Our holidays were a bit all over the place -- we had our closing on Dec. 21, visited family in Naples, camped out at my mom's house for a week and then made our way north. I'm grateful for the chaos on this first Christmas without Mike. I didn't have much time to dwell. Or get sucked into the sadness.
So far this year, I've been busy trying to get us settled into our house. We're seeing old friends, sitting in front of our giant picture window watching the snow fall and playing lots of board games. And of course, we're taking many trips to Target for shopping and soft pretzels.
The other day, though, I couldn't shake the feeling that our house didn't feel quite like a home yet. I went to Pier 1 and bought some stuff for the wall. Still not right. Then it hit me. The reason it doesn't feel like a home is because part of us is missing. Mike is not here. It's going to take some getting used to.
Here are some pics of what we've done so far:
The living room:
The dining room:
The kitchen:
Julia's room:
Back half of the downstairs family room, also known as my work area and Julia's play area:
Built-in bookshelves in the front half of the downstairs family room (new furniture including a lovely red couch will arrive Thursday...):
Downstairs fireplace:
And yes, we have a pink bathroom. It's growing on me:
So, we still have some work to do. But we're liking it so far.
Happy New Year!