Home for the Holidays

Moving in and of itself is a lot of work.  Moving the week before Christmas while you have bronchitis, well, that's just plain nuts!  Being sick the 2 weeks prior to the move led to us not being as prepared as we would have liked to have been, and the illness lingering on after the move has led to us not being as settled as I thought we would be by now, but hey, that's life, right?  And I must say, even though we're still somewhat in a state of chaos around here (surrounded by boxes, wondering where the heck we packed x, y, and z), we feel very much at home.  And it was so great to be here in our new home for Christmas!

One of the first things we unpacked was, of course, our Christmas tree and ornaments (I mean, we do have priorities...who cares about finding your pajamas or a hairbrush when you've got a Christmas tree to put up?!?).  Little G was so excited to put the tree up.  I had actually hoped to put up more Christmas decorations, but it just wasn't happening, so the tree was it for us this year. Oh, and stockings, of course!  I was excited to finally have a good place to hang the stockings.  No fireplace here, so no mantle, but there's a perfect little ledge by the columns between the living room and dining room.  So I picked up a couple of stocking hooks, which just happened to fit perfectly in the space.

I was also very excited to receive two new ornaments this year.  When I was little, every year, my grandmother would make ornaments for my sister and I and attach them to our packages.  Over the years most of them have migrated to me, so probably 90% of our ornaments are these handmade ones, my favorites being the ones made from felt. Well, this year, my mother-in-law made these two beautiful handmade felt matryoshka ornaments.  I was so delighted to receive them, and they look fantastic with all of the other handmade ornaments on our tree. 

Soon we will start packing up all the Christmas stuff, and start focusing on more pressing issues, like where to put our plates that are too big to fit in our shallow kitchen cabinets, and getting proper lamps for the rooms that have no light fixtures.  Now the fun begins!