Friday, December 15, 2017

Christmas Bucket List

It's my favorite time of year! Seriously, one of my friends called me Mrs. Claus the other day because I love Christmas so much. This year I wanted to really do a lot of Christmas activities and really enjoy the season, especially because it goes by so fast. Here is the bucket list I came up with for us, we have done some of these so those will be crossed off :)
  • Make Slow Cooker Hot Chocolate
  • Go Ice Skating (preferably at Lotte World because they're decorated for Christmas)
  • Make Christmas Cookies
  • Decorate for Christmas
  • Go see the Christmas lights around Seoul
  • Go to Garden of the Morning Calm 
  • Build a Gingerbread House
  • Watch ALL the Christmas movies
  • Watch as many of the Hallmark Christmas movies as I can
  • Do Advent Calendars
  • Go see the Nutcracker
  • Harry Potter Marathon
  • Make Butterbeer
  • Go to the Express Bus Terminal and see their floor of Christmas decorations
    • This wasn't as great as I was hoping it would be. There was a lot of stuff but it was mostly "clutter" items and expensive trees and I have run out of shelf space for Christmas clutter and I don't want to spend 100 dollars on a 3-foot tree.
  • Go to Daiso and get more Christmas Decorations
We're running out of time to do everything before Christmas! Mark works so much now that we don't really have much time to do much of anything. But we'll figure it out and do everything.

What are your plans for the Christmas season?

See you soon
Kylie <3

Goodbye November 2017

November went by even faster than the other months! Probably because we went on vacation! For half of November, we were in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Then we got back and it was Thanksgiving and the holiday season officially started. So the time, until now when I'm writing this, went by so fast; I feel like I haven't had time to catch up on anything. Here's how November went:

Reading //
I read four books this month, I would have read more if I didn't sleep on every flight we had. I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which I slowly finished because I didn't want to reach the death, but I managed. then I read Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters, which followed the same story outline as the first book, but that's okay. It was a fun story and I highly enjoyed it again. I read a little Christmas novel that I got for free on my Kindle, Miss Kanes Christmas. If you just take the book at surface level and don't analyze or question the book too much, then it's good and cute. I also read The Paper Magician and I really enjoyed that! It has an interesting magic system, which is something I really love, this one I definitely recommend.However, there is a romantic subplot that feels forced and weird to me; like the author felt like they had to have a romantic element so they forced one in; but I'm able to look past that and enjoy the story. I got the second book for like 3 dollars for my Kindle so I'm excited to read that.

Doing //
We went on vacation :). I have blog posts for each individual country so if you would like a more in-depth look then click the links on each place! We went to Siem Reap, Cambodia where we explored Angkor Wat; Chiang Mai, Thailand where we went ATVing, an Elephant Sanctuary, Ziplining, and a cooking class; and Nha Trang, Vietnam where we lounged at the beach and went snorkeling. We had a blast.

After we got back from vacation, it was almost immediately Thanksgiving. We decorated for Christmas a couple days before Thanksgiving because Mark worked the day of and the day after Thanksgiving. But I cooked all day Thanksgiving to have Thanksgiving dinner ready for us when Mark. Since it was just the two of us, I made a roasted chicken and a small ham, Sweet Potato Casserole, Stuffing, Au Gratin Potatoes, Ruby Tuesday Brocolli Salad, and Green Bean Casserole.

Watching // 
Before we went on vacation, we went and saw the new Thor at the on-post theater. I really enjoyed it and I liked that it felt like a Thor and Loki movie rather than another Avengers movie. We really like the Marvel movies, I think they do a really good job, especially for someone who doesn't read the comics.

We also binged the second season of Stranger Things during the first few days of November. It was so good and we love Stranger Things, I don't know if I like season 1 or season 2 more but we can't wait until season 3.

After vacation, we started watching Christmas movies because I'm a Christmas crazy person and we've basically been watching Christmas movies and The Flash since we got back.

December //
We plan to do lots of Christmas activities and watch lots of Christmas movies. Mark is even extra spirited this year which is really fun. We've been wearing Santa Hats out because why not. This is my favorite time of year so I'm really excited. It's also our two year marriage anniversary on the 29th!

How was your November; if you celebrate Thanksgiving, did you have a good Thanksgiving?

See you soon!
Kylie <3

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Christmas Movies to watch this month

I am one of those people who absolutely love Christmas movies but not so much the adult ones, I love the family-friendly and children Christmas movies. I love when I can start watching them. In this list, I have a few that absolutely love and I have to watch, some that I like, and some new ones (to me) that are on the must-watch Christmas lists. So this list will be in that order, my favs to my unwatched.

1) Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas
2) The Santa Clause 1, 2, and 3
3) Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer
4) A Charlie Brown Christmas
5) Frosty the Snowman
6) How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon)
7) Santa Clause is Coming to Town
8) Christmas with the Kranks
9) 4 Christmases
10) Elf
11) Polar Express
12) Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
13) Disney's Prep & Landing
14) Naughty VS. Nice
15) Arthur Christmas
16) Frosty Returns
17) Olive the Other Reindeer
18) It's a Wonderful Life
19) The Grinch (Live Action)
20) The Island of Misfit Toys
21) White Christmas
22) Mickey's Christmas Carol
23) Disney's A Christmas Carol
24) Frosty Returns
25) The Mouse King
26) Miracle on 34th Street
27) Christmas Vacation
28) Holiday Inn
29) Scrooged
30) National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
31) Muppet Christmas Carol
32) Saving Santa
33) A Misers Brothers Christmas
34) Year Without Christmas
35) Deck the Halls

This expansive list does not include all the Hallmark Christmas movies I want to watch too; there's so much to watch this time of year. Luckily Mark is in the Christmas spirit and wants to watch Christmas movies too.

What's your favorite Christmas movie?

See you soon!
Kylie <3

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

2 Weeks 3 Countries: Nha Trang, Vietnam

This is the last installment of the vacation review! For our last stop of our vacation, we went to Nha Trang, Vietnam for the beach. I don't have as many pictures from Vietnam as I did for the others as we did a lot of stuff at the hotel or the beach and a lot of the pictures were on snapchat or our action cam so the quality is not the greatest.

Day one // Travel
We arrived at our hotel, Sunrise Beach Hotel & Spa, which was a resort style hotel. I chose it because I wanted a nice place with a private beach so that we could just relax. It was nice but a little expensive compared to Suorkear in Siem Reap which was just as nice or nicer. They provided water but not a whole lot and Mark and I drink a ton of water, so we went out and tried to find a convenience store and somewhere to eat. We struggled to find anywhere to eat and didn't manage to find a real convenience store. We did find somewhere that sold the lovely big water bottles that Asia has so we got water and walked back to the hotel. That night they had a Japanese buffet that we ended up eating. They didn't have much that I liked because it was mostly weird fish dishes but Mark enjoyed it. Then we went up and went to bed.

Day two // Beach
Today we woke up and ate breakfast and one of the best parts of the Sunrise was the delicious breakfast. They had a buffet with everything from American continental breakfast foods to Asian breakfast foods. My favorite thing was the croissants and fancy cheese, so I mostly ate that because I never get to eat croissants.

After breakfast, we got ready for the beach and we went to the beach. The hotel had a private beach and beach chairs with towels, so we got some chairs, an umbrella, and towels and set up our stuff. We went in the ocean for a bit and the water, at that time the water was clear and the perfect temperature and the waves weren't too big. For the next 5 hours, we played in the ocean and sat on our chairs and read our books. It was so relaxing and the sound of the ocean was nice. When we got hungry, we walked along the beach and tried to find a place to eat. But again, we couldn't find one that appealed to us and there were no beach showers so I was sticky and gross feeling from the saltwater, sunscreen, and sweat so I just wasn't in the mood to be walking around, dodging traffic, looking for a place to eat. We found a convenience store and got some more water and went back to the hotel to shower.

After our showers, we went out again to find food. We got flagged down by an unlimited food and drink buffet and we decided to eat there. Again, they didn't have much that I really liked. They had a lot of different seafood and weird meats to try, well weird to me like crocodile, and not much else so I ate a lot of rolls lol. After we ate, we went back to the hotel and decided to try their Sky Lounge. We got a couple drinks and sat on the balcony of the lounge and just listened to and watched the ocean. We decided that we enjoyed the ocean so much that we should go walk along the beach. So we did and it was so nice to just walk and talk along the ocean.

Day Three // Explore
We last minute, impulsively booked a tour through the hotel. But, we ended up kind of regretting it and wished we had spent the day at the beach. But we left the hotel with the guide and driver and we went to the first temple, Long Son Pagoda, where we were able to go inside and look around, then we hiked a small hill from there where we saw a huge white Buddha statue. After that, we went to a rock formation, Ho Chong, in the ocean where a lot of boulders were perched precariously on top of each other and we saw a mini-concert using traditional Vietnamese instruments. Then we went to another temple, Po Nagar Cham Towers, where we explored the temples and we saw a traditional prayer dance. After that, we went to iResort where we got to lounge in a mud bath and hot springs. The mud bath was interesting, not thick like we thought but just watery mud. It would have been really relaxing except it was so hot out and then the mud bath was warm.After the mud bath, we rinsed off and got in the hot springs waterfall, which again, would have been nice but it was so hot! We ended that part of the day early because we were like "why should we stay here where its hot water and a dirty 'beach' when we could go to an actual beach. So we ate some pho and left the resort. We went to a market where the tour guide explained the different areas and the different foods and helped us bargain and translate.

We finally got back to the hotel and we changed and went to the beach again. But man, today the waves were so rough and the water was murky, it was still rainy season so that was to be expected. We fought the waves for a bit but got tired so we lounged on the chairs and read our books.  We got cold and hungry after about an hour and a half so we went back to the hotel, showered, and decided to eat at the hotel restaurant. We shared a delicious caesar salad, I got a club sandwich that had an egg on it, which was really good, and Mark got a pizza. After eating, we went back up the Sky lounge because we enjoyed the view, but again, after a little while we decided to go walk along the beach again.

Day Four // Snorkeling
I really wanted to try snorkeling while we were at the ocean, so that's what we did today. It was about a 20-minute boat ride to the snorkeling area. We got in the water and I quickly learned that my snorkel was not on correctly when I breathed in all kinds of water. We got it fixed and went on our way. At first, it was a little panic-inducing, I didn't actually start panicking but it took some mind control and breathing to calm the instinctual fear of breathing underwater. Unfortunately, every now and again, I would breathe in water, but I got better at dealing with it as we snorkeled. It was fun swimming through the coral and seeing the colorful saltwater fish. I really enjoyed finding a cool fish and following it to see that fishy business it had to do. Often they would lead me to some cool spots. I also loved when schools of fish would swim by. Sadly, the coral wasn't that vibrant and there was some trash which is a sad part of human's effects on the ocean.

After the snorkeling, we got room service lunch and we sat on our balcony and ate our lunch while we watched the ocean. It started raining so we weren't able to go to the beach, plus we were tired from being in the water all morning. So we just relaxed in the room and watched movies.

Day Five // Travel
Today was the day we left and I was planning to spend the morning sitting on the beach. Not playing in the ocean, just sitting on the beach and enjoying the sound. But we woke up and it was pouring. We ate breakfast and after breakfast, saw that it was starting to slow down, so we ended up being able to walk along the beach one more time. For most of it, we just stood and watched the huge waves come in. We left after about 40 minutes and right when we got to the hotel it started pouring rain again so we got back just in time. Then we started our travel day home.

Overall, Vietnam was our least favorite place. Maybe Vietnam wasn't for us or we just didn't go to the right area or at the right time. We just didn't find the area to be easy to navigate and the beach wasn't as impressive as all the travel sites said. I think if we do southeast Asia again, we'll do either Phuket, Thailand (because we LOVED Thailand), the Philippines, or Bali for the beach/relaxing part.

I am a little sad that vacation ended so quick. We had a wonderful time experiencing new places and new cultures together. It was so nice not having to share Mark with his job or other people, it was nice just spending time together especially with how much he has to work now.

Want to know more about our vacation? Check out the posts about Siem Reap, Cambodia and Chiang Mai, Thailand.

See you soon!
Kylie <3