New Mantle and a Christmas Tree

My in-laws were just here for a visit for Thanksgiving and my father-in-law really wanted to do some work around the house so my big project for him was to build me a new mantle. I'm glad to announce that he completed it and it looks great! I'm so excited about having somewhere to hang my stockings this year! It's just so traditional to have stockings hanging from the fireplace - I love it! He and Fogg went up to a local lumbermill and got a raw piece of wood to construct the mantle. It looks fantastic with a little bit of bark on it to represent our mountain environment. Here is an after picture for you (sorry I don't have a before, but just imagine it without the mantle and that's about what it looked like).

I also decorated for Christmas this weekend, got myself a new artificial tree to replace the little one I used to use. Now that we have a bigger house, I can fit a bigger tree. It was really fun to decorate it but it took so much more time than the small one. Here is a picture of it:

Fogg also put my lights on the house, it looks so pretty. I love the look of the front of our house, so the lights just run along the roofline.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws and they took a picture of us that I plan on using for our Christmas card. It was great to have them here for our first Thanksgiving dinner in our new house. We had a great time with them while they were here, doing house projects, spending time together. Dick got a lot of projects done around the house including but not limited to: replacing a light switch with a dimmer switch, building the mantle, putting in more outlets in the basement, building Fogg a workshop, putting up pegboard, fixing a toilet, and putting up drywall on a room in the basement. He sure is a handy man! Fran made some window treatments and window cushions for me as well.



So now I'm all ready for Christmas, need to finish a little bit of shopping and do a lot of wrapping but the house is ready. Oh and to touch on the previous post, yes, I'm pregnant, we are expecting the baby on May 22nd. We are super excited and using the next six months to prepare for it. I've been feeling ok so far, I guess as good as you can feel with a human growing inside of you. If you want to know more, send me an email or leave a comment and I'll send you an invite to our private blog chronicling our pregnancy experience.

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving Time!

I know it's been forever, sorry I've been slacking (not that anyone probably reads my blog anyway). So I thought that I would share my excitement for the upcoming holiday season! I very excited about Thanksgiving, my in-laws are coming to visit on Saturday then staying through Turkey Day. I'm excited to catch up with them, it seems like forever since we have seen them. We are very excited about showing them our new house and having them help us with a few projects. My father-in-law is a handyman for trade so he is wanting to help us with a few projects, and we are happy to have him. So number one on my project list is a new mantle. We currently do not have one in the new house and with the fireplace being a fairly central feature in the living room, we'd like a nice mantle to surround it. Right now, it's tile going into just the wall. And it'd be great to hang some stockings this year on the fireplace! We need a couple of other small projects done too. We are also going to be taking them to Snowbasin for Sunday brunch when they arrive, and I think we are all looking forward to that.

I'm also excited about the Christmas season. Can't wait to get my lights up and my tree decorated and the house adorned in holiday cheer. I can't wait to cook my Christmas goody bags to give out and the smell of the holiday's at our house. I love the Christmas cheer and music and the time with family. I hope to again do the Christmas Eve Torchlight Parade at Snowbasin as we did last year. We had so much fun as a family doing that, we hope to do it again. They did a big Christmas Eve shindig last year, with Christmas carolers and Santa arriving on a sleigh and a torchlight parade where we skied down the main slope with torches and apparently it was quite a site. But it was a TON of fun so we'd like to do it again. Then we got to go inside and have a delicious Christmas Eve meal in the beautiful lodge. What a great time!

Oh yeah, and if you haven't heard yet, we are expecting our first baby this May! Just thought I'd through that little tidbit in there for you as a little surprise.