Want a peek into the old days?  Like so far back that Martin and I actually called ourselves newlyweds?

We lived in this horrible married student complex in a tiny one-bedroom apartment.  Yes – smaller than our home in Berlin!  We had to turn off the TV and hang up the phone whenever our heater turned on because it was so insanely loud.  The smoke alarm went off when we opened the oven.  Let’s not even get into the noises we heard, shall we?  It was what Germans call “one of those American cardboard houses”.  After tearing down the solid drywall walls in Berlin, I could see why.

Anyway.  I tried to make the place a little festive with a dollar store tree:

Now I also happened to have a little sister who did everything I did.  When I stepped left, she stepped left.  When I ordered a blue goo ice cream after swimming lessons in elementary school, she ordered blue goo.  We were the kind of sisters that no one could remember: now which of you is Katie?

You’ll never guess where she lives now.  (She swears it’s by chance.)  She and her new husband (who is SO like Martin, by the way) live The Next Door Over.  They also have startlingly familiar Christmas decor for their first Christmas:

Little sister girl: you’re too awesome.

(Images by Katie for Making This Home)