Christmas House: Part 1

Happy Monday!

This weekend we made a ton of headway on our Christmas decorating and also the overall organization of our house. After 6 months, we've learned what we use most and what we're ok leaving in storage. Finally, after all that time, we've started using the attic! Our 'sunroom' is looking excellent, and I'm glad we got some of the junk we had lying around put away/donated before our parents come next month.

Because I love a good list, here's what we accomplished:

-Bought a new ladder (for $20 marked down from $40 at Lowe's)

-Blew off the roof, sun porch, and front porch

-Got all of the autumn decorations labelled and put away

-Put up the Christmas lights (on the roof and around the banisters)

-Organized the sun porch and moved things inside, to the attic, and into a giveaway pile

-Gave away the things in the giveaway pile

-Put up and decorated the Christmas tree

-Dressed Jack in his Christmas sweater!

On Saturday we got up and ran a couple of errands. Things were surprisingly calm around town, and we finished up early and got some great deals. We also gave ourselves just enough time to get hungry, so we decided to ask Scoutmob for a recommendation. 

That's how we found Sushi Itto, which just so happened to be less than 5 minutes out of our way. I've mentioned before that Thomas and I don't eat seafood--any, at all--but that we LOVE veggie sushi. We do get some strange looks when we order all veggie entrees, but it's totally worth it.

We shared the Yasai Roll (left) and the Avocado Roll (right). The Yasai (tempura vegetable) roll was absolutely the best sushi I've ever had--it was crispy, flavorful, and generally delicious. Thomas also had a small salad, and we ended the meal both pleasantly full, all for only $13 including tip. CHA-CHING.

The rest of the day was spent doing household chores and decorating. It took us quite a while to put up all our blow-up yard decor, my favorite of which is the light up yeti (we got 12 for good measure).

Just kidding!

Seriously though, we did decorate quite a bit. Our big accomplishments this weekend were the outside lights and the putting up the Christmas tree.

Not quite Clark Griswold's place, but we're satisfied!

 Look how intently he's concentrating.

I'm also looking pretty serious.

Finally, we placed the star ever so carefully on the tip top of the tree.

And Dahoo Dores! We even have two presents already.

Here's baby Jack dog looking adorable.

And, again, in his Christmas sweater.

As the time neared to put up the Christmas decorations, I started to worry about Charlotte's potential reaction to the Christmas tree. I've owned quite a few cats over the course of my life, and all of them have had varied reactions to a huge tree suddenly appearing in the house. Those reactions have included: nothing, playing with/breaking the ornaments, climbing the tree, knocking down the tree, and even peeing on on the tree skirt. And that's why I was concerned.

Charlotte enjoys high places, so I was concerned that she might be a Christmas tree climbing sort. The full extent of her behavior has yet to be seen, but so far she has already been playing with some of the low hanging ornaments (don't worry--they're plastic) and obsessively skritching around on the tree skirt. I wouldn't be shocked if we came home to find the tree on it's side at some point...but worst case scenario, we just pick that sucker back up!

Next weekend will be dedicated to Christmas crafts, so I'll be posting some fun tutorials soon!

-Kinsey