I am thanking all my lucky stars that we are all *currently* healthy (knock on wood). Jack and I both had scares over the weekend with 1-day viruses we feared would turn out to be the flu. Luckily for Jack it was one day of mild nausea (likely from our traditional post-Christmas Johnny Rocket dinner/milkshake). And for me it was one day of intense fatigue/chills/muscle aches. I was certain I would be down and out for a full week like so many other loved ones who have been hit with the flu recently. I was grateful for the wake-up call of one day of sickness. I've been a little uptight about trying to make our home feel more livable after the move. It's the age-old reminder: the healthy woman has 100 wishes; the sick woman has one wish. So this week, I am grateful to be healthy in a home full of boxes and not-yet-organized cabinets. We have time. Unpacking isn't an emergency. Deep breaths.
We had a wonderful Christmas in our new home! We celebrated Christmas Eve at my Grandmother's home, hosted by Uncle Bryce. The food was delicious and the company was even better. The kids even had a great time, despite the other 5 children who were supposed to be there being stuck at home with the flu. Poor kiddos--what rotten timing. I was so grateful to get to share the Christmas Eve experience I used to have as a child with my own children. The highlight for me was my Grandma Roper reading Alice "Twas The Night Before Christmas" while Alice stood there, enthralled, through the entire reading. I loved showing our kids the Christmas decorations I used to "ooh" and "ahh" over. I loved getting a stomachache from eating so many chocolate toffees and chocolate oranges and sea-salt truffles at the dessert table. I loved the chaos of playing Christmas songs on the chimes together, and winning a can of vienna sausages playing Bingo. And then we loved going home and leaving out cookies and milk for Santa. Oreos saved the day--we've done much less Christmas baking than usual this year. Excited for next year to be more settled in and do more baking and decorating.
On Christmas morning, the kids slept until 7 a.m. and then came to wake us up, grins on their faces, telling us they already checked the stockings to see that no one got coal. We made our way out to see presents and stockings surrounding our fireplace and Christmas tree--a magical scene to break in our new home even more. Jared is the Christmas morning magic-maker in our family, at least during the moving season we've been in for the past few years. For me this comes with the price of letting go, because he does Christmas morning differently than I would if it were on my terms, but during a big move this is a tradeoff I gladly accept. And Jared does a wonderful job--really the only "problem" is he goes more extravagant than I would, but I just remind myself that the Christmas magic years won't last forever. "A bit too extravagant" and missing the mark on a few gifts isn't the worst problem.
Everyone had a nice Christmas, until I got up in arms because it was time to take some soup to my brother's family, who were all down with the flu. I was trying to get everyone into the car so we could go do this lovely, Christmas-spirit porch soup drop-off and they were all like, "U r bossy." And I was like, "Merry Christmas I'm going to bed. Do it urselves if u have a heart." To which they did do it themselves, and then my parents came over for dinner so I didn't end up going to bed after all. The Christmas drama😂 We ended up having a nice evening, and Jared had the next day off too for that lovely post-Christmas lounge day. We spent a lot of time in our finished Tree Room playing Mario Kart and Mario Party. Other than the little sick day blips, it's been a wonderful Christmas week in our new home. We continue to be smitten with our location, and we love looking out our windows to try and spot hawks, magpies, and the occasional deer. It's a peaceful view and we love it more all the time. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
I'm blogging on my phone from the rollaway bed in Alice's room, at 5 a.m., while rubbing her hand to try and coax her back to sleep. I spent the last 4 hours on Jack's bottom bunk. Both are decidedly "NOT TIRED." I think Jack did eat about 25 cookies and have no less than 6 cups of cocoa at the Christmas party last night, so maybe that? Maybe just breaking in the new house? I'm not sure, but me tired. Send prayers and caffeine, because it's Christmas break. Oof.
The next day, wallpaper installers came and told me that due to the half-drop pattern match in our wallpaper, we would not be able to wallpaper from floor to ceiling. Luckily they were able to wallpaper the top 2/3 of the room, and we will wainscot the bottom third later. It looks great! I’m really happy with the bold pattern we chose. But. The cobalt blue trim/ceiling we agonized and labored over is the wrong color for the room😑 The wallpaper is more muted in person than it was on the screen, and the blue is too bright for the paper. I'm not sure we have it in us to mask everything off again to spray a new color—especially since last time we got a lot of overspray on the walls, which we can’t afford to do now that wallpaper is installed. If the blue was more of a navy it would be fine. If we went with a dark raspberry color from the paper it would be even better. I just know we don’t have it in us right now to repaint between Christmas and unpacking, and general painting burnout. I could leave it and just add the wainscoting in the same bright blue color, but I'm leaning toward waiting until we can repaint everything. I really want to get this room right.
Lots more to say from this week, but I'll let the pictures and captions do the talking since that design saga was already more than you bargained for.
Oh by gosh by golly. We're homeowners! We closed last week and it feels like a weight is beginning to lift. I'm so grateful we have a few-weeks runway to get our things moved over, and that our rental home is only about two blocks from our new house. It has been fun and easy to grab a carload full of boxes or smaller furniture pieces at a time and run it over. The first item Jared took to our new home was our 15-foot-tall Christmas tree. It is ridiculous and we love it. Brings Christmas cheer to the whole home, which is nice since we likely won't get our "full" Christmas set up this year. We may add stockings to our fireplace mantel (we have a fireplace mantel!) and call it a day. The real movers are coming this Friday to help us with the larger furniture.
We are also enjoying having the space and time to do a bit of room painting during this transition. We will have wallpaper installed in our office and bathroom soon, so we are painting the ceiling and trim in those rooms first. Luckily this is a relatively simple paint project because we don't have to tape much--the wallpaper will go all the way from baseboards to ceiling and cover a multitude of overpainting issues. It feels good to start putting our own touches on what is kind of a soulless builder-grade home. A lovely builder-grade home in a pristine location, but our starting point is a bit bland. By the end of the year we'll have a tree mural and lemony yellow ceiling in our office (more of an art/music room really), and emerald-tone marbled wallpaper enveloping the powder bathroom, so. We're coming on strong with the initial design choices, that's for sure. I'm very excited. It feels like us. It feels like home.
On Saturday we were able to visit my grandma and see Santa! We're glad the BYU game was on in the background and the hot cocoa was free-flowing. Santa had a little wardrobe/sleigh trouble and arrived an hour late. If there's anyone who can get away with showing up an hour late to their own party, it's probably Santa. In a big step up from last year, Jack and Alice BOTH sat on Santa's lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas, even though Alice was "a wittle nervous." Proud of how far these kids have come over the course of this year. And as always, it was wonderful to see my sweet grandmother. And now for some pictures from our week:
Closing week is here! We are *supposed* to close on Thursday. I've learned to expect the unexpected with these things, but Jared is taking that whole day off so we really hope all goes according to plan. After we get our keys we will begin what we are referring to as "the slow move." We don't have to be out of our rental home until the end of the month, so we are going to try and just take our things over a little bit at a time and try to feel really good and unpacked and settled by the end of the year.
This week was Jared's birthday! All he wanted to do on his birthday was "not drive anywhere"--his commute can wear on him so on days when he has work he prefers to stay close to home afterward. When he got home he opened presents from the kids and then we went to walk around our new house, just for fun. In the evening a lot of my family came over for a true game night. I made pumpkin bars (Jared's preferred "cake" situation) and rallied the kids while the other adults were able to sink into a game of Cascadia. Then we sang and had pumpkin bars. My gifts to Jared this year were a big Christmas Tree Train to go around Jared's beloved 15-foot-tall Christmas tree. He's excited to get it set up right after we move in. Then I got him a pretty print of an artwork we saw at the St. George Parade of Homes earlier this year, and I put it in a gorgeous antique pewter frame I thrifted a couple years back. I also found him a creosote candle to remind him of his favorite smell--monsoon season in Arizona.
On Thanksgiving, Jared and the kids went for a bike/scooter ride on the canal trail with my family while I stayed back to take some deep breaths (we now have to keep our house showing-ready at all times for our landlord, which spiked the anxiety during an already very busy week), and to make a pie and some green bean casseroles. I did the pie up right with a pumpkin-cream-cheese filling and homemade butter crust. It was a lot of work, but placed in the pie contest and has been great for pie breakfasts the last few days. Thanksgiving dinner was at my parents' house with lots of loved ones. I wish I had been able to talk to more of my aunts and uncles and cousins. I love coming from a big family with so many loved ones living nearby. It can sometimes feel overwhelming when I'd love to have a conversation with each person and there just isn't the time. This is a good problem to have though. After family gatherings Jared always says, "Laura, you have the coolest family." And I say, "You too." And then our children scream at each other the whole ride home🫠
And now for some pictures from our week! I've been slacking on pictures lately, but I'm a liiiiittle preoccupied at the moment so we're going to let it slide:
Happy Almost-Thanksgiving! Our new home is finished and we will hopefully get to do our official walkthrough later today.
We are busy busy busy, and doing our best to pause and enjoy the season where we can. Alice had a little recital for her neighborhood tots music class on Friday. My parents came to watch and it was just the cutest thing ever. Jared and I then went on a mattress-shopping date. We're hoping to dump our dust-mite-infested memory foam mattress before moving into our fresh home. We bought the cheapest Amazon mattress at the beginning of residency, and while it served us well during that time, it is time we retire it. Even though it's hectic to move during the holiday season, it's nice to be able to make moving-related purchases during Black Friday sales.
Saturday evening we went to the Christmas Tree Lighting at the Traverse Outlets. They flew in an enormous tree from California--I believe it's the largest real Christmas tree in the state of Utah. There was a community singalong and then they lit up the tree. The kids were in awe. We got some hot cocoas and walked around the little elf village near the tree. I think this will be our new kicking-off-the-christmas-season tradition. And now for some pictures:
