My first Christmas in Texas I bought a live tree. My second Christmas DH and I were in a tiny apartment, so he surprised me with a potted pine which he later planted in his parents' yard. Unfortunately some workers drove over it with their truck. The next few years we didn't bother. His parents always put up their tree, and until we moved into the house we always opened gifts at their place. The one year we opened at ours (which makes sense as we get the most presents) I put a fake Menorah (his dad's Jewish) on the tree skirt on a coffee table and put the gifts around that and under the table. It worked well. Even with this arrangement we chose not to have a tree because for the last few years we have gone to Disney World for Christmas, so there didn't seem to be much of a point to paying the expense of something we wouldn't enjoy on the actual day. This year we have spent so much time trying to prep the house for bambino I had even moved most of the holiday decorations into storage, so even there we had very little. We decided that, despite the fact bambino will be less than a year old; we will go "all out" this year for Christmas.
Growing up I have always had a live Christmas tree, while DH has always had a fake one. With our allergies (and knowing bambino will probably inherit them), I decided that, despite the lack of wonderful pine smell, it makes more sense and is more cost efficient to purchase a fake Christmas tree. To add to the cost efficiency, I suggested we go ahead and buy a tree now while they're on sale. So last night we went to Garden Ridge where trees are currently 75% off. We found one that is potted which will prevent Cheshire from getting to the branches as well as bambino, with a careful eye, of course (I'm assuming s/he will be able to pull her/himself up by then). The bad thing about it, other than being fake, is that it has white lights instead of colored, but at least we don't have to string the lights every year, and maybe I could replace the bulbs with colored ones as they die. The good thing about it is that with the discount it will cost about the same as one nice live tree, without killing a tree. I had also hoped to get some decorations for outdoors, but I guess they were sold out already. I did buy wrapping paper for about fifty cents a roll, so that was a steal, and I had already stocked up on some fun holiday cards at Walgreens for half-price last week.
Afterwards we went to BRU to buy a gate for the hallway. We're having the nursery carpet installed this week (yippee), and we're going to have the hallway carpet replaced as well and keep Cheshire out, hence the gate. For whatever reason DH decided he wanted to look at our bedding set, so we headed there first. Turns out our set was on sale. Now, while it stinks that I already have several pieces of it full price that he or the ILs got me for Christmas, we decided to buy the most expensive piece - the crib set - just in case no one chooses to get it for us as a gift. We also bought the lamp since we can't get the one DH longed for from the Yacht & Beach Club. So yay us.
To top off our night, the temperature was so mild we were able to run these errands (and grocery shopping) without so much as a jacket, which is always nice. It's just too bad we couldn't find an inexpensive china cabinet or curio we liked at The Dump the other night or we'd be all set. At least DH found a new restaurant he loves (Boston's).
Supplement (1-11-08): In preparation for the carpet installation, DH and I finally finished clearing out the nursery closet, allowing me to sanitize it after housing cat supplies (you know litter gets everywhere). Should have listened to GM and had the closet repainted. Oh well. I decided to get some shelf liner and FIL suggested a dollar store where he saw some recently. Can we say I have another store to add to my list of faves? Not only did I get that, but some canvas boxes to store little clothing accessories for bambino, and discovered all sorts of organizational supplies that will come in handy when I finally get around to organizing the rest of the house.
The nursery is painted a beautiful blue with white trim. Unfortunately our switch and electric-socket plates are pale yellow. Fortunately our bed set has complementary switch plates. Unfortunately this took care of only two of the "problems". So yesterday between the carpet being installed and the crib being delivered I went to Elliott's Hardware store (of course while their Internet system was down so it took forever to check out). I bought a double switch plate in white and the electric sockets that have the movable covers so there's already the safety factor built in. While there I discovered their holiday items were 90% off!!!, so I bought some icicle lights to string around the house next year. While waiting in line to check out I flipped through their add book and discovered their Rubbermaid containers were on sale for $4, so I bought three of those.
On top of all this FIL and I replaced my kitchen cabinet knobs with some from Disney DH and I found on super sale (one of our knobs is literally worn out and therefore won't stayed screwed in). I noticed that a couple of drawers no longer have their knobs bump into each other when they open, so FIL tested the cabinets by the dishwasher which don't have any knobs b/c the original owner/designer was a moron and bought stupid knobs so the washer can't open with knobs there - but now it does!!! Granted, we would have preferred a theme more to our liking (Mickey & Co, Cheshire or Ariel related), but the Snow White knobs actually blend in well to the cabinets while still adding character, literally. I'll add pictures to my Nest bio one day. The only bad part about all this is the fact that now I’m trying to decide how I’m going to rearrange the kitchen cabinets to better accommodate our new addition. It needs to be done, but something I didn’t have on my to-do list till now. Ugh me.
Growing up I have always had a live Christmas tree, while DH has always had a fake one. With our allergies (and knowing bambino will probably inherit them), I decided that, despite the lack of wonderful pine smell, it makes more sense and is more cost efficient to purchase a fake Christmas tree. To add to the cost efficiency, I suggested we go ahead and buy a tree now while they're on sale. So last night we went to Garden Ridge where trees are currently 75% off. We found one that is potted which will prevent Cheshire from getting to the branches as well as bambino, with a careful eye, of course (I'm assuming s/he will be able to pull her/himself up by then). The bad thing about it, other than being fake, is that it has white lights instead of colored, but at least we don't have to string the lights every year, and maybe I could replace the bulbs with colored ones as they die. The good thing about it is that with the discount it will cost about the same as one nice live tree, without killing a tree. I had also hoped to get some decorations for outdoors, but I guess they were sold out already. I did buy wrapping paper for about fifty cents a roll, so that was a steal, and I had already stocked up on some fun holiday cards at Walgreens for half-price last week.
Afterwards we went to BRU to buy a gate for the hallway. We're having the nursery carpet installed this week (yippee), and we're going to have the hallway carpet replaced as well and keep Cheshire out, hence the gate. For whatever reason DH decided he wanted to look at our bedding set, so we headed there first. Turns out our set was on sale. Now, while it stinks that I already have several pieces of it full price that he or the ILs got me for Christmas, we decided to buy the most expensive piece - the crib set - just in case no one chooses to get it for us as a gift. We also bought the lamp since we can't get the one DH longed for from the Yacht & Beach Club. So yay us.
To top off our night, the temperature was so mild we were able to run these errands (and grocery shopping) without so much as a jacket, which is always nice. It's just too bad we couldn't find an inexpensive china cabinet or curio we liked at The Dump the other night or we'd be all set. At least DH found a new restaurant he loves (Boston's).
Supplement (1-11-08): In preparation for the carpet installation, DH and I finally finished clearing out the nursery closet, allowing me to sanitize it after housing cat supplies (you know litter gets everywhere). Should have listened to GM and had the closet repainted. Oh well. I decided to get some shelf liner and FIL suggested a dollar store where he saw some recently. Can we say I have another store to add to my list of faves? Not only did I get that, but some canvas boxes to store little clothing accessories for bambino, and discovered all sorts of organizational supplies that will come in handy when I finally get around to organizing the rest of the house.
The nursery is painted a beautiful blue with white trim. Unfortunately our switch and electric-socket plates are pale yellow. Fortunately our bed set has complementary switch plates. Unfortunately this took care of only two of the "problems". So yesterday between the carpet being installed and the crib being delivered I went to Elliott's Hardware store (of course while their Internet system was down so it took forever to check out). I bought a double switch plate in white and the electric sockets that have the movable covers so there's already the safety factor built in. While there I discovered their holiday items were 90% off!!!, so I bought some icicle lights to string around the house next year. While waiting in line to check out I flipped through their add book and discovered their Rubbermaid containers were on sale for $4, so I bought three of those.
On top of all this FIL and I replaced my kitchen cabinet knobs with some from Disney DH and I found on super sale (one of our knobs is literally worn out and therefore won't stayed screwed in). I noticed that a couple of drawers no longer have their knobs bump into each other when they open, so FIL tested the cabinets by the dishwasher which don't have any knobs b/c the original owner/designer was a moron and bought stupid knobs so the washer can't open with knobs there - but now it does!!! Granted, we would have preferred a theme more to our liking (Mickey & Co, Cheshire or Ariel related), but the Snow White knobs actually blend in well to the cabinets while still adding character, literally. I'll add pictures to my Nest bio one day. The only bad part about all this is the fact that now I’m trying to decide how I’m going to rearrange the kitchen cabinets to better accommodate our new addition. It needs to be done, but something I didn’t have on my to-do list till now. Ugh me.
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