A Few Christmas Photos

I just uploaded some photos that have accumulated on my camera over the past 2 months. I posted the final ones from Germany on itinerantwriter. Here are the pictures from Christmas Day.



Our tree. We had to get new lights, since the ones we had previously had European plugs. Unfortunately, we bought the lights about 4 days before Christmas, so nearly everyone was sold out, and we had to get white lights, which are MY favorite. Lance prefers colored lights (which we've had on our tree every Christmas since we got married, so hey, I think it's my turn to have the lights I want). He can't be too upset though...these lights could be configured 16 different ways. He wanted to set it to a seizure-inducing blink - something akin to having strobe lights from a disco on your tree - but I insisted on it being a slow, subtle twinkle. Also, we had no tree topper this year, as the bow we used before had seen better days and was tossed out last year after we took down the tree. At Lance's office Christmas party, I won this snowman decoration in a raffle, which just so happened to fit quite nicely on top of the tree. I don't think it's sturdy enough to make it beyond this year though...being packed up and put in storage will almost surely crush it.

I know I mentioned it before, but Lance and I had this thing where we would buy an ornament from every place we traveled together. So our tree is a big souvenir of all our European travels. It's fun to unwrap the older ones and reminisce about our trips to Prague, Paris, Brugge...but it was also fun to hang the newer ones on the tree: the wooden Santa from Estonia, the wooden bell from Finland, the handpainted glass bulb from Neuschwanstein, the commemorative Hans Christian Anderson ornament from Denmark, the faux Faberge egg from Russia...



Here I am holding the 4 Home Depot gift cards we received. We thought it was pretty funny, actually. And of course they will be put to good use.



The entire point of this picture was that it was snowing. I wanted to get a shot of Lance watching the snow. Alas, you cannot see snow in this picture. Damn.



So here we are. Proof that it did indeed snow here on Christmas Day. By the time it was over, we had a light dusting in our backyard. Unfortunately, it didn't stick around long.

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After the Vikings game is over, Lance plans to slap the first coat of paint on the wall from the top of the cabinets to the ceiling.

We realize we are painting the walls in the wrong direction, but when you have vaulted ceilings, it makes things a bit tricky.

While he does this, I am going to do the touching up around the baseboards and windows - places where the paint has chipped or peeled off, particularly where we pulled off the tape (and yes, we allowed more than enough drying time...and we're wondering if the extremely high humidity here is what is causing the problem).

While the game's been on, I've sprayed bleach around the shower in the master bath. It has a serious mildew/mold problem, and we'll probably have to get the entire shower unit replaced eventually. But the bleach got rid of a good deal of it. I also scrubbed the shower doors and the shower floor. It all looks a bit less dingy now.

I also just made taco meat for dinner tonight. Once we start painting, I'm really not in a position to cook dinner. So the meat is done and all we have to do is assemble the tacos and heat them in the microwave (our giant 80's dinosaur microwave really is awful, by the way, and barely reheats anything. The only success I've had with it is heating my water for tea).

Today at Target, I got a Convection/Toaster oven (on sale for something like 25% off)...I figured I should get one, but was going to wait a few more weeks to see how my job situation panned out. But it was on sale, so why not get it now? We also don't need to get dishwasher tabs for awhile...Target had those on sale too, so I stocked up (and now the "Pot Smoker 6000", as Lance calls it (real name is the Pot Scrubber 600), is all set for probably 6 months).

Tomorrow we return the rental car, which has mostly sat unused in our driveway since Christmas, and we will go up to Lynnwood to test drive a Mazda3...the dealer says he has what I want on the lot (just pick my color...HAHA...yeah, if he has Phantom Blue Mica), so I might even be able to drive home with one tomorrow. We shall see.

The washing machine is calling me. Gotta go.