It was a Merry Christmas indeed for us in the Servary household. Grant had the most wonderful day with Jason’s parents and grandparents joining us for Christmas breakfast and gifts. He doesn’t have any concept of Santa, or presents for that matter, but he had a blast playing with all of his new toys.
Jason and I started a new tradition we call the “toy-purge”. After G went to sleep, we gathered at least as many old toys as he had opened in the morning and put them in bags to donate. It not only keeps us from tripping over piles of cars and trucks on the floor, but also makes it easier for Grant to find the new things he wants to play with when they aren’t crowded into the back of a cabinet.
Jason and I didn’t exchange gifts (although we both bought each other socks), instead we booked our annual January vacation. We will be in the Bahamas next month, sunning my belly and playing in the ocean with G. This was my all time favorite picture from 2013, taken on last year’s vacation:
We are hoping for a repeat of that pose.
Living across the street from Navy Stadium means the Military Bowl is front and center today, so we walked downtown this morning to watch the parade. Upon returning home to relax and watch the game, we started talking about our upcoming house projects. This is what we have planned for 2014:
- Finish the nursery (we’re about 95% of the way there)
- Make blackout curtains for our bedroom (the fabric arrived today)
- Finish replacing all of the outlets in the house with tamper resistant receptacles
- Fence in the backyard
- Install a recessed medicine cabinet in our master bath
- Have a baby
- Replace master bathroom mirror
- Paint the master bathroom
- Subway tile the kid’s bathroom shower
- Replace plumbing fixtures in the kid’s bathroom shower
- Start cleaning out the basement
- Make a plan/layout for finishing the basement
- Remove paneled walls in basement
- Frame and insulate basement walls for finishing
- Hire someone for basement drywall and electric
- Take another vacation
That should get us to 2015 at least, at which point we will finish the basement entirely, replace the vinyl siding with something more attractive, add a deck, replace the bathroom countertops with remnant granite, and work on the landscaping. I think Cage the Elephant accurately describes how it feels at this point:
It took us a full three years to complete our last house, and it feels like we are on the same schedule with this one. Of course, the unexpected always pops up-like the dishwasher that broke beyond repair last week, but we will take things as they come. For now, I have some no-sew curtains to get started on. Happy holidays!
