So, this is it--the last blog entry of the year. At the moment, we're enjoying our tree, our cats, and some of the crazy NYE shows on TV. Our original plans were to go to First Night Pittsburgh tonight, as we have for the past several years. Jenny started to come down with a cold yesterday, though, and this morning woke up and was pretty ill. So we're at home today, staying warm. Read on for a recap of the past week or so, during which the blog has been quiet, but we've been busy!

Wow. The crazy multi-tagged post with a bunch of stuff that normally doesn't fit together. In short form: I finished the hall table, and now Jenny and I are getting ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We're hosting my family on Christmas Eve, and Jenny's family on Christmas Day. It should be fun.

I am completely geeked. Jenny and I had decided to volunteer to host Christmas Eve dinner for my family (we do a version of the Polish Wigilia). I was already really excited that they agreed, and we've been getting things ready for that. Then Jenny suggested that we invite her parents for Christmas Day. In the past, we have always celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents' house and Christmas Day at her parents' house.

We've been having a fun weekend here at the Jenny and Jonathan homestead. All kinds of stuff has been happening, and now we're about dead tired.

Click the picture for a bigger version, and to go to the album with the rest of the pictures from today!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at the Jenny and Jonathan household. We've been bouncing all over the place doing Thanksgiving stuff, working on stuff for the house, and being generally busy. Today was great fun, though.

We had decided a while ago to go out this weekend to get our Christmas tree. We were unable to get a big tree last Christmas because we had just finished the living room a week or so before Christmas Day, so we were both eagerly anticipating this Christmas when we could get a big tree again.

Merry Christmas to all of our happy fun readers.  Today, Jenny and I wrapped and organized the last of the Christmas gifts, hung the cards that we've received around our pocket doors, did the last bit of clean-up in the house, and put our luminarias outside.  We went to Mass with my parents tonight, as my sister was singing.  Then we went up to their house for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  Jenny and I helped to cook some of the foodstuffs, and Jenny helped to organize the cookies and chocolates.  We actually ate almost on time this year, which I think might be a first.  :)  We exchanged gifts with my family tonight, since we'll be going to Jenny's parents' for Christmas Day. 

It was a good day, spent with neighbors, friends, and family.  Most especially for me, I think, is another wonderful Christmas with the most beautiful girl in the world.  She puts up with so much from me--like having the house under construction for a year.  I have the best wife ever. 

jonathan

It feels so good to say that we're finished with the living room.  Yes, there are still a few small details that we're going to take care of after the holidays (quarter-round shellac and re-installation, a few bits of trim around the transom that need to be shellacked and reinstalled, and the hallway side of the door trim needs to be sanded and shellacked.  We decided that the trim around the door would be an interesting thing to show to people coming into the house to see the new room, so that they could see what things looked like between stages.  The quarter-round and the window trim bits need a good bit of sanding to clean them up, and need to be shellacked.  Most of that is going to have to take place outside due to dust issues, so we decided to hold off on getting them re-installed until the temperature moderates a bit.  Oh, the cold air return louver needs to be painted to match the wall (and maybe replaced--it is in pretty bad shape), and we need to decide what to do with the warm air inlets.  The existing louvers were pretty ugly.  They were essentially long metal boxes that covered large portions of two walls.  We think that the idea was that they would help to diffuse the incoming warm air.  Unfortunately, being large metal boxes underneath windows and on a cold wall, I actually think that the metal does more to cool the air before it enters the room than it does to help diffuse the air.  Right now, they have some makeshift louvers installed with some screening to keep things from falling down inside the ductwork.  I hate to cover up all of that nice baseboard with metal crap again.  Hmm. 

The last couple of days were a flurry of activity.  Final cleaning of the floor, getting the rug in, getting all of the furniture in place, putting all of the electronics into their new home, then working on getting the dining room restored to a dining room, then working on getting some semblance of Christmas decorations up; this describes the past few days of life here in our little household.  It's been a busy time, but we made it.  Today saw the dining room return, after a decent scrub with a carpet cleaner I rented from a local grocery store.  Tonight brought out the Christmas decorations (though in a limited sense, just due to time).  We now have happy humans and happy cats. 

Christmas decorations this year are a little toned-down.  I was trying to finish the room in time to get a big tree again to surprise Jenny, but we just couldn't get it all to work.  I was working as fast as I could on things, and just couldn't get it all done.  So, we resorted to plan B, which is what Jenny was already expecting:  We put her old apartment tree on the dining room table, and decorated it with a small selection of ornaments.  I also had time to retrieve and put up the Santa and snowman collection on the dining room mantle.  I put up our wreaths outside, using a slightly more traditional hanging method--wide ribbon from the upper sash.  In the past, I had hung them from the lock lever using a little bit of floral wire.  This worked fine and made the hanging method mostly invisible.  After seeing lots of Victorian houses using the ribbon method, though, it just didn't look right anymore, so I bought some ribbon.  Sadly, this method wouldn't work completely on the third floor window, as there is some bent aluminum flashing from the siding that is preventing the upper sash from coming down.  I want to fix that, but tonight when it was getting late and daylight was fading was not the right time to do it. 

Jenny has been busy wrapping Christmas presents in really interesting ways.  The cats, meanwhile, have been surprisingly quite content in the new living room.  I guess it is as comfortable for them as it is for us. 

There's a new photo album for the "after" shots of the living room and dining room, and some of our interior Christmas decorations.  Sorry for the color variations--I wasn't satisfied with some of the pictures with the flash, and the natural lighting was coming out too warm, and I don't have good photo manipulation software on this computer.  Argh.

I picked up the luminarias I had ordered from a local family organizing this sale in our neighborhood.  They're doing it as part of our community organization, the Parnassus Civic League.  They should look nice.  I'm excited to put them together, but I'm going to wait until Christmas Eve, since it might rain tomorrow. 

That's all.  I'm tired.  Check out the pictures, if you'd like.  As for me, I think it's a good time for a long shower and a long sleep. 

jonathan

Tonight was the night that the fire department pulls Santa's sleigh around the neighborhood and distributes treats to kids.  I'm not completely sure what the whole story is, but a couple of years ago, Jenny and I heard sirens and saw lights, and we went out to see what was happening.  We followed the sound of the sirens around the corner, and saw a set of emergency vehicles, one of which was pulling Santa in a sleigh on a trailer.  Every year since, we've gone out to see this little mini-parade.  I'm sure that there is a story behind all of this, but I just don't know what it is. 

In other news, Monday night is the next meeting for our Civic League, and we're having a bit of a holiday party along with our meeting.  It should be fun.  We've been getting some encouraging words from lots of people lately, which I'll take as a good sign.  Yay us! 

jonathan

Jenny and I went on the Allegheny West Victorian Christmas House Tour last year, and we enjoyed it.  We decided that we should do it again this year, and maybe try to find some other people who wanted to come with us.  Two friends of ours came, and we had a great time.  I think Jenny and I would both recommend this tour to anyone who wants to see some great historic houses, and see an example of what can happen when a neighborhood--that was otherwise falling apart--pulls together and gets organized.  We're trying to do that in our little neighborhood of Parnassus.  If we have even a tiny bit of the success that they've had in Allegheny West, I think we'll be doing just fine.  Actually, in a year or two, I could see us having a house tour around here, too.  There are some great houses, great people, and great history.  That sounds like the makings of an interesting tour! 

jonathan