Doors - Wonderous Doors!

My back doors are being replaced as I type this. They are doing a spectacular fantastic amazing job considering that this house has only one straight wall in the place - wait, no it doesn't.

They started yesterday and are finishing up today. The old doors leaked in air somethin' awful - I could not get this house warm if it was a windy day.

We have been shuffling the girls all over the house to keep them away from the cold air, especially since they are still sick. We let them watch for a while and they got a kick out of there not being a door. "Windy!" Maddie said. "Snooooow ..." came from Katie. And yes, it is currently snowing. And the contractors are cursing at it. It's hysterical.

The playroom door is all done - and something was bothering me about it but couldn't put my finger on it. Then it hit me. We had new storm doors installed, also, and they are the kind that have a pull down screen built right in. So the door is essentially cut in half with a white bar ...

The entry door is a "nine-light" (oh yes ... I know my door terminology) ...But when you close the doors together, the "middle line" doesn't line up. (I don't think that's a proper door term.)

I thought I had made a mistake and should have known when I was shopping to make sure that this line matched. So I asked one contractor, Mr. Jim, and he said, nope - that's how they're made. So that made me feel better at least.

Working on the kitchen in the above pic.

Next job: living room. There are many cracks in there that are beyond Andy's level of experience (sorry, hon). We are also having hard wood floors installed!!!!!!! !!!!!!! !!!!!!! (many exclamation points required) And a new ceiling with highhats! And it looks as if the fireplace is leaning into the room - and that's not something I even want to think about.

So Mr. Jim and his brother Mr. Matt hopefully will be back here in a few weeks to get that work done. Then I'll write a post called, "Living Room - Wonderous Living Room" ...

Happy New Year, everyone!

The Christmas Carrolls

(Whew! The girls are in bed finally. They both have colds right now and Maddie sounds like Kathleen Turner. Very throaty. Love it.)

How was your Christmas? Ours was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house where we did the whole fish thing as we Italians are wont to do. Andy's parents came and Uncle Eric was there, too.

Andy and his dad were in the garage for the beginning of the evening deep frying calamari and shrimp for us all and they came out delicious! I wish I had thought to get a picture of them doing it - they had a blast. We had a fantastic antipasta spread - my mom really outdid herself. We had so much of it, in fact, that we barely touched any of the main courses. We all sat there looking at each other with "I'm stuffed" looks on our faces. We decided then and there that we will be doing an appetizer-only Christmas Eve next year. That's where all the good stuff shows up anyway!

The girls had a blast running around my mom's condo and eating clementines. They peel them all by themselves right over the garbage can, and then section them off and eat them one by one. Delish. I asked my mom and Andy's parents if they could give the girls a present that was a toy before dinner to keep them occupied - and that kept them busy for all of 10 minutes! We fed them their spaghetti and some broccoli, and then they ate Hanukkah shortbread cookies because my father-in-law said they were the most delicious cookie at the store. I said Jesus was Jewish - so there you go. We put them up in their pack-n-plays to bed before we all sat down to eat because I actually like to sit down and eat. All the adults had a wonderful time and we opened our presents to each other so all we had to worry about the next day was the girls.

Andy's parents were sleeping over, so we all packed up and headed back home, where we proceeded to place all the girls' presents under (and around) the tree. I think I got to bed around 12:30am, which was not too bad.

The girls woke up bright and early (as usual!) and surprisingly didn't rush to the tree. They are in such a habit of walking right downstairs to the playroom to have their diapers changed and play a bit before breakfast, and this day was no different. All the adults woke up eventually and the girls started opening presents around 9am - and this went on for over two hours! NOT because they had two hours worth of gifts to open, but because they had to play with every toy right then and there before they were satisfied enough to move on to the next one! (The Blue's Clues plush were such a big hit - it took them forever to want to open another present after that!) I let them do it because they were having such a blast. We even took a cinnamon roll intermission to re-energize.

The girls would NOT take off their pj's all day. I had beautiful dresses for them to wear but they loved their Christmas pj's so everyone said to just leave them in them. So I did.

We had the same crew for Christmas Dinner, with the addition of my mom's friend who the girls call Aunt Patty. It was very nice - and it was very casual. We set the table and everything - but it was a very "take some now or take some later" event. After dinner Uncle Eric plugged in the Wii and we bowled the rest of the night - with Andy and his dad getting into it the most. Andy asked me if I wanted to get a Wii and I said "sure, right after I get my new oven." He was all, "I know, I know." It may happen soon! Both of our parents gave us gift cards to Lowe's and that will certainly help.

(We missed my brother Jeffery and his girlfriend, Heather, who live up in Vermont - and Andy's brother Matt and his wife, Jenny, who are in Mississippi. We talked to them both and maybe we will see them all for Christmas next year!)

The girls went to bed, everyone (except Andy's parents) went home - and we were all fast asleep by 10pm. Whew! (I am sure I am leaving out a bunch of things ...)

I posted a slideshow below of the best shots of the day - enjoy!

Christmas Slideshow

It may seem like things are quiet ...

... but there is much going on backstage! I am getting a post of Christmas pics together, writing up how we spent the day, working on a new header - all while paying some attention to my babies! :)

Look for more later tonight ... Love ya!

The Secret is in the Sauce: Win a Keurig Platinum Brewing System and $50 worth of K

The Secret is in the Sauce: Win a Keurig Platinum Brewing System and $50 worth of K

Hey everyone! Check out this great giveaway from a new blog I started reading ... "The Secret is in the Sauce" ... it's a good one!

Pizza Pizza

Well, Christmas Proper is over - and Christmas Aftermath has begun. The girls got way more presents than imaginable - and we plan on doling them out here and there throughout the next few months to keep things new and exciting. This was a good year though, in that they got a bunch of educational toys that are actually fun toys, too! (I'm big on that.) I'll post Christmas pics after I organize them a bit. In the meantime ...

It's Pizza Night!

I love making pizza. I used to make my own dough, but certain things have been set aside for the time being (crazy girls, cough) and I found that store bought pizza dough is mighty tasty. Andy and I are plain pizza people - Katie, too (Maddie says a prim and proper "no" when asked to sample a slice) - so I usually just do a regular cheese pie. Like this one ...

But I had fresh mozzarella left over from Christmas antipasta so I decided to use that instead of the Polly-O. Here's what it came out looking like ...

It threw us off a bit because we like our Pizza Pizza well-done. I thought it tasted pretty good, but I could tell from Andy Man's look that he likes it better with the regular mozzarella cheese (even though he said, "this is fine, this is good.") So back to Shop'n'Stop I go for the Polly O'!

(Any Pampered Chef lovers out there? Recognize my bar pan? Yeah, baby!)

Merry Christmas ...

... from our home to yours!