Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

From our family...

To yours...

Too much egg nog?

Nope- Jacob got a balloon sculpting kit. Fun!

Christmas Mold

Hello! Just popping in with a quick Christmas Mold update (as I know y'all are waiting anxiously to know about our fungi problem!). Well, after a consultation with Brian's brother who is Mr. Architect and a mold remediation man (#2), it seems that the moisture problem in the basement is due to the way the builders wrapped the Tyvek around the house near the ground (to guide the moisture right into the basement area) and the wrong way they installed the windows.

Mr. Mold Remediation Man recommended we tear off all the siding on the house and re-do it properly. So, right now we are coming out of the shock of that and trying to decide if we *really* need to be that drastic. And it's winter and the thought of having the whole house without siding is a bit much. If we were younger, we would have had that siding off the next day...but now we try to think about things that involve lots of money and manual labor first.

In the meantime we have a dehumidifier in the basement- it filled up halfway full (it holds a gallon) in *one* day. We heard that's a lot.

I smile (or cringe, cry, wring hands?) when I think about our efforts to humidify the air last winter. I think Jacob's dry hands were due to the *mold* and not dry air (since we obviously had a tropical rain forest going on in our basement).

If we are successful at getting the air dry enough, we can begin to address the mold growing on the floor joists and in the crawl space (wood above it). Guess what Brian will be doing over his Christmas break?

Holiday Tour of Homes

Welcome to our home! It has been below zero for the past several days and *windy*.

Our front door (hope the wreath doesn't blow away!)

In the entry way is our little church where we place our Christmas cards. We haven't received many yet, but I haven't sent ours out, so I guess I can't complain!

In the dining room...

The children decorated a gingerbread house again this year. The candies are slowly falling off as time goes by :).

I brought out my Christmas "quilt" square made of paper to decorate in the kitchen.

On top of the kitchen hutch.

A wreath for the kitchen. I took two rather anemic wreaths I had used in the past and gussied them up this year using the left-over ribbon from the wreath on the front door.

The mantle decorated a la "The Nester". After seeing all of the wonderful garlands from the "Garland Party", I added more berries, the candles on the mantle and moved the nativity to the center of the mantle.

I love the soft colors of this nativity set.

We have a little tree this year. (Story behind our mold problems and why most of our Christmas decorations remain in storage *here* and *here*.)We made gingerbread ornaments and a few with family pictures to add to our Precious Moments ornaments.

Awaiting Christmas morning.

On top of the piano.

Our family's traditional Christmas candy. This year our flavors were grape, strawberry, orange, and other fruit flavors. We usually make mint flavors, but we thought we'd try something different this year.
*Here* are the instructions (and pictures of us making it) for how to make your own.

Thanks for stopping by! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Due to mold issues in our basement, we decided not to use the Christmas decorations stored down there this winter. This year, then, has been a time for doing things differently than in the past.


We had always hung our stockings on our mantle, but I think the highlight of our decorating this year has been our garland made following "The Nester's" suggestions.

At night we light the candles, turn on the Christmas music, and enjoy the lights from the tree and mantle.

It has been so good to hear my children say how much they are enjoying our Christmastime- even though at first they were skeptical that Christmas could be any fun without our special things.

And the starfish? We had to put one in- just because "The Nester" had one in hers!

*Update on Hannah*

Hannah mentioned last night that she thinks her hearing in both her ears are back to normal! She is still hearing a lot of popping sounds (due to the ruptured eardrum?) but the hearing is back.

We are very grateful! Thank you for your prayers!

He Took Me Seriously

"Hey, Jacob- you've lost so many teeth this past month, you could make them into Christmas ornaments..."

Making a Snowman...

Is much more fun than thinking about mold...

And here we thought fixing the basement was a fun project to do in winter.

This is what the outside of my living room looks like right now. A storm is moving in and the wind makes strange sounds against the Tyvek as it blows against it.

Underneath the Tyvek is the side of our house where we had a big water leak- the builders did not do a good job of caulking the siding and we are just now seeing the results of eight years of leaks. We still remain hopeful (ignorant, hiding our heads in the sand?) that this is isolated to the side of the house. Although we know of one other place on the front of the house that will need fixing.

These are the helpful books that have given me nightmares recently (!). After reading these, I think I see dust mites and mold everywhere... It is a good thing I never went to medical school.

Brian spent 7-8 hours working on the basement crawl space this weekend. He thinks that part is done and all that is left to do is to finish vacuuming and seal the walls. The floors (I think) have been sealed although the cracks still need to be caulked.

Christmas Decorating

Since we are still in the process of making the basement safe for us mold-sensitive people, we made the decision to not use any of the Christmas decorations that have been stored in the basement for this year. We plan to take them out in the summer to clean/air them for next year.

Thankfully, not all of our Christmas things are stored in the basement! Brian's mom sent us the "Willow Tree" nativity set this year. We have it in the family room and have been enjoying it since fall (!). I love how in this set Mary is holding Jesus instead of looking at Him in the manger. If I were Mary, that's what I would be doing, too.

We bought a little artificial tree and put on our Precious Moments decorations. We hope to make gingerbread ornaments this week.

Flocked wrapping paper? Be still my heart!

We decorated the mantle following the wonderful advice of "The Nester".

On top of the piano.

A wreath for the back door.

Even though our Christmas decorating will be very simple this year, we are grateful that we have a few special items we can display. We are listening to Christmas music each night watching the lights on the (ever so little) tree, the mantle and the candles on the piano. I hope this year's more quiet celebration will bring fond memories in the years to come.