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Archive of posts filed under the Holiday category.

Christmas cookies and cards

18 December 2011, 6:51 pm

What a wonderful weekend we had!  On Saturday my sister-in-law brought my nieces up for a visit and we relaxed and caught up and played with the girls.  The girls helped me make chocolate with white chip cookies and we ended the evening going out to a nice dinner.  It was very relaxing and just what I needed to recuperate from travel last week!

Today I continued with Christmas cookies, making up gingersnaps, gingerbread (with icing decoration) and butterscotchies!  It took all day but I was able to make up plates for the neighbors and have plenty of left over for work on Tuesday (lunch pot luck).

Plates for the neighbors!

And the extra gingerbread cookies ready for work. (The rest were drop cookies so I put them in baggies to save till Tuesday).

This was a first with the piped icing for me but I got to break out all my fun decorating supplies and whip up some frosting.  It took all afternoon (from about 1pm-5pm) but that’s not too bad and I had Christmas movies and then music going in the kitchen while I baked!

I ended the evening doing Christmas cards after delivering the cookies to neighbors (well half, 2 of them weren’t home tonight so I’ll try tomorrow night).  We’re almost done shopping for Christmas, just a couple quick trips maybe tomorrow evening and then a little bit of sewing and we’ll be all set to go!

Filed under Food, Holiday.
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Drawers and early christmas

11 December 2011, 3:41 pm

Christmas came early to this Williams’ family.  The main reason was that I wanted Ryan to get to use his main christmas present before christmas AND I wanted to give him all his gifts (since they all went with the main gift) at once.  So ryan set my big gift up for the same day and on Saturday we had our mini-christmas.

We started out the morning with presents on Saturday, first Fitzy got http://groudasfamily.com/wordpress/wp-admin/post.php?post=2270&action=edit&message=6some gifts:

New toys for Fitzy-boy

While he played (he also got a new bed a couple of days ago) with his new toys and bone Ryan opened his main gift piece by piece:

New router table with accessories

I don’t have a picture of my main gift because you can’t really see it – my car got a remote starter!  And I can start it from either a fob, or from my cell phone with an app (from anywhere), I can also track my car with GPS from the same app.  (In case it gets stolen?).  Very cool!  I also got a Kindle Touch which I was up late Saturday night playing with (it has games unlike my second generation kindle which will go to Ryan now).  I love how small it is and perfect for traveling next week with.

After presents (which included taking my car over to get the starter installed, and a trip to 5-guys!), we started working on the drawers for the built-ins.  This was pretty intimidating, we bought the drawer slides and hardware a while ago (10 drawers total) but weren’t quite sure how to do the drawers to fit perfectly.  We started by putting in some blocks for the slides, so the drawers could open even if the doors aren’t open ALL the way (on one side the door can’t open all the way).

Then we slowly planned it all out, starting with the left cabinet because it was very square and all 3 drawers would be the same sizes.  We built one drawer and got it installed and working!

The first drawer installed! With slow close!

On Sunday we were able to get the other 2 drawers done pretty quickly now that we knew what we were doing (it took a while to figure out the drilling template the first time).  So we have one cabinet filled with drawers!  3 down, 7 to go!

Slides all installed

Drawers have locking mechanisms on the bottom, and cutouts for the slides

Drawers installed

Undermounted slides so you don't see it on the sides at all.

All the drawers need are face frames, we haven’t decided how we want those to look (Ryan will probably route them to make them look a little fancy.).  The drawers will fit our dvds hidden in the cabinets, at least the right and left most ones will be dvds.

Now it’s time to relax with Fitzy boy before driving him down to stay with Buddy boy for the week.

Filed under Holiday, TV Room.
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Some progress…

30 December 2010, 10:50 pm

It’s been a slow 2 days around here this vacation.  Wednesday started out strong with some electrical work, we finished the outlet circuit in the livingroom.  I then planned out the lighting circuit for the front hall which is pretty complicated because it goes up the stairs with a 4 way switch.

Ryan’s cold was hitting him hard so we took the rest of Wednesday to watch movies and relax.  Today we finished up some shopping for Groudas Family Christmas this weekend.  Then Ryan made his router table while I baked some cookies for the neighbors that plowed our driveway while we were back home for Christmas.

Router table, just needs its wheels

Tomorrow we will work on the electric some more and I’ll get the house cleaned up a bit.  Saturday is our extended family christmas and then we have Sunday and  Monday free to work on the house and relax before it’s back to work!

Filed under Holiday, Planning.
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Some pictures from Christmas Eve…

26 December 2010, 6:02 pm

Some of my favorite pictures from Christmas Eve with family.  Before we did presents, Ryan was holding Finley and she wasn’t quite sure what was going on :)

Ryan and Finley

Ryan, Emily and Finley

After these pictures we proceeded to open gifts and then have a wonderful dinner.

Filed under Family, Holiday.
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Merry Christmas!

23 December 2010, 10:06 pm

Ryan and I celebrated Christmas Thursday night, just the two of us.  He got his planer (Makita) as he wanted, along with a game and a movie and I got new pots and pans and a carport!  I also got some other smaller gifts – but pictures speak louder than words :

My Christmas Gifts!

The pots and pans are Cuisinart Multiclad Pro series which I already broke in by using to make dinner tonight.

Ryan's planer

I can’t wait to put up the carport that arrives next week!  And I know Ryan is excited about using his planer.

Filed under Holiday.
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Ready for Christmas!

18 December 2010, 9:06 pm

I can’t believe it’s only Saturday night, we’ve had such a great weekend already.  Of course having a cold isn’t great but it’s mostly an annoyance at this point, making me sniffly and tired.

Ryan’s parents came out to visit Friday night we had dinner, watched movies, baked some cookies and relaxed this morning.  After they left Ryan and I ordered our front hallway lights (chandelier and sconces) online.

These will be our sconces:

http://www.lightingdirect.com/royce-rw2195-2-transitional-two-light-up-lighting-wall-sconce-from-the-stalton-collection/p672015

And our chandelier – although picture with shades that match the sconces:

http://www.lightingdirect.com/royce-rc2195-6-tuscan-six-light-up-lighting-chandelier-from-the-stalton-collection/p671777

I was pretty worn out after that so we took a nap while watching It’s a Wonderful Life, getting into the Christmas spirit!  The nap was great, I woke up so refreshed, not cured of my cold but definitely a bit better.  I helped Ryan build his work table for building cabinets, he’s also planning on building a router table but we started with the work table.

Ryan's table on wheels!

His table is a great size for a kitchen island too, so I persuaded him to roll it into the kitchen to help me bake cookies!  In a few hours I had the annual neighbors’ cookie plates all wrapped up and ready to hand out tomorrow:

Christmas cookies 2010

This year I went with gingersnaps, sugar cookies and inside out chocolate chip (white chocolate chips in a chocolate cookie).

So a little more baking in the evenings this week (still got to make greek cookies to bring home) and a few presents to wrap that arrived today and I’m ready to go.

Tomorrow if I’m feeling up to it I’ll work on the electrical a bit.  I’m hoping the sconce lights don’t take long to arrive because I need to figure out what kind of box will work with those before wiring them.

And I’m off to relax for the rest of the evening (which means take NyQuil and go to sleep) :)

Filed under Food, Holiday, TV Room.
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The tree…

14 December 2010, 10:28 pm

Still standing - even with all the decorations on it.

We both got home a little late from work today but I managed to get the tree decorated while Ryan worked in the livingroom with me.  The only thing I’m missing this year is my Christmas village I usually put out on my sofa table, unfortunately my sofa table is packed up in the “diningroom/closet” since half my house is demolished and I have no place to really put it.  I may pull out the table and put it in the demolished livingroom and set up the village, I’d love to have it in front of the windows all lit up since the tree isn’t out there to be admired.

Off to bed I think, I slept late this morning, I think I need to get on an earlier schedule!

Filed under Holiday.
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And the tree is up … for now

13 December 2010, 11:49 pm

I was bummed our tree could not be decorated (or brought inside even) while we wait for our new tree stand to arrive in the mail.  Then I talked with someone at work who had made their own tree stand years ago and I got inspired.  A quick trip to home depot for some supplies (I had to hit the grocery store anyhow) and I was in business.  I got the stand put together just before Ryan got home and he helped me attempt to secure the tree.

Home made tree stand - will not leak!

The securing part took a little while however.  I was not able to get a type of wire I was happy with so went with just string.  String however stretches a bit.  Our first attempt to tie the tree failed miserably (i tied it too low).  Ryan did a much better job the second time and it even stayed up while I got some dinner made up.

Finally I decided I would feel better if we secured it with a few more ties – however my attempts made it lean more and more.  At this point (Ryan watching me tie the tree as it leans over me), we changed tacts.  Ryan went for screwing the tree to the paint can around the top.  We didn’t get the tree totally straight (it leans back) but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere either.

And it stands .. on its own!

If the tree is still standing when I get home from work tomorrow I’ll get it decorated.  I was so bummed we wouldn’t have it done until next week, this has made my week now.  The last of the christmas decorating should happen tomorrow and then it’s just cookie baking left to go!

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