Totally in the Christmas Spirit!

What better way to get in the Christmas spirit than with LOTS of snow and Sugar cookies!

Oma & Opa arrived today on the train in a blizzard. It was snowing so much that it took us about 40 minutes to go the 10 miles from the train station to our home. It was a slow go with horrible roads, but we made it safely home.

The boys were on an early release from school so they only had a 1/2 day to avoid having the kids being bussed home in the snow.

The boys played outside this afternoon - in the snow and wind. CRAZY - but they had fun!

So the next picture shows the boys face down in the snow. They thought it was so funny to dig a shallow hole in the snow and put their face in it to keep it warm. They looked like two dead bodies out in the snow to me! Silly boys!


After warming up we decided to have a FHE on traditions and then made Christmas Sugar cookies. We had lots of fun baking, decorating, and making a REALLY big mess!

Foot surgery or just new shoes?

Okay... so the title is strange, but that's how I feel right now about our stupid heater situation. We've had a Heater guy out here on Wed, Thur, and Fri to try to figure out why the heater wasn't working all the time. It would work on occasion (only when the heater guy was trying to figure out why it wasn't working) and then would just lock-out and shut down at other times.

So to the foot surgery or new shoes comment. Dealing with my heater is like someone going to the doctor and saying that their feet really hurt and trying to get a solution. They run a bunch of expensive test to try to find the solution and decide that surgery is the best option. Then to come and realize that you really only needed bigger shoes - a simple solution.

So it is with our heater. We had the guys out here on Wed and Thur and they replaced the thermostat, ignition module, ignitor - and after all of that it still didn't work - they recommended that we get a new furnace. On Fri we had a different guy out here to give us an estimate for a new furnace (from the same company) and he was able to find that we just had a build up of water condensation in our vent pipe that was keeping the steam from venting - causing it to intermittently work. So the guy made a simple adjustment in the pitch of the pipe and voila - problem solved.

So now I'm in the process of trying to recover some of the hundreds of dollars of parts that were unnecessarily installed. AARRGGHHH!

Anyway - we have heat and that's good!

Heater on the fritz...

Of course - it's just before Christmas and it's REALLY cold here and the heater decides to go loopy! We had the heater guy out and it worked just fine for him. He thought it could be the thermostat because our's was really old (still used a mercury filled tube to tell temp for when to kick on). So we replaced that ($150) and paid the $75 service call fee...

So now it's the next morning (today) and the heater stopped working again. So apparently it's NOT the really old thermostat that I just updated for no reason. (Happy Birthday to me, right? - I've always wanted a new thermostat for my birthday)

The heater guy is coming back today to fix the ignition module. (It's probably expensive!) He also informed me that even though they replaced it two years ago in March, the two year warranty has expired. Oh goodie! I just love dishing out tons of dough at this time of year!

Oh well - this is the stuff you deal with when you live in an older home!

Camera cable is missing!

So, I really had intended on keeping up with our happenings with photos, however I think I left my camera cable (you know the one that let's me download the pics to my computer) in Montreal.

That being said - I don't have my pictures to upload of us putting up lights on the house (that a big deal since it's our first time doing it) or making christmas tree bulbs (filling clear glass bulbs with paint and swirling it around) or pictures of the mass amounts of snow.

Anyway - we're filled with the Christmas spirit (I'm sure it's because we're SO excited to have Oma & Opa coming to our home for Christmas).

I ordered a new camera cable - so hopefully we'll get some fun photo's up soon!