The tree is down...

... and on the porch ready to be taken away. Although, I’m not a scrooge, I am glad it’s gone. The decorations are put away and ready to go in our temporary storage unit. That’s the thing about selling your place, so I’ve heard (read) – you’ve got to get rid of much of your clutter, furniture, life – so that people can see that as their place when shopping for a new home.

We have been talking about putting it on the market for, oh, about 8 months – well too long if you ask me. We have plans to meet with a realtor this weekend, so I think we’re finally there! I couldn’t be happier about it. We are meeting with some banks in the next week, met with our builder, and a possible developer, and getting our carpets cleaned on Friday. Woo Hoo!

We had a house plan picked out and priced for us, and now we’ve decided to possibly take a different approach (different location), and the lot we like can’t accommodate our house plan, so it’s back to the drawing board. We have looked at a TON of house plans over the last week, and since we couldn’t find the exact one (or one close so we can get it modified), we hit up Best Buy for software so we can do our own plan. David has spent a LOT of time on it.

Our Christmas was great! Christmas Eve is when my side of the family does the get-togethers. David took Grace to work with him for the morning, while I went out for a very pleasant weather 6 mile run. I loved it – the weather, the fact it was Christmas Eve, and to top it all off – running 6 miles again. I think that’s my favorite run – not too short, and not too long. I’m still stopping for whatever reason. I know it’s mental and just need to crush through that. We went to my Dad’s side of the family for lunch then to my Aunt’s house for supper. We had a nice time, and one of the best parts of Christmas to me is seeing people open what you got them. I love giving more than receiving, and especially seeing Grace open her gifts. She is in toy heaven right now. And the week isn’t over for her – her Birthday is tomorrow. Whew……





No Christmas goes without David buying me some cycling accessory. I think he’s still trying to “convert” me to a cyclist. Should I tell him that I actually enjoy it now? And, he loves buying me Hincapie clothes. Hey, I’m not going to complain, even though I know how expensive those items are. He also hooked me up with a rolling briefcase. Yes, I’ve become one of “those” people. But, not for everyday. This one isn’t for my day-to-day job. It’s for my drill weekends. The more responsibility you gain, the more crap you carry to a 2 day a month job. So, this way – I can roll my briefcase, with laptop, binders, and other crap in it. Ta-Da.



For the first Christmas eva, David didn’t guess what I got him. I wrapped the small nano in a box, in a box, in a box – you know that old trick. He had no clue – thought I got him a bike computer.



The rest of Christmas day was preparing for my Mom, Butch, my brother and his new girlfriend to come over. We had Caribbean Christmas (Christie – I’ll get you the list of stuff we had – I haven’t forgotten). It was delish! We opened more gifts, enjoyed each other’s company, and ended the evening by watching Elf. Fun times!

Grace in one of her presents from Santa

Yesterday, we woke to Grace having a high temp, so I stayed home with her, and ended up getting a lot done in the house. Lots of organization and packing stuff up got completed. I had hoped to make it to the gym, but didn’t have the opportunity. I hope to get a short run in today, before we go to our Church small group tonight.

So, between Christmas parties, cleaning, organizing, looking at house plans, and the like - I haven’t read any blogs since Christmas Eve, so I’m going to catch up today. Hope you all are doing fantastic!

14 comments:

Jess said...

Looks like you guys enjoyed a great Christmas! Good luck with the whole house-selling-building-a-new-one business!

Carolina John said...

Happy birthday Gracie! sounds like you guys had a great christmas. we had a good one on this side of town too.

Good luck selling the house. the real estate market is still pretty much in the toilet. it will be may or june before we start to see it come back, i think. we too are looking to sell and possibly move to raleigh to be closer to kelley's dad.

Shannon said...

She is adorable! Happy New Year, blessings on selling your house.

Unknown said...

Sounds like lovely holidays.

Grace is a cutie.

Best wishes selling your house and finding the right plan. We build our house and one thing I can say for sure is that no matter how hard you try, there will be something you end up not liking or wishing it was different. But in the long run, it's just a house. Don't stress too much over it. :-)

Wes said...

Yay! Glad you guys had a great Christmas!! Nothing quite as exciting as building your first house!! Sending good vibes...

Unknown said...

I'm with you on the Christmas tree. I love it, but when Christmas is over, it's over. Ours is already down.

Sounds like it is going to be quite an exciting 2009 with the home building. Good luck with it and Happy New Year!

teacherwoman said...

You guys have definitely been busy. I couldn't imagine the stress of designing your own home and then putting your present home on the market... it was stressful enough trying to find a home that I liked to buy! LOL.

Happy early Birthday to Grace!

Gotta Run..... said...

If I were you I would act like I hate riding... more gifts..you know.

David did good!

Hope Grace is feeling better.

Kevin said...

Looks like a great Christmas.

Happy birthday Grace! Hope she is feeling better

Marcy said...

Oooooo I like this look!! Very nice!

Oh I HEAR you. Normally we keep all of our Christmas stuff up until the new year but not this year. I packed that stuff up today. THANK YOU very much LOL

Looks like you all had a fab Christmas!! YAY!!

Steve Stenzel said...

Good luck with the house! Cute pics!!

Happy New Year!!

mrjwhit~ said...

Great Christmas pics. DW is planning to take ours down this Friday (Please God!) I love the season and the meaning, but hate all the decorations. DW has 7 LARGE foot lockers full of decorations. Fun, always fun.

J~Mom said...

I love Christmas as well but I also love taking everything down and having a clean house. :>) Looks like a great Christmas for everyone!

Chris said...

A little late here on catching up on Blog peeps but it looks like you gusy had an awesome (although exhausting I can imagine) Christmas. For some reason it seems like each year the holidays get tougher and tougher to REALLY enjoy and by the end of them we're just trying to survive or endure them. Something seems wrong about this...?? But, I'm not sure how to stop/change it. Maybe next year?

;-)


Good luck with the house.. (love to have you guys in our hood) :-)