Parentheticals

We missed last week, so this post is a twofer. Last week Mike took time off so we remodeled the downstairs. The walls used to be made out of wood paneling which had been painted yellowish tan, but the paint was all peeling off since the people that painted it didn't either buy the right paint or didn't sand the surface at all, so the paint didn't grip at all. We ripped out all the walls on Monday, put in insulation on Tuesday, put in drywall Wednesday, taped and mudded on Thursday and Friday, painted on Saturday, and touched up the painting and applied the trim on Sunday. It was a big job, but we like the color much more the way it is now, and we also no longer have to worry about the paint all coming off. It is a light blue, by the way. We bought a wireless fence for the dog, and when we opened it up it had already been opened, and it didn't have a collar. We returned that one and ordered a new one, but the seller accidentally listed it wrong, so it wasn't the one ...

On Christmas Eve, Alison spent a lot of the day cooking and preparing for the evening, so the girls had to amuse themselves. At one point Rea came and invited her to join them for Church. They sat on our bed and took turns standing up at the nightstand (their "podium") and giving talks or testimonies. Alison says it was really, really cute. Rea is getting very skilled at her testimony-bearing, and she's beginning to learn how to do talks, with some help, and Sara has started doing coherent testimonies all by herself. It's so much fun to watch them. This year we had a really nice Christmas. We woke up at about 6 to find that it had snowed for the first time in December this year. The kids opened their stocking and enjoyed them for about a half hour. They then opened up one present and played with it for another hour or so. It took until about 11 before we were done with our gift opening. Sara really loved her Christmas candies. She ate them all and then tried to ...