Christmas Windows

Here are some Christmas windows I didn't get on my other blog. Enjoy as you prepare for the big day.

Magician

Disco Muppets

Cinderella's Carriage

Santa and the Mrs. ready for a night out on the town

Fireplace

This is a feature of our new house that I was super excited about. We have never had a wood-burning fireplace and I was really looking forward to the smell of it in the winter.

Our house inspector couldn't get the damper open so we had the buyers get it cleaned and inspected. He found a crack in the chimney, making it inoperable.

The sellers offered to either give us the money to fix it, or put in a gas log. It was a tough choice but we went with the gas log. This way it will be done before we move in and we won't procrastinate on fixing it.

Hubby did talk to the man doing the work and told him not to cut the damper, so we can convert it back to wood in the future if we want. It gives us one more project to think about for the future.

Music Man

The girls went off to visit friends in Alabama, so Mr. C and I were left to our own devices. We went to the Creative Discovery Museum. I remember bringing him here in his stroller and he was too little to do anything. Now he's almost too old for most of the activities. He did enjoy the music area. He played Twinkle, Twinkle on the marked steel drum, then taught himself how to play it on the unmarked drum.

Intercom System

To build up the excitement of moving to our new house I will highlight some of its features over the next couple of weeks.
Today I want to point out the intercom system that is located in the kitchen. The buttons at the top correspond to the different rooms in the house, and the front and back doors. There are various knobs that do who knows what. There is also a functioning AM/FM radio and analog clock. I can feel your envy as you read this!!!
Also noticeable in this photo are the handicap push light switches as well as the corded phone. "Marsha! Your groovy boyfriend is on the line!" (No, it doesn't come with the cast of The Brady Bunch, but how cool would that be?!)

New Eating Experience

Hubby had a Christmas dinner thing with his group from work, so I took the kids out to The Acropolis, a Greek restaurant. They had American food and Italian food, but I was feeling adventurous. You can see my plate above. Let me explain what everything is.

Greek salad: Regular salad with feta cheese
Dolmathakia: Traditional grape vine leaves rolled with herb seasoned ground sirloin and rice with sautéed onion, topped with avgolemono sauce.
Moussaka: Layered baby eggplant, thinly sliced potatoes, seasoned ground sirloin, fresh herbs, and parmesan cheese and topped with creamy béchamel sauce.
Spanakopita: A spinache-feta cheese mixture seasoned with fresh herbs and sautéed Spanish onions and wrapped in light filo pastry dough.
Greek dip: I have no idea what is in this. Maybe chickpeas?

I am glad that I tried everything. I think that it is an aquired taste. Something (maybe the avgolemono sauce?) was very sour and made my eye do that thing that it does when I eat Sweet Tarts.

M had lasagne and Mr. C had a club sandwich.

The Metropolitan Bells

We went to a special music presentation at church on Tuesday. My camera refused to take non-blurry pictures so I apologize for the quality.

This was a group called The Falcon Four who came to perform one song. They are from Athens, TN and have won several awards. Their song was Caroler's Hoedown and it was fun.

The Metropolitan Bells is an auditioned group of bell ringers from the Chattanooga area. M's teacher is one of them and she gave bonus points to the students for attending. (We would have gone anyway!) I was especially impressed with the size of these huge bells.

I give up trying to upload the video!!! Blogger you've won this one, but I'll be back! (Yes, I am going a little insane now.)

And here is a video that is about 1 minute long. I got the kid in front of me as well. He was getting antsy toward the end, but I thought he was very well behaved for the first hour (the concert lasted about an hour and 20 minutes).

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Mr. C received this Charlie Brown Christmas tree from Grandma O. in the mail yesterday. He carried it around, sitting it next to him as he ate supper and watched TV. What Christmas spirit!

What is Mr. Creativity Up To?

Mr. C continues to be busy with whatever can hold his attention. I wish it was his school work. This morning I had to make an extra trip to school to drop off an assignment he left at home--unfinished. I thought about not taking it and hoping he would learn to take more responsibility. But I don't think he would have learned a lesson. He drives me to...what's the word for extreme frustration?

Yesterday he prepared a pomegranate. This is a very complex thing to do, but Mr. C loves pomegranates. Although he promised to be careful, there was juice on the counter, the floor, and his shirt. I went along behind him cleaning, to avoid as much staining as possible.

He is also ready for Christmas. He has bought and wrapped all his presents. The rest of us need to get busy. Only 19 days left.

Speaking of 19 days, that is how long until the Doctor Who Christmas special: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe. I know you are all as excited as we are! (haha) I have been shopping online for a Tardis poster for Mr. C. There is a 6 foot one that will be great for his new bedroom. Only 30 days until we close on our house!

Coronation 2011

Marvelous went back to Alabama for the annual Coronation Dance. You'd think we'd be done with that since we moved 100 miles away. But she has kept the boyfriend (remember Young Skywalker) so she went to the dance.

The handsome couple.

The college girls came to see all the high school kids dressed up. They even helped with the pre-dance dinner at the church.

Several of the kids got together to take pictures before the dance. This shows the back of M's dress nicely.

I made a cape to keep M warm when she was outside. If you ever have the desire to sew faux mink, you should know that it sheds like crazy!

O Christmas Tree

This weekend we had tons of flooding rain. I worked up the nerve to get the small tree out of the garage and bring it upstairs. I wasn't about to get drenched going back for ornaments, so we had a naked tree for a few days. The kids got tired of it and decorated it as best they could, with what they could scrounge up.

I love this shot of the reflection in the coffee table!

I got the point and dragged up a couple of boxes today and "fixed" it while they were in school. Mr. C says he misses the coon hat.