Updates, guests, and decorating

Blake's Jeep just had a dead battery. We were pretty convinced that was the problem, but were worried that it might have been a starter issue since he had to replace that a couple of years ago. Thank heavens for small towns. A local auto shop guy came out to our house, charged the battery, and gave us his home phone number in case it didn't start the next day. Of course, it didn't start today, so we called him at home and he came out and put in a new battery. How nice!

All the recent time spent in the garage or with the garage door open {scooping snow, ice, and all the other glorious things mother nature dumped on us} has welcomed our first unwelcome house guest. Yes, we have a mouse. I'm paranoid that it's going to get into the house. This is when I wish for a detached garage. Now, I've just got to get that little bugger.

Unpacking is coming along. The entire main floor is practically live-able {outside of the guest bedrooms that no one uses!} We focused on finding and putting up our Christmas decorations yesterday. No need to put that off to last minute in this new place! I have this thing where I like to work on a new, fairly inexpensive {$20 or less}, Christmas project each year. Last year, it was finding a door decoration for our condo. This year, I wanted to put together a table centerpiece. Here's what I came up with {plus a view of our dining and kitchen area}. Speaking of Christmas decorations, I'm absolutely in love with the festive-ness of our fireplace {the word art was a custom gift from our realtor. It was waiting for us, along with a bottle of wine, on our kitchen counter when we walked in on Friday. So thoughtful. I LOVE it!}.