Catch Up

Here is my attempt to catch up on reporting the events of our lives. As anyone knows who has moved (and who hasn't moved) it's an all consuming affair. Not only did we have to pack up again (after just four months in our rental), but we also had the complexity of doing some cosmetic work to the house before we could move in. Add replacing all of the existing flooring in the house, repainting it AND trying to have it all ready by Christmas Eve, and you've got quite a production on your hands. At times we thought we were crazy, but in the end it all worked out great and we are settling in just fine!!

Our home...before replacing the yucky tile and blue grey carpet with doggy hair accents.

The same room on Christmas Eve after Santa worked late into the night transforming it from a construction zone into a family room complete with a new Christmas tree, some furniture and all of the decorations and presents!!

The kids enjoyed decorating this gingerbread house this year, though we all really missed our traditional gingerbread house making party with our Rocklin neighbors.

We didn't chop our tree down by ourselves this year, but I have to admit it was the cheapest and best looking tree we've had in a while--and it only took about ten minutes!

A new tradition... a local church in the area presents a "living nativity" each year. They invite the whole community to enjoy a re-creation of the events leading to Christ's birth. The church property is transformed into the old town of Bethlehem complete with Roman soldiers collecting taxes (actually giving kids chocolate coins so they can pay taxes), free camel rides and a mid-eastern baazar!! What fun!!