Outside my window…It’s dark and cloudy.  They are saying that we may get some snow tonight with the cold front moving through.

I am thinking… about finally getting all of the Christmas decorations put away this weekend.

I am thankful…that my back is feeling better.  A couple of days ago I pulled the muscle in my back and yesterday I was in so much pain, I didn’t want to move.

From the learning rooms…(if this applies) – nothing

In the kitchen…it’s clean.  Sort of.

I am wearing…pajamas

I am creating…a list of things to organize

I am going…to go to bed in a few minutes

I am wondering…if I will be able to get my hall closet organized this weekend.  Hopefully my back will not flare back up.

I am reading…The Illuminati (facts and fiction)

I am hoping…that I am able to fall asleep soon.

I am looking forward to…spending the weekend with my brother and nephew

I am hearing…Mark Dice’s live feed discussing the federal reserve.

Around the house…it’s quiet.

I am pondering…how nice of a Christmas we had.

One of my favorite things…Sarah Jessica Parker’s NYC perfume.   What an amazing smell!

A few plans for the rest of the week: cleaning, laundry and organizing my hall closet.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing: A picture of Ashton many years ago enjoying his first slice of watermelon.  I think he was 3 in this picture.

Each year I try to make a list of projects that I would like to complete that year.   Here is what I have so far:

• painting – mud room/ laundry room – living room – hallway – bedrooms
• garage cleaned out
• basement organized
• new counters and sink in kitchen
• flower garden around deck
• branch pile chipped or burned
• finish garage and basement wiring

That pretty much sums it up.  I don’t want to try to get everything done and kill ourselves doing it.  It also appears that we are going to need to have a new roof put on the house.  *sigh*

My new goal is to get organized.  Every week I plan on tackling a project.  I will take before and after photos to share my accomplishments.

Just to warn you, this will be a long post with a fair amount of pictures.   Dave’s parents didn’t arrive Friday but instead arrived Saturday.  His mom had to have an emergency procedure done on her toe on the day they were scheduled to leave to come up here.  No biggie, I was actually grateful, it gave me an extra day to get settled in.  The day they arrived the house was so cozy. I wish I had taken pictures.  We had candles lit, the fire place going and cookies baking in the oven.  It smelled like Christmas.  The following Monday we went to Valley View Farms, it’s been a tradition of ours to go every year for our new ornament.  This year, we bought a couple that you can see in the post below.   Dave’s mom asked me to hold off on baking sugar cookies because she wanted to help.  The day before Christmas eve we were spending all day baking sugar cookies. It was so much fun!  That evening there was a knock on the door and it was Dave’s best friend.  He bought us a BEAUTIFUL pellet stove for Christmas! I was absolutely blown away by his generosity.  I couldn’t stop thanking him.  He was like, “Kim it’s no big deal.”  How is that not a big deal? It’s a huge deal!  We wanted to try to get the pellet stove installed before Christmas so we could enjoy it.  So Dave brought out the ladder and attempted to get on the roof to install the liner down the chimney but he said he just couldn’t do it.  He said that age is catching up with him and his knees started knocking.  Poor guy!  So Christmas eve the entire house had candles burning in every room and we had our traditional roast beef dinner with roasted carrots and potatoes.  Christmas morning, for whatever reason, Dave insists that we eat breakfast first and then open gifts.  So I made the traditional polish dumpling breakfast (Pierogis) which I skip and then we opened our gifts.  Everyone had a great Christmas.  Dave’s father said he couldn’t have had a better Christmas.  That just melted my heart.

New Years Eve was a lot of fun but it wasn’t the same.  Normally my brother and nephews are with us but my brother fell ill with the flu and couldn’t join us.  New Years dinner, I normally do not make a huge meal since we do so much on New Years Eve but this  year I wanted to give Dave’s parents Thanksgiving dinner since they do not get to have it.  Yummy!  We celebrated Dave’s 44th birthday on Jan. 5th!   Which also happened to be the same day that the guy came to install our pellet stove.  It only took him an hour to install it but it took all day to figure out why it wouldn’t light. lol  Dave consulted with a friend who knows all about these things and it turned out that the air hose was disconnected from the air pump causing not enough air to get to the ignition to light the pellets or something like that. lol   That evening Dave’s parents treated all to dinner.  We went to our favorite local dive and had one of the best crabcakes ever.  My mouth is still watering!  We got home and Dave found the email from his friend and fixed the pellet stove.   That evening we were enjoying the amazing heat that came from that bad boy. lol

Still celebrating Dave’s birthday, Friday I treated everyone to lunch at Famous Dave’s.   Yummy!  Great food with great prices.  It was like $50.00 for five people including the tip.  Then we did some shopping and came home played some games on the wii, played the board game, Scattergories, (so much fun if you haven’t played it) watched some movies and enjoyed the warmth from our pellet stove.

Saturday we enjoyed the last day with Dave’s parents but it was too warm to have the pellet stove going.  The weather this season has been beyond wacky.  One day it’s almost 70 degree’s and the next it’s in the 30′s.  Plus we have had no snow other than that freak October storm. Oh well, what can you do?  You can’t change the weather, so why complain about it, right?

Sunday Dave and I did some wiring for the pellet stove.   We wired up the thermostat so that we could just leave the stove on auto.

Which brings us up to date.  Basically this holiday season was a lot of fun even though we were missing some family members.  There will hopefully be next Christmas to make it up.  We played lots of games, had lots of food and had lots of laughs.

Today, my goal is to organize our bedroom.  My goal for 2012 is to try to get this household organized and to fix up the basement so I can move my office down there and get it out of our bedroom.  I’m not really using my computer too much these days plus I need the space for my treadmill. lol

Picture time!
The new 2011 Christmas ornament:

Baking Sugar Cookies:

Christmas Eve:

Christmas morning Porter, Simon and Sadie waiting to see what Santa brought them (Simon never sits still lol)

New Years Eve:

Our old Sadie girl enjoying her New Years (notice the very messy floor.  That confetti was a nightmare to get up but so worth it lol)

and of course our Porter (there was no way we could get Simon to hold still for a photo let alone place a hat on him)

Dave’s parents and their dog Beau (Don’t let his cute looks fool you.  He’s a mean nasty dog).

Dave’s birthday cake.  The girl at the bakery who lettered his cake was new.  It looks like a child wrote it but I thought it was cute and left it.

And last but certainly not least.  The Pellet stove.

Before:

After:

We bought this glaze that you apply to bricks, stone and concrete that will give them a wet look to apply to the stone on the fireplace.  We can’t use it until it warms up so we can put the dogs outside for a couple of hours.  It contains some really bad stuff in it and I don’t want Simon trying to lick it since he’s at the phase where he puts everything in his mouth.

Happy New Year! My in-laws are still in town but I have a lot of catching up to do.  If you happen to see this expect some new posts starting Monday!

We had a beautiful Christmas.  Though it were warm with no snow in sight it was still wonderful.   Everyone got lots of amazing gifts and I will take pictures of mine to share.   My lack of blogging updates are from Dave’s family still being with us and my family about to join us.  So I will be back into the full swing of things once the family is back to normal.

I thought I would take a walk down 2011 memory lane and bring you along with me.

• Winter of 2011 brought us snow storms and ice storms
  
  
• Spring brought us beautiful days and lots of home improvements.
  
  
  
• The summer was filled with family, fun, our first real garden and more home improvements
  
  
• The summer also brought us a new family member… Simon!
  
• The fall brought us our wonderful trip to Tennessee, made me a Godmother, our cruise and beautiful autumn days
  
  
  
• The end of 2011 brought us the holidays, family and friends. It has made us realize how lucky we are to have such beautiful friends and family.   We are truly blessed.
  
  
  

Outside my window…It’s sunny and chilly.  They are calling for snow this weekend.

I am thinking… that I’m kind of sad that Christmas is almost here.  I’ve been so busy with getting everything ready that I haven’t really had time to just sit back and enjoy all my efforts yet.

I am thankful…Dave’s parents will be here Friday.

In the kitchen…it smells of coffee and pine.  I was making pine baskets last night and the kitchen still has the wonderful fresh pine aroma lingering.

I am wearing…jeans and a sweater.

I am creating…pine baskets.  Fresh pine, pine cones, roses and ornaments.

I am going…to go finish cleaning the house today.

I am wondering: what I’m going to make for dinner tonight.

I am reading…Backyard Poultry

I am hoping…to finish the last batch of cookies today

I am looking forward to…Christmas shopping with Kris on Thursday!

I am hearing…Live with Kelly on the TV and Jay talking to his video game. lol

Around the house…it’s clean for the most part except for the mud room and the fridge.  I always procrastinate on those two things for whatever reason.

I am pondering…on all the things we want to do with Dave’s family.

One of my favorite things…Christmas!

A few plans for the rest of the week: steaming carpets, shopping and spending time with Dave’s parents.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing: The pine basket that I made for the guest room.

FOR TODAY
Outside my window…It’s not too bad out today! The sun is shining and it’s about 50 degrees.  Cold temperatures are going to be moving in this week though.  Brrrr.

I am thinking…about everything that I need to accomplish before my inlaws get here.

I am thankful…that we finally have a mantel and it’s beautiful!

From the learning rooms…(if this applies) Nothing at this time.

In the kitchen…it’s nice and clean waiting for me to come in and mess it up by making cookies. *giggles*

I am wearing…Jeans, a black Cammie and a brown sweater.

I am creating…the grocery list. I have to go grocery shopping either today or tomorrow.  Probably tomorrow.

I am going…to make lunch and then get started on the cookies.  Last night I made dozens of peanut butter cookies and today I will make chocolate chip.

I am wondering..

I am reading…A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I am hoping…to finally have everything finished by this weekend so I can just relax next week.

I am looking forward to…our Christmas party!

I am hearing…the rattling of dog tags as the doggies walk through the house and Dave is on the phone to one of his clients.

Around the house…it’s quiet for the most part.  There are no TV’s on, no one talking super loud and no dogs barking.

I am pondering…Christmas

One of my favorite things…The Royal Guardsmen.  Snoopy vs The Red Barron album.  This was one of my favorite albums as a child and we broke down and bought it on Amazon a couple of nights ago.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Cleaning, cooking, baking loads of Christmas cookies and shopping with friends Friday.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing…Our new mantel

I spent the day cleaning and getting the living room put together for Christmas.  It’s really starting to come together and I am so pleased with how the big tree came out this year.

I also have been trying to put out more of our vintage decorations.

Today I will finish the family room and I think I’m going to redo the family room tree.  I’m not loving it.  It just seems sloppy to me.   I also have to take Jay to the dentist.   Two weeks until Dave’s family gets here!

Do not let us get any kind of company until this mess of a place that I normally would like to call home is cleaned up.  Believe me when I say that this house is a wreck.   There are empty Christmas boxes and containers piled up everywhere.   Christmas decorations just laying on the furniture because I haven’t quite figured out where I want to put them.  The front room is cluttered with Dave’s office stuff and now is more cluttered with my Christmas stuff.  As a matter of fact, the only clutter free rooms at the moment are the bathrooms, Jay’s bedroom and the guestroom. I really, sincerely, hope that no one comes for a surprise visit.  How embarrassing that would be!

On that note, decorating is coming along slowly but it is coming along.  I’m trying to do things different this year and not put the same old decorations in the same old place.   So I’ve been taking my time and switching things around a little bit.   I was working on the big tree today when I started putting the lights on and all of the sets of lights were blown except for two of them!  Dave and I decided to go to Walmart early this morning to buy some tree lights and a few other things.   We get to the Christmas section and I noticed that they actually had some very pretty wreaths this year.  I’ve never been one to buy decorations from Walmart because I have always found them to be a little bit tacky (I’m more of a Kohl’s and Target shopper) in the past but this year, wow.  Stunning wreaths.   So Dave and I picked up a wreath to hang over the fireplace and it will look exceptional once our new mantel is up!  Speaking of new mantel, I got an email that it’s been shipped and will be here Thursday. I am so very excited about this! I have wanted a mantel since we’ve moved in.

Here’s a picture of the wreath that we bought.  The picture really does it no justice.

Outside my window…It’s dark and actually quite warm.  I believe it’s almost 60 degree’s.

I am thinking… of all the things that I am hoping to accomplish this week.

I am thankful…that we actually had warmer weather over the weekend so that we were able to get the Christmas lights up outside.

From the learning rooms…(if this applies) – nothing really

In the kitchen…our brand new coffee pot is set to come on at 7:00Am.   I found a great deal on a Cuisinart coffee machine from Amazon on Black Friday and it arrived today! Our old coffee maker finally went up.  It was about 8 years old.

I am wearing…pajamas

I am creating…our cruise scrapbook.  I bought this wonderful personalized scrapbooking kit while we were on the ship

I am going…to go to bed and finish watching  See No Evil, Hear No Evil on AMC.

I am wondering if I will be able to get all the Christmas decorations put up tomorrow.

I am reading…nothing at the moment.

I am hoping…that I am able to fall asleep soon.

I am looking forward to…lunch Friday with Kris! I miss her so much!

I am hearing…See No Evil, Hear No Evil playing on the TV.

Around the house…everyone is sleeping but me.

I am pondering…Christmas and how much I absolutely love this time of year.

One of my favorite things…Christmas!

A few plans for the rest of the week: Shopping, cleaning, and finish decorating.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing: A couple of them.

Our Thanksgiving table and the brand new pre-lit Christmas tree that we bought for the family room.

The “No Peein’ Off The Porch” sign came from our Tennessee trip.  We thought that it was so funny we just had to get it.

We had a great Thanksgiving and weekend!  I decided not to go shopping on Black Friday and instead stayed in and did most of my shopping online.  Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I was able to get most everyone on my list. Dave and I ordered a Mantel for the fireplace and it should be here this week. I can’t wait! It will be so nice to actually be able to hang the stockings over the fireplace. .