Once again, looking in both directions

Before getting to what I hope 2014 will bring, let's take a looksie at how I did in accomplishing last year's goals:

- mail actual birthday cards. Mapping out calendar reminders tomorrow. Ability of recipients to understand said birthday cards highly questionable. Ability of myself to even recognize that said cards are in fact meant for birthdays also dubious. I think I did quite well on getting birthday cards out, just not so well on the timing. Will try much harder in 2014 to get you all your cards on or before your actual big day.

- put that sewing machine to good use. One new craft a month, documented. I did use it quite a bit, especially in the beginning of the year. We also have about 138973 new cushions to show for it. It's taken a bit of a hiatus lately, but I've just started tackling a Christmas quilt (so at this rate I'm pretty certain it will be done in time for the 2014 holiday season) so it will get a workout. However, one new craft a month? Definitely not. 

- learn some more basic Czech. Be able to have a conversation with Donut's parents. I finally started taking Czech lessons, although the progress is incredibly slow. Still unable to have a conversation with Donut's parents in Czech, though am sad (for me and my abilities) to say that their English is progressing much better than my Czech. :)  

- find a new job. Stop being lazy and get on it. Preferably one with things like benefits and a salary that puts me above the poverty line. I did! This is 1000000% a win as I absolutely love my job, my colleagues, and being able to afford food other than Ramen.  

- expand circle if friends here. Our group has shrunk considerably in the last six months, and it can be quite lonely with the Jersey three holding things down. Reminds me, must email dinner party group and tell them will host. Now, what typical American food can I make without a grill? Mets tons and tons of new people this year from work, yay! 

- be a better blogger. This is mainly an outlet for me to fill in family and friends about what's going on, but I enjoy it a lot and want to push myself to be more diligent about keeping up with it. So hold me accountable. Ooph - this did not go well, did it? My bad. 

- be happy and healthy and blah blah blah. There's room for improvement, particularly on the latter. 

My plans for 2014 can be found here. I hope that you all have successful, happy and exciting years ahead, so update me when you've gotten back from your annual visit to the gym. :)

It's been a Long December

December was excellent. Donut and I headed to the UK for ten days to see family and catch up with old friends in London. We had such an excellent time seeing Tara & Andrew in the coolest neighbourhood in London (Angel), catching up over pints before stopping for a last pivo at a pub called Prague (with two Italian bartenders where we paid about 5GBP, or a gazillion crowns, for a Staropromen...), and then took in the views from the top of Centre Point and noshed on thai with Gemma & Stof. We did far too much shopping, toured around Oxford, Bath and the Cotswolds, gorged on cheddar and real English bacon and English muffins and scones and drank roughly 18 gallons of tea a day and enjoyed tv where I can actually understand things - it was excellent! There are so many fantastically amazing places to go in Europe that I haven't seen yet, but somehow I still just want to explore every little bit of England, but who can blame me when it's so gosh darn pretty:

When we got back, it was already December 15th and we had to rush rush rush to get ready for Christmas, which probably explains why I didn't really get the holiday spirit this year (or maybe it was the carp bashing?). This also explains why everyone's Christmas cards are sitting in a little pile on my desk, still unsent. You will enjoy them sometime around the end of January. However, we did manage to get our tree up before the big day, and we had a lovely evening on Christmas Eve with Donut's parents, where we feasted on potato salad and carp (I tried it! Not so bad!) and, in my case, chicken schnitzel. On Christmas Day, we had an expat friend over for a more familiar-tasting Christmas dinner and about 8 dozen cookies.

New Year's Eve, and Donut's birthday, were spent with his friends in Kbely, drinking beer and roasting a pig (of course). And now here we are, January 1st. I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year and are excited about everything that 2014 has to offer!