WHEW!! The holidays have a way of wearing one out, don't they? Our Christmas was the usual whirlwind of activity shuttling between Pennsylvania and Maryland, but oh, how thankful we were that our journey didn't start in Virginia as it used to. There's nothing quite like D.C. traffic to turn a girl into Scrooge.
We spent a lovely and quiet Christmas Eve with Jon's family where we stayed up late playing Apples to Apples and Pictionary, both of which I managed to win, the former all by myself and the second with my "incredibly good interpreter of stick figures" sister-in-law. She's due with her second child in January so that was probably the last time we'll see her before Jake arrives! I finally got to feel him kick, which I believe is the first time I've ever felt a baby quick. It's so crazy and amazing to know there's a little person floating around inside that belly!
We drove back to Maryland on Saturday afternoon to celebrate Christmas with my parents and sister. It was a madhouse of dogs, with Lola, my parent's two dogs and my sister's three dogs, plus the one she was fostering for the weekend. Love for animals runs deep in my family! Unfortunately, the rest of our weekend was marked by a minor flood in my parent's basement thanks to the two feet of melting snow.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it forced my parents to go through all of the old boxes and junk that's been collecting in their basement since moving there in 1998. My parents have some serious hoarding saving tendencies and this was a long time coming. We ended up having four carloads of donations for Goodwill, with many more soon to follow! Thankfully, our moving boxes are stored in a different section of the basement so they escaped the flood.
And in case you forgot (since I haven't mentioned it in what, a week?), we finally settle on our house tomorrow! We're both so anxious to get the renovations started and have already met with our general contractor to discuss the plans. Jon and I will be doing most of the demolition ourselves (the fun part!) and will leave the more complicated stuff like plumbing and electrical work to the professionals. Don't worry, I'll be taking a ton of pictures along the way, especially since Jon bought me a replacement camera battery charger for Christmas after I lost the original charger. Ooh la la, the romance, it is alive!
(He did get me some really wonderful Christmas gifts, including a Le Creuset large risotto pot*, a wicker basket for my vintage beach cruiser and charcoal gray Chuck Taylors! My baby is good.)
EDITED TO ADD: Julie, this piece was in Dijon (yellow), my second favorite of the Le Creuset colors. (Jon bought it at the Le Creuset outlet where the Caribbean color isn't carried quite yet.) However, the rest of my collection is in the Caribbean color...it's my favorite!
