Well, despite the fact that the tree has already started to turn brown and die, the cheer continues. I thought I would put up a couple more pictures of decorations!

We don’t have a mantel in this house so we are trying to warm up the stairway and have a place for the stockings to hang!

this was hard to photograph but these are small wooden snowflakes that my sweet friend Annie O’Leary sent me for Christmas last yr and said they were for our windows in Switzerland. Little did she know we would have walls of windows and they would fit in perfectly!

This is a happy pot of paperwhites that is now residing on my kitchen ledge! My mom surprised us and sent them as an early Christmas gift. For those of you that don’t know, we gave out paperwhite bulbs as our wedding favor when we got married almost 5 yrs ago! We are watching them grow daily!

Seth’s co-workers now hate him because he has been getting the most packages! Gotta love family and Amazon.  We are so spoiled!

This isn’t a great picture but you can get the idea. I used this thrifted old mesh door to display our Christmas cards from the yrs past. We are waiting to add this yrs when it arrives!

sorry, random pictures of the top of our armoire…again trying to find “mantel” spaces . I put the second picture in so you can see the carved “Joy to the World” from my dad. He carved it a few yrs back for us and it has made our home feel like home during the holidays since! We had one in our house from his parents when I was growing up!

And oh yes, the snow! and snow babies. They love it!

enjoying the tree

I used one of our clear glass vases and filled it with old-fashioned hard candies and candy canes..then put some fresh branches in. I used my cake stand and cover and filled it with extra ornaments and ribbons

thrifted ornaments hanging on the chandelier

this yr the new addition to our decorations on the tree are these gingerbread cookies I found. The house is smelling yummy!

Jackson had his friends Amelia and Amanda over to make a gingerbread house

more Christmas decor pictures to come! That was just to get my mom hooked so she will read again soon!

homemade minestrone and a big pot of homemade applesauce!

First halloween for Owen…kind of puzzled about posing with pumpkins

we cut these and dropped our coins in the bucket! one of the many things I am loving here!

the river by our house

gorgeous leaves in our neighborhood (this is our neighbors house)

snuggle bug

ragamuffins going on a bear hunt in the woods near our house..don’t think they found a bear but the house sure was peaceful while they were gone!

This past week was a bit nuts!!!

On Monday, I touched some chemical- soap or something that began burning my face just under my eye. I figured it was a minor irritation.

Tuesday, woke up with eye super swollen and burning spreading down my cheek. Rushed to dermatologist at the hospital. She confirmed a contact burn. Prescribed a cream.

Wed morning, burn had spread over to other side of my face and was covering my whole face. Back to dermatologist for stronger cream.

We came home from hospital to have to fire our maid that helps with Jackson. Last week I walked in after seeing one of my patients and Jackson was eating a cough drop and playing with coins. Jackson’s face began getting a rash and we had to call poison control. On top of a zillion other things we confirmed that although Isnely loved Jackson she was unaware of basic safety and cleanliness. So, sadly we had to fire her. She is responsible for feeding her 4 kids so it was heartbreaking to have to do it. She cried as we talked to her. Ugh.

Thursday morning- face looking very sunburned but feeling SO MUCH better!!!

Friday morning- looking like I paid for a high class chemical peel! New skin! Training new person to care for Jackson so that I can get back to work. Talking all day about washing hands and child safety! Looking forward to the US!

Seth flies to DC on Tuesday. He will be there through Friday for a conference on Fraud. He will be visiting with Ryan and Stephanie and the girls. He will also have the opportunity to check out our possible home while we are in DC. We hope it’s a go so we can have a set address for a bit!

Jackson and I will hold down the fort here. We are praying for safety while our body guard is away!