Tag Archives: tradition

Merry Christmas!

If you follow along on our Instagram account, you’d see that we had a really quaint Christmas eve dinner at home, just the two of us. A clove ham simmered away half of the day making the home smell heavenly! When I got home from work I got right to it whipping up some sage sweet potato gratin, creamed spinach, and a nice green salad. Everything was decadent yet pretty light and healthy. Mmmmhmmmm Getting in all those greens! (Sorry all the photos are over on Instagram here..)

Christmas Morning we were pretty casual and leisurely opened our gifts. Being just the two of us here not off jet-setting our holiday, it sort of felt short this year? I can’t really explain… It was absolutely lovely, just a different sort of feeling that’s hard to put into words. Honestly, this time of year you can’t pay me to leave the living room. I LOVE the Christmasy feeling in our home, the decorations we’ve collected from our travels around the world, The tree glowing in the evening making it even more cozy. Ah! I just LOVE it! ….Now the only thing we’re missing is a roaring fireplace to cuddle up next to. Perhaps our next place/residence will have that? Wink-wink.

^^Santa dropped off a new treddy for us!

Mr. B made sure that he got the traditional Christmas B breakfast going. Anyone following along, outside of our family, that is familiar with dried beef gravy, or SOS? Mmmm it’s their family tradition that I absolutely love and have definitely become accustom to! For not having a local Pennsylvanian butcher near by, I’d say he did an awesome replication.

Christmas evening we were invited to have Christmas dinner with good friends. I took along a healthier festive peppermint brownie cake.

We had a really nice time helping cook an incredible dinner together. It’s really hard to pick a favorite, but if I HAD to give you some show stoppers… I’d have to say the ham with its excellent glaze and the British sticky toffee pudding. Mmmm but seriously, everything was delicious and made even better with the great company! Oh and we did our first Christmas crackers complete with crowns too! What fun!!

Merry Christmas dear friends!

Ps: We didn’t have a white Christmas, but did wake up this morning (the day after Christmas) to this…. Just as GOOD!

Backpackbees

Cookies

Let’s talk serious stuff here folks… COOKIES! That’s right… we caught you binge eating those little suckers, just like we are. Hey, it’s okay… times like these we get away with it and say, ’tis the season. So go ahead and munch away. We are not going to spoil it for you.

So….on the topic of cookies….do you have a go to cookie recipe for the holidays? If, so please share! We are always looking to try out new combinations and creations.

Speaking of trying out new things… Have you guys seen the BuzzFeed video circulating around for mini pecan tarts? No?! Oh goodness… let’s fix that right away. GO.HERE.NOW.

We were not sure how these little guys would turn out, but man are we pleased we gave it a test-run. They are not the pecan tassies that Mr. B grew up on, however they are a very easy and delicious substitute. SCORE! If you decide to give it a go as well, give us a shout and let us know what you thought. Don’t forget that tall glass of cold milk too. Hey, just remember, ‘Tis the season!

Backpackbees

Things worth sharing: We moved!

YES! You did read that correctly, we have moved!

Simmer, simmer, we are still in Korea. Actually, we are only a mile or two down the road from our old place. We like to think of this as our new adventure, or chapter to our story. You know, that’s the wonderful thing about adventures… they really don’t need to be limited to some gigantic change in your life. Adventures aren’t one size fits all and can occur in the spur of any life moment.

Speaking of spur of the moment, our lease was coming up and we just started to discuss our options and thoughts of what we might want to do next. It was challenging to think that we’d actually live somewhere else in Korea after being in the same place for over 4 years. We experienced so many memories and really made the place our home. However, with some unfortunate things going on with the management office and our complex, we ultimately decided to start looking at a new place.

Our realtor was incredibly helpful and really eager to assist us with our decision to move. She took us to see two places with different floor plans. We ended up falling for the second place and made the decision to take it. We waited about 12 hours and then heard the great news; you’ve got the place!

Onward to moving… we were able to book a moving company three days after we made our decision to move. Talk about quick! Our realtor and moving company told us do not pack anything, don’t clean, and just relax.

HA-HA! We thought these people are silly! The two words relax and move, in the same sentence? I mean the “to do list” is endless when you think of what needs to be done when you move. To top it all off, you have to clean both places. Nope. Wait, did I really just answer myself with the word nope? Yep, I defiantly did. We found out that it’s actually customary to leave some dust and a bit of dirt for the new tenants as good luck. REALLY?! How awesome is that? However, when you are moving into your new place, keep in mind that the same concept applies. You might have a bit of unexpected work to do when you move into your new place. (Enter me scrubbing down every bit of wood in the place and mopping the floors).

The day the movers showed up, they literally went from room to room and packed up everything into crates and moved them out the window of our 6th floor apartment. Mr. B attempted to move something and was promptly scolded for doing so. OOPS! Guess they meant serious business with the “don’t pack anything” statement.

As quick as the movers arrived, the movers were packed up and gone with all of our home goods on the road and heading to our new place. Another outstanding item worth sharing is that these movers actually unpack all of your packed items into a similar location of the new place, as it was in the old. This can be great, or can be a bit more of a burden depending on the way the situation plays out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take off work and Mr. B let the movers unpack where they thought the items might go. Word to the wise… they aren’t mind readers. I had to keep reminding myself throughout the day that no one is really going to meet up to my obsessive orderly home standards. Oh yeah, I called myself out on the Internet. It’s okay, I ended up unpacking all of the items afterwards like a wild scavenger hunt. Adventure noted for next time.

Our first night in our new place, we grabbed jajangmyeon for dinner, think of it as the pizza that we Americans consume on a moving day. The concept behind the dish, just like pizza is still the same, you just moved and your kitchen isn’t completely set up for you to use. Like pizza, jajangmyeon is full of that fatty carby goodness you need to keep you going. Unlike pizza, there is no tomato sauce or cheese, mmhmmm the dish features a thick black bean paste sauce, tofu that is diced small into cubes, mushrooms, Chinese noodles, peanuts, and zucchini. Who would have thought, it actually hit the spot!

For the first time in days, I am actually sitting in our new place with my feet up and able to type out a blog post to you all. Whew. What a wild adventure! With that being said, tell me about the adventures you are taking on today.

Backpackbees