Christmas done the "creative" way...

I must say that I am in the Christmas spirit this year!  Even though it hasn't snowed here in Andong yet (tear) and they don't really decorate quite like America, I'm excited for Christmas to come.  I'm especially excited for the decorations that we put up last week, mainly our tree.  You can't buy Christmas trees here in Korea so you have to be creative.  Last year we used what some might call a branch for our Christmas tree, but this year we thought we'd try something different...

Last year's tree (I still love that Charlie
Brown branch!)

AND NOW...

This year's tree. (In case you can't guess, that is
our mirror under all that goodness.)

Our tree is constructed out of felt and staples.  Not bad if I do say so myself : )  Before we decided on the crafty version, I walked around our neighborhood and briefly considered cutting down a tree from the yard across the street, but then I thought "tis' the season not to commit a crime"... thus our felt tree was born.

Who needs to spend a ton of money on decorations this season?  Not us!  I hope if you are away from home this holiday season, you too find a way to get some Christmas cheer.  Have a very Merry Christmas!

Celebrating Freedom Day in Korea! Happy 4th of July!

If you know anything about Danny and I, we LOVE freedom.  Don't even get Danny started on how much he loves Mrka (America)... he will go for days.  Being that the 4th of July is my favorite holiday, I am sad to have missed the parades and barbeques, but we did our best to celebrate here in Korea. 

Since Korean's don't really care too much about American Independence day, we had to spend most of the day at work...boooo.  Then we enjoyed some American s'mores over a camping stove at our apartment thanks to our friend Sara's mom sending it all in a care package. (My first s'more in a year and a half.) It's crazy to me that people in other countries haven't really had s'mores before so I enjoyed watching our coworker, Cathal, trying his very first one. 

After the intense sugar intake, we went down by the river to light of the symbol of freedom...no not bald eagles...FIREWORKS!  We didn't have any really crazy stuff, but it was fun to let out the pyro in us for the evening and light stuff on fire ; )

My favorite was playing with the sparklers, and as you can see, Danny had fun with it too!

 We made a attempt to write "D love's K" but someone who will remain nameless, who also starts their name with a "D", did it backwards : )  But you know what?!  We have the FREEDOM to do that...WHY?... Because WE ARE MRKANS!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy 4th of July!