We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Do Not Open Until Christmas

Siennalee has asked Santa for one thing.  

And since I'm fairly certain she's on the Nice List,
it's looking like 

her Christmas wish may come true. 

Shhhhh!

Meet Gunther.  All he needs is his big red bow
(part of Siennalee's request) 

and he's ready for Christmas morning!  

(I wonder who will be more excited?  The Sweetheart... or the mommy?)

Decorating the (Gingerbread) Townhouse

Although we began the holiday season with a big household move, I had previously decided to make it a priority to not let said move interfere too much with Christmas and our celebration of the season.  

One of the things we wanted to do this year was decorate our first-ever family gingerbread house!  We got a pre-made kit from Costco (ingenious AND a great price!) and settled in one chilly evening with hot cocoa, complete with marshmallow creme and a candy cane, and we decorated this humble gingerbread house from top to bottom!

(Photographer disclaimer: pictures were taken in super low light and so are a bit yellower and LOT grainy-er than I would prefer. Okay, 'nuf said.)

(Homemaker disclaimer: I do realize I am putting up pictures of a GINGERBREAD house before pictures of our ACTUAL house.  And really, I am on this.)

 

Siennalee was enthralled with her hot cocoa - complete with marshmallowy creme - and candy cane.

What a treat!  She now asks for this for breakfast.  Sorry kiddo, but nice try.

 

  Jason broke open the kit (see above) and got the 2 minutes worth of prep done.  (Told you it was easy.)  And we got our decorating ON!  It was good, clean, MESSY fun.  Definitely something we'll love to do every year! 

 

The house came pre-assembled and with a ton of different types of candies for decoration!


The house also came with its own Christmas tree and gingerbread men.  Curiously, the gingerbread men did not make it, but the tree seems to be doing quite well.  (You can just see a glimpse of my Sweetpea in the back, she's talking to Daddy and I just love her little looks.)

House, pre-decorated and in the buff.

I'm proud to unveil
our very first
-ever-
Kantola Family Gingerbread house!
*applause*  *accolades*
(Note the picture on the kit box behind us.  We got a pretty good laugh out of the comparison.)

An Open Letter of Apology

Klamath Falls: Mission Accomplished

Well, we did it.  We moved.  As of November 29th, nearly all of our worldly goods as well as Jason, Jessica, and Siennalee have been living in Klamath Falls, Oregon.  

Left behind in Albany is our house (as of yet un-sold), a small contingent of storage, and our sweet doggy who, alas, is not welcome in our new townhouse.  (Thank you Mom for being such a good doggy grandma and taking care of him until he can come home to us!)  My mom is also keeping the house for us until we all make further plans.  Doggy and house sitter - Mom is good people.  :)

But now, we are - finally, gratefully, blissfully - a family living together under one roof.  One roof with boxes stacked nearly to the popcorned ceilings (um, it's not a contemporary place, our new townhouse), one roof with nearly 600 square feet less than we are used to (and one less garage - as in no garage),  but - one roof with all the novel happiness of seeing each other every day and basking in the coziness of this sweet new place.  We are happy.  We are blessed.  We are together.  

This was the view from our master bedroom window as snowed and snowed and snowed the first several days we were here.  In the distance you can just see snowy Hog's Back Mountain.  And in the lower right-hand corner you can see my new Acadia (hi sweetie!) shivering under the carport.