(not) Catching Up

I haven't reviewed my movies or books for a long time (right side of blog). Instead of trying to catch up on everything, I'll just do the last couple and move forward. Enjoy.

The Holidays

I haven't had much blogging time, so I'm just going to do a quick photo recap of Christmas.

Zombie Dice was a fun new game that Santa brought our family.

We also got Star Wars for the Kinnect.

Rick got a new tennis racquet.

Rick's dad spent Christmas with us. We gave him a RC airplane.

Isaac scored with all the fixings to build his own computer.

Zane is happy with lots of clothes as well as a remote start for his car. We don't have space in the garage for his car, so he'll enjoy that on cold mornings!

The gift I was most excited to give this year was photo albums for Zane & Isaac. I spent every spare minute the past several months putting them together. I had them open the books on Christmas Eve so we could look through them together. Plus, I couldn't wait any longer. Here are links:

        Isaac's book:  http://rickandbetsylyonsfamily.shutterfly.com/pictures/8
        Zane's book: http://rickandbetsylyonsfamily.shutterfly.com/pictures/9

If those don't work, you can link to them through my Shutterfly share page:    
         http://rickandbetsylyonsfamily.shutterfly.com/

This was my first experience with Shutterfly. It was fun. I'm now working on the wedding book that should have been done years ago.

Since I was behind the camera, I don't have photos of me with my gifts. I got some great clothes, beauty products, and an insulated hose for my camelback so my water doesn't freeze when we cross country ski.

The boys spent Christmas Eve night in the basement together (giving grandpa a bedroom to sleep in). Here they are coming up (in their new pj's from Grandma) to see what Santa left.

The tree on Christmas morning. We tried to scale back a little this year, but it still seems a bit out of control. All of that for just 5 people. Every year when I see this I commit that next year we will do more for others and be happy with less for us.

My sisters and I did a tap dance for our family talent show on Christmas Eve. Link to the video is on my Facebook page. It was fun. We haven't danced together in years.

It was a wonderful holiday season. I have to say it was one of my happiest. I enjoyed every bit of it.

Christmas Fail

We have been planning our Christmas gifts for neighbors for months. You may remember my posts of our homemade blackberry syrup. There were so many blackberries this year that we made several large batches so we could give them out to neighbors for Christmas, along with a yummy pancake mix.

We thought we better try one of the neighbor bottles before passing them out. They seemed very runny, so I thought I'd cook them again and add some thickening. I waaaaay over did it. They turned out like jelly. We had to dump them all. So bummed. Major fail. Sending gift-less love to all my neighborhood! Depending on berry harvest next summer, we may try again.

Christmas Spirit

Rick has been very busy finishing school this December, so I was on duty to put lights on the Christmas tree. I went a little nuts, but I love it. I had the bottom third done and had used all the lights that Rick usually does on the whole tree.

I found some more and kept going. I should have taken a photo without the daylight in the window behind, but you get the idea.  I also have been thinking this would be the last year we'd do the traditional family tree decor. There are some ornaments that are sentimental, but I felt a lot of them were junk. Last year the kids didn't seem too into decorating the tree, so I figured if they didn't care, then I'll buy some tree decorations after Christmas this year to do a pretty tree next year. However, the boys were excited to decorate the tree this year, and they had little stories with a lot of the ornaments, so I guess we'll keep it a few more years.  Plus, I've added some of my favorite bird ornaments so it feels like it's a good mix of traditions for all of us.

 

I cut off the top of the tree in that photo, so here is just the top. It's a little sparse on branches, but we put some little birdies up there to give it some life.

 I bought super sparkly paper for gifts under the tree this year. (House is now covered in glitter.)

I am in charge of my work Christmas party every year. We usually choose a nice restaurant, so I don't have to worry too much about decor and food. After dinner we do a gift exchange, only all the gifts are provided by the company.  Often, it's a big stress for me trying to find gifts that are nice, but generic enough that anyone in the office will enjoy them.  This year, I let go of the stress. I figured everyone is going home with $60-$130 worth of stuff they didn't come with, plus a nice dinner. If they aren't happy, it's not my fault. :)  Here's the pile of gifts for this year.

 

We have some standard gifts that I do every year- ski passes, restaurants, movie passes, every few years I throw in a spa certificate, although I try to do a few new creative things each year. I throw in some new electronic device. The big ticket item this year was a Kindle Fire. I also did a "Car Care Kit" which was a digital tire gauge, a detail car wash, and $50 gas card.  My other new one was "Lunch on the Company" and included gift certificates ranging from $10-$30 to places like Subway, Rubios, Paradise Bakery and Red Iguana. I think that went over better than the car gift. I'm always open for ideas. If you have any gender-neutral-any-one-would-like gift ideas, send them my way. I'll put them on the list for next year.

Kitchen Remodel- The Beginning

It's time for a kitchen remodel. We finally picked out granite and had it installed last weekend. We decided to start there and work the rest of the decor around the granite. Here is kitchen before.

 

And kitchen after new granite install. We originally were debating about painting or staining the cupboards, or a mixture of both, but I think we will leave them. They ended up matching the counter tops. That is something we can do later as easily as we could now.  We are going to sell our old appliances and get black ones, add hardware to the cupboards and drawers, and add a tile back splash that is yet to be decided.

Sink and bar before

Sink and counter after

We had some issues with this side of the kitchen. The granite was cut 3/4 inch too shallow so we will have to built up under the bar before adding a backsplash. The sink is much bigger than the old one and, as you can see, the hole for the faucet was cut under the bar. We are replacing old bar with a custom wood one. We will install it farther back, but still need to find a faucet that will fit this tight space. The one we purchased didn't work, even with Rick cutting some space in the old bar. We will be without running water in the kitchen for most of the week until we find time to shop for the right one. Lots of eating out.

 We thought it was funny that one of the little scrap wood pieces from Rick cutting up the bar ended up looking like Texas.(This is the only pic that wouldn't flip right side up. Tilt your head to the left and you'll get the Texas thing.)

Originally, we were going to replace the tile. We do not like wood for a kitchen floor so we were going to pick new tile. The kind we liked ended up not matching the granite. We think we'll just keep what we have because it turned out to be the right colors to go with the granite. I spent HOURS on Saturday cleaning the grout, which made a big difference. Some of the stains did not come out though. Any ideas? I saw they had a product that stains and seals grout. We have the same tile in the laundry room, so maybe I'll try it there before the kitchen. The big bummer will be if I do all this work and then we decide to tear it out anyway.

I'm excited about our home projects. In a month or so, our house should be much more what we have wanted since we moved in 3.5 years ago.