Christmas Eve

Christmas eve is here! And it looks like Santa brought us lots of goodies!

 

Everyone is excited - some more so than others ;).

Posing before we could open the presents:

And miraculously, nobody took any photos while we unwrapped the presents!
But we did take some more right before dinner (fondue, as always).

Christmas tree and cookies!

Today we got our Christmas tree. And what a beauty it is this year (can't believe it was only $30!). We got it from "Todd's - you cut/we cut noble firs" on SW Bell Rd [hello future Michaela&Jan, here's your reminder :)]. It's still in the garage to fully dry (guess what, it was raining when we picked it up, what are the chances!), but I'll add pictures of the fully decorated beauty later of course.

In the afternoon we started our cookie production. We have all the dough, but have used only roughly have of it so far. After all, it's supposed to be fun (and it was!) and not work. The rest will be baked tomorrow or Tuesday evening. All are gluten and dairy free this year, so they taste a little different. Still very yummy :).

 

Home made (well, kinda) bread

After having tried pretty much every gluten- and dairy-free store bread that Fred Meyer offers (all rather yucky), I stumbled upon a mix from Bob's Red Mill that is easy to make (takes about 2 hours in total, with maybe 10 minutes of actual work) and tastes oh-so good. Mom, this is how the bread looks like:

 

Ikea

Two trips to Ikea and a good 5 hours of work later, and we have
1) two new lamps in the living room,

2) a new dining room (the old dining table has moved to the loft, turning it now into a cute little grading spot for me),

3) a new entrance.

So worth it! I love our downstairs now.


What else? Days have gotten chilly (and wet) again. Which means that the fireplace is now much appreciated, by everyone: