Traditions

I have been thinking a lot about family traditions, specifically holiday traditions. Centsational Girl has a post up this morning that really brought it into the forefront of my mind.

This is mine and Brad's first Christmas in our new house, and only our second as a family, so we do not have a long list of traditions for the holidays. That is something I would like to develop over the years. Often, when people tell me their holiday traditions, they involve their children, so I imagine more will come with time. So far, here is what we have, either individually or as a couple.
**For the past few years (and upon Lauren's suggestion), I have read Lessons For Life, a Christmas-themed Harry Potter fan-fiction.
**I try to watch "The Holiday" and "Love, Actually" every Christmas. Now Brad gets to watch them, too! (Lucky Brad...)
**Morning relaxation. On Thanksgiving, we enjoyed a leisurely morning of coffee and snuggling, interspersed with Macy's Day Parade. We look forward to repeating this for Christmas, and for years to come.

We have been slowly acquiring decorations for the season, as our 600 sq ft apartment didnt require much. It is amazing how big this house feels when I'm trying to fill empty walls! I cannot say that, as of yet, putting up decorations is a tradition, but I do hope to follow in the idea that putting up the tree is a day-after-Thanksgiving classic.

Oh, I almost forgot the best one! Every year we find one ornament that represents that year on our tree. Sure, we often get more than one new one a year, but each year must have a representative. I was worried sick last week, as I could not find our sentimental Christmas stuff (embroidered stockings, yearly ornaments, etc). I was SO relievfed to find and empty that box! So far our yearly ornaments consist of:
2007: a white snowflake that says "Our first Christmas", even though we got married four days later.
2008: a gold "Just Married" ornament we bought in Walt Disney World on our fix-it honeymoon.
2009: a red front door that says "First Home" on it.

We are so thankful for friends with good taste, too, as my friend Susan bought us two of those three! We havent been able to find another "First House" ornament, so I am especially thankful for Susan's gift!

I am really looking forward to forming a lifetime of traditions with my family. What things do you treasure year after year?

Pictures Finally!

I am finally going to share some pictures of our new home! I have waited, because I wanted to get stuff arranged and decorated - and some of it is - but I can't keep putting it off.

The last stages of building:

Completion of build (mostly adding green, green grass):

And some of the finishing touches inside:

Pantry Pounding

OK, first of all, I know I'm awful for not posting pictures yet. I'm working on it. I have a mediocre camera and less-than mediocre photography skills, so I have yet to really love the pics.

We had such an amazing blessing on Sunday through our Pantry Pounding. So many friends and family stopped by and took the tour of our new home. It certainly doesn't look finished, but for living in it for two weeks, I would say it looks pretty good! We got bags upon bags of goodies, including several interesting products I would never buy myself (more later). It reminded me of a mixed CD: I always loved having others mix me a CD, because you get a sense of their taste, as well as their opinion of your taste.

Some people brought basics (peanut butter, jelly, salt, pepper, etc) while others brought eccentricities (California lemon peel, Mediterranean basil leaves, injectable Cajun butter with syringe). We even received five different kinds of rice! In case you (like me two days ago) cannot come up with five different kinds of rice, let me help you:
Jasmine rice
Basmati rice
Texmati rice (apparently basmati rice grown in TX)
Saffron rice (squee!)
Spanish rice

Hungry yet? I am. Now I just need to go buy some curry powder and get the recipe from Heather.

Between the gift cards, groceries and good company, we were overwhelmingly blessed this weekend. Thank you to all who contributed, and to those who sent well wishes and prayers!

TOMORROW!

ONE DAY MORE! ONE MORE DAY!

I will be humming that song from Les Miserables all day now...

That's right, friends, tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow we get keys. Tomorrow we start planting our stuff. Tomorrow we find ourselves officially stacked with responsibility like we have never known.

::gulp::

Thank you, all, for your prayers. We couldn't have gotten here without God's blessings.

I promise I will upload pictures, as soon as their are pictures worth showing off. I have several of random empty rooms, but that is no fun. Once things are arranged, unpacked, decorated and DIYed within an inch of their non-lives, I will share. Wish us luck!

FOUR MORE DAYS!!

One-Mon, Two-Tues, Three-Wed, Four-Thurs, HAPPY DANCE!

Only four more days until we have the keys to our very own home. And not a moment too soon. I am ready to have personal space again! And a proper tub; the folks tub is not exactly the kind you look forward to soaking in. But the beautiful bathtub in our master bath is perfect. One of my first 'decorating tasks' will be turning that into my personal oasis. Just you wait, 'Enry 'Iggins. Pictures will follow.

Oh yes, pictures will follow...

10 Days to go!!!

I am counting down until we sign our life away. In 10 days, we will officially buy our first home! I have reserved trucks for moving, set up utilities, and we are slooooowly packing up the remnants in the house. The majority of our stuff was never unpacked from our last move, so that helps. We have to pack up clothes, books, glassware, anything we use on a semi-regular basis. But we have a week and a half for that!

I will post some pictures once we have them, but I probably won't post anything until we are unpacked and things have been decorated. Which will be the most wonderful-stressful task!

Please pray for us as we gear up to start a new life in our own house!

Mid-October morning

This morning is not unlike other mornings, or at least it hasnt been so far. I didn't sleep particularly well, but I used my extra time this morning to do some stretching. Now I feel energized, as if I had rested peacefully through the night, instead of kicking and tossing and waking.

I'm sitting at my desk with my yummy cider, and Im trying to make my brain go three different directions. This, unfortunately, is very much like every other morning. I am trying to focus on work, to accomplish the urgent tasks set forth by the foreign overlords. I am also obsessing (as per usual) over our budget; when to pay which bills, how much to save, what events have we got planned, etc. Thirdly, I am plotting, in every imaginable detail, our new home.

Brad and I are buying a house. We are so excited, and often terrified, and I have trouble focusing on much else for long periods of time. I am decorating the living room, or I am shopping for furniture, or I am making a drying rack, or I am arranging closets - all of this in my head. In real life, all I can do is obsess over paper work and schedule, and plan ahead to rental trucks and utilities. Not as much fun, but just as exciting. For me, anyways.

This weekend, weather and wallet permitting, I intend to start on the drying rack. It is a handy little DIY I picked up from Centsational Girl, my fave new blog to follow. I am falling in lurve with so many blogs as of late, mostly involving home decor or event planning (Hostess with the Mostess is like party planning on crack... in a good way...) After the drying rack, I intend to tackle my hideous dining room chairs. Lacy said she would recover them as our wedding present, so I may drag her in to help if she is in town.

All in all, it has been a productive week and an exciting month. We are on pins and needles a bit, thanks to the closing date being pushed to October 30th, but the anitci.............pation is fun as well as frustrating. Wish us all the best, and keep our safety and sanity in your prayers as we move.

Amazing Giveaway

For those of you who do not yet know, Brad and I are buying a house!! And thanks to that hefty fact, I have had little other than decorating and designing on my mind lately. Grags and I have entertained ourselves with DIY blogs, lately, and I fell in loooove with this amazing blog, Centsational Girl. She has divine taste, though not always matching my own, and her Do-It-Yourself ideas are fun and come across as easy-to-follow. I am truly excited to get to work on her No Sew Swag Valance, as well as the aorable Drying Rack for the laundry room.

The main reason I am mentioning her today is because her blog is having a giveaway from Price Pfister, which means you could win a GORGEOUS new faucet for your kitchen or bathroom. All you have to do to qualify is specificy which one you want (Hanover pull down, please!!), and leave a comment explaining where you would put it. So simple! Go on over and check it out:
http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2009/10/fabulous-faucet-giveaway/

Best of luck!!