Holiday season kicked in!

There's no way around it anymore: in shops slowly appear the first signs of Christmas lights and jingle bells, people wandering around stores to see what to put on their wish lists or to buy as a Christmas gift for their loved ones and yes, girls and women around the globe are looking at something to wear, because 'we can't wear what we bought last year'.
It's official: Holiday season kicked in and it kicked hard, especially for our family...
Almost two weeks ago now The Baseballs' Good Ol' Christmas was released and of course mom and I already got our copy and yes, yes, yes, the signed copy! :)

The Baseballs' Good Ol' Christmas

So at our place there's no way around it anymore, we can't stop singing Christmas carols (even my brother sings them!!!)!
Anyway I tried to ban the Christmas songs for as long as possible, but let's face it when it's The Baseballs singing them, I have to cave-in (voluntarily of course!)...

Last week I started looking for Christmas gifts myself. I wanted to buy mum a vintage sewing box, so I started searching the net for the good old stuff. I think it must've been no longer than 10 minutes that I was clicking and closing and clicking and closing dozens of advertisements until I found something I wasn't quite looking for... I encountered the one thing my mum always wanted to have... Retro, yes, vintage, of course, but not a sewing box... Not a sewing box, no, bigger, a lot bigger... Something I knew my mum was going to be sooo happy with...
Since I didn't know for sure if I should ask the lady that posted the ad if it was still available, I called my brother. He was at home so I knew he could go to the computer to look at it and give me some advise. I was stumbled with my find, I needed some confirmation that it was really there and that it was really what mum always dreamed of.
As I called up my brother he said mum was at the computer, but that he would happily ask her to leave for a moment. ;) I hung up and we agreed that he would e-mail me his reply... It seemed like ages before he replied. Why did it take so long???
Then finally I got a text (not an e-mail, he tried to call me 3 times, telephone was on silent, so here you go that's what made it seem like ages...) 'Will she really sell at that price?'. I told him I thought so and that I would send her a mail to ask if it was still available and if she would sell it to us for 50 euros.
Her reply was yes and yes. YES, we had what we always wanted to buy her, but couldn't afford...

I already told you it was bigger than a sewing box, a lot bigger.
Yesterday we could pick it up at the lady's place in Rotselaar. She had it from an aunt of her's and now she had to get rid of it because she moved to a smaller apartment. If no-one bought it, it would've ended up in the 'Kringloopwinkel', that a Belgian society that buys furniture and all kinds of stuff at really low prices and then puts them up, if necessary, and resells them at low prices.
On the way back home my brother and I decided to give it to mum right away and not wait until Christmas, because we didn't know where we could hide it until then.
We stopped at a supermarket to by some wrapping paper and then we went home, a little bit nervous, but so happy we bought it.

Back home we told mum to stay in the kitchen until we said it was 'safe' to come out.
We wrapped our gift in fleece blankets and wrapping paper (the two rolls we bought weren't sufficient :s). Then it was time to bring mum to the stairway and let her unwrap the gift...
She didn't know what it was at first, but when the wrapping paper got off, I saw she cried tears of joy...
She couldn't believe what we bought, she thought we were the best kids in the world (she didn't say it, but I could tell from the look upon her face ;) ).
Now of course you still don't know what we bought... :)
Sometimes pictures tell more than words, so here are the picture of the 1920's Singer Sphinx:

1920's Singer Sphinx

1920's Singer Sphinx

1920's Singer Sphinx

1920's Singer Sphinx

1920's Singer Sphinx

1920's Singer Sphinx

1920's Singer Sphinx

1920's Singer Sphinx

So with Christmas carols all around, one gift given and trees losing all their leafs, we could definitely say Holiday season is there and we are ready for it!
'Now is it gonna be a bag of love or just some knick-knack things?'

Source: You Tube: The Baseballs, Ring Ring, 2012 - www.youtube.com

Race to the finish

Yes, the finish... The final race has begun. My masterthesis is completed and the last presentation was held yesterday. Now all that's left to do is handing in a bunch of essays and of course the 'masterpiece'.
Next week is my last week EVER at school. I've got mixed feelings about it though. At one side I'm happy to be 'released' from all the school work, but on the other hand I'm sad I'm not going to see my friends every day. I'll miss them. Everyone of us is going in a completely different direction, plus we don't live near to each other. We have to make a deal about seeing each other every once in a while. Each month might be an impossible thing to do, but once every three or four months, I hope, must be doable.

Anyway, this is what my schedule looks like for the next few weeks:
May 22: evaluation of my internship at the Port Authority in Antwerp... :s Nervous!!!
May 24: handing in a paper on modality in the internal communication of BASF
               handing in my internship report
June 1: handing in a paper on forms of address in a Dutch series called 'Flikken Maastricht' (Cops Maastricht) and in a Belgian series called 'Flikken' (Cops Ghent).
June 4: handing in my masterthesis on appraisal in the communication of the new museum, MAS, in Antwerp and in press articles related to the opening of the museum.
June 5: leaving for the West Coast! My plane is headed for LA!!!!!! And then we'll discover the magic at the West Coast of the US!
June 20: returning to bloody old Belgium... :(
June 21: I'll celebrate my 23rd birthday on the plane as we land in Belgium on June 21 at 8 o'clock! I've never celebrated my birthday on a plane before, so that will be a nice experience! :)
June 28 or 29: defense of my masterthesis
July 6: the final verdict... Will I be graduating that day or will I not???? That is the question...

If I graduate I'll probably start working at Thomas Cook. I hope so... :) :)

Eline - me - Mayke - Anouk - Kathleen

This is a song Madilyn Bailey wrote for her graduation from High School, but I think it's really relevant to what we feel too. So my dear friends, while I was listening to this song I thought about how we met and how we grew up together. We had a great time I think. :) We'll be starting our 'new' lives pretty soon now, but we will always have our memories of the times we spent together. I know it sounds really cheesy, but it's true, right!? :)