On the 22nd of December 2013, Gideon and I will celebrate our 1st year married. Where did the year go? Sometimes I think back on how stressful last year was juggling work, university and planning a wedding/honeymoon/life after wedding, and I seriously don't know how I came out alive.

On a happier note, to celebrate this wonderful occasion, Gideon and I will be travelling somewhere... but we don't know where yet. We're leaning towards Hawaii and I hope we can achieve this! To supplement, I thought I'd do a 'Firsts' blog post, detailing memories of our first year married. Gideon is helping too! He doesn't get to touch my blog but I guess i'll let him contribute too, seeing as though he's part of this marriage as well. So enjoy a collection of our most precious moments and some photos through our relationship too. Watch us age! haha.

First Meeting

Clarissa: I remember seeing Gideon at Young Single Adult firesides (church gatherings for 18-30 year olds on Sunday evenings) at Villawood chapel. He was always surrounded by girls and even though I didn't know him, it really annoyed me that everyone was flocking to this tall and skinny boy from Newcastle. I didn't like the way he dressed, or his black hair (he dyed it, eeeeek), and I didn't like how girls seemed to lose their minds when he would talk. Seriously. Anyways, one night, whilst surrounded by girls, Gideon was detailing that his hair was so thick and strong because of the black hair dye. To his dismay I replied with, "it's not the hair dye that's making your hair LOOK thick, it's the fact that the hair colour transferred to your scalp". So mean, but I had to knock this boy off of his high horse somehow, even if I sounded like a mega bitch, haha.

Gideon:I think Clarissa made the story a little more colourful than it really was. I don't remember ever being surrounded by girls. But yes, I did dye my hair in an attempt to  to cover my thinning hair. 

I remember the first time I saw Clarissa was when she was hosting a YSA film festival, she walked on stage full of attitude and I thought she was the coolest/hottest girl I'd ever seen, and I remember thinking to myself "I'm going to marry that girl."

First Date

Clarissa: This was also a very awkward encounter with Gideon. I had never dated a member of the Church before so I wasn't really too date savvy and I was super awkward. I didn't talk much and everything I did say was pretty much negative. We had planned to go on a double date with some friends because I wasn't really allowed to single date boys yet, even though I was 18. I only agreed because it was a double date and a long time friend was part of the other couple. We went to Bondi beach and played some 'getting to know you' games, and of course, Gideon and I won. We used to talk on the phone and text a lot and I guess we really knew each other, but I hadn't really accepted it yet. He tried to put his arm around me and I stealthily avoided all contact. Then on the way home we sang Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap together and it was really fun. We hugged goodnight and that was that.

Gideon: This was awkward indeed. I'd actually asked Clarissa out four times previously, and each time she'd said no. We are the prefect example that persistence pays off. So when she actually DID decide to go on a date I decided not to make any fast moves. 

She found ways to dodge my hand and arm. So I'd have to be more assertive next time. 

First Kiss

Clarissa: Our first kiss was memorable. We were at YSA convention in Brisbane and we were pretty much inseparable. I still thought he was too skinny for my liking but he smelt so good, which was a big factor of attractiveness in my books. On the first night of convention there was a New Years dance where we all partied in 2010. I met Gideon in the big room and we hung out and danced all night. When it was nearly 12:00, Gideon lured me up to some seats, I knew where he was going with this. He was so smooth in asking me for some Chapstick and I happily obliged. At around 11:55 he asked me to be his 'girl' and I said sure! We waited until 11:59 and counted down the New Year. At 12:00 we kissed and it felt as though time stopped. It was the best kiss I have ever received.  

Gideon: See! Didn't I say I would be more assertive? So the New Years day I planned to 'confront' Clarissa and find out if I really had a chance with her or not. So I asked her if she would be my girl just before midnight. We kissed right on the turn of the New Year which was magical, although Clarissa sometimes tells me it was pretty average. I'm pretty sure she's just teasing me. 

First 'I Love You'

Clarissa: A little bit into our relationship we had some turbulent times and we did break up. Going through this heart ache was really hard because Gideon was so cool and he was easily my best friend. We would laugh, joke and converse about anything and everything. Being with him was so easy, unless it was those times that it was just so hard. There were many instances where our relationship was tested, even in marriage there are times, but it's how you recover from them that really defines the relationship and I think that is why I fell in love with him. We were sitting in his car during a rainstorm, talking with the occasional kiss. We looked into each other's eyes and I knew I had to tell him right there and then. And so I did. I told him I loved him and he looked as though he had just won the lottery. He replied quickly after saying that he had been in love with me the moment he met me. It was a very lovely moment, filled with happiness with the background noise of the pitter patter of rain. We still have car dates in the rain. They're our favourite.

Gideon:I was very ready to be the first to say 'I Love You.' But I was trying to find the right time. I didn't want to scare her away by jumping straight to the "L" word! 

But she beat me to it, and I couldn't get the smile off my face :D to this day it's one of my happiest memories.

First Valentine's Day

Clarissa: Gideon is such a generous man and he always knows how to spoil me, no matter the occasion, even when there is no occasion, he spoils me. On our first Valentine's Day he went above and beyond. He bought me a box of long stemmed roses and filled the box with Lindt chocolates. Each Lindt represented a day of our relationship. Safe to say we ate those chocolates extremely fast, haha.

Gideon: What can I say? I'm pretty smooth. 

Clarissa is really sweet too! I wasn't expecting anything in return, but she actually went all out and bought me a shirt and a tie that I still wear now. I thought valentines day was just about giving the girl flowers.

The Proposal

Clarissa: I had been pestering Gideon about the proposal for about 3 months, wondering when it would be our turn. All of our friends were getting engaged, even friends whose meeting, relationship, engagement and marriage spanned the length of our relationship! I was feeling a little left out. When I came to the realisation that it probably wasn't going to happen any time soon, Gideon took me out on a Friday night to the Guylian Cafe in The Rocks for some dessert. After that we drove to my favourite look out in North Sydney, where you can see the entire view of the harbour. He told me to go take a photo and I noticed he was being sneaky. I shook it off until I turned around and there he was on on knee presenting me with cupcakes saying, 'Will You Marry Me' and a Tiffany box. My dream come true! After about 15 mins of asking if Gideon was serious, I said Yes! and we hugged and kissed and it was perfect.

Gideon: This took a lot of preparation. But the cupcake icing matched the tiffany ring box perfectly. I still can't believe she didn't see the proposal coming. When she turned around at the lookout and saw me on my knee, she nearly cried and kept asking 'are you serious?' About 6 times. So I re-iterated 'yes, will you marry me?' And she said yes. The ring was a perfect fit and everything went as planned :)

The Wedding

Clarissa: We had been looking forward to our wedding day for 18 months and even though we planned everything to the T, a lot of things happened to make it less than perfect, but we ignore those parts and only focus on the happy moments of the day. I married Gideon in the Sydney Australia Temple on the 22nd of December 2012 at 11am. When I was opposite him at the alter I couldn't believe that it was really our time. We had worked and fought so long to be there, overcoming obstacles and growing in love more and more each day. I'm not going to lie, I did nearly faint but I composed myself, haha. When we said 'Yes' to accepting each other for time and all eternity in front of our entire families, I felt nothing but joy. Secretly I wished that it was only us two in that room because I don't like crowds and I hate showing affection in front of people, especially family. We kissed, well Gideon pulled me in for a kiss, and we thanked our family for witnessing this moment in our lives. After we got changed, I got to meet Gideon for the first time as my husband and it was the best part of the day. I was in my white dress and he was in his suit and we couldn't believe it. It was amazing and a moment I will cherish in my heart forever. After the stress of the entire wedding day, and all the negative things that has happened, we were exhausted. We ate the best food at The Tea Room at our reception and danced the night away. After a change, we skipped to the Hilton and fell straight to sleep. Our flight for Korea was leaving at 6 in the morning to the most awesome honeymoon ever! Our wedding day wasn't the happiest day of my life, but I had the best moment of my entire life when I walked out and met my husband, waiting for me.

Gideon: I'll never forget our wedding. Clarissa looked like an Angel in her wedding dress and I am so grateful we were sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. 

3 long years of waiting was definitely worth it. Since I first met her I wanted to marry Clarissa and we will be together forever. 

First Year Of Marriage

Clarissa: To say this year has been hard is an understatement. A lot of negative things have happened to us, and we're been in some pretty dark places, but the one thing that brings us back out into the light is our constant optimism toward the future. We've been able to go on weekly dates and go out to dinner, concerts and different events almost monthly & I think that's what has kept this year lively. I'm so glad we have been able to come out of the darkness and fall in love over and over again. I've loved this year, more than i've hated it, & i'm so happy that i had my wonderful and handsome husband by my side. 

Gideon: The first year of marriage has been both fun and tough. We promised to make marriage fun and not to listen to anyone's opinions. So many people had told us how marriage makes life boring, and takes away romance. But Clarissa and I promised each other to make it interesting. So in this first year we've made sure we have a date night each week, we've been to about 4 concerts with one more left at the Opera House in December. We've been on a Valentines Day holiday to the blue mountains and done many more fun things. Unfortunately the apartment we were renting had a leak so we had to leave our first married home quite early. 

We've had stress with uni and trying to get into our dream jobs, but aside from all the ups and downs the best part is that no matter how hard a day is I get to come home to my best friend. 

I loved writing this and reliving these memories that I cherish in my heart. I'm sure Gideon would feel the same way!

Here's to our first year, and an eternity more to come!

-C & G.

New York; Love at First Sight.

Continuing on this Honeymoon series, i'd like to recount the experiences Gideon and I had throughout our stay in The Big Apple from Monday the 24th of Dec (Christmas eve) and the 25th (Christmas day).

Monday 24th December

We landed in the morning, after a less than perfect flight from Korea. Flying over New York was amazing... I immediately recognised sights I had seen in movies (mostly gangster movies set in the projects). Regardless, the view was awesome.

From the beginning we loved America, customs were friendly, everyone had American accents (obviously, but it was still mind blowing) (mainly to Clarissa {me} because I have a thing about them... I don't know).

Our driver, Juan, was Puerto Rican and was full of advice, some of which was helpful and some was not. He kept talking about movies that feature places in New York. Many of which were Men In Black, Salt and some other Angelina Jolie movies I didn't know about. 

We drove past one too many graveyards through Queens and then finally saw the beautiful city skyline. After checking in to The Beacon we went to a 'grocery store' which was weird. We learnt then and there how impatient New Yorkers are. We then became New Yorkers.

Everyone pushed and shoved, and they would scoff if you looked at something too long. The best time to go food shopping was after 10pm when the masses left to huddle near their heaters, G would venture off and get me Doritos and chocolate. 

We tasted our first New York Pizza Slice from John's on 68th and Broadway. This actually turned out to be our favourite Pizza joint. Well... every pizza joint had good pizza. Seriously, $3 slices... who could resist a pizza diet?

Seeing as though I didn't respond well to the jetlag, I managed to pass out by about 4pm. I woke up to Gideon presenting me with a christmas present (which I couldn't open until 12am).

G told me that he went walking to see the neighbouring streets, to get a feel for the area and to look for a christmas present. When he got back we both fell asleep again and woke up at around 10pm.

In spanish culture, we usually celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve where we eat a wonderful dinner and bring in christmas much like the rest of the world brings in the New Year. Well, because it was just Gideon and I celebrating our 1st Christmas together, we thought we'd bring it in surrounded by food on our hotel bed and we counted down Christmas with glasses of sparking apple cider. 

And being the awesome husband that he is, he surprised me with the Urban Decay Naked Palette (an eye shadow palette I had been wishing for since it came out).

The only 2 shots I got that day: The view from our window & rockin' out on West 77th street and Broadway!

Tuesday 25th December

Christmas Day!

We actually woke up really early and went for a walk. We found the Museum of Natural History (which was ridiculously close to our hotel) I couldn't stop making Night at the Museum references, naturally. We kept walking and we walked over to Central Park and had a Hot dog YUUUUM. We Eeeeep'd over the squirrels which most New Yorkers probably think are pests BUT THEY WERE SOOOO CUTE! 

We spent about an hour walking through Central park taking photos and taking it all in. The whole place is breathtaking. Each little section of the park is like a different landscape, like you've stepped into a different country with every corner you turn. We had a lovely time just strolling and people watching.

We managed to exit the park onto fifth avenue (I was very excited). The view of the city and the buildings was also amazing, and we were lucky that there weren't many people around to take away from the amazing-ness.

As we walked, we found the Apple Store AKA Gideon's mecca. We went downstairs (the shop is underground!) and had a look around. This is where the crowds were hiding. There was SOOOO many people, my goodness. I started to get a bit claustrophobic to which Gideon responded with, "LET'S BUY AN iPAD" so we did. Just because... Merry Christmas to us! 


We left the Apple Store and continued to walk, and walk, and walk... We walked past Tiffany & co. (my engagement ring's birthplace) where we looked at the AMAZING window displays. We found St Bartholomew's cathedral which was beautiful. We walked inside, admired the ceiling mosaics, and sat through some of the Christmas Day service which was also lovely.

We managed to leave before anyone else, especially other tourists (we tried to blend in with the locals as much as possible). We walked from 5th avenue to Park Avenue and then found Time Square. TIME SQUARE. We were in awe at the sight. From the high rise buildings to the colourful advertisements, we had never experienced anything larger than life like this. Colours, people, shopping... everything. A city dweller's heaven. 

We actually spent alot of time there, until it was packed with people (tourists, heh). We spent money, took in the atmosphere and got friendly with some locals. Even a photographer for the New York Post took photos of us for his article in the next day's paper! While we were standing on the red steps I managed to belt out my own rendition of Empire State of Mind... Alicia Keys & Jay-Z eat your heart out!

We trekked it back to the hotel, had a breather then went to a comedy show. It was really funny! And an African American couple totally mistook us for New Yorkers! It was awesome! After some good laughs and over priced soft drink, we went back to the hotel and got some well deserved sleep.

The New York bug had definitely bitten us.

This is my favourite photo from the entire trip (New Yorkers are SOoOoo friendly)

Various photos from the day; Central Park, Gideon, Myself, Tiffany & co. window displays, Time Square, Naked Cowboy... etc.

-C.

Honeymoon; Sydney-Korea

Gideon and I (as you may know) recently got married & ventured off on the best honeymoon EVER! Syd-Korea-NY-Korea-Syd. The best 2 weeks of our lives.

So, as a little keepsake for ourselves (and anyone else who is interested) we just wanted to document everything we did on those splendid & blissful days together.

Here goes nothing...

Sunday 23rd December

We landed in Korea and the 10 hour flight from Sydney & took a real toll on our energy. Even though we had only been up for half of a day, it was night time by the time we landed AND IT WAS ALSO WINTER! Crazy because we left Sydney in Summer. There was also snow on the ground and it made me SO excited.

It took almost an hour of crazy Korean bus-driving to get to the Royal Hotel of Seoul. It was Freeeeezing. It was -16 degrees. After running back to the bus to check for a lost phone, we checked into the hotel and felt very sick.

But we didn't want to go straight to bed because it's not everyday you go to Korea for free (the airline payed for our stop over & hotel, sweeeet). So at 11:30 at night we put on our warmest clothing and went out and ventured into the Korean night.

It turned out that all of the shops were open. The streets were full of people, lights, snow and weird people crawling on the floor on a skateboard with trailing boom-box and a bag over their feet WTF (no seriously, we stared at this guy for a solid 10 minutes wondering what the heck he was doing... but i'm not going to judge what somebody finds fun. Seriously, though... what the heck).

The weirdest feeling was that instead of us looking at the 1 Korean in the crowd, 100's of Koreans were looking at us, the 2 white people in the crowd. We stood out, but in a good way. Aside from that, the city was amazing; there were lights everywhere! It was 12am and it felt like it was 4pm. The city of Seoul thrives at night.

We found a cafe like Starbucks and ordered a $5500 Hot Chocolate to warm us up (it wasn't really that expensive, Gideon just likes to make jokes). We could hardly talk, as if our lips froze shut, so the hot choc warmed our every fibre and we were able to trek on.

We found a cute make-up store on a corner called Etude House and Clarissa went cray cray. Imagine the most bubblegum pink, girly, amazing thing and multiply it by 10000000 & that's Etude House. We spent about 80,000 Won there, I couldn't resist IT WAS SO CUTE. There was an Etude house on every corner so it must've been popular. They loved us there because we were foreign and gave us 3 free things. I have a feeling they felt sorry for us because we couldn't understand anything they were saying, most of the time we communicated with hand signals & somehow we managed to work out some weird English-Korean sign language.

 




Etude house-- amazing! Korean sky scrapers-- Gideon with locals -- Myself in an alley way.


We got back to the hotel and tried to sleep... TRIED. Flying and the cold really took it's toll. We woke up dead tired, and somehow made it back to the airport. Went through the whole airport experience and got on the flight. This flight SUCKED. Some guy in front of me reclined the whole trip ALL 13 HOURS. 

We were also stuck next to a smelly Chinese woman who kept farting.

But hey, the food was good.

Next up, New York; love at first sight.

-C