Pre-Christmas

Just after Jeddy finished finals week, our town held a house decorating contest. The town office provided a GPS-guided route and score cards so we could vote for the People’s Choice Award. 

We did it right, stopping first for take-out paninis and tater tots and then cruising through the list, munching while we rated our neighbors.

The Miller family favorite

The next day…the Lovesac arrived.

Being a modular situation, it arrived in 35. Separate. Boxes.

The moment had come for me to address my anxiety of having chosen an unacceptable fabric. Jason wisely stepped away and let me look at it from every conceivable angle in every conceivable light without making a single comment.

Jeddy helped by impersonating a couch so I could visualize.

With great relief I pronounced the fabric choice acceptable.

The verdict was followed by great rejoicing and then we turned to the hulking task before us.

Three hours in, the guys had the old furniture cleared out and we had a few pieces covered.

We opted for the integrated surround sound system, which meant Jason had to install and hook up a subwoofer and various other components.

The bonus Pillowsac we got for buying on Black Friday weekend was immeasurably easier to set up.

After five hours of hard labor we could go no further. I took a picture of our tiny model and we prepared to live with the unfinished living room for a couple more days while we nursed our sore muscles.

Monday after school I set up a timelapse video and determined to finish if I could.

Pro tip: it is endlessly rearrangeable, but not as effortlessly as the little animation on the website shows. In reality, you will be straining your back and stomping on the clamps to get it to go together.

In other news, Lizzy gained a pair of new clients to petsit over Christmas week, her info having been kindly passed on by our librarian.

Junie and Wally.

On her first day of break Maddie brought Poof and Potato over for a playdate to help Lizzy with her math.  

Poof.

Portrait mode.

Potato.

Maddie also brought presents. She gave Caleb a ship encyclopedia that he carried to bed with him and downstairs again the next morning, forgetting to eat most of the day while he read it and then created sizeable cardboard models in a burst of inspiration.

The finished couch in its temporary configuration until the Christmas tree is gone

Baking day

The kids cruelly had their online classes up until December 22 so Ada slaved away on her math test while I made endless batches of cookies.

It wasn’t until December 23 that schoolwork was done and presents and baking were wrapped, but by golly we had a big ole couch to sit on when we were done.