This Year's Advent Preparations

Everything is different for our Advent season this year, so it has taken more time for me to get things prepared. We hosted Thanksgiving as we do every year for Eli's family, and as usual I had a To-Do list a mile long that I "had" to finish before people came. It's good because things get done; not good because I was already tired and pushing myself that hard wiped me out. So I limped into Advent lame.

Eli loves the Christmas season and all the trimmings that come with it, so he wants the house decorated as soon after Thanksgiving as possible. Even with his promptings I didn't get much done until this past week. Our artificial Christmas tree was one of the casualties of the basement flooding last summer, so we had to order a new one. We chose a 7.5 foot artificial pre-lit tree...stringing lights is a dreaded task for me every year. The tree came surprisingly a week ahead of schedule. It's exciting having the room for such a big tree! Last summer we had envisioned buying a real tree, but it's a huge bonus right now not having to vacuum up needles, keep it watered, or worry about such a mess if it tips over. 

For an Advent story we've been reading from "Charlie and Noel: an Advent Calendar Story." The boys said we needed to get a "Noel" stuffed donkey like the one in the story; today a friend from church had St. Nicholas bags for all the kids and guess what was in Ian's!

This year I decided to make a "Jesse Tree" with the boys as an Advent countdown. This too we started late, about a week into Advent, but we caught up and it's something the boys look forward to every day. I found a little rustic tree at a thrift store last year for $4, and repurposed it this year for our Jesse tree. I ordered the  Jesse Tree Advent Adventure DVD from Holy Heroes  that includes printable ornaments for the boys to color, cut out, and hang on the tree every day. Every day they also watch a video story from the Bible of a person from the family tree of Jesus (hence the "Jesse tree", as Christ is the "stem of Jesse").  

Beside the Jesse Tree is our Advent wreath, and the manger awaiting the Baby Jesus. Unfortunately this year we didn't do our traditional sacrifices and good deeds to earn soft things to put in the manger for Jesus; all the strips of fabric were ruined in the basement flood as well and I didn't get around to finding new scraps. I'm sure there is a variation of this we could do in lieu of "soft things" but my imagination evades me lately. 

Our nativity scenes are up and also awaiting the Baby Jesus! The colored set lost some paint in the flood, but it'll do for now. Poor St. Joseph and the ox have bald spots.

Also exciting is that we now have a place to hang stockings! Eli made this mock fireplace mantle shelf at my request last month. It was his first woodworking project and it turned out great! Next on my To-Do list: make nice stockings for everyone.

I braved the cold when I was feeling a bit more energetic and hung some garland and lights (and the pinecones from our front porch last year) on the railing of our balcony.

The snow has made it feel so much more Christmas-like out, and I have to say I get as excited as the boys when the flurries start flying. There's also a greater sense of peace of mind now that Eli only has five minutes to drive to work, and his new work vehicle has 4-wheel drive. I'm excited for our first Christmas in our new home!

Bathroom Updates-Part I

Before Thanksgiving we made some progress on our bathroom updates. As the only bathroom in this house, and one that is smaller than many walk-in closets, creative changes were necessary for it to function for all six of us.

The original towel bar (the only one in the room) could only hold one bath towel and one hand towel. Towels ended up on the floor most of the time. It was the first thing to go (along with the original light switch cover, which was wallpapered with the same country blue and pink heart wallpaper). Little did I know the towel bar was anchored to the wall, leaving nickel-sized holes in the plaster when removed.

My Mom, God bless her, spent two days tearing and scraping the rest of the wallpaper off the walls. There were two layers of wallpaper; I'm guessing the blue dated to sometime in the the 80's, and the pink/orange/green flowered and striped stuff from the 60's or 70's. Something my Grandma Mahoney said when she wallpapered most of the downstairs walls in their house kept coming to mind: "Wallpaper covers a multitude of sins." Oh yes it does.

If I had a time machine, I would love to see what the square tile looked like that made up the wainscoting in the bathroom so many years ago. As it was, removing the wallpaper uncovered multiple layers of paint: dark teal, pink, mint green, and yellow before succumbing to the wallpaper. And of course, there was still some grout still stuck on there for good measure. It's hard to believe someone would rip out tile in favor of cheap gold-marbled waterproof paneling.

Above the shower I ran out of spackling (and time) to patch all the cracks and holes in the plaster. I did take the time to knock some plaster off the chimney. Eventually I'll remove all the plaster on the bricks and seal them, leaving the chimney exposed. The paint I used is the gray I decided not to paint the kitchen. It works so much better in the bathroom!

Through this winter hopefully Eli will be able to get the rest of the beadboard installed.We had saved to update other things in the bathroom, and then one Suburban needed both front and rear ball joints replaced, and the other Suburban needed a new gas tank. So the plan is to next year replace:

the toilet,

the flooring with this basketweave tile (yes, good thing the bathroom is so small!)

The vanity lighting with this schoolhouse fixture:

The ceiling fixture with this schoolhouse pendant:

And the vanity with one of these:  

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