christmas vacation

sorta. ive got a few days off these week before working the christmas weekend so ive decided to make list. now whos surprised that i would make a list? no one. and i figure publishing this list online for the world to see will give us some accountability on actually getting the stuff done. right? right...thats what i hope at least. so heres the list of projects to tackle after the holidays (in no particular order)

1. make a bench for the entry way *
2. make a shelf thing for the entry way *
3. make a console table for under the dining room window *
4. prime the upstairs room
5. pick a paint color for the upstairs room & paint it
6. fill last few empty frames in frame wall
7. organize basement storage room/bedroom
8. finish framing new windows *
9. paint window moldings
10. make a "gift wrap" center/door/something

oh yeah, and make a new list of resolutions. or maybe just do one of these projects a month?!? with two months as breaks??? lol who knows...

*da hubs has to do these... hope thats ok with him! hes seeing the list for the first time...just like all of you ;)

christmas at the dells

this past weekend we celebrated an early christmas with the hubs family. we celebrated at the kalahari and had a lot of fun. we were able to spend some quality time with our niece and nephew too. so be prepared, this post is gonna be full of a lot of pictures!

after spending some time at the water park---where the adults had more fun than the little ones---we checked into our room, got settled and started opening up gifts. we all had a great helper in opening gifts too!

then it was time for jim & kelly to go to their employee/board christmas party. while they were having dinner and winning big at the casino games, we went to the arcade. im not sure who had more fun here...the guys or miles! miles got to ride on the carousel, play in a giant soft play zone (kinda like a play area in a mcdonalds or something like that) and ride a huge gorilla.

the guys found a giant connect 4 arcade game. of the 3 or 4 games they played, the hubs won them all. just saying. :) later that night when the little ones were asleep the guys went to some casino nearby. turns out the hubs had better luck in the arcade as he lost his money at the casino and andrew won.

all in all we had a lot of fun just relaxing and spending time together. unfortunately the time flew by way too quickly! but we've already got plans on the next trips here and there so its only a matter of weeks.

homemade pasta

never again. ha.

so decembers resolution is to make homemade pasta. fettuccine alfredo to be exact. why does the recipe always make it look so incredibly easy? why?! ugh. so...homemade pasta. flour and eggs. easy enough.

yah, no. i dont know if i didnt knead the dough long enough or did it too much but turns out when cooked, these noodles were chewy. um no thank you. the hubs said he didnt mind it. i think he was lying. just sayin my opinion.

but again. never again. dah. and i was looking forward to this so much. oh well. guess ill just have to stick to baking. christmas baking :)

christmas decorations

our first christmas in our house.
our first time with our own tree (thanks to some post-christmas sales last year)

i think the pictures are pretty self explanatory.

ps i really love that our tree is pre-lit. probably until a section of the tree burns out. hopefully we will have few years until that happens!

man cave

as mentioned in our last post, we got a nice black friday tv for the man cave. i think that was the final push the hubs needed to hang all his outdoors pictures up. it now doesnt look so blank and looks a bit more homey.