Christmas & The Last Week of 2015

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Hey there! Back from all of the Christmas dizziness and a minimum number of naps to keep me sane. Charlie got plenty of rest too, but it wasn’t until she’d completely worn out her cousins and stolen all of their toys and eaten ham from the table and pestered every family member for hugs and kisses before she finally went down HARD once all of the gifts were open.

Like many single women who don’t have children, my family pretty much treats Charlie and my sister’s two dogs, Lemon and Lana, as though they are fur-babies. They get gifts from my parents, they “give” gifts to each other, and they are referred to as being cousins or having an “Aunt Sarah” or “Aunt Emily.” There are plenty of people who absolutely hate the behavior of treating dogs like children, but it’s always been the norm in our family, so I just let it happen. My sister takes it a step further than I do though because her dogs have succumbed to her stubbornness to dress them up in costume whenever the mood strikes (they get a shitload of treats out of the matter, so I don’t think I’d complain that much if I were in their shoes Santa hats, either).

I also spent some time with friends doing Christmas-y things like making gingerbread cookies, but the funniest part of this holiday has definitely been the weather… 78 degrees! And grilling?!?!

It was so hot while baking that we kept the doors and windows open, too wet from rain to spend time doing much of anything outside (except take advantage of rainy day $1 beer specials). And cars kept driving around the city missing an antler… presumably because they’d forgotten they put antlers on their car and rolled the window down.

Overall, our Christmas was pretty mellow. It’s been bittersweet without Granny, but we all still enjoyed our traditions and everyone got some great gifts.

I didn’t get a lot of tools this year or hug any of them like ponies as I usually do, but I did get an awesomely nerdy ornament for the tree next year:

…and some outdoor LED lights I’ve been wanting to put in the back yard for ages (which means more outdoor projects next year to give me a reason to string them up!).

I also got a great lighting kit to help with my interior pictures when the windows prove to be difficult to work around, such as in my kitchen and laundry room. Speaking of…

I’ve already been taking a few pics as my Christmas décor comes down (though I still need time to learn how to use the new lighting kit). I love how much more polished it looks with the DIY Roman shade I made for the window this month! You can grab a few more photos on my Kitchen House Tour page (the House Tour itself is getting LOTS of updates this coming month!).

There are a lot of other cleanup projects going on, such as taking down the Christmas décor and making room for all of the window casing that will be going up in the living room in the next couple of weeks. I’ll have more for you soon in terms of recapping this year’s successes and what projects to look forward to next year, including a few more posts in the works:

• Some of my favorite post-Christmas deals I picked up this year
• How I’ve saved almost $900 in furnace repairs this winter
• How to “comb” rugs and carpets (if you have pets that shed like Charlie does, you’ll want to read this!)
• Primary bathroom updates since the last installment
• & more personal updates as well

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I can’t wait for 2016!