We got closer to some amazing friends. We watched two of my favorite ladies in the world create some beautiful sons. We made huge progress on the house. Everything was great.

This coming year, skiing will be good, our life will be good, and wow, I’ve got some great company coming soon (not to mention a major birthday…)I’m full of the happiness in life and hope you had a great 2011 too, and wish you a perfect 2012~

Remember you create your joy with every breath, every thought, every word, every action.

To top it all off, I’m getting the perfect gift:

Apparently (and fortunately) the whole wall was held together with dirt and toothpaste – making the demo process easy.

We’re about halfway done taking it apart after one night’s work and will probably finish the rest, wall it up, put in the fireplace and order stone soon! We can actually finally use the basement!

Then with the announcement we were going to have company for the holidays, we decided to get back to work.

MK has put trim around the sliding doors, dining room, and basement guest room to finally get the rest of the house matching. It was a tough project (of course) when we realized the old trim was basically covering a hole from the floor to walls and cold air was getting in. We should own stock in spray foam.

This doesn’t show it anymore, but under the trim and the nice paint is some GAUDY silver wallpaper with cobalt blue and maroon leaves all over it. Priceless to imagine what this place used to look like.

These pictures don’t look super gorgeous, but the new furnace we installed barely runs and the bills are way down, so we’re doing something right.

MK also hung some crazy styrofoam stuff in my laundry room, that we will eventually frame over, again not pretty, but no more cold air!

We’ve finally totally emptied the room we were using for storage, now to convert it into his office.

We also decorated for Christmas. If you are remotely OCD and hate clutter like me, Christmas can be stressful! I ended up removing tons of stuff we normally have just to make room for the decorations.

We just started to decorate the tree!

But it can be too much sitting in front of a computer and not enough doing stuff.

So, NEW RULE.

I can only waste time flipping around Pinterest (oohing and aahing over things I CAN’T do, like pretty wedding photos – no fair) if I actually use it for a benefit.

My main interests from that site so far have been hairdos and FOOD. Some recipes are quick and easy. I’ve tried to cook from the internet and typically prefer cookbooks, but some Pinterest recipes are great for how idiot proof they are.

I made this

http://picky-palate.com/2011/08/25/southwest-chicken-chili-mac-skillet-style/

And I could post all my pics but WHO HAS TIME so my review is:

I didn’t use corn. It was delicious. It is my hubby’s new fave food. It is a classier version of a hamburger helper.

Give it a go!

Stay tuned for more things off Pinterest that I ACTUALLY DO – and tell me:

Have you done anything from the site?

It is non-stop, the typos.

This is my little correction center.

I’ll share the ones I find. It’s cathartic.

Since then we’ve had Thanksgivings in Austin, San Diego, and Utah aplenty. We are always lucky to have a life full of wonderful friends that are truly more like family to share our holidays with. Someday soon we’ll be celebrating with my family again and I look forward to that.

Of course, here and now, we will be skiing. Snowbasin opens tomorrow, and Canyons on Friday.

I’m thankful that my life is full of love, fun, and excitement.

There are a few things on this list that made me laugh. It is a good reminder of the things that will be important forever, and the things that change over time.

Click Here For Images &
Happy Turkey Day Pictures – Pictures