Festivities...

We spent the evening of Christmas eve at our neighbor's house. We had the usual homemade pizza, P made ribs and we had tons of sweets. I think J's favorite is decorating his sugar cookie. Boy did he load it up!

As always we had a great time and enjoyed catching up with everybody. After that, we opened presents and of course that was the best part of the evening for J. I can not forget how proud he was when he gave us our presents. He bought us presents at the Dollar store when he was being watched by Renee one day. In fact, he was the first one to put a present under the tree. He got his Dad a paint brush and a bungee rope, and he got me a pair of candlestick and candles. It was really very sweet of him.

I really can't get enough picture of him since he was specially cute yesterday with his nice shirt - however he only wore it for 10 mins then removed it. Ah, I am glad I at least got some pictures.

White Christmas???

Well, we almost had a White Christmas today. The snow didn't stick but J and I still enjoyed the short snow experience. Here are some captured moments of the boy. It made Christmas day a little bit more special!

After

The new exterior look of the house...hmmm I guess the house needs a new paint now:)

Photo#1: French Maple Sliding doors, still needs sealing, Photo#2: Fiberglass door still needs staining, Photo #3: Kitchen Awning window, Photo#4:Masterbath awning window, Photo#5:J's sliding window,Photo#6: Living room Double hung windows

Before...

Photo#1: broken patio sliding door, Photo#2: broken front door, Photo#3: Kitchen garden window,Photo#4:J's bedroom window, Photo#5:Living room nonfunctional windows,Photo#5:Masterbath window

New House, or...

new windows and doors? That is the question.

So the window guys came and did a bang-up job (until I ruined their Saturday, but we'll get to that later). I think that I've determined that the biggest perceivable difference, for me, between a new and old house are the windows doors and floor materials. With J's room completely finished, I can say that if you want to feel like you're living in a new place, the best option is to move into an old neighborhood (gives you bigger yards and more mature foliage), and replace all windows and doors. Last night I felt a little claustrophobic and determined it was because I was missing the usual "camping-like" feel to our house with the old windows.

Anyway, we are about half way through laying down bamboo floor in the house. I was waiting for the new sliding door to finish off the last 2 rooms. After great discussion on the trim and detailed explanations about why I didn't want the installers to put on the trim, they still got it wrong. No sooner than they think they're finished and I roll in and ruin their Saturday - which they thought they might have off. My hat's off to the installer. After explaining the situation to him (mind you, this is maybe 15 minutes after they installed the 8 foot sliding door), he lookes at me with a straight face, very calm and says "Do you want me to pull it all out and do it over? Really, it's no problem because from what you just showed me, I would want it pulled out too". And so, there you have it, Saturday, they will redo the biggest part of their job. I would highly recommend that if anyone is considering replacing windows and doors, if there is a "Renewal by Anderson" in your area, look no further. I admit they are slightly more expensive, BUT the service is well worth the added expense.

Holiday frenzy

I haven't been handling stress too easily lately. I get overwhelmed by it and when I do, I tend to shutdown and not function accordingly thus causing more stress...hmmm not good.

Anyway, we are expecting the window people on Thursday, Friday and Monday...yup on Christmas eve as well. I am still waiting to hear from them if they can instead finish the job on Saturday. I think dealing with the window project has taken the excitement out of Christmas for me, it has been quite stressful. Until now, I am not yet done with our Christmas shopping or even sending Christmas wishes...sorry guys I don't think I'll make it this time.

On top of that, P's work has been annoying the crap out of me. First, he has to work on all of the holiday breaks and then is also threatening to send him to India perhaps before New Year for two weeks. What kind of crap is that? Last night, I had a meltdown. I am struggling coping up with homesickness and stress and so the idea of us not spending New Year all together is just a bit too much for me. I was forewarned that he might travel to India early 2008 but sheesh I didn't expect "early" to be Jan.1. I am not happy and I know he is not too. I hate short notices, I don't handle it too well...and I would definitely hate having to spend New Year without him as well. It is bad enough not to be anywhere near family on holidays and not having your own family all together during those times makes it even worse...

Crafty little hands...

J decorated his gingerbread house today. He had so much fun and of course was loaded with tons of sugar when we were done. Here is his masterpiece. I think he actually wants to eat the whole thing this time. Last year we ended throwing it all away since it became too dusty...ha ha!

My very own handmade advent calendar. It took me about two weeks to make it, so P was a widow for a while - Tee Hee! I was too cheap to buy them so I instead made them. $70 to buy it and $20 to make it. J loves to move the candy cane everyday and of course finding his little treat everyday!

Let the fun begin!

We were in winter wonderland on the day we picked our tree. It was the best trip to the tree farm ever for me. I couldn't ask for a better day!

Here is the end result. J did most of the decorating this time, thus explains the bulk of the ornaments at the bottom half of the tree...all we need is the Christmas train under the tree and we're good to go!

This is all we can do for now as far as decorating. The window people are showing up on Dec 20-23 so we can't put up anything anywhere near the windows and doors...bummer but I am still excited to finally have functional windows and safe doors! Yipee!