happy birthday to my beautiful mother! {it's the big 3-2, right...?} you are such a caring, godly, and beautiful woman inside and out, and i am lucky to call you mom. since i wasn't able to be there and surprise you this year, i will share this girl's birthday surprise with you that my friend carlie shared with me... enjoy!
after hustling it all last week in preparation for a work event this last weekend, i'm ready for a night at home. listening to christmas music {she&him's new christmas cd}, enjoying dinner {tomato basil soup with sourdough bread}, and then dessert {peppermint ice cream *my favorite* with candy cane jo-jos} while watching a christmas special on tv {"william and kate: inside the royal marriage" - it's their {1}st christmas, and they're special so it counts}.
nights {before christmas} like these are some of my favorites!
two weeks from today... "twas the night before christmas..." let the countdown begin! from now on through christmas eve i'll be posting some holiday favorites of mine.
today has gotten off to a pretty great start. my roommate, kiki, woke up early and made a trip to the grocery store before the other {2} of us got out of bed. we awoke to the aroma of freshly made pancakes, eggs, coffee, and berries. yum! how fitting to sit in our breakfast room, eating breakfast, and listening to christmas music together. listening to pandora's christmas station made me realize how many versions of holiday classics are out there. most of them wonderful in their festive rendition. some of them not so great. but there is one song that i personally believe can never surpass {or even equal} the original...
judy garland's "have yourself a merry little christmas". no one sings it like miss garland. her raspy yet feminine voice that evokes the emotion of savoring every little christmas moment like it will never happen quite like that again. i love her. i love this song. i love the film it's from. i love christmas, and this song sums it up beautifully.
getting off the ground proved a challenge... the day before i was to depart from croatia was spent running around doing last minute errands. however, the weather forced my running errands into more of a slow crawl. los angeles streets were actually flooded!
but once i stepped onto that plane, i was one happy traveler! i had a layover in paris. i hadn't been there in {5} years, and it felt so good to be back! even if only for a visit with sir charles de gaulle... i was a bit sad i couldn't step out and properly leave my footprints in the city of lights. however, as my plane cleared the clouds and drew closer to the parisian ground, i saw the top {2} tiers of the eiffel tower through the fog and a smile lit my face. c'est merveilleux to be back!
if you look really closely... can you see the top of e.t.? the spot on the window is disguising it.
my souvenir from paris - a wonderfully creative and artistic publication of parisian interiors!
all the way from paris to its new home on my living room coffee table
the rest of my posts will be purely about my trip to zagreb. in honor of my layovers in paris, here's a tribute to the city of lights - the city i fell in love with when i was just a girl of {21}.
my favorite french song {despite the fact it is sung by a french canadian} and perhaps one of my favorite songs of all time... i could listen to this over, and over, and over again. and then once more for good measure :)
on sunday my roommates and i hitched a ride with my sister and brother-in-law to go get our christmas on and cut down a tree. our destination was a tree farm located in the beautiful san juan capistrano. unfortunately it wasn't the rural, charming little tree farm we had pictured... it was located on the side of the freeway. enough said. however, we did find the perfect douglas fir. it makes our little home seem so much cozier and festive!
step {1} in the home makeover leading up to our christmas party i've entitled the holly jolly christmas bash- complete!
