Yahoo for Christmas!

Well I still haven't resolved this grading dispute, so I am gathering all my evidence and contacts so I can do what needs to be done as quickly as possible. I have already made an initial e-mail in regards to a formal grade dispute. In the meantime I am definitely enjoying being done with finals and the semester and finally having some time to myself. Katie and I went a got our Christmas tree on Friday. We did the "cut your own" variety at a place that is literally around the corner from our house. That made it a little easier getting the tree home. While I probably could have fit it into my trunk, I didn't want to risk breaking a bunch of the branches, so I just carried it home and Katie drove my car. It was a five-minute walk tops. Upon getting home and getting the tree stand out, I noticed the little set of spikes at the bottom was bent, so I used the pliers and bent them back to discover a small hole in the bottom of the already rusting stand. Well, that meant getting a new stand, which I promptly did at Wal-Mart. Not only is the new stand much wider (and plastic) but it was WAY easier to set the tree in...WAAAAAYYYY easier. The tree itself doesn't look too bad. Granted there weren't many choices, but in terms of budget, I'm happy with it. I'm REEEEALLLLY glad I have a chainsaw too. It made cutting the tree down VERY easy! That chainsaw has turned out to be a great investment for me so far!

Once I got the tree set up I took care of the outside lights. Normally I put up a lot of Christmas lights, but with our budget so tight this year, I toned it back, so I only put lights around the porch rather than the entire house. I also bought some new LED lights, which claim to use 66% less energy, last longer, and are brighter than traditional lights. So far I am very impressed with my LED lights. I bought blue "icicle" lights. While they have less lights than the set I replaced them with, these LED lights ARE much brighter and MUCH bluer! I continue to be amazed just how blue these lights are when they are on. The pictures I took of them do not do them justice. I couldn't help but notice the difference in blue when I compared them to a set of blue lights around our front door. The lights around the front door don't even seem blue after seeing the LED lights. WOW.

Today I finally put the lights on the tree so we can start decorating it. I wanted to give the tree time to settle and open up a little before putting the lights on, especially since we got it fresh. Let me just tell you how fragrant this tree is, and I would guess that has to do, again, with getting it fresh. The scent of pine was pretty easy to smell all the way across the house as if I were standing in the living room with the tree. Now it really feels-- and smells-- like Christmas in this house!

As I am writing this, we are dealing with one of the house issues I blogged about just the other day: our furnace. We have several older appliances that could pretty much go at any day, mostly due to them being old, and the furnace is one of them. In fact, finding out the furnace was in bad shape at the end of April and needed replacement was what finally caused the whole house situation to finally come to light since my dad had to explain why the furnace couldn't be replaced. Right now the furnace is simply "non responsive" meaning it's on and the pilot is lit, but it's not kicking on even when the thermostat is turned up. For now we're making do with two space heaters and the oven. Hardly the most cost-effective way to heat the house, but at least we won't freeze. Katie bought her own space heater and we borrowed one of those Quartz heaters from my Derby grandparents. Hopefully the problem is something that can be fixed, but I'm guessing the whole thing will need to be replaced. Just lovely! Good thing we're currently just rolling in cash right now!