Please vote!

In about 3 months and counting, Aaron and I will no longer have a paycheck to rely on and will quite possibly end up starving photographers! (Cross your fingers and PRAY that doesn't happen!)  But, just in case, I've entered 6 of our travel photos into a little photo contest on the Smarter Travel Website called "Your Best Travel Photo of 2012"!

We actually have a decent chance of winning because we won an honorable mention for 2 of our photos in last years contest!  So, please help us win the big prize this year - roundtrip airfare for two with a value of up to $2,500 from Vayama!  Honorable mentions will win between $25 and $250! Hey, every dollar counts when you're trying to start a business! 

I entered the following 6 photos into the contest. Vote by clicking on any/all of these photos (which will take you to the Smarter Travel website) and click on the "5 stars" underneath the pic!  Vote once a day and I'll love you forever!

Nampodong's Christmas Extravaganza!

Last night, Jeff, Aaron, Ashley, Adam, Grace and I all met up in Nampodong for dinner at our favorite cheese bi bim bap restaurant, a quick stop at Starbucks, and a nice stroll down Gwangbok-ro to see the Christmas lights!  

I always love Christmas time in Nampodong!  It seems like the only place in Busan that comes close to mimicking the outlandish Christmas decorating that happens in America!  It definitely has it's own little Korean flare, but I love it none the less!

Ashley's been collecting Starbucks stickers on her Starbucks sticker card all winter and finally collected her 17th and final sticker to get her yearly Starbucks planner!  Aaron and I gave her our 2 stickers tonight, so we technically own 2/17th's of it!  Congratulations Ash!

After we all had our warm coffee's in hand, we made our way over to the main street where all of the festivities were going on!  Tonight's entertainment was a darling little kids choir!  We made it just in time to hear their very last song.  

Out of 8 pictures, this was the only one where these two weren't goofing off and looking ridiculous!

I knew if I kept snapping I'd get a decent one! :)

Koreans must love having their pictures drawn, because the whole street was lined with artists, 

sketching away!

Jeff and Grace!

There are Christmas trees lining the main street with these hand written Christmas wishes hung from the branches. I liked this one because it said, "I love father and mother" in English! 

Me and my love...

And for your entertainment, a more realistic photo of what we're really like!  :)

And this is what our kids would be like if we had some!  They'd always be goofing around like their dad and always appear overly excited and friendly like their mom!  Awesome, right?!   

How beautiful is my friend Grace!?

And how adorable are they?! 

We don't see this often in Korea, so when we do, we get extra excited and always throw some cash in the case to support their love of music!

 And I'll leave you with this amazing picture!  I snapped a couple photos of this little guy holding his cotton candy, when out of nowhere, this old Korean womanlkiterally stuck her face next to it and started licking the side of it!  It was quite possibly one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time!

 I couldn't have asked for a better way to end our weekend than with good friends, yummy coffee, and beautiful lights!  

"Merry Christmas".... from Nampodong!

Sneak Peak of Meagan and Dave

Aaron and I had a photo shoot with Meagan (originally from Texas) and Dave (originally from Perth) this afternoon at Beomeosa Temple, and there was actually a little bit of SNOW! The 4 of us romped through the snow, slid on the ice, and froze our little tushies off in the freezing temperatures, but it was all worth it, and all for the sake of beautiful photos like this one!

The full post will be up soon at Aaron Nicholas Photography, so be on the lookout!

I say tomAto, he says tomato!

During the afternoons at work, Aaron or I will always message the other asking, "What should we make for dinner tonight?"  Just like clockwork, the same conversation happened this afternoon and Aaron asked what I thought of this recipe for roasted tomato soup!  I obviously had absolutely no hesitation, especially since I'd never had tomato soup!  Yay for firsts!

Aaron got right to work on the tomatoes when he got home (while I visited a car rental place to see if we could rent a car for Aaron's birthday weekend next weekend. Sadly, they said no to me because I'm not Korean. Boooo!)  When I got home, the tomatoes were roasting in the oven...

... and Aaron had 2 glasses of cabernet tempranillo wine poured for each of us to drink while we cooked dinner together!

After pulling the tomatoes out of the oven, we poured them into our lil blender and pureed them for the soup! 

After they were pureed, we poured them into a pan and added thyme and red pepper flakes and let it simmer for 20 minutes while we played with Maverick!

Can you believe this fat cat?  As we were cooking, I looked down and Maverick was laying with his arms literally wrapped around his food bowl waiting for us to fill it for dinner time!  Such a fatty!!

After the soup was finished pureeing, we scooped it into our bowls!  Look at that delicious tomato yuminess!

Tomato soup is never complete without a side of bread to dip it in, right?!  Well, Aaron took it to a whole other level and whipped up gouda and mild cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it!  

I couldn't have thought of a better meal to cook up for the first snow day of the year!  

***Yep, you heard it right... It snowed today! :)

Getting creative during the freeze!

Korea's winter freeze has definitely set in and the days of hanging out outside after work have quickly fled! With the change in weather has come a change in entertainment around the Osteen abode!  Our shopping in the markets, hiking in the mountains and photo walks around the neighborhood have been replaced by nightly games of Jin Rummy

(which, as you can see, I sometime dominate) ...

... and Christmas movies!  We've begun a new tradition in our first year of marriage, to...

So far, it's been really fun, and who doesn't love having a Christmas movie on while they sit and play cards 

on their heated floor!?

Aaron has an unhealthy obsession with peanut M&M's, probably because they're few and far between in Korea, so when he sees them, he practically squeels!  So, when I found a giant bag of fun size peanut M&M's at our grocery store, I quickly swooped them up, hid them away in my apartment and slip one into Aaron's Christmas stocking once in a while!  I always do it right after he's done something extra nice, like washed all the dishes or cuddled with me during our movie!  Then when he finds the M&M's in his stocking, I tell him, "Oh, Santa must have seen it when you...." :)  He loves it, and sometimes will ask me if Santa saw it when he did something.  LOL

A couple nights ago, the weather had warmed up enough to not have to completely bundle up in 5 layers, so we took a little walk around the neighborhood. I'm going to miss living this close to the harbor.

and then over to dinner at CHAM!  What's new, right?!

Last Sunday afternoon, I met up with Gill and Sam for "Tea for Three" and Gill whipped out this stamped leather pin that says, "I make stuff" and told me that her and Sam found it at a cute little boutique shop in Nampo and had to buy it for me, since "I make stuff" described me to a T!  hahaha.  Now, it sits proudly on my Christmas tree!

So, speaking of making stuff... Aaron and I have been busy in the kitchen, almost every night, cooking dinner together!  This was part of our taco salad that we made on Tuesday night!  We even made tostada bowls by wrapping flour tortillas over our cereal bowls, dusting them with a little oil and baking them for a couple minutes!  To. die. for!

Then, on Monday night, we decided that we're going to send out a Christmas card to family and friends to celebrate our last Christmas in Korea!  So, I decided to make a little banner to hold in our photo!  This is just a little glimpse, but the whole things says, "Merry Christmas" in Korean (메리 크리스마스)!  The best part is that I used an old brown and gold tweed dress that I was going to give away for the triangles, and a nice pair of dark blue jeans that were too big for me for the lettering!  Custom, fun, and free!  Be looking in your mailbox soon!

Last night, A and I met up at a yummy Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, then had coffee at Angel in-us coffee shop, did some shopping in Lotte, and then headed over to DAISO to pick up 2 coffee mugs for a little Christmas date night art project!  We each decided to decorate a Christmas mug for each other!  

As you can see, Maverick was curious as always!

After designing and coloring our mugs with the permanent markers I brought with me from America, we threw them in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, and wala!  Now we've got ourselves 2 custom Christmas mugs, from each other, that we can use and reuse every year!  Can you guess whose is whose?! 

Yep, you guessed right!  Mine is the one that is a bit over decorated!  Can you blame me?  I love this kind of stuff and I only had 1 cup, so I had to take advantage of every square inch!

I'm usually partial to my own designs, lol, but I personally LLLLUUUVVVV Aaron's cup for me!  Simple, classy, and sweet, just like him!

Today is TEST DAY for elementary school's in Busan, so I've got the morning off, but just when I thought it was going to be the best day ever, I was asked to grade the tests!  SAD!  This weekend we're heading to a traditional Korean dance performance with Jestine and Bobby, then over to a Christmas dinner with Gill, Sam and Salome!  Then, Sunday we've got a photo shoot scheduled with Meagan and Dave from Ulsan! Should be a fun weekend full of friends and entertainment, and maybe, just maybe, some snow!!