The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Like I said before I have really been looking forward to this Christmas. I love Christmas time. All the goodies, presents, decorations, lights, and family (even if it is just over Skype). I love all of the sights, songs and smells that go with Christmas. This year was even better because Mel is a little older and can enjoy it all even more.

Christmas goodies: I love the food you only get at Christmas time. Eggnog is one of our favorites. This year we decided to experiment with homemade eggnog. I must say it is really easy to make and very delicious. I am looking forward to making more next year and perfecting our own recipe.

Christmas dinner was another experiment. I have never made lamb before and the few times I have tried it I really didn't like it. But good ol' Costco made me want to try and make it. After enjoying a sample (or two) I decided to give it a go. It is by far the easiest protein I have ever made for dinner. All I did was season it and then stick it in the crock pot and not touch it for a few hours. That leg of lamb was falling apart delicious and I will probably opt to do it again next year.

Of course no Christmas would be complete without some cookies and candies. My favorite to make at Christmas is pumpkin fudge and nut clusters. We decided that it had been WAY too long since we have made gingersnaps, so we included them in our baking. Meric and Mel were in charge of making the cookies.

With her stool up to the counter Mel was very focused and intent on helping her daddy.

She was very curious and patient throughout the whole process. (Daddy was very patient too.)

Mel stood there from start to finish helping daddy with every step. She was very happy to enjoy the spoils of her hard work at the end too.

Christmas fun: Mel had a lot of fun with all the Christmas activities. My previous blog is all about the Christmas tree and decorating. This year we also pulled out Meric's childhood toy train.

Mel loves trains and was very excited to watch the train go round the track.

Christmas presents: Mel did a great job of not really messing too much with the tree.

Occasionally she would pull down an ornament but for the most part she left it alone and just enjoyed looking at it. On Christmas eve when we brought out all the presents that was a big temptation for her. She would shuffle right up to the edge of the presents and then stand there.

It was almost like she was saying "I'm not touching them."

On Christmas morning, when she could touch them, she had a ball unwrapping presents. Mel is a great kid to give present to because she gets so excited. Her gasps and "ooh cool" were so enjoyable.

She was very intent to get every scrap of wrapping paper off of the box before she would open them.

Mel enjoyed Christmas which made it so much more fun for us. The best thing really is having kids on Christmas! I can't wait until next year!

Jasper's favorite spot when presents aren't in the way

Oh Christmas Tree

When we moved into out house in July, I was very excited for Christmas.  Being in the trailer meant no room for a real tree or a lot of decorations. We always had a small tree with lights draped around it but no room for ornaments. I couldn't wait until we could pull out all of the Christmas decorations we hadn't used in years.

After a quick search Meric and I discovered a Christmas tree farm just down the road from us. We hopped in the truck and headed down the road. It wasn't too long before we saw the sign for the tree farm. It looked like a residential driveway with a private home. We followed the sign and saw that just behind the house was rows and rows of beautiful Christmas trees. The farm looks like a cute little family run business. The signs lead to a parking lot next to a ginormous snowman.

Of course we needed to get a picture with the ginormous snowman.

There was a small building that they used as a store. There was free hot chocolate and a variety of items for sale. They also were making homemade wreaths from bits of branches. There were free hay rides around the farm.

The tree farm grew 3 kinds of Cyprus trees and had fir trees trucked in from North Carolina. The fir trees were the type of trees that Meric and I were use to with the needles and branches. We decided to stroll through the rows of trees and check out something new. There were so many beautiful trees, all perfectly shaped.

Mel loved running through the rows of trees.

After looking through a few rows of trees we finally found the perfect one.

We had them cut it down for us (they also give you the option to do it yourself) and after shaking the loose needles off they wrap it for you and help you take it to your vehicle all as part of their service. They were very nice and the whole experience was fun. If we are still here next year we will visit them again.

We got the tree home and into position. The next day we got to work decorating. After draping the lights around the tree I pulled out all of our ornaments. It has been years since we have seen any of our ornaments.

It was fun pulling them out and reminiscing about how we came to get some of them. Mel loved the whole process. She kept saying "ooh pretty" over and over and over again. It was so much fun seeing the glee in her eyes.

Mel really didn't know what to think about the Nutcracker

I am so glad we are able to do a full size Christmas tree and all the decorations this year. Meric and I love being able to share in the holiday delight with Mel.

The House: The "Easiest" Room, Part 2

Now that the bathroom was completely dismantled including the flooring we were ready to put it all back together. First thing on the list was painting. I used a paint sprayer to put primer on all the walls. Being in such a small room spraying paint left me a little painted myself.

We still had a few rough spots on the ceiling and walls so we decided to add a little sand texture to our paint. Both Meric and I are fans of white ceilings so all of our ceilings are being painted white. We got what looked like a light grey paint for the bathroom walls. (All of our indoor paint colors came cheap from the mis-tint section of Home Depot. Can't beat $9 a gallon.) Once the paint was on the wall it turned out to be a more of a light blue grey. I love the color and think it looks better than the grey we thought it was.

Another thing that needed to be painted was the shower. Yes I said painted. We found a tub and tile paint that got really good reviews. It was a lot of prep work, including the patching. Meric spent a lot of time patching and sanding to get the section smooth. I was nervous about painting the shower but I followed the directions to the letter and it turned out great. I was amazed that a paint would look so good on a shower.

Before

After

With the painting all done we were ready to install the flooring. We actually picked a heavy duty peel and stick vinyl tile. We picked it because it was fairly easy to install, looked great and could be grouted. Once grouted you can't tell that it is just a peel and stick vinyl.

Next came the sink vanity. Should have been an easy install. Just put it in the spot the old vanity sat. Well if it were easy it wouldn't be one of our projects so... it wasn't that simple. Our walls weren't exactly straight so some modifications needed to be made to the back of the vanity. Meric (with Mel's help) sanded down the back of the vanity so that it could be successfully placed in the bathroom.

The finishing touches were installing the trim and towel bars. With those touches done we officially finished a project! It took longer than we wanted it too but the results were worth it.

The House: The "Easiest" Room, Part 1

The first room we decided to do was our bathroom downstairs. It is the smallest room so we figured it would be the easiest. Boy, were we wrong.

It is the smallest room in the house but it was also the ugliest. The walls were painted a horrible dark salmon color. Not only were they painted an atrocious color but they were painted over wallpaper that someone had attempted to remove but damaged the sheet rock. The walls were awful. The vanity was original to the house and a dark brown color. Years of abuse were very apparent in water damage and leaky faucets among other things. The dark colors and the dirty popcorn ceilings made the small space feel even smaller.

First thing we did was gut the bathroom. We took out the vanity, mirror, light fixture and toilet. With the space completely empty we went to work on the walls and ceiling. We got lucky on one wall that had all the wallpaper still intact. When we started to peel the paper back it came off cleanly. The rest of the walls were not so easy. We tried a few different paint removers and tediously scraped and peeled off the paint.

Once the walls were cleared of paint and the ceilings popcorn free we started mudding. Mudding is so much fun! (Sarcasm font) We mudded and sanded and mudded and sanded and really should have mudded and sanded some more. It was crazy how much work it was to get such a small room ready for paint.

When experimenting with paint remover I accidently spilled some in the shower. Not a big deal except some didn't get cleaned up and it ate away the shower. I was pretty upset with myself for adding yet another project to our list. After doing a little research we decided that replacing the shower was way more than we wanted to spend and for less than $10 we could get a putty that would patch the holes and be sanded smooth. Of course it was dark grey in color so we needed more to the fix but more on that in the next blog.

Another problem with the bathroom was ventilation. Neither of our bathrooms had fans. Personally I think a bathroom fan is a must, especially when we live in such a humid climate. The problem with installing a ceiling fan in the bathroom is trying to figure out how to run the wiring to the switch and the ducting to the outside without a crawl space to work in.

We figured out a solution: go through the stairs. Easiest room in the house and we had to take out a stair. It worked great for us to run wiring by reaching through the open step. 

We got flexible ducting and while Meric shoved it through the hole outside I pulled it through the hole inside. (I don't think we have had a home yet that Meric didn't drill a hole through for one reason or another.)

With the wiring and ducting ran we were ready to install a fan and put the bathroom back together.

The House: Ceilings

The house Meric and I bought was built in the 80s. There are a few 80s features that Meric and I are planning on updated as part of our remodel. One update that is needed throughout the entire house is the ceilings. Ceiling are one of those things you don't pay much attention to unless they look bad. Lets just say you would pay attention to ours. Right now the ceilings have the lovely popcorn texture that is a dingy white and falling off in some parts.

Popcorn ceiling

The first room we tackled was the downstairs bathroom. It is the smallest room and therefore we figured the easiest. (Not at all the case and those details are coming soon in another blog) Not only is this bathroom downstairs it is under the stairs. The ceiling is lower in this room and with the thick popcorn texture the ceiling felt even lower. For this room we decided to take all of the texture off the ceiling. Once we scrapped it all off we cleaned and patched the ceiling. It is hard to make the ceiling completely smooth and perfect so we decided to add a little sand texture to the ceiling paint. The results were a nice subtle texture and a ceiling that didn't feel like it was coming down on you.

Sandy ceiling

The next ceiling I de-popcorned was in Mel's room. Her ceiling was completely popcorn intact and didn't have any spots to patch or repair. For her ceiling I decided to gently knock down/scrape off a layer of popcorn. This was a very messy process but left a nice flatter texture to the ceiling. After painting the ceiling white I was very happy with the results. The subtle texture was very nice.

Knockdown popcorn ceiling

I am planning on doing the same thing to the rest of the ceilings in the house. It is a little crazy to do this work to make something you don't really notice. I do love the results though and hope it is worth all the effort.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Ever since I was a kid I was a huge baseball fan. I especially love going to the games. There is just something about cheering on you favorite team with hundreds of other people doing the same thing. The sights, sounds and smells of the stadium just add to the action on the field.

In the past several years I haven't followed baseball as much as I use to. I still am a fan and remain a loyal fan to the teams I picked as a kid, the Seattle Mariners and the Atlanta Braves. Yes I follow baseball enough to know that those two teams are among the worst in baseball right now but I am not a "fair weather" fan. I picked them and I am sticking with them through thick and thin. Being from WA I have had several opportunities to watch the Mariners play on their home field. I even got to see them play the Braves. But I had never gotten to see the Braves play at home... until now. For my birthday Meric got me a couple of tickets to see the Braves play the evil Yankees. (I have always been a Mariners and Braves fan and I will always hate the Yankees and Phillies. I may like some of the players on their teams but I stick with who I hate just as much as who I like.)

So Meric, Mel and I headed to Mel and Meric's first professional baseball game. There was a special promotion/theme for this particular game: Superheroes. Before the game we recieved Braves' superhero capes and got to walk around the baseball field. It was so much fun. Mel loved being all dressed up and parading around. 

After parading around the field we found our seats above the first base line and settled in to watch the game. It was so fun to watch the game and cheer with the fans. I was so excited to do the tomahawk chop all with the other Braves fans. Of course playing the Yankees there were just as many of their fans there too. Mel actually started plugging her ears with her fingers for the first time while at the game,

It was every time the Yankee fans cheered. Unfortunately they cheered a lot but the Braves fans were hardcore and kept up the cheering and chopping. I loved watching with other Braves fans. Mel had a lot of fun too but started getting restless by the 5th inning and so we let her run around and explore the stadium some more.

After sharing some ice cream in the 7th inning we decided it was time to head home. Getting to the stadium early and having a 2 hour drive ahead of us we decided the day had been long enough. Plus Mel we definitely due for a nap and I didn't want to get stuck in post game traffic with a cranky baby.

I loved going to the stadium, walking on the baseball field, and watching the Braves play on their home turf. Even though they lost 20-6 (yeah they are pretty bad this year) I still had a lot of fun. It was even more fun to share the day with my little family.