Christmas Countdown

I haven't gone Black Friday shopping since Jason died.  The past several years, I have found lots of great deals online and have done most of my shopping that way.  Later in the day on Black Friday, I went into Bed Bath and Beyond to get something.  I did stumble on this toaster oven that I had my eye on for our new home (we are not installing a microwave) and snatched this guy up.  My mom was wanting to give us a little house warming gift so she paid me back for it. It was by far the best price I have seen.  

We really went back and forth about getting Christmas stuff down this year.  We close on our house on Dec 16 and will lease back until Jan 13.  We have so much to do between now and then and it didn't make sense to drag a lot of stuff out.  I had a hard time not getting ANYTHING out because it wouldn't feel like Christmas.  So, Shawn and I agreed that we could do our tree and stockings only.

Watching a little Home Alone before we decorate.

My house is small so we have always done just one large tree.  And that tree is a hodge podge of handmade and random ornaments.  And I love it.  I look forward to getting them all out each year. Next year, I figure we will have a "pretty" tree as well but I know this will always be my favorite.

The house seems so bare since we didn't get other decorations out.  But I know I will be glad once we really start packing up.

Our inspection on our current home went amazing.  They found nothing wrong.....in fact, the inspector told us that in his 3 years of doing this, our home was in the top 5.  The buyers didn't ask for any repairs and our home appraised for what it needed to.  I am still blown away at how smooth the entire thing went.  

In our new house.....they are staining and painting this week.

I'm excited to see these beams all finished.

Gotta love when you see the workers do this to your living room walls.  I know this is a construction zone......but its still our house.  The worst so far has been to discover that one of the trades peed all in our master bath shower.  So disgusting!

December 1 always marks the return of our elf.  Cooper has been so excited for his day.  I know this will be the last year that he "believes" because he got back up last night after we tucked him in and asked "are you sure that you don't have Cronko tucked somewhere in your closet?"  Ha!

We didn't get down our usual "countdown to Christmas" stuff so we used this Lego Advent countdown. Each day, he gets to push open the box and find a little Lego character to build.  He got dressed really fast and ran into the kitchen.......first he found Cronko and then he went to the calendar.  Messy head and all!