life's adventures lately

popping in quick to share a bit of life lately! aside from my trip to Jiufen last week and still sorting through my thousands of New Zealand travel photos, here are 5 things that have been going on around these parts:

preparing for singapore

somehow this trip snuck up on me, and it's only a week away! Husband and I will be spending Christmas [and a few days extra] eating and relaxing in Singapore. this is the first Christmas since 2011 that he won't have to work, so we wanted to do something special. I'm really excited to get some sun, explore, and of course EAT.

decorating the house

this year we went to IKEA and purchased an upgrade from the disco dinosaur tree. [don't worry, we just put that one upstairs this year.] since it's become a bit of a tradition around here to share pictures of my tree, you can expect that post next week. also I feel it necessary to make the statement that I'm sure is cliche by now but: how the heck is Christmas only 10 days away?

battling sickness

I tend to avoid Facebook more often than not these days. but it seems like every time I popped in this past week it shared a "memory" of me posting about being sick, from just about every year since 2007. I suppose it's not surprising that this sickness thing is an annual tradition, because I've felt pretty crummy the past few days. hopefully I'll be on the mend by the time we leave for vacation.

cooking indian food

we've been taking cooking classes from another expat here in Taipei, and learning how to make vegetarian Indian cuisine. this has been both fun and delicious! I've already managed to make some tasty chana masala at home, as well as chai tea, and I'm hoping to tackle dal tarka this week. what I cook has changed dramatically since I moved abroad - thanks to increasing food allergies, unfamiliar shopping situations, and lack of kitchen equipment. so it's great to learn some recipes I know I can find ingredients for, and actually make and eat.

planning for the year ahead

though I think I'm skipping the annual "blog reader survey" this year I have been thinking a lot about where this space will go in 2016. I also might have maybe purchased some new fonts... which of course means a design tweak is likely on the horizon. this year - especially the second half - has been a bit of a struggle with the blog. so thanks for sticking around, and I hope to give you many more reasons to stay in the coming year.

what adventures have you been up to lately? do you have any holiday plans?