It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's actually been pretty white for weeks now, so we've got the looking like Christmas part covered. Now, finally, it's starting to feel like it, too. :) Over the weekend, we finally got our tree, brought it home and decorated it. It's a subalpine fir this year and one of the tallest we've had yet...probably about 12 feet:

Delivered little teacher and friend gifts Monday (having spent much of the weekend getting to that point, lol). Tuesday, as a reward for getting those other gifts distributed, the boys and I went to see a 12 foot (ish) gingerbread house:

For those who are local, it was cool...definitely remarkable in the sheer numbers of ingredients. (700 hours, 1700 bricks of homemade gingerbread, 2300 sugar cookies, etc.) It's in the lobby of the Embassy Suites next to the Budweiser Event Center.

Other than that, been wrapping and finishing gifts this week and finally made it to see Santa today:

We visited the Santa up in Old Town this year, having not done that before, and were quite happy. I'm pretty sure Santa was impressed with the boys' lists, as he was at a bit of a loss for words after both Micah and Noah. ;) 

Okay, off to do some more wrapping! Hoping to get everything in the mail tomorrow!

Breathe.

Whew. Busy weekend. :) Starting to feel like I might actually have a handle on this Christmas thing...still working on getting the house (namely the three rooms still with "schtuff" all over the place after rearranging and painting) to the same level, lol.

Anyhow. Will update on that stuff soon. (For instance, our tree is finally up and decorated...yay!) In the meantime, wanted to point out that a new challenge went up over on the Good Grief Blog today and encourage you to check it out. Thanks! ;)

The lists.

I'm not sure yet what the title of the layout will be, but I'm positive that I must document the boys' Santa lists for this year. Here's what they're asking the big guy for...

Asher, age 7, wants various specific lego sets. He also has a remote control plane listed. None of this is a huge surprise. Since we've tried the remote control stuff before and they play with it for like 5 minutes, let's assume Santa will bring the legos. ;)

Noah, pragmatic 9 year old boy that he is, wants either a new mattress (he'd like one of the memory foam ones), a Nintendo DS Lite with Mario Kart, or a netbook (he knows the specific model and all, but I forget). His "other" list (for folks like us and brothers and grandparents) is comprised mostly of legos. Oddly enough, Santa thinks that the mattress will be the most appreciated. The kid knows what he likes and takes his comfort seriously. It's okay. Noah's already banking on buying his own netbook (to his specifications) during the after-Christmas sales. Not sure if you remember the whole Bank of Mommy & Daddy dealio (you can see the layout here if you scroll down), but the kid's got some cash saved up. 

And, Micah, my lovely 4 year old, wants one of those big ol' recliners with cup-holders in the armrest and, specifically, one that also has a massage feature. Yes, really. As a compromise, after much work on my part to explain that we had no place to put a barcalounger, he's also added just a heating/vibrating seat pad and, of course, some lego sets. Yup, thinking Santa's going to go that second route. ;) (If you're wondering where the whole heating/vibrating/massage idea came from, he found one at his grandparents' house back at the start of November and fell in love...serious love. Then, while furniture shopping on Black Friday, he found a recliner with the same features and that was it. LOL!)

Sigh. What odd boys we have. :)  

To share.

I started out this post thinking about things I wanted to complain about...the single digit temperatures and blasting wind chill, having to deliver fundraiser products in said conditions, stores that lower prices nearer Christmas thus punishing those of us who may have planned ahead and actually done our shopping early, stuff like that. But. I've decided that's not what I really want to talk about. Instead, I'd like to just share with you a few things that I've happened across that I think worth sharing...

1. You have to look at this drawing! It's stunning. If I could figure out where I'd put it, I might just get it. 

2. Check out Prism's giveaway from now until Christmas...awesome stuff!

3. This is just plain cool.

4. Is it wrong that I kinda want this shirt? :) If you haven't already, you might also want to buy Dylan's new Christmas CD. All the proceeds go to help the hungry. 

5. I just love this. No idea why or what I'd use it for, though. ;)

6. I think the capes and masks here are fabulous! My boys, sadly, aren't interested but I still find myself thinking about how cool they are. 

7. Call me crazy, but don't you think these are just rockin'? Wish I had someplace to wear stuff like that to (okay, not really all the time...just every now and then, lol).

8. Always love the inspiration to be found here.

9. For those who digi-scrap and for those (like me) who just like to collect things...this kit is spectacular. I love, too, that funds raised go to various charities. 

10. And if you're looking for gifts for those (science-minded) kiddos in your life, here are some things I've picked up:

• pretty much any books by David Macaulay or Simon Basher
• this calendar (so excited to use this next year!)
• these are pretty dang cool, looking forward to seeing the boys in action (they've done this in their PE classes and love it!)
• and, of course, lots and lots of Legos ;) 

Okay, I could go on and on, but think I'll stop for now. Stay tuned for the stories of the boys' Santa wish lists...

Still here.

Honest. ;) Sorry about going missing there. Been both busy and distracted. I'm sure you know how it goes, lol. Because I'm behind and because I really need to get back to sorting out the other room, here's what's what in bullet format:

- We had a lovely and quiet Thanksgiving here. Just us, my brother and my niece. Boys played Wii with their uncle and we managed to have a nice meal. Not like mom makes, but not horrible, lol.

- The next day, though we've generally avoided Black Friday in the past, we ventured out and spent the day shopping. We decided it was finally time to do something in the way of furniture and resolved to make at least one room in our home closer to how we want it (as opposed to continuing to wait before doing anything...as we have been doing since moving in more than five years ago). (Yes, aside from beds, we've not purchased a single piece of furniture since moving in...seem to always be waiting for boys to get older or for fewer bills demanding our attention or for the ability to do everything at once, which, we now admit, is unlikely to happen.) Anyhow, we found some great stuff. Went home exhausted but happy.

- The day after that, we decided to paint an accent wall. Just one. For those who aren't familiar with our house, the main level is very open, with high vaulted ceilings that makes painting quite the chore. We'd not done anything about painting the main level because of that...all the walls tend to run together plus they're way tall, such that it seemed to us to be one of those things we'd eventually hire someone else to do and just do it all at once. But. We decided it was time and that painting a single wall in the family room would go a ways toward making it more homey and was cheaper than new flooring (which we'll wait on for now). So, we rented a big ol' extension ladder, got some paint and spent the day painting. It took pretty much all day, as we were out of practice. :)

- Sunday, then, we went crazy and decided as long as we had the ladder (had to rent it for the whole weekend) we might as well paint the other big wall in the front of the house. It's like 300 square feet and spans two rooms. Yeah. On the plus side, we were in the groove, so it didn't take as long. :) While we were high on paint fumes, we decided to paint the little wall adjoining that first wall we'd painted with this new second color. 

- Monday, after the boys went to Options and all, we painted that little wall and then realized we didn't like the two colors adjoining like that. So, we're going to repaint but haven't gotten to that yet. Also got the last few items out of the family room...items that we gave away to make room for the new stuff. It was nice to be able to find homes for that stuff. 

- Tuesday the new furniture arrived! Yay! And with the start of December, we brought out the Lego advent calendar and our Elf on the Shelf tradition. The boys LOVE both these things! Also started our annual holiday bedtime book routine. :)

- Wednesday and Thursday we shuffled things around and tried to re-capture our mojo to keep the family room project going. The boys also had their weekly indoor soccer sessions.

- Friday we had our second annual Ornament Afternoon with our homeschool group. The boys had a blast! (This is the second year I've organized this...we have tables set up (5 for each session) and kids sign up and get to come make an ornament at each table. We had two sessions this year and also decorated bags for Meals on Wheels and took a collection for the local food bank. I particularly love helping all the kids make their ornaments and seeing their big smiles. All in all, great fun!)

- Saturday (we're at December 5 now) the DirectTV guy came to set stuff up for the new HDtv Nathan picked out on Black Friday. Micah and I went out to do some Christmas shopping and find a birthday gift for a friend. 

- Sunday, I took Noah to a playdate and then had a hair appointment (just a trim...still growing it out for Locks of Love). Simultaneously, Nathan and Asher dropped Micah off at a birthday party (Micah's quite the social butterfly...this is the second party he's been invited to in a month and he's got another at the end of December). Oh, and did I mention that Saturday night it snowed?! Yeah. Plenty of snow. It continued through Sunday. Nathan, over the weekend, worked on building a rig to mount that new tv...we'll be setting it up on the mantle of the fireplace we don't use.

- Monday, Noah went to Options (Asher wasn't feeling well but is fine now) and then both boys had their holiday program that night. It was fabulous! Both boys sang with their classes. 

- Yesterday, Noah had his 9 year well check (got rescheduled from November due to the doctor being sick). He's healthy and growing just fine. Considering that he's been to the doctor I think once (at about age 22 months) beyond well checks, we're feeling pretty blessed. 

Whew. So that's what we've been up to here. Also been finishing up Christmas shopping and projects aplenty. I had grand plans for how December was going to go and all (and had hoped to have more projects to share), but this whole redoing the family room and then deciding to paint the other rooms and thus rearranging all the stuff in those three rooms (stuff that remains shoved to the middle of the room and really must get cleared up today so that we can get a tree at some point) has kind of put a kink in that. I'm going to just go with it. :) One of these days, I'll get around to sharing pictures, too. :)