As you can see, the tree is up and so far, Katie isn’t really phased by it. We weren’t as lucky with the elf hat (I think she is still holding a grudge over that.)

Our Christmas tree tradition happened as always: cutting the tree with Jon & Mel and putting the holiday squirrel is near the trunk by a pinecone. Jon & Mel’s tree and squirrel won’t be up this year because they just purchased their first home (hooray!) and we are really excited for them. Our cards are in the mail (mostly) and the place is decorated as well as we were willing. We’ve gotten out and done most of our holiday shopping, but boy, is it no fun! Traffic, noisy and rude people, presents to wrap- it’s a lot of stuff that makes me think maybe shopping online is the best way to go.

The best part about the holidays is getting to see lots of family and friends, and we’ve been traveling up north a bit lately. There was Thanskgiving, then the Julson family had a Christmas reunion a few weekends ago. It was really nice to see everyone, some of who I hadn’t seen since our wedding. The Myhre side won’t be gathering like they have in the past but there will still be a few people at our Christmas Eve dinner. It seems to get a little harder ever year to get everyone together. Boone and I will be at Sesvold’s Christmas Day like always, and we hope to see some of our up-north friends while we are home Friday and Saturday. Then my lovely little sister turns the big 2-1 after New Year’s, so we’ll all be there to help her celebrate/keep an eye on her.

Back to work and condo stuff- oh, I’m president of the board and website manager now so that means a little more work (and a lot more hatred of 6-10 inch snow falls). Happy holidays!

Our home improvement saga continues. Our latest accomplishment was adding a new glass tile backsplash to our kitchen. Ever since we built/installed those gorgous concrete countertops this fall, our kitchen has felt very unfinished. The half painted Heinz ketchup red drywall backsplash was not tripping our trigger.

We chose a really nice 1″ gold-tan glass tile (and a few charcol gray) topped off with gray grout to match the countertops. The project itself was pretty easy to do and turned out great. However, it was a major mess involving schmearing about 1900 square inches of individual grout lines.

GROUT is just one of those unpleasant words like “Schlitz,” “Blatz,” and “Winter.” And, as inrony would have it, grouting your kitchen is about a 2 beer project.

Check out a few before and after pictures: (The grout is still a little wet)

Before:

After: