Freezing and Christmas Adventures

We lived with this gap under our front door for about a week.  Frank and Peter removed all of the mortar from under the tiles and cleaned up the floor which involved removing the threshold for the front door.  Frank was then out of town for a week on a business trip.  We shoved towels under the front door to try to stay a little warmer.  It was really cold that week!  Frank has since returned and fixed the threshold and we are much warmer at night.  Still cold, but not freezing anymore.  A new furnace is on our priority list (current one is tagged by SDG&E DO NOT USE!).

While Frank and Peter were cleaning up the mortar mess, they taped off the family room but forgot to tape off the stairs and close all the upstairs doors.  This is how thick the dust was on the stairs.  There's a thinner layer on everything in all of the rooms upstairs as well.

Empty room

We got reprimanded by our...err ahem I mean my genius way of plugging in all of the Christmas lights.  I apparently did a major no no which could've resulted in a house fire.  Frank says this is a common mistake amongst all people.  I had three extension cords connected to a three outlet thingy that was then connected to another extension cord and then plugged into a timer into the wall.  I thought it was a good idea.  Frank explained why it was not.  He then sent me to Home Depot with a list of supplies and he would fix it.  He installed two of these four plug outlet boxes.  This one under one of the eaves, and the second in the garage.  Then he used heavy duty extension cords and wired them together and somehow they are all on the same timer which is located in a different outlet.  I don't know how he did it, but it works wonderfully!  They are specifically designed to be used for Christmas lights so we won't have any problems hanging them up next year.

Christmas Eve Connor enjoyed eating colored popcorn.  We spent the holidays amongst the families as usual.  We spent most of Christmas Eve shopping and spending time with the O's.  We also opened all of our presents from the O's then as well.  Everyone received jammies amongst other items.

We also did our traditional drive by of the luminaries in Westwood.  There's something so neat about seeing streets lined with luminaries.  When we got home it was bedtime and then Santa came.  At 10:30 there was the sounds of power tools in our family room.  The instructions were clearly misleading, there was no way someone with a regular screwdriver could puncture plastic enough to drill screws in.  It was a late night followed by an early morning.

 Connor enjoyed cooking breakfast

Gotta love the hairdo.

 So this video is two videos in one.  I don't know how I did it, but when you get to the end of the first video, then the second one starts.  The first is of Connor being let out of the room to see what Santa brought him.  The second is him playing with the kitchen.


After opening the kitchen at our house we went to my parents' house to see the stockings and the rest of the kids gifts.  Connor got a rocking horse from us.

A tricycle from his great aunt and uncle.

And a toolbox from grandma and grandpa. 

We also enjoyed blowing bubbles in the front yard.

After brunch we drove to Chris and Mary's and enjoyed some fun with them.   We had dinner there and arrived home late.

Today we went to my parents' again.  Abbie and Rafe arrived and we opened the rest of the presents and had breakfast.  We hung out and enjoyed building a 3D puzzle, playing the Logo game and just chatting.