Just what do I do with myself?

The title is the question I’ve been asking myself all week. For the first time in a long time I’ve got Christmas Eve through New Years off of work. This week has been a taste of what it would feel like to be a stay-at-home gal or even working from home. All I can say is “Mrs. C likes!” It’s been a fun week but not very relaxing at all. For though I’ve been off of WORK, I really haven’t stopped working. I’ve just turned my energies into work on the house and all the things that remain on my To Do list for weeks at a time because I can never find the time to get them done.

It’s hard to describe all that’s happened this week. The excitement of clean carpets, hung pictures, balanced bank accounts, organized photos and a painted office doesn’t really translate well via blog. And, it leaves my husband baffled when he asks me what I did all day and I say “oh, stuff”. I think I could spend a lifetime doing this “stuff” and never be done. But, the house is really starting to look nice and feel more organized and that makes a crazy detail-hound like myself rest a little easier at night.

The Office - Before:

The Office - (not quite "After" since we still have some work to do but...) with PAINT:

Eventually I'd like some nice white built in desks/storage.

I'm thinking some canvas prints of some of my photos might look nice here.

After painting the office I fear that Ryan and I have caught The Painting Bug. Something about getting fresh and beautiful color up the walls makes you want more. And, after seeing that fresh, beautiful color on the walls, it’s hard to stand the white. I never thought it possible, but white walls can be terribly depressing. We’ve gotten braver with our color choices and are going to move on to the living room shortly… with a rich espresso brown. I’m terrified and excited at the same time!

Other than that, we’re preparing for the brand new year. 2011! Wow, I still can’t believe it. This week has been an exercise in forming my goals for 2011. I don’t believe in resolutions for lots of reasons, but I strongly believe in goals. I don’t set many time limits. They are 2011 goals, so I just hope to achieve or work on them in 2011. There are no failures, as long as I try. I’m looking forward to sharing some of these in the coming weeks and months. There are some fun ones in there!

Tonight we’re headed out for New Years celebration with the neighborhood. Again, I can’t stress how happy we are to have formed such great friendships with our neighbors. And, this should be an interesting celebration, because as I type this, we’ve just lost power. :)

Christmas # 1

It is so hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone and that 2011 is right around the corner. I remember being in high school, thinking that just a few months after I graduated it was going to be the year 2000 and thinking it was so strange to enter a new century. Now, it feels like I blinked and we’re already over a decade into it. But before I jump that far head, I want to revel in Christmas a bit longer.

This Christmas we headed up to Northern Cal to visit with the in laws. Though it’s always wonderful to take a little journey and spend time with family, Mr. C and I both agreed that it was very difficult to leave our new Home Sweet Home and spend Christmas on the road. It didn’t really settle in until plans were already made that we wouldn’t be spending our first Christmas in our new home. Though we love our family, part of us ached to not be able to start building Christmas traditions in our home. We have already agreed that in 2012, it’s all about staying home for Christmas. I can hardly wait!

On Wednesday night, as I quietly predicted to myself, Mr. C got a “bee in his bonnet” about leaving early. So, instead of heading out on Thursday morning as planned, we packed up the car (which in itself took over an hour – you’ve never seen as much stuff as we crammed into that car, including our dog) and left on Wednesday night… at 9 pm… arriving at 1:30 am on Thursday. Ugh… though it was incredibly exhausting, it WAS nice to wake up in a warm bed that morning after sleeping in very late. Rest was in order and rest is exactly what we did for most of our 4 days in Willows. Jackson served as an example for all of us in that respect. Oh, and Pop too. ;)

 

We did venture out of the house just a few times. The first was the first night, in which we all headed up to Chico to feast a Sierra Nevada Brewing (one of Ry's personal faves and something he'd been craving for a while). It was a wonderful time of laughter and great food.

Dear friends Tim and Amy... Take 1

Take 2 - Tim, we think it's hopless. You are the "Chandler" of photo subjects. ;)

Pop and Mummy - can you see why they make such handsome children?!

The hubbs and the most terrible beer on the planet

Just the two of us

Jenee and friend Chris... he's going the way of Tim with these pics. ;)

Pop, trying the most terrible beer on the planet.

He's a good sport.

The boys also ventured out the next day for a motorcycle ride, taking advantage of a break in the rain, while the gals did some cooking and chatting. Pop got a beautiful new bike and was just itching to go on a ride with his son. They look so cute all geared up and ready to go!

 

Of course, we had to get Jackson out for his daily exercise too. He really enjoyed the fields at Mr. C's old school!

One of our favorite Corum family traditions is the one that happens every Christmas Eve and one that Mr. C. and I have added in as one of our traditions as well...

PIZZA!!!

 

 

 ...and Christmas Eve service, of course!

We awoke on Christmas morning to an absolute mountain of presents. The photo doesn't do it justice. The living room was literally at least half full of stuff!!! The Corums are spoilers, or should I say, their Love Language is Gifting. We were again overwhelmed with their generosity. We had a wonderful time opening gifts, laughing, and building some fun memories. One such involves Mummy and I won't share to spare her the embarrassment but we'll be talking about it for many Christmases to come!

Say CHEESE!!!! :) 

 

Before we knew it, it was all over and time to head home after church the next morning. Mistakenly, we believed that after unloading a car full of gifts in Willows, we would have more room for the drive home. We neglected to remember how much we would be bringing back due to the loving generosity of our family. I do have to say, the only one that truly suffered was poor Jackson...

I've got to hand it to him, he didn't even flinch when the box fell on top of him.

What a truly great and memorable Christmas. Thank you Mummy, Pop and Jenee for taking such good care of us. We're blessed to have such a family. Merry, Merry Christmas.

"Bestie" Christmas Ever

Last night I experienced the incredible joy of celebrating Christmas with my “bestie”. Though this is an annual thing for us, this year we opted to dress up a little bit and head to the fancy pants Depot for dinner. :) The rain kind of threw a wrench in us trying to look elegant and classy and made it even harder to tote around our gifts for each other… but we survived.

We had a great meal and a great time catching up before exchanging gifts. I’ve been dying to give Miss Shells her gift for weeks now and she loved it just as much as I hoped she would. Of course, she rocked me with a slew of wonderful gifts as well.

It’s such an awesome thing in your life to have someone who knows you almost 100%. Someone who can look at you in seconds and realize that something is either gravely wrong or that you are filled with joy. Someone to listen and help you analyze the longest, most drawn out story and be as excited as you are with the little things in life. Miss Shells, you are the best “bestie” a girl could hope for and I wish you the happiest of Christmases. You will always be one of the best gifts in my life.

After we parted ways, Mr. C and I were up until well past midnight baking and preparing for the rest of the week. If you can believe it, that was actually the first time we had baked together. It was fun teaching Mr. C some of my tricks and watching him whip up a yummy Starlight Double Delight Cake (chocolate peppermint cake) while I tried my hand at making a cheesecake. It was the first time in many many years and seeing that my mother in law is the Queen of Cheesecakes, I was not feeling super confident. We haven’t tasted it yet because it’s for our Christmas dinner with neighbors tonight, but I’m crossing my fingers that it will be good. At least the title sounds good… Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake! Right?!