Same Tree.

Wanted to include the girls' journal versions of our Christmas tree this year. Same pine, but it is obvious that one artist focused on the hanging ornaments while the other made certain to include the empty spaces between branches! And, Paige's detail of the lights hung outside was just too great to not include. Always fun to experience the holidays through their explained perspectives.

Beast of a Scraggly Pine

The past several years we've gone the Home Depot route for our Christmas tree. It's live. It's convenient. But, not wanting to wait another several weeks to ensure that the needles won't drop off in mass before the actual holiday...we wanted to try to cut our own. Figured that would ensure it to be fresh.

Ideally, we want to someday head into the mountain snow and find our own. But, we hadn't planned enough to race out for a permit. So, next option - a cut-your-own lot. Google came up with several places in Layton. Close! We loaded into the truck and headed up.

The lot certainly wasn't picture-perfect. I cropped the city powerlines and loud street from the pictures. We paced around a large house...checked their front and back yards...(while Paige chased a roaming housecat and peeked over chickenwire at a coop)...and returned to the first pine we had liked...Matt went to it with a small saw...(like how returning the saw became a way to keep Paige at arm's length?!)...and we were back on the highway with tree in tote. Kind-of a bizarre hour, really.

Sounds like we jumped a fence and stole someones personal tree, tho it wasn't that impersonal. We saw the man who had taken the time to let the trees grow wild on his property. We heard the girl handing over the saw explain that she was earning a percentage off each tree's price and putting it toward college. Those interactions were good. BUT, I doubt we'll go this route again next year.

The opinions of our pine are mixed: Matt loves it! In his words, "it is a ferocious beast of a scraggly pine." I like it. It is not super fresh nor smelly...but it has yet to drop needles and holds some great Charlie Brown character. And, I like that it completes the festive look with the new lights lining the house outside and the garland lining the front door! Paige likes it. She likes anything that can contain lights and hanging bling. Meg hates it. In her words, "it is the barest tree we ever had!" She gave Matt's explanation of it being better to have more places to hang things a chance, tho it made no logical sense to her that less branches means more hanging places. Ah well, can't please everyone. Tyler enjoys it. He has shaken the bells and tasted the candycane look-alikes, but beyond that has left it alone. Perhaps this year it will remain decorated from top to bottom!

Noodles before the Ornaments

This weekend, the second day in a row with my family found us at Rich and Dixie's helping with the annual decorating of their Christmas tree. Always having a good time there, it is sometimes hard to pick a favorite moment among the chaos. Could be:

the overwhelming amount of outside lights upon driving up,

the many musical, moving decorations,

the family eating together,

the reminiscing while pulling out past ornaments,

the sweetness of the next generation helping,

the company,

the conversations,

or, the post-tree desserts!

Potentially, any of those hold reason to be the year's favorite bit...

BUT, my favorite part of this decorating night came BEFORE the party started.
This year, the noodles rank higher than the ornaments on my favorites list!

This year, I did what I have been meaning to do for several years. Knowing the Rich would be making his requested/annual chicken noodle soup, I asked if I could come in the afternoon and peek over his shoulder to learn the tricks. Getting there and seeing that he had the ingredients lining the counter waiting for me, listening to him explain the whats and whys, watching him pause while Dixie cut in with a question, writing rough guessimates of what he was adding to his dough, learning unknown details of how he got the recipe from watching his grandmother "back in the olden days when this soup was made as the day-after-Thanksgiving meal" and how he loved to cook from his days as an army chef, and sitting for a calm visit (sans kids) while he sat shredding the meat from the chicken...THAT was the highlight of my time this year! Now, with a recipe and bottle of his garden-grown sage in hand, there is hope of my ability to repeat his infamous noodles! Perhaps, in several years, his soup will become my family's after-Thanksgiving or while-hanging-ornaments meal?

Thanksgiving (at my house!)

Thanksgiving was at my parents' this year.
It was just as laid-back and nice as I'd expected! Three of the four girls were there. Rich and Dixie joined us.

Rachel came with Diet Coke in hand. Tyler came with Dragon stories to tell...

With my youngest sis at her in-laws, my three were all that filled the small "kid's table." As for the adults table, it was arranged in a square and made for good conversation and laughter (over Scott's chocolate pie, mostly). Even though Matt and I look odd standing in the back for the camera's self-timer, I'm glad to have gotten all of our group in a shot...

After the eating, there was some relaxing with Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" in the background. Wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Dad turning that on and letting the long song run in its entirety! Always fun to be home around familiar sounds, smells, and faces.

Bathroom: Before and AFTERS!

We did it. We are finished. We are done! The idea-turned-project of remodeling the "green" bathroom into something much more inviting and modern is complete. Hallelujah! In just under three (seemingly long) months, we got to the long-awaited point of hanging the art and lining up the linens! An even more exciting point than the demolition, the holes, the flat walls, the tile, and the vanity work.

I know pride is labeled as bad. But I think being proud of something that came from your own sweat and sore back is in a different field. Sure, the square footage of this room remains small and "cozy." But the space is beautiful. The space is ours. Truly ours. From thought, to manual labor, to look in the end! Of making something just how we wanted it...and in knowing there is great quality behind everything we're surrounded by...and in not going into debt to do it, we do stand proud.

So scroll down. See the difference. Taken purposely from the same angles, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

I can't help but peek around and love the carefully selected details. The joy is in the details:

(Matt would settle for nothing less than MOEN. I would settle for nothing different than using black for the fixtures.)

(Round mirror. Round details on the light fixture. Perhaps led to a circle overload, but I still like them.)

(Again, black details.)

(Open-shelf, shaker-style vanity!)

(Textures and tile.)

(A small splash of color in a live plant!)

(Round mirror reflecting art on the opposite wall.)

(A new block of Scentsy smell ready to go.)

Today was the final day for Tyler to shadow the work in this room! Again, hallelujah! He'll have to pretend something with his own plastic tools...because Matt hit the point of claiming, "I'll never do tile again" and I hit the point of NOT wanting to see the doors of the Home Depot or Lowe's again! Both Matt and I will be completely alright with walking down the hall, peeking in, smiling, and then just sitting on the couch (or me in the tub) and doing nothing! For a while. A very long while...

{huge sigh of relief!}