Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas in Staunton with Mom and Dad and Cecilia. The girls were with Harald so it was quieter than in recent years.

 We did see the girls at our house though on their way north from Florida. We gave them leatherbound journals with locks so they could keep secret diaries.

No new ornaments this year, but a new tree skirt and tree topper. It isn't as pretty as the one Cecilia gave us years ago, but that one ways about ten pounds and every year I fear its going to fall and impail someone with one of its points.

Fall Travel

I went to conferences in San Antonio, Texas and Canberra, Australia this semester.

Here are some selfis taken at iconic sites, including the Alamo and then the Anzac Parade (mall with all the national memorials), Land Axis (from the roof of the parliament through the city, across the lake, to the Anzac Parade, to the War Memorial and Mount Ainsle), in front of the New Parliament, and in the Sculpture Skyspace by James Turrell at the National Art Museum.

And my first view of Australia out my plane window. This is my fourth continent - just South America and Antarctica to go!

My Birthday

Here is an overview of the table with all my presents and flowers and cards and cake ...

Some lovely drawings from Michael and Anthony ...

A nice shot of my cake and the necklace Miran got me ...

 Posing in my new coat (from Milada) and boots (from Azra) ...

More House Projects!

We've finished up a couple projects around here lately, including spreading the rest of the gravel in the firepit (all Miran). We also moved the grill over and put it where a future bench might be located. The areas on both sides of the path around the tress will both be encircled with more edgers eventually and filled with mulch. There is also a small planter rectangle in the middle of the path.

Also, I realized I never posted a picture of the lovely corner cabinet Dad made for the living room, and which I painted a peacock blue. To match, and to have one big solid blue thing in each room, I also replaced the carpet in the living room with one of the same color. I still love the white rug look, but it was really quite dingy already after less than a year (and no shoes inside). Maybe I'll switch back out for next spring/summer, because this darker rug certainly has a warmer fall/winter feel.

Finally, I also installed a backsplash on the new side of the kitchen. I'm incredibly pleased with how it turned out, especially considering my lack of experience with tiling. Miran helped with the couple of tiles that needed to be cut, but because it was basically a simple rectangle, there wasn't too much of that thankfully. In fact, it turned out so uncomplicated and inexpensive, I am now thinking I should buy more tile and do the old side of the kitchen as well.

House and Yard Projects

In the past month or so we've also been up to a few projects in and around the house, some of which are still in progress.

Azra figured out the shampoo system on the kirby and cleaned the rug downstairs. With Kico here for the past eight months, it really needed it.

And speaking of Kico, he had his first trip to the American vet this month. We went ahead and had him tested for everything to get some baseline data on his health. He was perfectly healthy, though the vet suggested a diet. He was so excited by the whole experience - it was only his fourth car ride ever and first time in the vet's office with the other dogs (the Bosnian vet makes house calls). We thought he was going to hyperventilate he was so excited the whole time.

Today we all worked on cleaning out and organizing the carport, which was a big project, but in the end didn't take to long. Azra and I loaded up everything that needed to go to the dump and made it there at 4 minutes to closing. We got rid of the table and the wood pile and got some shelving to put against the wall. Now only the gardening and other things are very organized - and hopefully will stay that way at least for a little while!

And for the past week we've been working on a firepit complex behind the driveway. Last week Miran and I bought the stones to make the firepit itself. On Saturday we all three worked all day to lay out paper and edging stones to make a path and seating area, as well as to clear out all the sticks and leaves and junk around the trees.

The gravel arrived today and we managed to spread it in the seating area around the firepit itself, but I underestimated how much we needed and we ran out before we could do the path from driveway to seating area. There will be mulched areas around each of the trees that we haven't made yet, and the pop out on the left side of the path is for a bench.

But here is a nice shot of the area around the firepit with the gravel and our new plastic adirondack chairs in place. Last week we had a couple of fires, but after working most of the day we were too tired to start a fire and sit out there tonight, but maybe we'll test it out tomorrow.