Before I get into today’s guest post from Sarah in Illinois, I wanted to mention that I guest posted on That Mutt yesterday. Visit Lindsay’s blog to read all about Baxter’s favourite toy–and enter to win one for your own furry friend.

And now on to Sarah’s latest post. (I won’t say any more because I don’t want to scoop her big announcement!)

There has been a lot going on over here in the past two weeks! The big news is that the day before Thanksgiving Steve and I went to the courthouse and got married! We have been dating for almost 6 years and engaged for close to a year and anytime anyone asked, we told them that we were not going to have a big wedding, but no one knew when. It was a Thanksgiving surprise for everyone!

We got together with Steve’s family for Thanksgiving and had a great time and ate too much and visited and watched football. I also had Steve’s niece take our picture for our family Christmas card. Back at home, I have started my Christmas shopping, our tree is up, lights are on the house, Christmas is in full swing!

We bought new LED lights for our tree and we were so excited to see the patterns that it splashed on our walls and ceiling!

Since there is so much that goes on leading up to Christmas, I wanted to make sure we focused on our favorite things and didn’t get overwhelmed with trying to get everything done. I asked the kids what was something they wanted to make sure we didn’t forget to do and they both agreed that we can’t miss making gingerbread houses! So we still have that to do, plus finish shopping, plus all our family dinners. And I still have a gift to make for our handmade gift exchange that my girlfriends and I are going to do.

As for home improvement projects, I have to admit Steve and I kind of burnt ourselves out over the summer. We have done absolutely nothing around the house and I think we have both decided that it is time to get back to work! I came home one night this past week, and Steve had grout mixed up and we got to work grouting our hallway.

We laid the tile early in the summer and have been walking on ungrouted tile all this time. I am so thankful that we both have our drive back to work on the house! We have a sort of game plan for this winter, and I am getting excited about tearing the house apart and fixing it back up! I am hoping that my future posts will be filled with projects that we have finished!

Congratulations, Sarah and Steve! It’s great to get your DIY-mojo back. Oh, and getting married too. That’s big. 🙂 All the best to you both.

Sarah will be back in the New Year with more updates about (married) life, home renos and country living.