First Christmas in a new house. Again. I’m not sure how many of those ornaments that we actually own, the new house ones, with the year, etc.. I’ve missed many ‘new home’ occasions to add to our collection, but this year I managed to get another one for us. A pretty house shaped picture frame, covered in festive crystals with the year printed on it. First holidays in a new place are always tricky. Where to put the tree? What decorations to hang and where? What fits and what doesn’t? Do the lights still work? How and where to celebrate? This year’s decoration theme (as if I ever have one!) was “Stuff is Out of Boxes!… Ta-daa!” Which was good enough for us.
We set up the tree when the grandparents where here for Thanksgiving. This is not something that the kids have ever shared with extended family before and I think they really enjoyed it. I did a lot of unpacking and handing of things this year, leaving the actual decorating to the others. I fell down the stairs a while ago and really did a number on my ankle. It’s getting better, but getting up and down off of the floor is tough! I can move quite well on flat ground, have to be careful on stairs, but once I am sitting way down on the floor where I can reach stuff, I tend to stay until I am done. Anyway, it gave me an unusual opportunity to just sit back, take photos, and watch the kids run the show.
The kids did a lot of the work. Good teamwork! 
But Grandma Susan and Brad chipped in too.
The cats helped too, but it was really hard work!
Grandpa George was also there to help. Honor whistles a merry tune.
Inspector Ninja checks the wiring. (Or, is eating the branches, again…)
Christmas decorations with cats. Pumpkin demonstrates:
“Nom nom nom!” “Busted!”
“I’m sorry.” “Nom nom nom!”
It was Brian’s turn to put the angel topper on the tree. He’s 6’1”+ now. Long gone are the days we have to lift him up to reach.
Another fun thing we did with our visitors was to grill out one night… despite it being cold and rainy! We simply moved the BBQ grill under the carport and went ahead with our dinner plans. Honor and I set up an unnecessary but totally cool warning system for Brad, who was returning home late from work. If you have blinking flashlights, it’s good to find uses for them.
We also thought it would be a good night to roast marshmallows.
And because we have so much of this sort of mess on the new property…
George got us a chainsaw, which, of course, we had to take out for a test drive right away, despite it being really cold and wet outside! New toys and all…
There is still a lot of brush to clean out, but two dead trees are down, plus tons of twisted and thick vines removed, and it is much more tame!
We also had major repair work done on the old, crumbling chimney and rusted out fire-‘slammer’- box. It was thoroughly inspected by firecat Pixie before we laid our first fire.
Brad’s dad also helped in the rebuild of our workbench in the shed. This is MUCH nicer than the old, beat-up and warped bench that was in there!
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