Had Ourselves A Merry Little Christmas

Season's Greetings! I know it's been ages, and honestly I have no other excuse for not posting than "it's the holidays", which does sound pretty lame. But I really have been busy with other things, namely: taking small boys sledding, baking, cleaning like crazy for all those non-existent guests that just might show up unannounced over the weekend, decorating for Christmas, soapmaking, ornament making, still more cleaning, visiting relatives, observing Advent, and the tireless creation of more than 20 unique knit hats. I thought I would never finish those in time, to tell the truth. Now that all that's past, I can try to catch you up on our seasonal celebrations through pictures. Here we go!I did some Thanksgiving baking (mmm, pink lady apples make the best pie!)And we saw the lights display at Layton City Park G tried valiantly to watch the Ogden Christmas Parade over the heads of big people (some of whom were less than kindly)We took a break from the cold to see the fabulously free Christmas Tree Jubilee at the Eccles Center (this was my favorite, duh)A was enthralled by the miniature version of Union Station (complete with running train) at the Ogden Christmas VillageWhile G loved the polar bear tea with disco ballAnd we got to take our Christmas card photo in the snow for the first timeAt our church Advent craft fair, A got to be creative painting popsicle stick snowmenG made a paint-splatter glass ornament (horrors!) The new kitten, Fafnir, ogled the crap out of our upstairs Christmas treeWhich was almost as tall as our 9' ceilingsI got to decorate our very own mantel (another first)We got a little snow....Which turned into a lot of snow, and led to us being housebound for Christmas Eve dinnerLuckily I had chocolate cheesecake and blueberry port to console me I took a glamour shot of the tree (with a little help from our friend Vaseline)Then I turned on The Flying W Wranglers "A Cowboy Christmas"And the boys engaged in some festive dancingWe went outside to see the fresh snowAfter which everyone got verrrry sleepyChristmas morning dawned frosty and beautifulSanta had delivered lots of goodiesThe cats were a bit cranky about us opening what they felt were THEIR presentsThey did calm down after receiving homemade cat toys The wrapping carnage got pretty scaryAnd ungodly amounts of candy were consumedSome of us snuck away to sleep before....We headed off to Grandma's house for more gift-giving!And lots of affectionate exchangesPoor Sheila cowered in hopes that we would finish cluttering up her houseA discovered his 2 foot tall penguin made a good chairLater we took a few runs on the nearby sledding hillAnd A refused to sled with anyone but me (awww)
Christmas Day ended with a classic Wasatch Front sunset

More Pictures #3

Another set of interior photos from the first floor:

Living room and front door from dining room

Hallway off dining room leads to first floor bath. I believe it also opens to the den and the back bedroom.

Front window in den, currently used as a 6th bedroom. We'll probably use it for one until we can get the basement free of mold, put in new drywall.

Back bedroom, with a walk-in closet under the stairs to 2nd floor. This will be our guest bedroom, and the closet will lose some space to an enlarged pantry sometime in the future.

2nd floor stairs off the sun porch, I'm really not sure what to make of these. It looks like there was storage underneath at some point, hopefully once the carpet is gone I can get a better visual.

More Pictures #2

Stuck at home with a fluish child today, so I'm posting more of the house pics.
Exterior of rear dormer. Lots of painting and flashing to do here, neat shingle pattern though.
Exterior of sun porch off kitchen. That covered entry bothers me for some weird reason. I'll have to see if it looks better with paint, or else just replace it outright.
Close-up of the lovely paint job on the sun porch. Obviously the door to the walk-out basement will have to be replaced.
Rear yard view from the house. Nice size for us, with a little grooming. The dead tree will be first to go.
Close-up of the garage, showing why the tree is a problem. Waaay too close to the garage, and definitely causing some damage. We'll need to do some mortarwork and probably replace the roof.

More Pictures #1

There's probably going to be a lot of waiting for the next few weeks, what with the short sale and all. So in lieu of elevator music, here are more pictures of the house. I'll do these in installments to keep things going. I may also post some rough plans, and more color pics. Our interior choices for most of the house are pretty solid now. Enjoy!

This is upper bedroom No. 1. Note the lovely peach color and unfinished closets. We'll probably turn this into the master bedroom, with some tweaking.

The upstairs bathroom screams 80's, but at least it's a good size for a future master bath.

the No. 2 bedroom, in the front gable, has the weirdest paint scheme b/c of the color switches. Ideally, we'll be turning this into a sleeping porch and screening it in. Then we can re-use the gorgeous window on our master bedroom.

The loft area is currently a kitchenette, all that's going bye-bye. Not sure yet what to do about the furnace chimney enclosure, this area is kind of open for ideas.
The loft dormer overlooks the rear yard, and I can't think of a better place for a deep windowseat. I might add some built-in shelves as well. Looks like the perfect place to curl up with a good book.