Friday, 30 December 2011

2011 Rewind!

2011 has been a fun year! I felt like I lived in Houston most of this year, which has been superb! With this current trip, I would have spent about about 10 weeks in Houston, so much for living in Scotland. This year, Gerald and I also have taken about 12 trips to different parts of the world. Talk about Born to Fly! We have been well acquainted with airport system and have both earned Gold Status on KLM.  The status thing is no joke; Gerald got a free business class upgrade coming to Houston this trip.  Loyalty does pay off, I suppose.

Well, you know how it goes here in Houston if you've been reading my blog. Family, friends, eat, and drink is the typical agenda.  We can't get enough of it!  However, I am looking forward to the New Year, new beginnings, new starts.  

If you didn't already know, I've decided to take some time off work. This time, it will be for real. The last time I tried this, it only lasted 3 months but I'm confident this time will be much longer.  I've been doing accounting for a good 6 years and as Gerald tells everyone, I'm taking an early retirement.  I don't hate accounting, but while I have the opportunity to pursue something else, I wanted to take advantage of it. I've always been a people person, and sitting behind a desk with a computer, just doesn't cut it for me.  I wanted to take the time to give back to the community and do some volunteer work, possibly some volunteer teaching, and just take up other things I've always had an interest in, like photography.  I hope everything works out, but if not, I'm sure I can go back to being a number cruncher. 

With that said, 2012 should be interesting for me.

Check out our 2011 highlight video if you have the time.


Enjoy the rest of 2011 and hope you all have a fantastic New Year!



Sunday, 4 December 2011

oh, Christmas Tree

This weekend we completed our Christmas Tree with a new tree topper, bought locally here in Scotland! We didn't get to put up our tree last year since we went back to the States quite early, so I was excited about our tree this year. We bought the Santorini ornament last year and this is it's debut.  It was Gerald's idea to to get the ornament and now I'm thinking we should have gotten one in each city we visited.  Maybe that's something we can start this coming up year.

Anyhow, for those of you that don't know, I'm finishing up work on December 16th and will try out this expat wife life.  I'm not 100% sure what I"ll be up to yet, but I do have visions of doing more volunteering work, getting back into shape, and exploring Scotland outside of the working world. I'm excited and am looking forward to the new year!



Have a good one!