' the flowers!

July
On the Fourth of July we had a really fun BBQ with the Lucas family. It was so much fun to hang out and set off fireworks while mostly watching all the really awesome illegal ones in the sky around us. The bottom right picture of the collage is Ross and I with my godson Asher on the Fourth. But I had to cheat and share the whole collage (made by Brigette). Because July is the perfect month to summer up all the fun Ross and I had spending with the Lucas family and awesome little Asher (who isn't so little anymore).

August

By August Ross and I had already packed up and shipped out to move to Grenada so Ross could start medical school at St. George's University. Here is a picture of us at his White Coat Ceremony. Which you can read all about here.

September
After Ross was done with his big Unified quiz he had we took advantage and headed downtown to explore. We got rained on but had a fun time. You can read about that here.

October

Here is another rare moment where I got a picture with Ross. We checked out a new beach, La Sagesse on the south side of the island. It was a nice break and a fun beach. It is the perfect combo of the Pacific Ocean I grew up knowing and the Caribbean Ocean I now live in. I wrote but never posted a blog post about the trip so you don't have to worry about opening a link to read about that one. Haha.

November
On my birthday I stole Ross away from crazy studying to have a picnic at the tidepools. It was so windy the candles wouldn't light. Not even when Ross downsized to one candle! Haha. It was still a perfectly awesome birthday. And because you care, you can read about how spoiled I was on my birthday here.

December
Here we are, already at DECEMBER. Where did 2012 go? This is from a trip Ross and I took downtown to Fort George. It has great views and someday I will blog about it. Here is a rare photo taken by a stranger. I love it!

What a great year it has been! So much change and adventuring and excitement. Who knows the next time I will have a year packed with so much anxiety and whirlwind changes? But I am looking forward to 2013 and hope that I can have optimism when faced with change and challenges.

Happy New Year's Eve everyone I hope your year has been great! 

Christmas Day 2012

After Ross and I were done opening presents this was still happening outside.

Big, fat, raindrops!

We were supposed to go on a waterfall hike and then to the beach with some friends, but with weather like that... probably not the best idea. It was rainy and gloomy until past noon, maybe around 1pm it let up? 

It was fun though, because staying inside and being lazy felt like Christmas. I made Grandma's classic pie crust for the first time and Ross assembled his family Quiche recipe.

Quiche...!

It was awesome! Then we spent the day watching new movies, listening to new music, and putting together a puzzle. This is the classic Christmas I grew up knowing!

When it finally got late enough to be okay to call family 3 and 4 hours behind us, we did! It was so much fun to spend HOURS video chatting with our families. Before we knew it the sun was down and it was about 7:30 pm. I am so grateful for technology and working internet that allows us to see and hear family, especially on Christmas.

It was suddenly too late to catch up with our friends who so graciously invited us to dinner, so we had our own Christmas dinner. We had soft carrots, mashed potatoes, and ... STEAK! Ross asked for steak for Christmas and thanks to generous holiday monetary contributions from family we were able to make it happen. Nothing feels like home more than beef and potatoes. :)

It was an absolutely perfect day. It felt exactly like a nice lazy, joyous, comfortable Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Christmas Morning 2012

Christmas morning I woke up to pouring rain and scrambling around to close the windows before everything got soaked!

First things first -Ross and I checked out what Santa had brought. As it turns out, we were both good enough this year for Santa to come. I think it was a close call. ;) Here is a picture of a couple of dorks by a homemade fireplace.

Santa got me a download of the new Joshua James cd. Which I keep listening to non-stop. Ross was really excited to see that Santa brought him the newest Spiderman movie and a Marvel puzzle.

Then we opened presents from each other. It was kinda tricky this year because it was not as easy to be sneaky. But I was really happy that Ross was totally taken off guard my this present:

SNORKEL! He has been wanting one, and now is the perfect time for him to be able to use it. :)

Ross gave me oatmeal. And I gave him Corn Flakes. Just kidding! I guess wrapping presents in funny boxes is an affinity we share.

I was pretty excited about these earrings Ross got me because it completes the necklace that he got me for our anniversary. 

It was fun to open presents because we both put in a lot of thought and effort in our gifts to one another. Also we celebrated the presents my parents got for us while I was home back around Thanksgiving. A little crockpot and an electric mixer. Ross gets the crockpot because it will be perfect for meats and I get the mixer because I love baking. Coincidentally we used both of them for Christmas dinner preparations! Also a big thank you to all our family members who gave us money for the holidays. We already dove into those funds to have some fun adventures this Christmas break -but more on that later!

Christmas Eve 2012 Part I

December 24th, 2012 <-- It's Christmas Eve!!!

It has been raining a lot here in Grenada. That means I am stuck inside all day. There aren't as many indoor activities to do in this country, and the rain is so erratic that it is hard to plan around. This was my view this morning from my kitchen.

I am still all too used to dreary weather being associated with cold. Rain makes me want to stay inside and watch old movies curled up in a blanket my the fire, or heater. Lucky for me, the heater is automatic here! You can't ever turn it off, so I decided to forgo the blanket and settle for a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and fancy hot cocoa.

Stuck inside all day means stuck in my tiny closet apartment. Being stuck inside my tiny apartment means I get pretty stir crazy and cranky. Luckily though, the rain let up a little on Christmas Eve and Ross and I were able to go to a movie! The theater had a "two admissions for the price of one" deal so we decided why not?!

We went and saw Life of Pi, and I really liked it. Years before I started reading the book, but now I really want to finish it. The book is always better than the movie anyways right? I thought the movie was visually stunning and overall the theme was really interesting. Here is the trailer for the movie

After the movie Ross and I walked back to our apartment and I was happily surprised to be able to see a handful of houses that were decorated with lights! Growing up my mom and dad would drive us around the city and we look at the houses all decorated for the holiday season. My family always had our own decked out lawn and I miss that.

It is hard to capture the true joy it brought to my heart, but you can see from these pictures that the trunks of the palm trees had lights wrapped around them. They also had some musical device faintly playing Christmas carols.

It was nice to get out of the house and I am grateful we didn't get rained on! We ended Christmas Eve with a fun Christmas Eve Picnic.

Christmas Eve 2012 Part II

December 24th, 2012

Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas is TOMORROW and although the Christmas season always seems to catch me off guard, this year Christmas snuck up so quickly. Here we are!

The Petersen family has a tradition of a "Christmas Eve Picnic." When Ross was little his mom would throw a blanket out on the floor and on her cutting board she would have a variety of cheeses, meats, and crackers. They would listen to Perry Como's reading of the First Christmas from Luke including various Christmas songs that tie in to the story. It was always one of Ross's favorite family traditions. 

Ross and I decided to go all out and have a Christmas Eve Picnic of our own- Grenada style. Which pretty much just means no summer sausage beef log. :( But, we still had a feast of a picnic!

As you might be able to tell/guess, I was done taking pictures and ready to EAT.

I made a cheeseball, and it may have been the best choice I have made all month, to date. There will definitely be a long line of cheeseballs in future Christmas Eve picnics. This is the recipe I used, except obviously I didn't roll it in Doritos. 

Here is the complete feast!

Ross fell asleep pretty early. I guess he was just excited for Santa to come, because all good kids know that if you aren't asleep when Santa comes, he will just pass by. Luckily though, we hung up our stockings by our "fireplace" in time for Santa to come!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like...

CHRISTMAS!!!

Which is good because... Christmas has now passed!

Before Christmas I tackled a lot of what I called "Christmas Dilemmas." I blogged about one such thing before. In a perfectly clever Kristen world I would have updated readers on them as I faced them with boldness and audacity but in the real Kristen world I will just sum them up in one fell swoop of a blog post.

Before Christmas:
I am so excited to spend Christmas in Grenada! I am not excited to be missing family for the holidays, and I am not excited to miss the cold and everything so perfectly Christmas, but this is my little home for the time being so I am excited to make this Holiday season my own! I am ready to have a great Christmas season.

I have been thinking about Christmas more than usual this year because I have been wracking my brain, trying to figure out how to make it feel like Christmas. Because so far, it certainly does not feel like the wintry holiday season I remember.

Here are some photos of crafts and decorating I have done to get into the Christmas spirit.

Here is the hallway! Our little Christmas tree I got a bargain on and drug in a trash bag on a reggage bus and walked through Lance aux Epines back to my apartment. Totally worth it. It has pretty cool multi -colored lights that have all sorts of fancy functions.

Ross and I made the fireplace out of an old Anatomy poster, constriction paper, and an old cereal box.

My friend Patty was nice enough to let me have some Christmas scrapbook paper that I creatively stuck on the wall for decorations. I am getting pretty sick of these dirty white walls so what a better way than to cover it all up!

And of course, you have to have the gratuitous red and green paper chain. It's one of those things from pre-school you just can't shake.

Ross got crafty and made this cute little wreath that he hung up on the door, complete with little bow.

Here is a tiny Christmas garland I hung up in the kitchen.

Thanks to awesome parents, we got some awesome Christmas decorations. Specifically, cool window clings. And there are more scattered throughout the mirrors and windows in the bedroom. :)

When I was younger I loved painting sun catchers. You can imagine my glee when I saw these cute Christmas sun catchers. I thought it was a perfect way to capitalize on the bright Grenada sun for the holidays! Ross and I painted them together. My favorite is the reindeer.

And then, just for good measure, I threw some Christmas wrapping paper on the fridge. Haha. I'm tellin' ya, all this white every where is making me crazy. I guess the Caribbean is rubbing off on me. Next you know I will be painting my walls lime green and cabinets bright yellow!

It is really nice to get some Christmas cheer up around the apartment. It helps make it feel more like Christmas. 

Christmas Dilemas

I remembered I had some pre-Christmas posts I wrote but forgot to post!

December 16th, 2012

I decided to make the most of Christmas here in Grenada. I am so freakin excited to have some time with Ross in between medical school terms. A whole month!
It will be nice to have a Christmas that isn't filled with packing up our life and moving a couple states away. Let me be brutally honest when I say that last holiday season was ... awful.
BUT, that is in the past and I am prepared for the BEST CHRISTMAS on anyone's record. Lots of people feel sorry for me and Ross, that we aren't going back to the States for Christmas, to play in snow and wrap up in blankets. And at one point I think I did feel sorry for myself, but I'm over it. Now I think more people feel sorry for me than I feel sorry for myself.

Think about it, how many people pay thousands of dollars to come to the Caribbean for a warm, sunny, sandy Christmas? How many people joke about Santa in a Hawaiian shirt sipping a smoothie? What I have is a rare opportunity! And years down the road when our family is swamped in bills and crazy kids I might be wishing I would have lived up those holidays in Grenada.
I decided to come up with little ways to get in the holiday spirit because we all know that it far from feels like winter here. This involves tackling what I will call:

Christmas Dilemas!

Dilema #1
Ross and I both LOVE lighted Christmas trees. Not having money, I thought of creative ideas for trees, felt tree? butcher paper tree? Ross even admitted to almost drawing one on the mirror with dry-erase marker. Haha.
But yesterday, whilst downtown, a Christmas miracle happened. Instead of having to settle for a tiny tree, I found one of two 3 foot trees left! I think they had sold out at the hardware store in Grand Anse because all the students got grabby.

And I found a strand of multi-colored lights that have different functions -dim in and out, blinking, normal, and light-rave party! Maybe there are more, but I was just so excited I couldn't think straight.

The best part was hauling that Christmas tree on a Reggage bus and walking through Lance aux Epines with it. Worth every second. Here is a happy kid with a lighted Christmas tree!

We will need to make some ornaments for it, but first things first, the tree was missing a star. Ross and I had a genius idea and he got to work fashioning a star.

Now, to the untrained eye, this is just a cute paper star, but any Widdison should immediately recognize this as Starlet. This is my favorite Christmas story I grew up hearing. It is the tale of a tiny star who thought she was too small to ever be important when one day she ended up falling from the sky and lighting the stable where baby Jesus lay in the manger. Then as she got brighter and brighter, she rose in the sky and became the most magnificent, beautiful star in the sky! And now she shines on the top of the Petersen Christmas tree!

Term 1, All Done!

Ross has officially finished his first term of medical school and he is on his way to his M.D.! The hardest is still yet to come, but I must say we are both excited for a month break.
A month break from opening my kindle to find cadaver pictures:

A month break from the mirror being covered in the glycolysis:

And a month to relax and have a little more of this:

And a month of Ross making pancakes for breakfast:

But Ross is already enjoying it a little too much, already gettin lazy: