24

I tend to forget how old I am. Each year seems to go by so quick these days that I've found myself telling people that for example I am 22, when really I am 23. And well, since it was my birthday this last Saturday, I know for sure that I am 24 now. But ask me again in a few months and I'll be like "I'm 23, oh wait, what year is it? Ah! No, actually I'm 24".

One of my best birthdays was the year I turned 20 while I was on exchange in Hong Kong. I invited my closest friends to our favorite Mexican place for dinner and that was it. I didn't have a big party or anything, but it was just super special because I had made some amazing friends in a few short months and we were living in a really awesome city having the best time together.

This year definitely makes the list of best birthdays. I was sick half of last week but by Friday morning I was feeling a lot better and baked the whole day to prepare for a cozy little party. I invited some friends I've made through the boyfriend and one of my good friends from my master's program came as well.  It wasn't very many people but it was just super nice and hyggeligt. I decorated with some white paper roses and some white crepe paper garlands. For the party I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate peppermint frosting (substitute peppermint extract for vanilla extract from this recipe), chocolate chunk cookies, lemon almond meringues, and some danish snowballs. The boyfriend and I set up a little bar in the kitchen for people to mix their own mojitos and gin tonics or whatever they could come up with what we had on hand. All our friends were super thoughtful as well and got me some really wonderful gifts. I now have many (many, many!) cupcake liners, a cupcake/dessert stand, some delicious hot chocolate sticks, and some new perfume. I really liked having only a handful of guests as then everyone could talk to one another within the group instead of having 3 or 4 different groups split up in different parts of the apartment. And as not all of the guests are friends with each other, it was nice to have everyone get to know one another.

My birthday was on Saturday, December 1st. And most of the day was just spent with the boyfriend. It was a super relaxing day with just the two of us. First, he surprised me with a new camera for my birthday present. He knew that my old Lumix had a few scratches on the lenses which were really noticeable on some of the pictures I took so he got me a new Canon Ixus! He also wrapped my present in some of my favorite paper from Bungalow. He's pretty wonderful. And then on Saturday morning, I thought it would be really nice to go to the kurbad/spa at the local swimming pool. As I was still coughing and had a sore throat and what not, I thought going to the steam room would help with my congestion. We spent a few hours at the kurbad and used everything from the dead sea pool to the eucalyptus steam room to their winter sun lamps. We went out for lunch after the pool and then spent the afternoon doing some painting at the ceramic studio in our area. We were working on some Christmas presents so I don't think I can put up any pictures of that yet! The boyfriend's work was throwing a big party later that night so we had sushi take out for dinner and spent the early part of the evening getting ready for the party. The boyfriend's work party was held mostly for their 10 year birthday but also for Christmas. Some of Denmark's socialites were there as well and I got to see the former princess, now the Countess, again for the second time in the last few weeks (she was also at the boyfriend's graduation ceremony a few weeks ago. I want to speak Danish like her one day!). It was a great party and it was a lot of fun to dress up and go out in the city.

I had a really awesome birthday weekend and I'm really looking forward to this year of being 24! A big, big, big thank you to my friends all around the world who thought of me on my birthday! The messages, cards, and presents from everyone is so incredibly sweet and reminds me of how great and amazing my friends are!