I'm only a month late on the Christmas Day blog. :)
As with other parts of the country, Kitsap County residents really went out of their way with their holiday displays to help spread some joy. We had a lovely Saturday night driving around, using a FB group with people sharing about their own or their neighbors' lights as our guide. This was our last stop. A whole cul-de-sac had a coordinated program that ran for 45 minutes. We stayed for 20 minutes and then moved on down the road so others could enjoy. Here's a snippet. https://youtu.be/nT1Jm7_HHb8
We received the keys to our house on December 18. But, thanks to COVID and poor timing, we couldn't get our household goods delivered until December 22. And, then it didn't even all come in one day. After multiple trips to the warehouse on the 22nd and 23rd to get crates and items that were left behind, we finally had all of our stuff.
We put up the tree the evening of the 22nd and plugged it in. It was nestled between the kids' desks that we had moved with us and got set up in the living room before our household goods arrived.
But, we didn't get decorations on it until the 24th. But, at least we had a tree! We also had a wreath on our back door and the awesome stacking wooden boxes on our front porch, too.
On Christmas Eve, I made our Downey usual of chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes. It was my first time really cooking a from-scratch meal in the kitchen and really the first time we gave the garbage disposal a true test. The garbage disposal failed the test. We tried to solve the problem with plungers. Then, Jip took apart the J trap. This beauty was lodged in there (dishwasher pod is to give you an idea of the size). We thought it was a calcium deposit, but later came to find out that the housing maintenance crew believes a contractor dumped plaster down the sink.
You would think that removing that chunk would solve the problem, but it ended up creating another problem--everything that was being held back by the chunk suddenly rushed to another part of the drain and clogged at the next bend. So, we had to call maintenance. They sent a poor guy out and he could not get the pipe open in the basement - it was corroded shut. So, at 8 pm, we told him to go home and come back on the 26th. Thankfully, we have a second sink in the butler's pantry, so I was able to do dishes and get water for pots in there.
We all awoke on Christmas Day in our matching pajamas and had a leisurely morning of opening gifts, playing games, and just enjoying sitting still after the previous few days of unpacking.
