Christmas Eve

Christmas 2009 is our first Christmas away from home. We decided that with all the craziness of the move to Pittsburgh we would stay here. It is bitter sweet to start our own traditions as a family this year. We are missing all our family terribly but also enjoying the time at home.
We built a gingerbread house this afternoon! It was fun but we went into a sugar coma after we got it finished!
I then started to make our Christmas Eve dinner..Cornish Hens, twice baked potatoes, grandma's stuffing and butter corn. Now keep in mind this is the first big meal I have ever attempted! And I must say I did one heck of a job! Vince told me I need to cook like that more often-it was a nice compliment! I now have a greater appreciation for the wonderful cooks in our family that make our holidays so special! We stuffed ourselves and are now debating if we have room for cookies and cheesecake for desert! I am going to bet that we will have to save desert until tomorrow!

A Moving Update

After many tiny hiccups we closed on our Pittsburgh house on the 30th. We moved out of the temporary housing and started staying at the new house! We brought our futon mattress from Philly so we would have a bed! We got right to work cleaning and painting. I got our new master bedroom carpet ordered and then installed and also got wood blinds for the main level ordered! We ended up painting the kitchen, hearth room, master bedroom, living room and dining room all painted! We headed back to Philly on the 4th to prep for the movers and say goodbye to some friends. The movers began packing on the 7th and managed to get it done in one day! The 8th they came back to load the truck and after 14 very long hours they were done. We stayed downtown that night and ate breakfast at one of our favorite place...The Reading Terminal! Then we went back to the old house to finish cleaning up and we were off to Pittsburgh. After a long 5 hour drive with very strong winds, crazy temp drops and rises, fog, and random snow we made it to Pittsburgh! We got word late Wednesday that the truck would not be unloading at our house until Friday. But this actually worked out great, we got our blinds installed, washer & dryer installed and got the basement painted! Friday was an early morning and the unloading began...9 hours later they were done. The movers did forget to get our giant KU yard rock off the truck so we are waiting to hear if they will bring it back to us. Hopefully they do b/c I don't even know if you can mail something that heavy! The past few days we have been busy unpacking boxes. As I write this Vince is unpacking his office and it is shaping up nicely! Vince did a heck of a job organizing most of the garage on Friday and I have fully unpacked the kitchen, dining room, hearth room, living room, master bedroom, my office and the laundry room! Tomorrow will be the guest room and basement. All of our new furniture looks nice but we need to by a loveseat for the hearth room. Once I get things a bit more put together I will post updated pictures!

Sorry I can't seem to get the pic's to move to organize them.