Month: December 2020

Tatum and I, the baking babes, made a plethora of cookies. Shortbread and chocolate to begin! We made seven bags to take to our surrounding neighbors.

Here is what we wrote:

Off we go!

First, we visited Justin and Devon. Justin’s daughter is Bella (11) who is at her mom’s house 1/2 time. Then, we headed across to the cul-de-sac. Two houses didn’t answer, so we left the cookies. But we did meet Julie, Chris and Ian (7). Lovely family!
Next, Vijay (his wife just had a baby (8 months) so we only met him). Finally we met Tim. His wife is in Brazil and they have no kids but 5 dogs.

We look forward to getting to know everyone and being lights in the neighborhood!

My honey bought the most glorious tree with about 2000 fairy lights. It’s delightful and truly is a light in our room. Our Jesus tree.

Tatum put on the ornament from our trip to Sedona. Her shrink dink bear she made was the first on the tree.

My HHH and I had to put on our wedding day reminder. I love you so my honey.

I surprised Tot with her horse drawing. It was turned into an ornament!

Later on we watched It’s a Wonderful Life to celebrate and be grateful.

I love you family!!! Forever. God, thank YOU who brought them to me.

I know. I know. I need to try a new house, but I love the idea of making the same one every year for comparison. AND, maybe we can perfect our technique? At least the frosting/glue. It’s the bane of the building process honestly. SO, we try again!
But, the difference this year? WE ARE IN OUR NEW HOUSE!!! Lotsa space. Lotsa joy.

Let us review.

And are you ready folks???

Hot cocoa to start us off. Are we excited, Tot???

Let’s get that hard part finished. Egg whites beaten to peak. Add the sugar and this year, let’s try vinegar.

It was a bit better this year. Very sticky. So let’s try the A frame

Frosty time!
Let’s try a cross this year.

We let it dry and start to decorate. The little people are in tact this year! And we’ll put the dog on the ground this year. Why was he flying at the peak of the house in the past? Hmmm… Reindeer dog?

Oh, this is looking cute! Any leftover drops of morsels?? Always. ALWAYS!

And voila!

Year 5, it adorns our new home with this old tradition. I love making this with you sweet girl!

As a family, we have been going to Christo’s for about 40-50 years! My mom wanted to take Doug there for his birthday. So, why not enjoy Christmas there too!? We got all gussied up and did our annual pics in front of the tree too.

First, who started it all. My lovely mom. Coti, it’s been you and me in 2009 till Tot was born.

Then, guess who joined us?

Yes, this beauty.

Then my HHH become part of our family. Made our family!

And now we are one.

Mama, thank you for a lovely dinner. Our joy is complete when Austin joins our clan, and not to forget little Coopy.

Jesus, you create our foundation. Complete.

I adore our Thermador oven. Is that allowed? To actually love an appliance? OK, so Tot and I have decided to start making Christmas cookies in our new kitchen. Of course we’ll eat a few, but the goal is to deliver to our neighbors and introduce ourselves.

We started with shortbread; who doesn’t love shortbread! It’s buttery, it’s sugary, it’s melty in your mouthy….it’s delicious! (only one. two. three .four. ingredients!)

Tot whipped the butter and powdered sugar.

It’s starting to whip!

We formed into little balls…

Pressed the fork in and decorated

Now we will deliver to new neighbors. We hope you like them and we can’t wait to get to know you all.

McCormick Ranch is our new home!

We are in and I see a SEA of boxes. But, wow. Just wow. It’s our first day/night in our new home.

My sweet man. He thought through every little detail of this place from the knobs on the drawers to the baseboards to the colors to the lighting to the….just fill in the blank. It’s from his heart, and each little square foot is special. It’s truly a home from the heart. From HIS heart to his heart to our hearts. God blessed us with DOUG and blessed Doug with the dream of this place.

So, we got situated after the movers left, and Doug wanted to have a little talk out in front. It was FFFFAAARRREEEEZING so it was a short blessing. Then, he carried me in.

and we entered the castle.

Tot, your turn.

Truly carried over the threshold with his loves.

Then we blessed each room. Doug started it with a formal blessing of our home. We did it over the frame where we wrote, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” So much has happened since that day. Now we stand…under it….finished.

After blessing each space in the home, we had some takeout salads and sat at our massive island.

Now we get to sleep in our new beds. I feel like a true princess. More to come!

Thank you honey for ALLLLLLL of this. May we relish each minute. God blessed us, and may we live in gratitude.

Pinch me. Am I dreaming? Has it finally arrived? We bought this home in April of 2019, and since then, Doug has been tirelessly working on it with the help of Monty and Eddie.

Today is the day. December 12, 2020. I spent the week packing up the condo. Now that was fun! (not). But, on the bright side, it forced me to not move over excess. I purged and tossed like a crazy woman! Gettin’ rid of SCHTUFF! Love it.

Woosh!
Saturday morning, Ray and Eric from Moving Team Six showed at 7:45am. Tatum couldn’t help it, but started helping them.

I worked on GCU while I had a free moment. Then the rest of the day, when they get to our home, I can focus on that. The last time I’ll have to work at this little island.

Empty! Wow.

Goodbye condo. Goodbye being sardines. Goodbye running into each other in the mini-kitchen. Goodbye sharing a sink. Goodbye cave for honey as he works. Goodbye parking issues. Goodbye HOA joys (ha). Goodbye friends at Mission de los Arroyos (Zoe, Sedona, Jeff, Tracy, Michelle, Bob). Goodbye heated pool. (sad face). Honestly, the condo was a boot camp for our marriage and coming together. We learned to grow in and through conflict; I don’t regret any of it. It was a blessing to even have a place to live while our home was being prepared. So many blessings.

Let’s head over to our home!

When Ray was finished, he was so impressed with Tot, he gave her $5.

The day is just getting started. Here we go!