It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...

A great big mess.

Projects are officially under way around the apartment and where there was once clean, empty floor space there is now, well... this.

Ian is cleaning and refinishing the steamer trunk that his parents gave us.  When the living room is put together, it will act as a coffee table.

The kitchen isn't fairing much better right now.

I made these ginger butter cookies by adding fresh ginger to the simple butter cookie recipe in the Betty Crocker Cookbook.  I sliced some candied ginger and put a small piece on top of each.

And, though I won't go into specifics (since it's for Christmas), I'm learning to use this guy.

It's difficult for me to get in to the Christmas spirit this year.  I'll be working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so I'll miss out on a lot of the holiday get togethers.  It's also very difficult to decorate a home that isn't furnished.  But, we're making the most of it.  We bought a live, potted Douglas Fir the other night.  Live Evergreens can't be inside for very long, so we're picking it up next Wednesday or Thursday.  We met Mom in Centralia and she gave us some of the Christmas decorations we had over there along with some hand-me-downs and those will go up next week with the tree.

For now, we have this swag up in our entry to make the place smell a little Christmas-y.