Out of the Darkness...and into the Light

A.K.A. the very, very, very belated holiday post.

This seems to happen to me every year, we go from the Solstice, to Christmas, to a holiday visit from my family, to New Year's and Iain's birthday, and before I know it we're well into the year before I've even come up for air long enough to post about our celebrations. And at that point there is so much else going on and it's all so fresh in my head, making it ever-so-much easier to post about what happened yesterday, then, say, what happened two months ago.

So, here, finally, is the quick recap, as I remember it....
We had a really good holiday season. Sure, there were speed bumps and minor crisis's coming from every direction, problems with my computer, problems with my camera, problems with my sewing machine (I seem to have some issues with electronics.) There was the 3 hour search for a tree on Christmas Eve. And the three packages of presents that didn't show up until a month later. But, there were also several turns of events and twists of fate that could aptly be described as holiday miracles. One of them being that our house went from looking like this:

to this:
in a matter of days.

And while it may not be ready for the cover of House Beautiful, it's a pretty big deal considering it wasn't all that long ago that we really had very little hope of getting into the *little* house and here we were moving into a piece of our addition.

Our solstice was celebrated in a rather unusual fashion. For the first year since started this tradition, we were shut out for our sun rise. I had very seriously considered trying to arrange having B the Builder over on the Solstice to install the doors that would let us past between the two areas that now make up our first floor. I rather liked the symbolism, both literal and figurative. From the small dark space with scant sunlight, to a window filled oasis. A fresh start, a new beginning, the rebirth of hope. But after much thought I decided that the children would probably be disappointed if we didn't do our usual celebration and there was no chance of that happening while we were working on the house. B, who had been working at another job for a while at this point, was looking for a break in his schedule. That break came, as it turns out, on the Solstice...

And so our regular traditions were set aside for this year, in favor of expanding our home's horizons.

We've been living in the space ever since then. It's still quite unfinished (obviously), but we are all enjoying the extra room. The first full day that it was open Galen literally spent hours just walking back and forth with the pull toy that he never had room to pull before!

As a combination anniversary (Christmas Eve) and family Christmas present, Steve surprised us by bringing home a futon! It's a beautiful mission style frame with a cherry finish. The futon has a cotton velvet cover in moss green. I was totally knocked out by the thoughtfulness and beauty of the both the gift and the giver. I mean really people, that man is going to have to stop with the "I can't make aesthetic decisions" bit after this one! Ain't no one buying it, no more!

I can't even begin to tell you what an extravagant treat it felt like to have a comfortable place to sit after all this time. I promise that it will be featured in future posts. I have all kinds of projects planned around this one! Rugs, throws, pillows... oh, I'll be busy for quite a while.

In other home/building news, the upstairs of the addition is still closed off. We are hoping to get it insulated and in order over the summer. In the meantime we are still in the one small bedroom, which no longer has any windows at all. There is no plumbing up here anywhere just yet and our phone line is still run from through the woods from our old house. We are, however, officially dependent on our own power! The line has been run to the new pole and we have two, count um, two, working outlets. Tomorrow the electrician will be here to hook up a few more and some over-head lights too!