Keeping Christmas.

One of my mother's favorite books of all time is A Christmas Carol, and it's become one of mine as well. I can't even watch the Muppets version without getting teary as Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning with a new song on his lips proclaiming that he will honor Chirstmas in his heart and keep it all the year. His joyous transformation and newfound boundless energy are contagious.

But as we pack up our ornaments, stockings, wreaths, and bows, how does one keep Christmas all the year? Christmas just isn't on your mind in April. Certainly I believe Dickens would tell us that Christmas is not in the material possessions or decorations, nor is it in the calendar, but it is, as Scrooge said, in one's heart.

I don't know about you, but I need a reminder to keep in my heart all year long.

So, this year, 2011, we are going to keep our Christmas cards up all year long. How much fun is it to look at your family and friends anyway? A collage of holiday greetings certainly warms the soul, and let's face it, I don't really know what I am going to do with my entry anyways. I'll let you guys know how this goes, but I'm pretty excited about seeing my family and friends each day with big smiles on their faces.

God bless us, every one.

Baby it's cold inside, Part 2.

Out with the old...

...and in with the new.



On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

A brand new H-V-A-C (has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?)

I am all for spending money where I can see it, but it is truly a bummer to spend money and not be able to have anything much to show for it. And that’s how it is with HVAC units.

As I’ve mentioned before, Tara is not a spring chicken. Part of buying her for a song meant that plenty was wrong, and one of the things that desperately needed replacing was the HVAC unit. Fortunately, Rhett knows people.

When we had the ducts cleaned in July, the man cleaning them didn’t even want to start because the unit was so old. “Don’t you want to replace it first, mam?” he asked. No, we decided to delay the inevitable and wait until arguably the coldest part of the year. But hey, it’s better than shutting the AC off in the hottest part of the year.

Luckily, the heat was only off for a few hours, and our home is much more energy efficient than it was to begin with. Hallelujah. We also get a tax credit for doing this before the end of the year, and that is something to make merry about.

Baby It's Cold Inside

Some people know with a definite conviction whether they are hot or cold natured.  I have been called- by more than one person- “seasonally challenged” in that I am solidly the opposite of simply hot or cold natured. Rather, I have been guilty of donning corduroys and sweaters in August and running shorts in January. This behavior would be normal if I lived below the equator, but alas, I live in the southeast United States, making this dress code bizarre. I figure I’m warm one day and cool the next so what does it matter what the calendar says? Maybe I just like to keep people on their toes.

That being said, I have been solidly freezing for the past two months. I dread showering because it means I will have to eventually get out of the scalding hot oasis and into a house that makes me shiver. I’ve been sleeping in sweats and even as I’m writing this, I’m wearing a down jacket and slippers…and of course my nose is running its own marathon.

I hear a lot these days about energy efficiency, and I bet you do, too. As much as we’ve made Tara pretty, it’s time to make her efficient (and save us some money!).

First on the list, insulation. It seems bizarre to insulate AFTER we’ve already renovated so much on the inside but it can be done, so don’t fret if you aren’t in the mood to rip out all your drywall. Rhett, being the Almighty king of handymen everywhere, decided to take a Saturday to blow insulation into our attic. Remember, heat rises, so insulating the area between your attic and main floor (if you have a ranch like Tara) is a good place to start.

Our attic is unfinished so you can actually see a lot of the insulation without even removing any of the attic flooring…because it’s not there. That's Rhett on the left and my father-in-law on the right. We paid him for his time with homemade molasses cookies.

According to Rhett, new homes have about 12 inches of insualtion in them. Don't worry, though, because somewhere around 8 inches isn't a bad place to be. The things was, Tara had a measly 4 in some places, and less in others.

What you’re seeing in the top picture is some of our less-than-satisfactory insulation, and what you’re seeing in the bottom picture is the back part of the attic, with insulation Rhett blew, and the difference between that section and the section closest to the floor, which hadn’t been blown yet.

But how do you blow insulation? Apparently it’s not that hard (I say that like I had a lot to do with this little venture…I was inside bundled up!). Home Depot will rent you an insulation blower for about a hundred dollars that looks like this:

You’re then in charge of feeding the bags of insulation (we used loose insulation, which is basically newspaper, though you have several options) into the machine, which them blows them up through a hose. It’s fairly fool-proof, though it is time consuming. And don’t forget to get a mask for the one who’s in charge of feeding the bags into the machine and the one in charge of manning the hose.

This is just step 1 in our making Tara more efficient, so stay tuned. For now, I'm just hoping my toes will begin to thaw, or I may be cold natured from now on.



Trimming the Tree

Rhett and I have been married for about a year and a half, but when you count the Christmas we spent together when we were dating this will our third shared Christmas. Along with picking the perfect evergreen, setting out all our holiday décor, and hanging the stockings, bickering on the day we decide to trim the tree has become a holiday tradition.

I can’t remember what we were fighting about in 2008- it was probably something he did- but I remember 2009 clearly. It was our first Christmas under the same roof, and we were ready to spruce up our little bungalow. Tensions were high - I was expecting and we hadn’t told anyone but my best friends, Rhett and I were both avidly looking for new jobs- but once there is hot cocoa in mugs and Amy Grant in the stereo (I am a big fan of cheesing it up for the season and forcing family fun) who could be anything but giddy?

We could.

Rhett saves everything (seriously, it should be another blog entry) and I am a no-nonsense purger. So there we were, looking though his holiday décor that includes ribbon from the 1980s and gilded plastic, when I say something like “Maybe we should use some of my things here instead of these relics” which gets met with “I don’t want Pottery Barn Kids stockings in my house” to which we both take offense that the other doesn’t like our taste, which explodes into allegations of not loving the other person, Christmas, or Jesus. (It didn’t go that far, but these things do escalate quickly.) I think I remember taking our oldest daughter to Target and letting Rhett trim the tree alone.

Fast forward and yesterday, 5 December 2010, was the big day of tree trimming. I took the oldest to the store for icing for a gingerbread house, and Rhett said he’d put lights on the tree while we were gone so that we could hang ornaments when we get home. Perfect. There was even a light layer of snow on the ground. Perry Como was practically seeping out of my pores.

When we drive up the driveway the tree is magically lit in our big front window and when I walk through the door the youngest is smiling sweetly and the oldest is about to jump out of her skin because she’s so excited to decorate.

“Let’s start!” I say to Rhett, who is on the computer.

“Just a sec- I’m working on some budgeting stuff. How much did you spend at Amazon?”

Are you kidding me? Nope. Because we were lacking the customary tension, Rhett decided a thorough analysis of our household finances would be appropriate on the day we decide to trim the tree. And he’s decided that the perfect timing for a discussion of holiday expenditures is RIGHT before John Denver and the Muppets Christmas CD is piped through the house.

Rhett was swiftly pulled away from mint.com, given a rum and coke, and told to sit down and be Christmas-y for crying out loud.

Crisis averted, we got the tree decorated and it was, despite Rhett's attempt to rain on my parade, a pretty good afternoon of holiday cheer. Advice? Save the discussion of seasonal spending until December 26, at least. Happy tree trimming!