trim up the tree with christmas stuff, like bingle balls and whofoo fluff.

i have been trying to share these photos all week, and blogger/picasa has not been playing nice. but finallyfinally i get to introduce you to my most favorite of Christmas decorations - our tree!  



 

Mark is apparently less than enthused.

 

kidding! Mark was actually very excited to help pick out Harold the Second, he just thought that he was not going to be in the picture with Harold (the second). see? much better. 

 

we drove home from the super festive parking lot/tree lot with Harold (the second) securely secured to the roof, feeling very Christmassey and festive and excited. at home, Mark set up Harold (the second) in his tree stand while i napped. and then he sat there just like that for an entire week. (Harold, not Mark) just a plain ol' pine tree, chillin in the living room. and let me just tell you, an undecorated Christmas tree is not very Christmassey - its really just kind of sad. i didnt even take any pictures of it, thats how sad it is.

 

so a week later, after i gave Harold (the second) plenty of time to settle and adjust to his new holiday home, (and also because i finally found 20 minutes of free time all in a row) it was time to decorate! our tree decorating routine is pretty standard: just colored lights, and our eclectic mish-mash of yearly ornaments that we have collected over the years. i accidentally bucked a tradition of opening our Christmas ornaments for the year on Christmas Eve - i was just so excited about putting them on the tree! we picked up this years' ornaments on our European travels. a mini-Eiffel Tower from France... 

...and a Venetian mask from Italy. neither of these were technically designed to be ornaments, but they were easily modified with a little bit of fishing line and sparkly silver cord. i love these because i think they're some of the best souveniers i have ever brought back from a trip. instead of being packed away forever in storage or lost and forgotten somewhere, these will get to be displayed every year and remind us of the awesome trip we took this year.

another super exciting thing on our tree this year: snowflakes! my mom crocheted me a set of my very own snowflakes, AND an angel tree topper. apparently i hinted last year that i might like some - i totally forgot that i ever said that, and was super surprised and excited when Mom pulled them out of her suitcase at Thanksgiving! they are wonderful and beautiful and they make my tree look fantastic and i love them and i know my sisters are super jealous so i'm not going to rave about them anymore. but just look how pretty!

 

wanna see Harold (the second) all decked out? of course you do. here he is in the daytime:

 

 

and here he is at nighttime:  

 

 

yup, its official: 'tis definitely the season for sitting in the dark living room just reveling in all of the magic and joy by the light of the tree.

 



meal plan monday: dec 10.

i love a good weekend. i really love a great weekend. and this was a really great weekend.

reason the first: my BFITW. she called me a couple weeks ago and said "it has been too long since we have been together. i am coming to your house." and it was awesome. we hung out, we shopped, we got our nails done, we ate Chipotle with friends, we continued our picture day tradition, we mailed Christmas cards, we watched Despicable Me, we laughed A LOT. because apart from my sisters, there's no one who understands me like this girl. she is the best.

reason the second: Christmas decorations. we've had our tree for a week, and it sat undecorated in our living room, just being a plain-ol' pine tree for a full seven days. but now it is finally decorated and beautiful. also: lights on the porch, nativity on the mantle, christmas dishes in the cupboard, sparkly ornaments in the lamps, and a big bow on the door. its beginning to look a lot like Christmas all over my house.

reason the third: zero obligations. no bathrooms to work on. no deadlines to meet. no schedule, no stress, no nothing. just whatever we wanted to do, whenever we wanted to do it. this was the first weekend we've had in a while that was just easy breezy go with the flow and i absolutely loved it!

it was fun, it was productive, it was relaxing. pretty much perfection.
(insert clever transition here)
so this is what we're going to be eating this week:

Monday: soup from a can.
Tuesday: grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Wednesday: crock pot roast, potatoes, veggies.
Thursday: tilapia with rice and a veggie.
Friday: dinner out before the Christmas play.
Saturday: Christmas party at Dutcher's.
Sunday: Cynthia's birthday party.

seasonally confused.

Christmas music on the radio. brown leaves falling in the backyard. 70 degrees and sunny last tuesday. will someone please tell me what season this is supposed to be?!?

it would appear that my front door is just as confused about the changing seasons as mother nature: we're rocking our colorful spring welcome sign, the remnants of summer flowers, a fantabulous little fall wreath, and our adorable new winter welcome mat.

welcome to our house: where we're either completely incompetent at seasonal home accessories, or complete geniuses who never have to redecorate... or maybe a little of both.

a song for you this christmas.

**to the tune of "Nuttin' for Christmas"**

you're gettin' nuttin' for Christmas,

me and my husband are mad.

we can buy nuttin' for Christmas,

'cause cars are expensive and sad.

the tires on my car are dead -

that's a lot of money.

i'd rather buy presents instead -

but winter roads are slippy.

i'd like to buy you all nice things -

fast sports cars and diamond rings -

but how about some water wings,

or samples i got for free?

OH you're gettin' nuttin' for Christmas,

me and my husband are mad.

we can buy nuttin' for Christmas,

'cause cars are expensive and sad.

mark got new tires on his car too -

woot! even more money!

then he nearly hit a stopping queue,

which is really not funny.

he almost smashed up his car's hood -

side mirror lost swerving into the woods* -

at least we know his brakes are good -

so we'll fix that too, honey.

 

SO you're gettin' nuttin' for Christmas,

we hope that you aren't really mad.

we're buyin' you nuttin' for Christmas,

'cause our cars are expensive and sad.

 

(ok so maybe this isnt all entirely true. yes, we've had to put new tires on both our cars and Mark did knock off his side mirror avoiding a rear-end collision, but we are still giving Christmas presents this year. just dont hold your breath for that fancy fur hat you love, or be disappointed that we didnt get you a new iPhone7.)

*it was actually a wooden sign post, but i took a little artistic license with the story for the sake of rhyming.  

oh deer.

i am not a hunter. never have been, probably never will be. i can shoot a gun, but only at stationary targets. my activities on the first day of deer season are much more likely to include tshirt decorating, movies, and cupcakes, rather than sitting in the cold woods. 

like my mom, i think that if hunting were more like catch-and-release fishing, i might be more into it. i would enjoy the hunt, get a thrill from lining up my shot and pulling the trigger, and be excited if i hit what i was aiming for... but at the end of the day, i just wouldnt want to have a dead animal to deal with.

i think the deer in my neighborhood might have figured this out. here are five of them that greeted me at my front door yesterday morning, and then hung around in the back yard long enough for me to get their picture:

since i dont have anything really alive in any of my flowerbeds, you're nice and safe in my yard for now little deers... until catch-and-release hunting becomes a legit thing. then you better watch out.

meal plan monday: dec 2.

so, did anyone miss my meal planning post for last week? oh right, no one actually reads this series. well it turns out that i really did miss it. i didnt have any meals planned beyond tuesday when the fam flew home, so even though i picked up some groceries, it still felt like we had no food in the house all last week. it also didnt help that i had zero motivation to cook anything. so no lie we ate leftovers, omelettes, and soup from a can all week long. is it bad to think "well, we survived" is an ok reason to classify a week as a success?

here's hoping i can shake off my post-holiday food funk this week and actually make us something tasty and healthy and not straight from a can.

Monday: breaded tilapia with rice.
Tuesday: crock pot chicken enchilada soup. (recipe)
Wednesday: grilled chicken on spinach salad.
Thursday: spinach chicken alfredo pizza. (recipe)
Friday: taco salad.
Saturday: lasagna and salad.
Sunday: grilled cheese and tomato soup.

operation knock-down drag-out: week 13.

well, we took it right down to the wire, but the bathroom got done before Thanksgiving! sure, Mark was adding the finishing touches and cleaning all the construction mess while i was en route to  the airport to pick up my mom, dad, and brother, but by the time we got to the house, the bathroom was looking something like this:

everything is done done done done done! and the best part is that in its inaugural weekend it has survived the use and abuse of 9 people for 4 days (mostly) unscathed. there is still a teeny tiny leak in the shower that needs to be addressed, but Mark is confident that its an issue within the fixture itself and not with any of the plumbing that's behind the walls. 

speaking of the shower, remember how i mentioned last week that we bought the wrong showerhead? turns out its harder than we thought it would/should be to find a showerhead that swivels, and we actually bought the wrong showerhead two more times before we found the right one. fourth times the charm? note to future self: the Depot tends to have a better selection of building materials, but Lowes has the better selection of the finishing touches.

did you notice the shelves i finally finished? i can't take the creativity credit for these, since i totally stole the project idea from a pinterest link, but i think they look fabulous in my bathroom. they gave me an excuse to play with power tools and make a sawdusty mess, and i only needed Mark's help a little at the very end, so i'm pretty proud of them.

the shelves are almost entirely decorative at this point, but could at some point be used to hold some more useful stuff. for now, on the top shelf i have a framed free printable that i found through pinterest, and a fake starfish that i cleaned up after i found it in the flowerbed by my mailbox last week. 

on the bottom shelf, there is a glass container from walmart that holds q-tips, an empty metal bucket from ikea, and a bear-shaped bar of soap that my mom brought from Yellowstone.

also on the bottom shelf is the old beer bottle that we found under the old tub during the demolition phase of this project. yes, i know its totally random and weird and it might make us seem like crazy alcoholics who keep their beer stashed all over the house, but this bottle had lived in this room for the past 29 years and i just feel like it would be wrong for it to live anywhere else.

there are not enough words to express just how good it feels to have this room completely finished and functional. Mark has declared this to be the last major house project for the year, which is a good thing since i've already managed to fill almost every weekend from now until next year with various sorts of holiday fun that does not include power tools or plumbing or renovating anything. this is it, folks. for now.

trips to Home Depot: this week - 3. total - 24.
trips to Ace: this week - 0. total - 2.
trips to Lowes: this week - 3. total - 10.

times Amanda has cried over this project: this week - 0. total - 3.
times Amanda has cried in Home Depot: this week - 0. total - 0.

days until Thanksgiving: -7. and i miss everyone already.

total cost of bathroom reno: $2210. and worth every penny.