Disneyland, Holidays, A New Year & Covid
A December Like No Other
We had a pretty exciting kick-off to our holiday season. Some six months after our wedding, we finally went on our honeymoon—to Disneyland! We delayed the honeymoon until December for a couple of reasons: 1) Simon had to travel for work shortly after the wedding so we couldn’t go immediately after anyway, 2) I’d always wanted to stay at the Grand Californian Hotel during the Christmas season, and 3) we were hopeful things with Covid would be a little safer (always optimistic). If you aren’t a self-identified “Disney Adult,” you might think Disneyland is a weird place to go for your honeymoon… isn’t it for kids? As a former Disney employee, I have a bit of a soft spot for Dinsey and love spending time in the park—lucky, Simon is into it too. We make a good pair.
The Grand Californian is one of my favorite hotels. It’s absolutely beautiful—even more so when it’s decorated for the holidays. The lobby is gorgeous with vaulted ceilings up to the top floor, a large cozy fireplace, and a beautiful Christmas tree in the middle. Holiday events throughout the hotel really helped to make everything feel festive. It’s no small feat making Southern California feels festive and wintery, but Disney really pulls it off. And they certainly know how to make a honeymoon feel special (they gave us a bit of an upgrade on our room, a free character breakfast, and a couple of free in-park experiences). My favorite part about staying at the Grand Californian Hotel? Disneyland is a lot more relaxing when you can easily go back and forth between the hotel for a break in the middle of the day, and we could see the park fireworks from our balcony. On the days we wanted to come back from the park earlier and dine at the hotel bar, we could still enjoy the firework show. It’s the small things that can really elevate a trip. I honestly can’t wait to go back again someday.
Starting off on a High, ending on a low
Overall, December was a really relaxed month for me—which is rare for me. I happened to have just made a move to a new job and clients were a bit slower (more wrapping up of projects than kicking off new projects). This put me in the unusual position of having a mellow work month. And I appreciated every moment of that. The years when work is crazy busy in December always leave me feeling like I didn’t get to do as much as I wanted: I didn’t watch all the Christmas movies on my list, or I never got around to doing that puzzle, or I didn’t bake all the cookies I’d planned. So I really try to savor the years when I have more room to enjoy the season. Working from home certainly helps with that as well. I’m officially a remote worker (not just remote during Covid), which works really well for me. I appreciate getting to fully enjoy our home. There’s just something more relaxing about working with my Christmas tree up and jazzy holiday music playing than sitting in an office. On a more practical note, it’s also nice being home to bring packages in at a time of the year when we’re having more delivered (although this year, I did quite a bit of my shopping in person).
Unfortunately, the festive start in Disneyland and the relaxing few weeks of work turned into a ball of stress on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is normally my favorite day. We keep the day pretty relaxed, have our traditional Swiss fondue dinner, open the traditional present of Christmas PJs (or something similar, like slippers) and watch a movie. It’s been our little tradition for a while. This year, a little before we’d start to prep dinner, I got a message from a friend I’d seen the day before that she just tested positive for Covid. (We’re all vaccinated and boosted). This news was absolutely devastating for me because even if I didn’t catch Covid—spoiler, I did—there was no way to know either way before having to cancel all our plans. Simon and I had to immediately mask up and separate to different rooms of our apartment and remain this way throughout the holiday. I had to cancel my trip to see my family, which meant missing Christmas for the second year in a row (and I missed seeing snow, something I was really looking forward to). It felt like Christmas, my favorite time of year, was suddenly ruined.
Let me tell you, I’ve never felt so much FOMO in my life as I did seeing everyone else get to be with family on social media. Simon and I did our absolute best to keep our traditions going and celebrate while taking precautions to keep him from getting sick. After we initially tested negative, we both later ended up positive for Covid with light, cold-like symptoms. It was still a huge bummer of a way to end the year but at least we had each other. I wavered a lot between trying to “look on the bright side” and feeling massively disappointed that Covid canceled another Christmas. I’m thankful for vaccines or getting sick with Covid at Christmas could have been a lot worse.
Next year, I hope to have a much more normal feeling holiday.
On to the Next Big Adventure
While our year may not have ended as we hoped, 2021 was still a pretty big year for us. We had a beautiful wedding, Simon got his citizenship, we’d finished some decorating goals for the apartment, we had our honeymoon, and relaunched the blog! The past year ended up being the year for getting engaged and settling into married life—I’m hoping 2022 will be just as, or even more, exciting. First, and foremost, we’re planning a trip to southern France to visit Simon’s family (providing it’s safe to travel). This is one of the more important things we hope to do this year as it’s been way too long since Simon has been able to go home. I look forward to sharing our travels with everyone!
We are also officially on the hunt for a house. We love the apartment we currently call our home. It fits our style well and will always be our first home together. I would truly love to have something with a similar look and feel inside, just in house form. Because we like our place, we aren’t in the biggest hurry to buy a house. Instead, the plan is to keep an eye out and be ready to jump on a place if we find something that feels right. I can’t wait to take on the project of decorating our first house.
Simon isn’t big on creating resolutions, but I personally have a few things I’d like to accomplish this year:
Update the blog (and Instagram), consistently, and share more of our original recipes. Let me know below if there’s anything you’d like me to cook or bake on the blog.
Get a new car. I love our car. Driving a Mini Cooper is fantastic. It was my dream car; however, our current Mini is getting older. We haven’t 100% settled on what car we will get next. It might be a new Mini Cooper or something else, but I’ll share more about our considerations and where we land.
I’d like to read a minimum of 50 books. This is a challenge I set every year, regardless of if I accomplished it before. Most years I do, 2021 I came up a bit short. If you’re interested in knowing more, I share more about what I’m reading over on our Instagram.
Establish a habit of putting my clothes away immediately and better organize my closet. Simon and I keep a pretty tidy house. We’re naturally both tidy people and we don’t currently have kids, dogs, or anyone else around contributing to a mess. Our place is also only 950 square feet, so there is only so much room to make a mess regardless. One thing I’m always in aww of when it comes to my husband, is his ability to put laundry away as soon as it’s ready. I’m not as accomplished in this area. I let my clothes sit on the drying rack longer than needed and have a habit of leaving a pile of sweaters on the bench at the foot of our bed. This is something I’m actively working on changing. I started the processing of establishing a habit of putting clothes away every day a few months back and am pretty proud of how much better I’m doing. I intend to stick with it as best I can through the coming year. There is a slight problem that I own more clothes than fit into my tiny closet. I own a large collection of sweaters that I wear, practically year-round. So I’m tasking myself with either finding a better storage solution, decreasing my collection, or both!
I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season! I can’t wait to share everything we have planned for the new year, and of course, the adventures that just happen along the way. Oh, and if you’re into making goals for the new year like I am, I’d love to hear what you’re hoping to accomplish in 2022. Share them below and we can all work towards our goals together.