life with the lieutenant

• According to the massive amount of photos on my phone, it is time for another photo dump.
• Last weekend we went to Seoul to see a big Christmas tree and a train display inside the Seoul Millennium Hilton.

• We also noticed that Santa would be arriving while we were there. And then all of my dreams of living abroad were fulfilled when Molly sat in the skinniest Korean Santa lap ever.

Further proof that Molly will do anything for a donut.

And Sam will never be a fan of the big guy in red.

Delivering on our donut promises

Sweet, blessed naps on the long drive home

• That night we read the story of Saint Nicholas and I realized that I need to get a book of saints that is more child-friendly. I tried summarizing as I was reading, but it still came out like, "and the girls were saved from a life of sexual slavery!" Anyways, I thought a picture book of saints would be geared towards young children, but apparently not. On my to-do list! Good ol' Saint Nick brought the kids some Christmas pj's.

• The next morning, our neighbors came over and we cooked blueberry-apple muffins, bacon, and eggs. Then we set to work constructing and decorating gingerbread houses (which were actually graham cracker houses). After many piping bag explosions, reminding the kids where the candy is supposed to go (the house, not your mouth!), and then decorating our own (in shifts, so someone could always keep the kids from destroying the rest of the house), we had our own little Christmas shanty house village.

• Upon seeing the aftermath, I declared that I think we should just move. Leave everything as it is and leave. Seemed more reasonable than cleaning this.

The floor was worse. And the kitchen side was worse than this.

• Behold, our Christmas village.

• I finally figured out how to turn our heated floors on. Poor kids. They were starting to get used to wearing a full winter layer indoors.

• Our neighbors celebrated their wedding anniversary, so Steve and I watched their boys. Let me just say, two sets of twins would not work out well for me.

Unless we ordered delivery and drank a ton of wine every night. Then I'd at least survive.

The effects of wearing a ski cap while having wet hair. Could not stop laughing.

• Made biscuits from a Pinterest recipe and while they tasted fine, their looks left much to be desired....

Little hockey pucks

• Made some candy trees and was reminded of all the fun things I did at Christmas as a child. I also am wondering at what age I started to help with things like candy trees because I got a bit twitchy as the kids tried to "help" (aka scatter chocolates everywhere and unroll all of the tape). Mama? Please say something like, age 8.

• Had a girls' day out to the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul. 

If you squint a bit, you can see Seoul Tower off in the distance!

• Our main reason for going to the Express Bus Terminal was the shopping- fresh cut flowers (suuuuuper hard to find here) and Christmas decor.

None of my cell phone pictures do this place justice. It was just a maze of flower stands and signs I couldn't read.

Found cotton! And knew it had to come home with me.

• I didn't get any photos of the Christmas decor because my arms were BREAKING and the aisles were about two times too small, but rest assured that it was bananas and I wish I was a millionaire because there was plenty I could have brought home with me (had I brought a pack mule and a bank's worth of money).
• We had budae jjigae for lunch, and although I was a bit scared to try it (the man warned it was a little spicy, but coming from a Korean, what does that even mean???) and it looks kinda funny, but it was so SO good. The flavors were perfectly complemented by the fake orange juice we were given to drink.

Doesn't it look SPICY?? It was not. Full of beef, spam, hot dogs, ramen, veggies, dumplings, and udon noodles. I want to eat this again right this very minute.

• Saw this gem for sale and am suddenly very concerned that shopping won't be nearly as entertaining in the States after living here.

• We finally arrived back home to the sitter. Molly was on Cloud Nine all day "taking care of" baby Lorene.

Taken right before Molly lost all control of her limbs and almost belly-flopped on poor Lori.

• Yesterday we stayed home all day and made bread and flower arrangements and washed clothes. Super fun stuff.

• Steve had a work dinner last night, so I took the kids to McD's to eat in the snow.

Can't you just feel the excitement??

• As soon as I buckled everyone up after dinner, Sam asked me what was for dinner. I wanted to find the nearest patch of black ice and just run as fast as I could. After leaving McD's, we drove through town and looked at Christmas lights and then stayed up until everyone started melting down.
• Today has been spent drinking coffee, making pizza dough for a farewell dinner tonight, running errands (holy packages, Batman! The mail room probably thinks I have some sort of online shopping problem.... and when it comes to Amazon Lightening Deals, maybe I do), and doing more laundry. Time to get moving and figure out what to make for dessert! Nothing like a time crunch to make me extra productive!

It is so cold that my dough won't rise on the counter anymore! Gotta preheat the oven and then set it in there. Unfortunately, only one bowl will fit at a time.

• Annnnnnnnd I just realized that all of these photos are from this past week only. Wowza. I either need to blog more than once a week or stop taking so many cell phone pictures.