Christmas Tidings

When I left for work this morning, our front door looked like this:

When I returned home, it looked like this:

And no, this was not a 'Welcome home, Honey' surprise.

I knew about it.

I absolutely loved our old door. It had so much character and really fit the house perfectly. I loved the arch. I loved the window. I.loved.the.door. But it had a gap along the entire door jamb that you could literally look through and see directly outside. And the window was not fool proof. I think a strong wind may have been able to blow it in, leaving access to our house available to everyone. And it was so bowed in the middle that unless you put all your weight behind it while attempting to close and lock it, you would be left with a door ajar, and the public staring. (We barely know our new neighbors. We figure there's no sense in pissing them off.) So, for safety and energy efficiency reasons, we replaced our front door. It was our first major home improvement project. Major as in we had to hire outside help to do it. (Tom, this is not a degradation to your extreme handyman help that you have provided us thus far. It has been fantastic, and we sincerely appreciate it!) I believe our new door going to be painted that same hunter green color tomorrow, and even though I loved our old door, I am already enjoying the new look! Plus, the feeling of safety that accompanies knowing that no one will easily be able to get in is worth it.

In other news, we decided decorate our Christmas tree tonight. We put a bell around Jack's neck so we had that holiday jingle in the air, turned on some Christmas music, and danced our way around the tree as we placed all our ornaments and candy canes. Christmas is truly a magical time of the year!


And last but certainly not least, we also Elfed ourselves! If you've never 'Elfed' yourself before, you must! Ridiculousness at its finest! Click the link for a good laugh! Whoever decided to give everyone the opportunity to upload their human head on to silly dancing elves was a genius. Genius!

I wish I could dance like that in real life.

Happy Holidays!

The First of December

The month of December just screams Christmas. So does snow. And, today, being the first day of December, and the birth month of non other than His holiness himself, we experienced both signs of the most wonderful time of the year!

We awoke to the first of December to a lightly snow dusted lawn, our first official 'snow' of the year. After we both got off of work, we headed out to purchase our Christmas tree. It was 31 degrees Fahrenheit, blustery, and snow flurries were swirling all around us. We decided to get a real tree this year, but decided against cutting it down ourselves. We headed to the superb, local, gourmet grocery store that just recently opened. And we found the perfect tree!

When we got home, Brian cut the bottom of the tree trunk off so that it would have plenty of healthy water soaking veins to keep it alive for the next 31 days while Jack and I turned on the Christmas music, prepared the spot for our tree, and stayed warm and cozy indoors! Once Brian finished his task, he brought the tree inside (that strong and burly man of mine!), and placed it in our tree stand. We set it up straight and we spread out all of the branches that were neatly tied into place.

We decided to let our tree breathe for a night, fill the air with the lovely frasier fir pine smell, and allow all the branches to neatly fall where they should be before we decorate. (I think that's on the plan for tomorrow night!)

It's a beautiful tree. It's December 1st. And it's still 'snowing'! It's the hap-happiest season of all!

Stickey Buns

I just remembered that I left the stickey buns that I was supposed to bring back to Ohio in the freezer at my Mom's...

Uh oh.

Trouble does not define what I am in now...

Giving Thanks

This Thanksgiving holiday Brian, Jack, and I drove home to Maryland to see the family. It was lovely! We piled in the car on Wednesday afternoon after we both got off of work and drove the seven hours or so to Mom and Scott's house. It was like Christmas when we arrived!

My brother and his lovely fiancée were already there. There was music, and wine, and cooking, and laughing, and hugs, and it was like 11:30 at night. It was the warmest, coziest, loveliest welcome we've had in a while! (I suppose the holidays may have something to do with that.) Jack got to see his Uncle Marl, we all got to see each other, and it was just so nice to all be together, under one roof. And, as Scott would say, be at '100% Kid Capacity'!

On Thanksgiving day, we went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house. They had three folding tables which sat perfectly in their living room. The tables allowed all 17 of us to sit cozily around one big table instead of being scattered about the place. We ate, we drank, and we were merry! And we were reminded of everything that we are thankful for.

Six and a Half Minutes

That's how long we sat like this.


We're making huge Bun and Pooch relationship strides here, folks.

History in the making, I tell ya!

A Week of Firsts...and Lasts

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

We said our final goodbye to our townhouse. We packed everything up. We moved everything out. We left everything as it was before the place was moved into. And we said goodbye. We had our last dinner there on Wednesday evening, on the floor in the middle of the living room, with nothing but the bare walls around us. We slept there for the last time last Friday night. We came 'home' for the last time last Friday night as well. And we said farewell.

I know that Brian had a much stronger connection with our townhouse. He purchased it in 2005. (I came into the picture in 2008, and technically didn't move there until 2009.) But it was still hard to say goodbye. The melancholic ambiance that we both felt as we placed the last belongings in our cars was hard to ignore. It was an emotional mixture of sad to leave but happy to move on to the beautiful house we just bought. It truly was a bittersweet experience.

I can't help but remember some of the things that I will miss most about our townhouse, as is apparent by the following photo album:

And even though there are probably quite a few other things that I will miss about our townhouse, I am positive there will be many things that I will love more about our new house!

With our week of saying goodbye to our old townhouse, we have also said 'hello' to our new home! We slept there for the first time last Saturday night. I came home from work for the first time last Monday night. We've let Jack out, we've let Bun slide across the floors, we've hung pictures, we've done laundry, we've watched our favorite shows, all for the first time. It's a completely new experience, and it's a great one! The yard is fantastic! I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands dirty! The rooms are all filled with natural, airy light. AND, we still have a laundry shoot! Except this one has a funny looking bird cage sort of contraption in the basement that collects all the clothes and keeps them neat and tidy! Incredible! It's getting better already!

We have so many more firsts to experience. We're moving forward, making our new house our new home, and it feels marvelous!

Bienvenidos! Willkommen! Benvenuto! Croeso! Baruch ha-ba! Welcome to our new home!

Unpacking the Boxes

We are officially moved into our new house. We've still got a ton of boxes, in every room, that we need to go through. And we still aren't 100% sure what home project we are going to tackle first, but we are all settling and becoming much more comfortable with our new surroundings. With each passing day, it is starting to feel more and more like home, even with the boxes!

Click below to see a bit of our moving adventure!

63 Signatures Later...

We got in the car.

We drove here.

We left homeless.

Then we drove here.

We didn't leave homeless this time!

63 signatures later...(63 each, that is!)

Please sign here...and here...and here...and here...and here...

Ladies and Gents, it's closing day!!

In nearly an hour and a half we will be signing on the dotted line and closing the sale on our current townhouse. Immediately following, we will be signing, once again, on the dotted line and closing the sale on our new home!

It is so, so, SO exciting! (And that doesn't even do it justice!)

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees

It's an old adage that we have all heard many times. We may have even used it once or twice. And, in most circumstances, it's true; no matter how many times we all wish it weren't: money doesn't grow on trees.

The other day while Brian and his Uncle Joe were visiting our new house, assisting the radon repair fellow, there was a folded dollar bill in the lawn, just waiting to be discovered. Sure enough, it was. Surely this could only be a sign that we have just invested in an extremely high earning property, and that our decision to purchase this house will be a profitable one. (I suppose this could bode disaster if you interpret the dollar bill on the lawn as 'throwing money away'.) Fortunately, Brian and I are both optimists and choose to believe that this dollar bill laying in our yard is a fortuitous sign.

Our parents were right when they rattled off the old saying to us, and we believed them. Money doesn't grow on trees. Of course it doesn't.

It grows in the grass.