Wednesday, December 29, 2010

One Year Anniversary

Isa and I have made it through one year of marriage!! Woohoo!!!!

So we were married on December 28, at 11am-ish. (I was ready at 11, at least – which is funny because ever since then, I’m always the one that takes longer to get ready in the morning. I know, weird, huh? I’m such a girl.) Anyway, we are currently 15 hours ahead of New York, so we the real “28th” didn’t start for us until 3pm on the 28th here, and then one year from the actual wedding ceremony didn’t happen until the 29th here, after 2am. So we celebrated our one-year anniversary on both days. Yeah.

So on Day 1 of our anniversary, at 3pm, we went to see Harry Potter 7. It’s been out for about a month but it was still crazy packed. Isa and I were very lucky to find two seats together:


After the movie, we went back to Surfers to eat at a brand new Italian restaurant called Vapiano. It was delicious and wonderful. We ate out on the balcony in the nice warm December weather. We had Bruschetta, Caesar Salad, and Margharita Pizza. MMmmm. So good.

And this is what we look like a year after our wedding date:


We got back to the apartment and tried to watch a movie, but we were so tired and full that we watched a couple episodes of Arrested Development and went to bed.

Day 2 of our anniversary was mostly spent at work, but we spent most of the day creating our gifts for each other. As you may know, the traditional gift for a First Year Anniversary is Paper. This, I think, makes sense as most first-years are still poor, but we can afford paper. :)

We waited until we were home to exchange our gifts. We showed each other at the same time, but it’s impossible to write about them at the same time, so I’ll do my present to Isa first. I created a crossword puzzle with all the answers coming from things we’ve done together, from plays and musicals we’ve gone to see to our adventures all over the world to books we’ve read together. (That’s right, I’ve read a few books in the past year!) The clues were fun and it was great to relive all our memories as I made the puzzle and as she figured them out.


Isa’s present to me was extremely creative. I’ve never seen anything like it. To be honest, I didn’t really know what it was when she gave it to me, but it was colorful and pretty and I instantly loved it.


She had cut strips of paper and individually folded each one of those stars! Isn’t that amazing?! Then, because I love puzzles and figuring things out, she had written letters on 45 of the stars. I had to pour out the stars, find all the letters, and figure out the message. It was a lot of fun and I absolutely loved every minute of it. Here is the message:


I. Love. Isa. She is so wonderful and I’m so happy to be married to her. Yay!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas from Australia!

Maybe it’s because it’s not cold here. Maybe it’s because Australia has a Christmas song about Santa getting too hot so he takes off his suit and goes for a swim in the billabong (which is Australian for a water hole). Maybe it’s because Australia (or at least Surfers Paradise) doesn’t seem to think Christmas is that special – it seems like it’s just another day. Or maybe it’s because there are no decorations around us, and very few reminders that it’s Christmastime. Whatever it is, Christmas in Australia does not feel at all like Christmas. :(

So Isa’s parents decided to fly out to Australia for a few weeks, and they spent a few days with us to help make it feel like Christmas. One of the first orders of business was that we needed stockings. Isa’s mom went to the store and bought oven mitts, since real stockings were not available. She also bought glitter-glue, and we decorated them to make them our own. I think they turned out pretty great:


If you’re wondering what that blob is next to the Christmas tree on mine, it’s supposed to be Australia. And with the present and the candy cane is a heart and mistletoe. Yeah.

Mike and Melanie (Isa’s parents) had rented a car, so we were able to take off for a couple days and go on some adventures. The first day, we went up to a glow-worm cave. They don’t let you take pictures inside because they’re very sensitive to light – you can’t even open your cell phone in the cave. It was something amazing, though. Click here for a picture from a random website of what it looked like.

On the way back, we stopped for a little hike out by Mount Tamborine. It was only about a 1 km hike to Curtis Falls. The trail was really pretty, as it cut through the tropical rain forest with really lush green foliage. The falls were pretty too. So we took our family Christmas picture there:


We also went down to Currumbin to that Ecovillage we visited on my Golden Birthday. Mel tried to get as close as she could to the Kangaroos:


It turned out to be a really fun Christmas, and we’re really glad Isa’s parents could make it out. They’re still bouncing around Australia, visiting everywhere from Perth to Darwin to Sydney. And we’re still in Surfers – the most Americanized city in all of Australia. Oh well, Isa and I will come back in the future and do the month-long country tour some other time.

Merry Christmas to everyone back in the states! We love you all and hope you had a great day!

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