22 New Year's resolutions even you can keep

I stumbled over some papers from when I lived in the US last night. And when I found this one, I thought it was perfect now that we are approaching the new year. So I wanted to share it with you.

22 New Year's resolutions even you can keep

1. I will make up creative excuses to exercise

2. I will encourage myself to make more mistakes

3. I will remind myself that there are no mistakes - "only opportunities for personal and professional growth"

4. I will do something every day that makes me laugh out loud

5. I will take more risks

6. I will worry about only one thing at a time, if I worry at all

7. I will eat right 90% of the time, and eat whatever I want 10% of the time

8. I will send a lot of "thank you" cards - including ones to myself

9. I will read the comics

10. I will not agree to do things simply because someone else asks me to

11. I will take a walk or get some exercise whenever I feel stressed

12. I will get as much sleep as I need to be happy, healthy and fun

13. I will think of my life as a situation comedy

14. I will take "recess" during my breaks at work

15. I will focus on what went right every day, instead of what went wrong

16. I will spend at least one night a week without the TV, radio or stereo on

17. I will take long, hot bubble baths or showers as often as I need to relax

18. I will find at least five new, really healthy foods that I actually enjoy and eat them

19. I will ask myself, "Will this really matter in 150 years?"

20. I will walk more places - like to the store, to a friend's, to the post office

21. I will go outside and play at least once a week

22. I will be thankful for everything

Christmas card

Marius and I made a Christmas card. Well, to be more accurate, MARIUS made a Christmas card for both of us that I approved. :P

Anyways, instead of sending it to the US and Germany, and having it arrive by Easter, I thought it might be just as good to post it here. So, here is my digital Christmas card from me to you! :)



The text says "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" in Norwegian.




And here is a rough translation of the text above:

"Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We hope you and yours have a good Christmas celebration and a happy new year.
Many Christmas greetings from Anne and Marius
"



BTW: In case you're worried, NO, I have NOT turned muslim. :P


Oh, and if you wondered, Marius is wearing the national custume of Norway (bunad). Well, one of them, anyways, there is roughly one bunad for each district, so there are plenty of them.

I'm not sure how much you can tell from the picture, but Marius looks SOOOO good in bunad! :) He got it for his birthday in November, and I just think it suits him perfectly. :)

Merry Christmas! :)

I wish you all a very merry Christmas, for you and your family. :)


Found on freegreetingscards.blogspot.com

New Christmas traditions

This year my boyfriend and I decided to start some Christmas traditions together. (I don't know if you can actually call them traditions when it's the first time you're doing it, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. :P) Because we each celebrate Christmas with our own families, we don't get to do the regular Christmas traditions together. So we decided to start our own pre-Christmas traditions.

Last weekend we started one tradition of making Christmas candy. We made "ice chocolate" (don't know if they're called that in the US) and some mints. We made the ice chocolate with different types of chocolate (dark, regular and white), and with or without mint. They tasted wonderful, and I especially loved the white ones. I have never seen white ice chocolate before, so it was fun that they turned out so good.



We also tried to make some cream caramels, but they didn't turn out quite so good. In fact, they were burnt so badly we had to toss them out. Marius thinks this is my fault for turning up the heat too much. Me, on the other hand, blame it on the Sukrin (the sugar substitue we tried to make them healthier). We also bought some jars to put the candies in, and gave them away to friends and family.



To get in the right Christmas mood, I bought a Christmas CD (I didn't own one - can you believe that?). Unfortunately, I chose "Sølvguttene"'s CD. They are really good, but a bit too "serious" for me. This was too choir-musicy to get me in the Christmas spirit, I wanted something more fun and lighthearted. So I'll have to buy a new CD for next weekend. Anyways, I had a really nice time and am looking forward to doing this again next year. I think it is going to be a great tradition! :)

This weekend we'll continue making Christmas traditions. This time we'll try to make Christmas cakes.