Holiday Season

It's been slow here in terms of house repairs as we get the place decorated for Christmas. And there's no better way to decorate than with 20'' of snow:

And so we got our first chance to experience a snowstorm as homeowners which meant SHOVELING. Wooo! (I'm sure it will get old pretty quickly, but for now since it was the first snowfall of the year, it wasn't so bad.)

(The picture is quite deceptive. D did most of the shoveling the evening before just after the snow fell. I, a weakling, was not very efficient and so mostly just watched).

And so combined despite our sparse Christmas lights, I think we have a very festive scene:

And a close-up of my little village scene, which I've had since I was a child and which now has a perfect home in our picture window:

Finally, some pictures of the inside, decorated for the holidays. I realized that I never put a picture of the living room in its finished, pre-decorated state, so here are some "before" pictures:

(That's an Ikea Expedit in the doorway to create some separation between the entry and the living room.)

And now here are some photos from after we decorated:

It's going to be a merry Christmas, especially once we get the fire lit and sit around sipping hot chocolate. Home repairs and painting will have to wait until next year.