Winter and Christmas 2015

     Over the past year I've come up with new traditions for myself: to do a few things around the house on the first day of each new season.

I loved my mom's festive dinner plates that I saw over the Thanksgiving/wedding weekend, and that inspired me to buy us a set of dishes for each season.  So this past Tuesday I packed away the Fall dishes and pulled out the Winter ones.

I also have shower curtains that depict different seasons, so I switched those out as well.

Story behind this:

I had bought shower curtains that I liked for the three bedrooms in our house in AZ with no seasons in mind, I just liked them.  We have three bathrooms in our current house as well, but two have shower doors and so only one needs a curtain.  When I decided to have seasonal decorations, I saw that two of the curtains were good for Spring and Fall, so if I bought one for Summer and for Winter, I'd be set!

Here's our winter one:

I also have mini loaf pans for each season.  I was going to bake this bundt cake, but I ended up baking some pumpkin bread instead in my Fall mini loaf pans and I ran out of flour and sugar.  So I'll bake this soon.

The packaging came with a recipe, so this is what I'll be making.  Feel free to try it yourself and let me know how you like it.  :)

Now on to Christmas.  :)

     We did the Secret Santa gift exchange with my siblings and their spouses again this year, and that's fun; I like surprises.  Well, good surprises.  ;)

     This year Mc and I talked again about what kind of decorations we want for Christmas.  I'm indifferent on Christmas trees but Mc really doesn't like them, so we'll likely never get a tree.  Or if we do, we'll get a fake white one because Mc likes the way those look with Christmas lights.

     The first year we were married we had talked about this, and we wanted our Christmas celebrations to be religious -- neither secular with Santa and Rudolph, nor winter solstice-y with trees and wreaths and such (one exception was the Christmas lights which, while they are technically part of the winter solstice category of celebration, could be used for Christmas since Jesus called himself "the light of the world" (John 8:12)).  While at Costco one day in September or October I saw this nativity set that I really liked, so I bought it.  Every year we set it up and put our Christmas presents under it.

We've decided to stick with that tradition even though I'm no longer a Christian.  I still like the nativity set, and the kids had fun telling Mc where to put the decorations.  One of Jesus' gifts is on the roof, thanks to Little One, and Baby Girl had the Wise Men chatting amongst themselves.  ;)

I saved the ornaments that my mom has given us over the years, and we have a good place to put them now.  Here is the result:

Mc and the kids opening presents.  I did, too, but I stepped back to take pictures.

Mc got our cat some new ball toys since we can't find any of his first set.  Obsidian was tired that morning, but he loved the new toys and he pulled himself along the floor in this position to swipe at them.  It was funny to watch.

The kids playing with their favorite toys.  The blue stuffed animal under Baby Girl's arm is called a poro, and it's from a video game that Mc and I play.  She saw it in the game a couple of months ago and said, "I want a poro!", and she didn't know until Christmas that we bought it for her.  She opened it and was so happy and she said, "I'm crying happy tears."  She's carried it everywhere with her for the past two days, and it makes me very happy to see how much she likes it.  Little One's favorite toy is one that Nana gave him: Marshall and his fire truck from the show "Paw Patrol".  He also has been carrying that around with him for the past two days.

Here they're watching the first episode of Paw Patrol that Mc bought for them on Amazon Prime, and I'm sure Obsidian is considering whether to keep attacking his new toys or go to bed.  ;)

     Everyone liked all the presents they got, and all of us had a good Christmas.  I think Mc and I did a good job this year of blending our preferred holiday celebrations together.  Next year we'll probably add lights to the outside of the house because we both still like the look of the lights and they are a good blend of his Christmas and my winter celebrations.

House Improvements

     Early in the week before we left for my sister's wedding, our handyman came over and did a few things for us that our house needed.

     I had bought two new chandeliers, one for the entryway and one for our dining room, and then two simple ceiling lights for the family room downstairs.  I hated the track lighting in our dining room and downstairs because it was too bright in those few spots where the light was shining down, and then too dark in the areas where the light wasn't shining.  Here's what we have now:

Those hanging things are white- and sand-colored shells that go with the other decorations I have in the room.

This is the flower light I have in our dining room now.

They actually give off quite a bit of light; my camera just sucks.

     I finally have my large picture up on the wall that I bought from art.com.  I got it framed and one of our friends helped us bring home from the frame store, and our handyman hung it up for me on our dining room wall.

It's by the artist Ursula Abresch.  She has a lot of abstract art similar to this, but this one spoke to my soul.  It's called "Freedom".

How the dining room looks now.

     Our handyman also installed a cat door in our bedroom door so that Obsidian can go in and out whenever he wants and I can leave the door closed so Little One can't harass him.

Here's Baby Girl trying to coax him through the cat door for the first time, and Little One is just watching.

From the other side.

And lastly, he put up the cat shelves on the living room wall for me.

It took one week, but Obsidian was finally comfortable going up to the top with the carpet padding (Mc had to throw one of his favorite shoelaces up there so he'd chase it).

It took a couple more days, but he's finally sleeping up there.  It makes me happy!

     Those are the visible improvements to our house.  We also had the plumber come over and work on the sinks in our bathrooms so the water no longer smells like dirt.  But we found a big problem when he took a look at the storm drain in the backyard that's been flooding.  He was hoping that maybe the pipes got clogged with dirt or roots, but that's not the case at all.  There are no pipes.  The storm drain doesn't connect to the city's water system.  It doesn't go anywhere!

     That tube there comes from the gutters on the back of our house.  It connects to a hole in that black box, and there's another hole on the other side of the box that's supposed to connect to pipes in our yard that travel downhill and connect to the city's water system underground.  But as you can see, there is no pipe at all on the other side.  It's solid dirt.  So what's been happening for the past 33 years is that the water from the gutters drains into that black box and then just sits there, so the backyard starts to puddle and then flood when it rains too much.  Slowly the water sinks into the earth, but that takes a long time.

     The plumber said we've got three options:

1. The correct way and the best way would be to contact the city, have them tell us where our storm drain should connect to their system, and then lay down the piping for it.  That's also the most expensive option.
2. Put some piping from our storm drain area to the top of the street and install a pump that will pump the water uphill onto the street.
3. Dig a large square hole in the backyard called a drain pit.  Fill the drain pit with gravel and connect it to that storm drain area via a short pipe.  That will help the water dissipate better into the earth and keep the backyard from flooding.

     The plumber got back to me after about a week and told me that the city highly recommended that we go with the drain pit option because connecting the house to the city's system would cost a ton of money.  The plumber said he can build the drain pit for $1,900.  He never told me what the other two options would cost even though I specifically asked him twice for the prices for all 3 options, and $1,900 sounds like way too much money to pay someone to dig a pit in the backyard.  We don't have that kind of money right now, so we're going to shop around for price comparisons and go with the least expensive company in a few months when we've saved up a bit.

     For now I haven't refilled the storm drain hole with its dirt, and I'm just taking a bucket and scooping out some water and dumping it elsewhere on our yard.  That costs no money whatsoever, it's a bit of exercise, and it's more effort than any other owner has put into fixing the problem.

     So yeah, I'm really disappointed with the storm drain, or lack thereof, but I'm very pleased with the interior improvements, and I'm grateful for handymen who enjoy and are willing to do these small projects for less-than-handy homeowners like me.  :)

**Update:  The plumber just got back to me.  The city told him that every place for our storm drain to connect to their system is uphill, so a pump would be required no matter what and the potential for failure is high, so the city wouldn't even quote him a price.  So it looks like because of the slope of our lot, a drain pit will be the only feasible option (which is probably why our storm drain wasn't connected to the city's system in the first place).  We're still going to shop around for price comparisons, but a drain pit is the route we'll eventually take.

My Sister Got Married!

The last of my single siblings got married on Thanksgiving weekend.  We drove straight through from the Seattle area down to the SF Bay Area in one day, and the kids did great!  They did just as well on the all-day ride back as well, and although we won't do that again for a long time, at least we know we can do it.

At one of the rest stops on the way down we saw two foxes.  There were also two black cats that joined them, so I think they hunt together.  I took a picture of them as well, but it was too dark and didn't turn out well.

Thanksgiving Day, Grandpa reading to my kids and one of their cousins.

Pretty Thanksgiving table.  :) I love the plates, they're so festive!

The foodz.

The kids' table.  Next time we get together and the kids are still young, we'll have a few of the grown-ups supervise.

The store-bought veils were way too expensive, so my sister made her own.  It was really pretty.

Outside the Oakland temple where they got sealed.

 Her dress looked fantastic on her!  It's just the style I would've picked for her.  Foofy ballgowns aren't her style and they don't fit her personality; this dress does.  :)

The newlyweds with his family.

Little One in Mc's jacket.  It was a bright clear day and so windy, and everyone was really cold.

 Cousins trying to keep warm.

Pretty pretty pretty.  And cold!

One of my sister's best friends and bridesmaids. My sister was really happy to have her there.

Little One really wanted to spend time with her.  You can't tell here, but his heart was broken when he didn't get to hold her hand when she walked out of the temple.  In all of the family pictures that followed, he's crying in them.  We had him stand next to her and hold her hand for the pictures to help him feel better, and I think that helped a little.  Here she got to spend a one-on-one moment with him.

He likes her a lot, and he felt better after that.

 The view of the Bay Area from the Oakland temple grounds.  You can see all the way across the Bay to San Francisco.  The air doesn't get that clear very often; it was really cool to see.

At the reception.  I was running around the whole reception trying to make sure things got done that my sister wanted done, so I didn't get many pictures.  The ones I did get were of the decorations afterward when we were cleaning up.

Here's the cake.

 That cake was seriously the best-tasting cake I've ever had!  And I've tasted a lot of cake.  ;)  My family is going to be lifelong customers of this cake lady.

The greeting table.

My sister didn't want a wedding book that she's never going to look at, but she and her husband do play Jenga, so the guests signed Jenga blocks instead.  It was a cute idea.

The table centerpieces.

The drink fountain.

Baby Girl eating her cake in my sister's seat at the head table while we cleaned up.

A decoration with pictures of my sister and her husband.  This was next to the receiving line to give the guests something to see while they waited to greet the bride and groom.

The receiving area.  I wish I could've gotten a picture of them standing in front of there; it was really pretty and elegant.  (and that's my other sister in the background helping to clean up).  ;)

Decoration in front of the head table.  I loved the fall decorations.

Those are the pictures I have of my sister's wedding.  If I could do things differently I would've encouraged my family to spend less time and energy on Thanksgiving and to focus more on getting things ready for the wedding.  The food was delicious, but I felt like Thanksgiving took too much of a priority when it's really not that important compared to a wedding, and setting up for the reception ended up being very stressful and it took longer than some of us thought it would.  But things for the wedding turned out pretty well in the end, and I did my best to help my sister take care of things and de-stress.  I love her and I wanted to be there for her on this special day, and I did my best.

I love you, Girly!  <3