Heading into Christmas

I felt like there was a lot to get ready for Christmas this year.  On a whim, I posted on a yard sale group on facebook that I was selling embroidered toilet paper for gag gifts for $7.  In one day, I had people request over two dozen rolls.  Not all of them showed up, but other people ordered later, and I ended up selling 27 rolls before Christmas.  And 9 hooded towels. And I did a custom order, putting 12 names on separate tags for her to make Santa sacks for grandkids.  That kept me rather busy.

After Thanksgiving, we wanted to put up the Christmas tree, naturally.  We had sworn to ourselves (back in August, when we put off the task) that we were not going to put the tree up on carpet.  We needed to rip out the carpet and put down the new floor first.  So, Christopher got that finished as quickly as he could.

The two converged, of course.  I had people coming to pick up toilet paper rolls while he was working away.  Having the dining table in the front hall was almost convenient for that.

Thankfully, the floor really was a quick project in comparison to everything else we've done lately.  No baseboards, since we'll want to paint those outside in warm weather, but those baseboards are the very last step for everything.  We hope.

One thing that took up a lot of my time was being asked to play for the Ward Christmas Party at church.  Christopher and I enjoy playing duets together, and he's frustrated that he can't play in church on Sunday.  I'm glad they asked us to prepare something for Christmas, in that case.  Christopher was so excited that he went shopping and came home with an armload of books. We could have picked an easy one, and we did have those in mind as a backup, but instead, we worked and worked to learn a Piano Guys song.  "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel".  It was just too pretty!  It was a huge task, but I am really glad we learned it.

Jasmine danced in her first ballet show.

She told me that day that she wasn't sure she wanted to dance on the stage.  Once she remembered that she would get to keep her mug, however, it was decided.  She wanted her own hot chocolate mug from her "Hot Chocolate" dance.

Her best friend Avery is in a different class than her, but the same level.  Love these girls!

A few days later, we had the biggest change for us in a long time.

I don't know exactly why, but I had been feeling for quite a while that it was time for our family to have a dog.  Personally, I'm not a pet person, exactly.  And yet, I found myself researching and looking at ads every day.  We made a lot of decisions.  No puppies.  Those are too much work, and I don't know how to train a dog well enough.  No big dogs.  I actually like bigger dogs, but no one else does.  Christopher wanted a pug, but I think they are odd looking, and the only one we went to look at was intent on biting us over and over. I didn't think I could handle a shelter dog, who was probably traumatized, so we hunted ads for "I love my dog, and just need to find the perfect home for him." Which is exactly what his ad said.

Chewy spends most of his time sleeping on our bed.  I was a little sad that he doesn't want to play with everyone, but I can't be upset because he is the easiest dog ever.  He is perfectly potty trained.  He had one accident the day after he got here, and one during a crazy birthday party when a dozen kids were running around crazy.  Both pretty stressful times.  He loves walks and table scraps, but otherwise is completely chill.

And loved.  At first, he followed me around, since his last owner was a single mom my age.  Christopher fed him enough table scraps of smoked meat to change his mind.  Now he follows my husband around any time he is home. I'm not sure yet why I felt so prompted that we needed this little doggie, but he's part of the family now, for sure.