Twas the night before the night before Christmas...

And I am officially sick of sugar. Ugh.

Pecan balls, buckeyes, no-bake cookies, cherry cake, watergate salad..... Oh man, it's too too much. I've been a baking fiend lately, making more cookies and cakes this week than I have all year. Maybe in the last *two* years.

 It's been really enjoyable and nostalgic, baking all of my favorite treats from childhood. But, I've reached my limit. I'm so sick of sugar that by the time I finished my last batch of pecan balls, I couldn't even bring myself to sample one. I had to make Matt do it.

But, all is well. All of the sweetness will be headed down to Thornton tomorrow with us for our traditional Christmas Eve celebration. I'm really looking forward to it. We do a big spread of appetizers, have some wine, and watch Frankie run around excited out of her mind about Santa. This year, my dad & Olga are going to be in town for the holidays, and I'm really looking forward to that too.

It's funny... Being a parent really has changed my perspective on Christmas. Honestly, I don't care at all about my own enjoyment. I just want Frankie to have fun. I want to see all the Christmas magic reflected through her eyes. I'm so looking forward to her waking me up at dawn, and seeing the look on her face as she sees the presents under the tree for the first time. And all those darn cookies? Honestly, I made them for her. She probably won't even eat a bite of any of those goodies, but it doesn't matter. I still want her to be around all of the things I loved when I was a kid. I want to start building Christmas memories for her that stack up and overlap with my own.

Sounds sappy to say it out loud, but it's all true.

Or maybe it's just the sugar talking?

Cookies!

Lazy Sunday

Today is the first day in a long time that Matt & I haven't had some sort of house project to do. It's a nice change of pace, but we're almost at a loss to figure out what to do with ourselves.

Frankie and Matt started out with a few "Science Sunday" activities. They got out their experiment kit and made "oobleck," vinegar/baking soda volcanic reactions, and a bunch of other fun stuff.

Now, I'm baking cookies to decorate with Frankie, and when Matt gets home from the grocery store, he plans on showing Frankie how to make bread. Then, he has some sort of gourmet dinner planned involving risotto and beef roulade.

It's a really nice, relaxing day. But... Shouldn't we be painting walls and patching concrete or something??

Tah Dah!

Embrace the brown-ness.

In progress...

Old wall:

In progress:



New color:

Matt's taking off the final masking right now. As soon as we get the room back together, I'll post a "ta dah!" picture.

Goodbye, Ol' Red

When the house stager walked through the house, she made it clear that the major problem with our decor (other than our shocking lack of towel bars) was the red color on the walls in the living room. She seemed pretty convinced that a red wall is the kiss of death when it comes to selling a house. So, away it goes.

It's too bad, really, because I actually liked the way the living room looked before we started up all these changes. Actually, it's like every change the stager asked us to make brings me closer to the point where I don't recognize my own style in the house anymore. The realtor and stager want the house "depersonalized" to the point that it doesn't seem like anyone actually lives here. I guess that's the point, right? Still, it's hard to live in a house when I don't really like how it's decorated. Ah, well. I suppose it's just temporary. I'll deal.

Anyhow, the red wall removal is going down this weekend. Matt's parents came up to help out with the project, and I ended up assigned the cushy job of taking care of Frankie (read: keeping Frankie out of the way) while the painting's underway. I didn't even have to lift a single brush today. Frankie and I watched a movie, went to an indoor playplace, did a little shopping, and basically stayed out of the house for six hours. So... that's pretty great. Tomorrow, I'll get my hands dirty and be Matt's assistant while Frankie hangs out at her grandparents' house, but today all I had to do is sit back and watch the magic unfold. Yay, Coles! Your tireless work ethic and attention to detail is a thing of beauty.

Busy, busy, busy!

It's a flurry of activity around here.

We're moving ahead with plans to sell the house, and had a "house stager" come in to give the place a once over. I have to say, I don't think I was prepared for the sheer amount of criticisms she was going to have about the way the house looked.

The quibbles she had with the way furniture was laid out weren't too painful, but when she started in about all of the nit-picky details concerning the upkeep and general cleanliness of the house, it started to sting.

Chipped paint, dirty grout, dusty baseboards... All of her criticisms were warranted, but me feel like I've been forcing my family to live infilth. It's embarassing to be told by a total stranger that the inside of my over isn't clean enough. And, we don't have a towel bar in the master bedroom? WE'RE LIVING LIKE ANIMALS!!!!