Feels Good to Be Back In!

It's the day after Christmas, and we are BACK IN OUR HOUSE. We have working heat now, we have some electricity, and we now have running water!

Yesterday, Christmas morning, we got the best present Trent and I could have imagined. We were able to take a hot shower in our own house.

We moved back in on Saturday, the 22nd, after 2 months of living across the street at Trent's aunt and uncle's during the renovations. We had some heat in the house, but no water yet. On Sunday, we went to my mom's family Christmas in Iowa City (still no water, and had to shower across the street). Monday, Christmas Eve, Trent had to work, and our contractor came over to get the water working. He wasn't successful. He couldn't get the copper pipes to connect and broke one of the fittings. He left and told us he'd be back Wednesday to run new lines.

So Trent got new fittings while he was working, came home Monday evening, and was able to get the cold water line working! We had cold water in the faucet! Christmas Eve night we went to Trent's brother's house to celebrate with their family.

Yesterday morning on Christmas, Trent went back down and was able to get the hot water line working to the shower. He was only one fitting short of getting the hot water to the bathroom faucet, so he is picking that one up today when he gets home. We were finally able to shower in our own house and enjoy Christmas with our families yesterday! Who would have thought just getting running water in our house again would feel so satisfying!

Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours

Hello all and Merry Christmas! Our Christmases with family start today. Trent is working for a little while, then later this afternoon we go to Iowa City to celebrate with my mom's side of the family.

Look at all of these presents covering up our tree (and living room) this year!

This might be a record for number of presents, or size of them, either one. But the good news is, I am all done Christmas shopping and wrapping.

It's been a busy holiday season this year with working and shopping, but like I said in my last post, I've also had time to watch Hallmark Christmas movies and Friends and Boy Meets World on Netflix and Hulu, so it's all good. :) 

Hope you and yours have a merry holiday season! Off to celebrate!

Thanksgiving and Our Christmas Tree

It's been so long since I've blogged, and November's already coming to an end! I don't know where this month went, it seems like it's been a blur. Since we've gotten back from San Diego, I've been busy working, but have also had time to relax at home (watching Hulu, Netflix and Hallmark movies!), and spend time with friends and family.

We got together with our families for Thanksgiving. We ate a lot of food and had a good time with family. The day after, I got some pretty good deals shopping online for Christmas gifts, and I spent the afternoon putting the Christmas tree up and decorating the house while Trent was working, as is my tradition!

This is the eighth (!!) Christmas we've had this tree, and it's the first one we've ever had. We got it right after I moved into the house, on sale at Target for Black Friday. It looks almost the same every year, except we always seem to get a few new ornaments every year, and it's been in a different spot in the living room since we got our sectional a couple of years ago.

It's strange to think that it used to be in front of this window. Now the couch is there, of course, and all we see is the reflection of the tree in the window. :)

It's actually a prelit tree, but most of the original lights are now burnt out. Last year, we had to get a couple of new strands of lights, and some are brighter and "less golden" than the others - I think due to being LED, so you can actually tell if you really look closely, that the lights don't match!

I still like our tree, because it's small enough that I can haul it out of the closet myself and set it up without Trent's help. It's easy to set up and fits perfectly in our living room, but this might be the last year that we have it... We'll see! I haven't decided yet if we should go another year with the prelit lights not working. I guess it depends on whether we find another good deal on a tree we really like!

On another note, this month was our 7th Housiversary! November 21, 2010 is when I moved in with Trent into this house. Usually I do a whole "Housiversary" post, but this year, we can just consider this my housiversary post. Close enough, right? :)

Next Tuesday I leave for another work conference, in Columbus, Ohio again this time. I'll be gone until the following Saturday, so expect another small leave of absence. The busy-ness continues!

DIY Christmas Gift Baskets

Hello all, and hope you had a wonderful Christmas! We were pretty busy, with about 4 different Christmas celebrations over the weekend! And now that it's over, I can finally share what I gave our relatives for gifts this year.

The past couple of years were pretty easy when it came to deciding what to give. In 2014, I gave framed engagement photos to most of our relatives. And last year, 2015, I did the same with our wedding photos. 

Well, we didn't get professional photos taken this year, so I had to get a little more creative with my gifts. :) My decision was made, though, when I stopped into Target and saw these wire baskets in the dollar spot for $3 each:

I decided to put together my own "gift baskets" for everyone, by finding little items and filling each basket with them. I thought these would be pretty fun, since you can not only use the items inside, but you can use the baskets, too. Plus, they look pretty festive. :)

I put together a total of 13 baskets and filled them with things like candles, Christmas mugs and dish towels, chocolate, hot cocoa mix, and a few other random items I found like socks and blankets.

I tried to put about the same amount of items in each basket, but for larger families, I put maybe an item or two extra. Most items I just picked up at Target, Wal-Mart or the Dollar store. For a few, I put in $10 Starbucks gift cards, depending on who I thought might get some use out of them. 

If you wanted to make your own, I think a few other fun things to put in them would be copper moscow mule mugs, travel-size lotions, or Christmas ornaments.

I think they went over pretty well with everyone - at least I hope so! I had fun putting all of them together. Anyone else do something similar this year, or in the past?

Merry Christmas to All

So, it's almost Christmas again! Today's Christmas Eve, and our whole weekend is being spent with family...and many Hallmark Christmas movies, too.

I'm pretty sure by now our tree is overflowing with presents. We're gonna need a bigger living room. :)

Last night, we travelled out to Riverside Casino by Iowa City. We had dinner at the restaurant there and exchanged presents with Mom's side of the family. 

Here are most of us younger cousins! It's safe to say a good time was had by all.

Hope everyone's holidays are Merry and Bright! 

xo, 

Whitney and Trent

Cold Temps, and A Christmas Decor Update

Everyone keeping warm out there? We're in negative temps right now. It's COLD. Needless to say, I'm not stepping foot outside today if I don't have to!

This is the temp right now...feels like -25 degrees out there!

We were supposed to go to our friends' Ugly Christmas Sweater Party last night, but they decided to postpone it, because the weather was pretty bad. Blowing snow and ice on the roads. So, instead we went up town to the bar with Trent's brother for a little bit. Trent still donned his ugly Christmas sweater :) They're supposed to have the party on the 30th now instead, so hopefully we'll be able to go then, and take some fun pictures. :)

Now for a Christmas decor update! We never got any lights up outside this year. :( Trent's been working 6 days a week for the past month or two, so we've been too busy to put them up. Oh well - there's always next year.

I did get the front porch decorated with some of the usual decor items. I didn't get a picture yet, though...but maybe before Christmas I can still get one.

This weekend I've been home watching movies again. Today we're both home, and hope to get some cleaning done. Trent already vacuumed this morning. I'll be spending the afternoon washing dishes. Woo-hoo.

Most of the Christmas presents are done and under the tree. I think we're running out of space for them!

After Christmas, I'll share a little post about the gifts I put together. I did kind of a different theme this year.

Well, it's back to movies and the dishes. Have a good rest of the weekend, everyone! :)

Preparing for Christmas

It's that time of year again. That time when we only have a few short weeks left until Christmas. I feel like it creeped up so fast this year. Wasn't it just yesterday we were watching the Cubs play in the World Series?!

So, what do you do to prepare for the holidays? Decorate, buy gifts, wrap presents? It seems like there's always so much to do this time of year, and sometimes it's hard to find the time to do it all.

I always try to put the tree up around Thanksgiving, and that was no different this year. Decorating the inside of our house was the easy part for me. This year, we are a little late in decorating the outside, though. I was out of town most of last week, and then it suddenly got reaallllyyy cold, and snowed a few inches on us. So we're not exactly bursting at the seams to get out there!

This weekend is our town's Christmas walk, where they also have a light decorating contest - citizens get to vote on who we think has the best Christmas light display.

This year, sadly, we don't have any lights up yet outside. With Trent starting a new job and working a lot of hours, we are going to have to wait until Sunday to put our lights up. I think we're going to go a lot simpler this year, and maybe just focus on the front porch area. That's enough, right?!

On the plus side, with the gifts, I feel like I'm ahead of schedule. I have most of my gifts bought, with just a few more things to pick up and wrap or put together.

What about you? Are you ahead of schedule in some things but not others? Are you excited for Christmas this year, or in a 'Bah humbug' kind of mood?

Here's hoping we get the porch and outside of the house decorated over the weekend!

First Snowfall

Happy Sunday! Today's my first full day being back home after a long work conference in Omaha this week. I got back yesterday afternoon. (More to come about the conference soon!) Today, after finally getting a full night's sleep, I woke up to the first snowfall of the year. 

This morning, I'm watching a movie while the snow falls down. Even though they've only been saying 1-3 inches, now it's looking like more than that.

It's so pretty when it's falling, and as it first starts to cover everything outside. But, I'm not looking forward to driving in it!

When I first put the tree up for the season, I discovered that the top lights went out. Trent thought it was a fuse, but after looking at it closer, nothing seemed to get them to come back on. So, we picked up a small string of lights from the store, and I added them to the top of the tree.

They blend in pretty well, don't you think? Now the tree looks the way it should be again. :)

I guess we will continue to watch the snow fall and see how many inches we end up with!

I have a feeling we're going to get a lot more than the 1-3 inches they say we'll get. :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Hello all, did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? After a long holiday weekend, it's now Sunday, and we're spending the day at home today.

My weekend consisted of watching a lot of movies, amid getting together with family, and binge-watching Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on Netflix. Anybody else finish the series already? AMAZING!

We had the usual Thanksgiving get-togethers with family on Thursday. And Friday was my Gilmore Girls watching day. Complete with coffee. What else?!

I also managed to take all of the fall decorations down, and put up the Christmas tree and some holiday decor. If you look closely at the tree though, the top lights are out. :( Trent thinks it's a fuse and is going to look at it. Hopefully he can get the lights working again.

We've been using this same tree since 2010, when I moved in. This is the first year the tree is in this corner of the room. Changing things up this year because of our new sectional sofa!

Of course I got my holiday pillows out again, too.

Today I'm hoping to finish up the front porch. Then this Tuesday I'm leaving for Omaha, Nebraska for work. Planning to be home again on Saturday. Have a great last day of your weekend, everyone!

Christmas 2015

How was everyone's Christmas?! Hope you all had fun spending time with family and got everything you wanted! Here's a little recap of our Christmas this year, which was super busy and filled with family.

Our Christmas started out really laid back. Christmas morning, Trent and I opened all of our presents to each other at home. We each got each other lots of little things. Trent got me a couple of coloring books, which I've already started coloring! I got a few movies - Inside Out, 22 Jump Street, and Serendipity. He also got me the Kacey Musgraves and Luke Bryan CDs, and a Bluetooth waterproof speaker that I can listen to when taking a shower or getting ready.

I got Trent Chicago Bears socks and t-shirt, a scarf and beanie, Dave Matthews Band travel coffee mug, a sweater, the Thomas Rhett CD, and the new car jack he wanted. Oh, and some strong coffee and a refillable K-cup to go with it!

I'd say we did pretty good this year with our gifts to each other. 

That afternoon, we stopped by Trent's aunt and uncle's to exchange gifts there with his family. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long though, because we had Christmas with my dad's side of the family that night. Me, Haley, and Mom all wore our ugly Christmas sweaters we got in Chicago. I felt like a total dork, but they were kind of cute.

We did the annual exchanging of presents at my grandma's house, opened presents from Mom and Dad, and Haley and Dan brought their new puppy Frannie along, so we were entertained for quite a while with her shenanigans! I don't think she's calmed down much since we last saw them a month ago. She was her usual excited self!

The day after, we went back to my family's for Christmas with my Mom's side. We all went out for lunch, then exchanged presents and did our new annual tradition of Christmas Bingo. I think each year, the prize selection gets bigger and bigger! It was a good time. 

Later after most of the family left, we watched a movie and our friends Chad and Diane came over for pizza. We ate and played a Movie/TV trivia game until we had to head back home again.

After we got home that night we went back to Trent's aunt's to spend a little time with the folks who are out in Ohio that we don't get to see too often. We were there until about 2:00. What a long but fun weekend. I'm surprised I got any sleep at all!

We did get some awesome gifts from our families, too. Gift cards, jewelry, lots of cookies and sweets, and I finally got a Fitbit! Too bad I didn't do too much that was actually active this weekend! So much sitting around eating food and hanging out with family! But that's what the holidays are all about. 

Today was supposed to be back to work for me, but after some really mild Christmas weather, we had a big winter storm hit this morning. Ice, rain, and snow all fell on us today, with high winds, too. So my work was cancelled, and I got a day to relax and spend time with Trent at home! I took a long nap, and we watched a lot of movies. It was a nice change from all the craziness earlier in the week. 

So that was our busy Christmas weekend. I still don't have all of our gifts put away, but have 2 trash bags full of wrapping paper and boxes that need to go out. Anyone else getting hit by a winter storm? Hopefully the roads are better tomorrow. We'll see!

Merry Christmas Y'all!

It's Christmas Eve! Hope everyone is enjoying their time off to spend with family this holiday.

Trent and I are spending our first Christmas as a married couple together at home, watching Christmas movies.

We did our traditional each opening one present from each other. He opened the photo book I made him with pictures of Saleen. And I got the Kacey Musgraves cd. :) And of course Saleen got to open her present - a bone.



We watched the Happy Holiday Yule log with a happy dog and cat. Ha!

We also took our annual photo in front of the tree. It's always hard trying to get a good picture with the timer, but at least we tried!

These were the best we got. :)

Merry Christmas everyone, from The Keevers!