Moving

12/365

Today has been very much up and downs.

We got up at 5:30 to get the bus to Sydney at 7. We only got back the night before at about 11 in the evening, and had to pack...so we didn't get much sleep, I was maybe a little cranky. We got a phone call whilst on the bus from the real estate lady handling our new place. She was going to be out until 2:20 doing viewings, so we wouldn't be able to pay our bond and pick up the keys until then. So, we decided to have lunch and then go to Ikea to get a mattress. On the way to the lunch we dropped in to the real estate to find out how they would like the receive the bond payment so that we could have it sorted for 2:20. Bankers cheque or Money order...and apparently we only have about half an hour until banks/post offices close. It was 11:30 at this point, so we postponed lunch to go and sort that out. The bank was closed. 11:30 on a Saturday. Banks need to sort themselves out. Saturday is THE day people have to go get everything done, why banks aren't open is beyond me. It really stuffed us up, because it turns out that I can only withdraw a certain amount a day...and this certain amount was not enough. James took out money too, but we were still quite short. All the money was in my account, and we couldn't get it out. ARGH! I waited in the long line at the Post Office whilst James ran back to the apartment to get all our Christmas money. We were now only $100 short. We hoped maybe I could pay with my card since I was not withdrawing...but no. I am now aware of my daily limit, good to know for our future furniture buying. I left the Post Office in tears. The lack of sleep and money debacle had somewhat gotten to me.
We walked back to our apartment feeling a bit...meh. We tried seeing if I could transfer money to James, and problem solved! I sent money, James took it out, got another Money Order, and ahhhhh. We felt A LOT better. We then had some lunch and sat in the park until 2:20, since we wouldn't be able to pay for a mattress today.
We successfully paid our bond and got our keys. We headed off to see our new place. I don't know about others, but I always make a place seem WAY nicer in my head that it actually was when we saw it, so I was eager to see how this place held up to my memories. Well, that had to wait. We got into the building. We checked the post. We got to our new front door, and the key didn't work. We called our lovely lady and she came over with the office keys. They worked, thank goodness! So, we got to keep that and were asked to make some copies.
Our new place has potential. It's got a few cracks here and there, could have maybe done with a fresh coat of paint, but does the view make up for all that! I'll have to take a photo tomorrow, and will probably take loads more during the year. It's awesome. I have so many wonderful plans for this place. It's going to take quite some time, but we are so super excited!
We then got the keys cut and then spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from the morning/afternoon events.

Let's hope tomorrows plan go more smoothly.

Update on 365

9/365 - at the markets.

10/365 - the best bit of the Aquarium. 

11/365

Holidaying

4/365

5/365

6/365

7/365

8/365

The place we are at has internet you need to pay for, but James has needed to sort out some bills and whatnots, so I have internet on my computer that it would be such a shame not to use!

Our holiday to Queensland has so far been wonderful. We arrived in Queensland at noon on Friday and drove to the Motel we would be staying in for the next two evenings. I had a little nap whilst the boys watched the cricket, and then we went to James' Aunt and Uncle's for a lovely BBQ dinner. It was super yum, and really chillaxed. We had a belated Christmas on the Saturday, after a morning shop  (hence the photo of my new Sharpies, I am maybe a little too excited to have Sharpies in my life again). It was a lovely day. Moments of it felt a little...slow...the cousins don't seem to actively chat to one another, so it feels a little strange. The atmosphere amongst the 'adults' is much nicer. We did enjoy ourselves a lot once we started playing Balderdash though, very fun. 

On the Sunday we got up early (and missed the family get together for breakfast) to get to Movie World as it opened. I wasn't extremely thrilled about the whole day, it takes a while for me to warm to theme parks. I think I may need to be forced onto a roller-coaster first thing as that seems to help me open up to the idea of going on more. :P In the end it was an awesome day, with lots of fun. James and I enjoyed posing for the cameras, we did a very good 'Serious Face', 'Scared Face', and 'Look Over There Face'. If we had a good amount of money to part with I would have bought them all, but we do not so I settled for a Wonder Woman top (which will make me feel awesome at work!). We then drove up to the coast where we are spending the rest of the week with pretty much all of the family that turned up to the Christmas do.

Both yesterday and today have been lovely and relaxing. I think this is going to be an awesomely rejuvenating holiday. I got myself 'Eat Pray Love' on the Saturday and have been loving reading it ever since. And what better place to be reading a book than on the beach. I've been loving the little views I catch over or to the side of the book as I'm reading. :)

Day 3 - Swimming

I decided the other photo wasn't colourful enough. I know this one doesn't consist of many colours, but it's bright and vibrant, and I love it. At first I didn't like that you could see a reflection of me taking the photo, but after staring at the reflection for a while I realised it added another sort of dimension to the photo. I like it a lot. So, here you have it, photo 3/365.

In slightly related news (water and swimming), we're off on a little 'family' holiday for the next week, so I may not be updating with my photos everyday, although I would quite like to. If I don't get round to updating, then I'll probably be back after we get the keys to our new place! Quite exciting! :)

DIY Ribbons

On Tuesday I mentioned sitting around and making ribbony things. I also said I would share a picture, and having recently read through my blog a bit I have realised I promise to share a lot of pictures that I then never do, but no more! I shall resolve to keep to my picture sharing promises, beginning now.

I made the ribbons for the present I got for this weekends Secret Santa. I'd pinned a tutorial quite some time back, and had used my memory of it for actual Christmas to decorate a couple of presents I wrapped. I decided for this present I would try and follow the tutorial as true as I could, to get the best looking ribbons. Unfortunately, the paper I had to work with wasn't long enough to use the exact same measurements as in the tutorial, but I kept with the inch-ish shortening for each different length. I used scraps of the craft wrapping paper and covered one side with pretty tape (I love pretty tape, I only have four little rolls, but my are they the coolest thing ever! I may have to start a collection). I then cut the lengths, and got to it. I was also lacking some double sided tape, so used the old folding normal tape trick, which has left the ribbons a little 'bouncy', but I am still super happy with the outcome. :)

I'm not sure if I'm going to count the image as my 365 for the day, I don't quite feel like there is enough colour...but we'll see. :P This colour theme is proving to be a challenge!

Day 2 - Colours for our home

Today we went out to Bunnings (the Australian version of B&Q) to look at paint swabs, because there is nothing Katie likes more than paint swabs. Seriously, there isn't much. We have bought a cheap fridge (we're so excited to own a fridge!), and are planning on getting a 4 seat dining piece from Ikea for a cheap price...and I'm feeling they could maybe do with a bit of a spruce from paint to make them a whole lot cooler! I'm still a little undecided about painting the fridge, but I definitely want to paint the chairs in the dining set, so we were looking for a collection of colours we like so we can sort out some sort of colour palette for our new little space. Above are some of the colours we chose. We found a little book thing with "Retro Revival" colours in it that I quite liked, so we chose colours from there. It made it a whole lot easier because I pretty much loved every colour! I'm so very excited to have a space to decorate!

The New Year

Happy 2013 Everyone! I hope it has started well for you all!

We had a lovely evening in last night with James' family. Lots of champagne, lots of chatting, lots of fun. I did miss what had become a New Years tradition back at home, but life goes on.

Today has NOT been spent trying to start as many resolutions as possible, mainly due to the fact that I have only thought up one, and was instead spent chilling and being very relaxed. It may have been the first day so far in my 'holidaying' that I haven't made myself stressed about money. Yay! We caught up with the 'Big Fat Quiz of the Year'. We each had our own answer sheets and competed against each other. I even did a drawing of most of the contestants. I am very happy with how Richard Ayoade turned out, and yes Jonathan Ross is drawn as a pile of poo. We don't like him much, he wasn't as annoying in this years show as his has been in the past, but he's still not our favourite person. Jack Whitehall and James Cordan on the other hand, LOVED them!
After the Big Fat Quiz I did some more present wrapping for James' dad's sides Christmas that we are attending at the end of this week. I made my own ribbony things. Very proud of them. I'll take photos tomorrow.
James and I also went for a walk. And then we watched some cricket. Not the most eventful day, but lovely nonetheless.

So. My resolution. I'm going to try the 365 challenge again, this time with a theme: Colour. I know it sounds like a very broad theme, and it is, but it's also quite limiting. I'm excited, and have already started. let's hope I can make it further than last time. I made it 262 Days last time I did the challenge. Here's my first photo.

I'm going to do a bit more thinking about some other resolutions. I have plans for the year, I always have plans, my head is non-stop thinking of things it wants to do...so I'm going to try and sort some of my ideas out into attainable and measurable goals for the year. :) I'm feeling very good about 2013!

End of Year Resolution Round Up

2012 has been absolutely wonderful, and I wouldn't change it one bit. I have been happy, I have been healthy and I feel that moving to Australia to be with James was definitely a much better choice than studying an extra year in the UK.

Even though my year has been wonderful I can't say I did a whole lot on my Resolution list. I think making lists like this is an art form, you really need to understand what is achievable. Many of these goals I still have, but they are now just general life goals, achieving them in a specific year seems silly. :) So, how did I go?

1. Learn more about Photography
Yeah, I didn't really actively do anything towards this. But does anyone else look through their photos from a year or so ago and feel like they have improved their skills? I do. So I am thinking that maybe encouraging myself to take more photos will help me learn in a more enjoyable way. Maybe another 365 Project? It definitely encouraged me to photograph and blog more!

2. Lose at least 5kg
In February, I said James and I were not actively working towards this goal. I don't know why I thought trying to eat healthy and exercise was not working towards this goal, because it has most certainly helped. We don't drink any soft drinks when we're in Sydney; we've tried to add more vegetables to our meals; we've cut out unnecessary fatty foods; we bought even bigger water bottles and drink at least 2 bottles a day; we went running for about a month; we walk almost everywhere; and since August I've had a job which is a 50min walk away from us, and I've been walking it, everyday. Even though most of these things are small, and we still have the odd day of tea, cookies and ice-cream, it has all added up and I've lost 8kg. I also feel a lot more awake, and like I have a lot more energy, which makes me feel like it's been a positive change to our lives. Next year we'll be living on the 6th floor, so will have even more stairs to climb, I still have my job to walk to, and James has a gym membership, so I think 2013 will be just as healthy! This is the one resolution I am super happy about!

3. Cook something new and healthy every week for a year
Ha! We did try quite a few recipes off of my Pin bored (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13), most of which were delicious, some needing tweaks, but thats the joy of cooking! If you think the fig pizza (3) sounds nice, I would recommend some changes. We found it WAY too sweet, so tried another one with a creme fraiche base, with brie, blobs of fig jam, and prosciutto on top. It was yum! The Stuffed Peppers (5) has become a favourite of ours, and the crescent rolls (6) are just too easy to make! The Sweet Potato pancake (8) is also a must try just for how much it blows your mind!
Ok, so now I feel like we did quite a good job on this one! 13/52 isn't THAT bad!

4. Bake something once a week for a year
Yeah, much more of a fail here. With only a microwave oven baking was not going to happen this year. Maybe I'll save this one for when I'm a mum, and I can bake with the kids once a week, sounds more fun already!

5. Create Moustache Notebooks
Nope. Did nothing, don't feel bad about it either.

6. Create Art Portfolio
Eventually! This will go on my "Things to do when I'm bored" list, so I can slowly work on it!

7. Learn about Aboriginal Art
I had a book just for this, which I used to doodling. It is still something I'd love to do, not just the Art either, the whole history. I'll do it in time. :)

8. Use my 365 Book somehow
Eeek! I started using it, and HATED what I was doing in it, so now it's got 10 pages filled out and the rest left blank. I'll figure something out!

9. Try to Achieve at least 1 of my 101 Dreams
SCORE!
Dream 40 - Walk More. I think 50mins every morning and afternoon counts as walking more! :D
Dream 42 - Be Happy. I am totally a much happier person, and I'm loving it!
Dream 43 - Live with James in a Cool Apartment. Now, when we first moved into our tiny studio, I wasn't the most thrilled about it. I felt it was small, and could be better, but I have grown to love it and it has become our cool little apartment. Plus, we're now moving up in the world...to a 1 bedroom apartment! Oh the excitement! We can't wait!
Dream 52 - Have an awesome Disney collection. James and I both decided a few years ago that when we have children they shall be raised on Disney movies, and not just the new ones, all the classic ones we loved! Last Christmas we began our collection and it's been slowly growing. We have yet to get the Jungle Book (one of James' favourites) and the Little Mermaid as they is currently 'in the vault', but we are patiently waiting. We have got Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas, my two faves! So I'm happy! :D
4 Dreams is not bad for a years work!

And there you have it, my Resolution Round Up. I don't think I did the most terrible job, but it could have been better. I'm going to try and make better Resolutions for 2013, and I am most definitely going to enjoy 2013! :)
How did you all do with your resolutions?

We Were Treated Well

We had a lovely Christmas this year. This whole last week has been pretty fab, I can't believe this only just the end of my first week on holiday!
Christmas day was lovely and relaxed. We got up around 10, made some coffee and opened presents. I love watching people open presents you have put thought into, and am happy to say all our presents went down a treat. :D We got some wonderful gifts too. I felt like James spoilt me this year, getting me a back pack (because I walk to work with a backpack, and he thought I might like a pretty one), Lilo and Stitch (to add to our growing Disney collection), a Happiness box from Kikki.K, two lovely necklaces and a Dr. Hooves Hoodie (combining my love for Dr. Who and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic). I loved it all. I got him some rum he's been wanting for ages, an amazing looking cook book (he's my little chef, loves cooking) and a wall calendar. My gifts sound so lame in comparison. :P
From his family we got all things apartment related. As I mentioned earlier, we have got a new apartment. It is not furnished, and does not come with a fridge. So we have a pretty long list of things we need to get. We also don't have a massive amount of money to get things with, so we were really appreciative of the gifts. James' parents have given us a budget for a fridge and a wonderful set of cutting knives, James' youngest brother got us some steak knives, one of his aunts and uncles got us a 16 piece set of crockery and a 24 piece set of cutlery, and another of his uncles gave us money to put towards the apartment. We are very well looked after. :)

James' mum's side came round for Christmas dinner around 4:30-5. We had some yummy snack foods and champagne, then a delicious dinner. I may have piled my plate up a little too much because I struggled to finish, but it was too good not to! :P Around 8 I skyped my family. We had a lovely chat. Miss you guys!

On Boxing Day we went back to Sydney to watch a T20 match, as part of our Christmas present to James' youngest brother. I also got to pick up my new glasses. :D I know my mum wanted presents, so voila! I don't think they are much of a change from what I used to have, but why change too much when you've found a style you like?

I hope you were all treated well this Christmas. :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everybody! :D

The above are photos taken on Xmas 2008, but I love them so much, and I miss my family a lot around this time of the year, that I felt they were very appropriate for my Christmas wishes. Plus, there is no snow in sight, so it could be totally believable that they were taken in Australia and not France!

Christmas has only just started so I can't say if it's been great or not yet, but it's feeling awesome so far. We had a lovely sleep in, then we got dressed all Christmassy. James is wearing red shorts and a green polo shirt; I'm wearing my 'Santa's Helper' T-shirt and Santa hat. We're listening to Christmassy music and generally feeling happy. :)

Wishing you all the most wonderful of Christmases!

Christmas Wrapping

This morning I did our Christmas present wrapping. I LOVE wrapping present and making them looking pretty. It really put me in a good mood. To make my morning even better I got a text to say my new glasses are ready to be picked up, so on Boxing Day I shall be getting myself some lovely new glasses!

All that is left on my 'To do' list for today is to make some scrummy Salmon Pate. Mmmm!

Christmas Goodies Breakfast

One of the perks of working in Child Care is that you get a whole bunch of goodies at Christmas. This years goodies all came in the form of unhealthy foods. That's not to say they weren't all absolutely delicious. We ate a few as a scrummy breakfast this morning. (We didn't eat all that is displayed. We shared the gingerbread man and had a cupcake each.)

A Little Life Update

This past week has felt quite grown up.

Saturday we did some more apartment hunting. This time we looked at places closer to our current place, and found three apartments we would be happy to live in.

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday we hosted James' younger brother.

Monday we handed in our applications for the three apartments we liked. I asked the Director at the centre I've been working at if there was a possibility of me working with them next year, she got busy sorting that out. We got a call from one of the apartments saying we could have. We also got a call from another apartment wanting to understand our money situation a little better, but it wasn't needed since we'd accepted the other place. So, we'll have a new apartment in January. Yays!

Tuesday I found out I would definitely be getting some kind of contract at the centre I've been working at. Yay! We also got a call from the third apartment saying we could have it. We have started to think we either apply for places no-one else wants, or we're just super awesome people that others want to let to.

Today I've had to sort out Visa stuff and fill in stuff for work to finalise for getting my new job. I've also been able to start telling parents I'll still be at the centre next year. The Director at the centre has also helped me find options for studying for a Certificate III next year.

It's been feeling like an exciting grown up week. I've been stressing myself out a little with the little things like paper work, and affording the study, etc. But we're happy, we're excited.

Cricket Christmas Present

James and I got ourselves a 'Friends with Benefits' membership with the Sydney Sixers (T20 cricket team), which made James' youngest brother a little jealous. The membership lets us go to two home games, excluding local derby's. Since James' youngest brother thought it sounded super awesome, and is on his summer holidays now, we decided to get him a membership too. This weekend we went to our first game.

Sunday morning James and I got ourselves some Gloria Jeans before I went and got my eyes tested. They are only marginally worse than they were 2 years ago, yay! I have bought new glasses and sunglasses, but here it takes 1-2 weeks for them to get sorted. Poo. We then picked up James' brother from the bus depot, got ourselves some Thai food and sat in front of the TV to watch the Test Cricket.

We then headed to the SCG. It was a fairly entertaining game. The Sixers batted first, which we knew wasn't good because the chasing team seems to always win. It was a very bad start, they were losing a wicket every 5 minutes. After 10 overs they had lost 6 wickets and scored 30 runs. It got better, and then the Scorchers started batting and it was boring, until the last 5 overs...but I won't go into it all, because I have tried to tell the story before and I know I can't do it interestingly. :P

Anyhoo, we get pretty awesome seats with the membership, i.e. right behind the Sixers bench. As soon as the players started coming out a whole swarm of kids went running forward with pens and things to sign. I thought it was pretty cute. :)

There were also fireworks between the innings, they were very unexpected and made me jump, but were still pretty cool.

The rest of the evening was spent sorting out documents for apartment applications. It was a late night. But an awesome day.

Scrummy Breakfast

Yesterday my shift didn't start until 11:30, so on Thursday night I decided this meant I could make James and I a scrummy breakfast to enjoy. I got some grapefruit to infuse in water (not so great on it's own, think I may have to do some more experimenting with that one), some pancake mix, nutella, strawberries and bananas. It was a super yum start to the day, and sent me off to work in a happy and relaxed mood.

In other news, today's apartment hunting went much better. We saw 3 places we like, so fingers crossed. :)

Christmas Present Wrapping

There are many things I love about Christmas, wrapping presents is high up that list. For as long as I can remember I have LOVED wrapping presents. I really enjoy making things look pretty and being creative with ribbons, tissue paper and decorations. I like making the wrapping look so good that people don't necessarily want to open it. My recent present wrapping love consists of that plain brown wrapping paper and awesome glitzy accessories. I was hoping to wrap my Secret Santa gift like that, but had trouble finding the plain brown wrapping paper (seriously, all year round I see it everywhere, Christmas hits and it's gone!) so I settled for some plain gold paper instead, and lots of awesome bows in different sizes. 

Here are the results. :) I'm pretty happy with it. I'm going to write the recipient of the gifts name to the left so it ends near the big green bow. :D 

'Clock' is Not an Easy Word to Say

I haven't shared a work story for quite some time (unless you count the occasional complaining, but I don't), so I thought it was time for a little work story.

Yesterday I discovered 'Clock' has an unfortunate mispronunciation if a child has difficulty pronouncing the 'cl' sound. One of the little boys was sitting with me during the afternoon and noticed my watch to which he very excitedly announced "Cock!". I wasn't quite sure I heard him right, but he then quickly began to proclaim "Katie's cock! Katie's cock!", and I assume his Mum has a watch too because he also added "Mummy's cock!" whilst pointing at the door. I tried my best to keep a straight face and get him to say 'cl' or 'watch', but he was very insistent on using the word 'clock'. Children are so sweet and innocent.

In work related news, my beautiful reindeer head from earlier collapsed yesterday. The cardboard wasn't strong enough to stay rigid. I have since cut the antlers in half and created two reindeer profiles on the wall. :)

Christmas Nails

I got myself some festive nail varnish, and I'm loving it! I painted my left ring finger and right thumb nail green and the rest of them a beautiful red. The colours are wonderfully festive and I feel happy whenever I see them. :)

I have also added a deep pink Santa hat to the top of my hat for work. I feel awesome in it! :D

Getting Ready for Christmas

So, I decided to go for it and spend a little money every month so I can share photos. Yay. I am happy with the decision. I've been missing being able to post things here, plus I have plans, small plans, to slowly start making my blog feel more 'me'.

If you didn't already know, it's December. In my world that means only one thing: CHRISTMAS! I am a HUGE fan of Christmas, I don't know if I've made that at all clear the last couple of years, but it's my season, it's my holiday. I love it. It is happiness. So, naturally I have been Christmas-ing it up at work. I have been told a couple of times by the room leader to pack away my the Christmas craft I was doing with kids so that they can eat, or have so staff can do some serious tidying before the holidays...but Christmas activities are way more important in my book. I've tried to cram in as much Christmas crafting as possible into the last two weeks so that our room can look super awesome and festive, and it turns out to have been a good idea because I have been told 'no more crafts'. Lame. Anyhoo, this week we made my favourite craft: A Christmas Reindeer Head. The template is from here, and the result is awesome. I cut out the cardboard and let the kids go to town with some coloured paper, stars and feathers. I am in love with the outcome. Our little reindeer head has since been given a tinsel scarf and some the wall has been decorated with festive words. It's a wonderful little corner.

I've also created Christmas CD's for work. I said I was Christmas-ing it up. I made both an upbeat, fun CD to play whilst the kids are having fun outside, and a sleepy CD for when the kids are napping. Even though it's summer outside it is starting to feel quite Christmasy now. :D

Continuing with the Christmas theme. I put my name in for the Secret Santa at work. I got Angela, the room leader in my room. She's very much a closed door. It's very hard to figure out what she likes, people who have worked with her for 5 years have no idea what to get her. I've been struggling to come up with something, but this Friday I noticed she kept turning off my Christmas music and seemed to enjoy having the kids sitting quietly in the book corner reading books with her, so I decided she liked quietness...so maybe she likes quiet, relaxing baths? We went the Broadway and in Target found the beauty below. I think I won the lottery with this one, we have a budget of $25-30, and this fit into it. The stuff is supposed to be valued at $107, which I may not entirely believe, but I do believe that for $30 it was a steal. I am super chuffed with it. Fingers crossed she likes it. :)

In other news we went apartment hunting this weekend. It was a bit of a failure. The one apartment we really wanted to see had been leased Friday afternoon, and the other apartments were either tiny or had no natural light. We're hoping next weekend will offer better options, and already think it might. :) We were supposed to meet an old friend for a coffee catch up after the apartment viewings, but we'd both developed some seriously bad headaches (walking in the sun with limited water, no bathrooms and no sunscreen is NOT the best idea...I felt like I was going to faint at one point), so we had to cancel and went home and slept most of the afternoon.

We're feeling much better, and now own a small portable tube of sunscreen. :) Time to make some peppermint playdough whilst listening to Christmas music! Love this time of the year.

Christmas Season

It's the 1st of December. Advent is here. I would normally have Christmas decorations up, and Christmas music playing non-stop, and a super warm feeling that Christmas is coming, but I'm still working on fitting those in with Summer. My mind is still a little confused. I love that it's getting warmer here (although, temperature's being in the 30's and it still being spring is a tad worrying!), but I am a HUGE fan of sun filled days, long days, gorgeous bright and vibrant days, days that make me want to get out and do things. It's just, to me, and I think I may go on about this a lot, aren't Christmas days yet.

I've grown up in Europe, Christmas to me is a Winter holiday. Christmas brightens the dark days of Winter. Christmas is filled with gorgeous warm lights, warm shops playing Christmas songs, the warmth of holding a pack of roasted chestnuts, sitting by a fire, hot coffees/teas/hot chocolates, snow. In the darkness of Winter Christmas keeps spirits up. It's magical.

Christmas is also about family and friends being together. Giving and being kind. Happiness and togetherness. At least I still see a lot of that here. Even with my mum, dad, brother, sister and childhood friends all the other side of the world, there is an overwhelming sense of love at Christmas. I love that, and at those times, no matter what the season, it's very hard not to feel like it's Christmas.