UP: The list of things to do is steadily being chipped away:
Christmas letter finished and copied √
Christmas cards sent √
Most presents bought √
Decorations up √
House is cleaned. √
Watched “White Christmas.” 🙂 √
I still need to make one more trip to the mall and get one last package out in the mail, and then finish wrapping. Haven’t done any Christmas baking, but then we’ve had plenty of sweets around anyway.
UP: We had a great anniversary. A nice lunch at a local tea room and a great dinner, including the best salad I have had in my life. Then Mittu made a chocolate cake for us (pictures planned for the Friday’s Fave Five post.)
UP: Hubby is off work this week and next.
DOWN: The chair that was delivered yesterday was the wrong chair…only the latest in a series of mishaps in getting chairs for the living room! It would be too long and boring to give you a blow-by-blow account, but first it involved the manufacturer running out of the fabric we ordered — which they only told us after about three weeks of our wondering why our chairs weren’t in yet, so we had to go pick out a different fabric. Then the chairs arrived, but one was somehow damaged, and they said they could deliver one now and the other later — we said that was fine if they could guarantee the second one would be from the same dye lot and match the first one. They said no problem. But the chair they delivered was not the one we ordered, and what’s more, it smelled heavily of cigarette smoke. We’ve been waiting on these chairs for about 8 weeks and have only held out because they were so comfortable and we hadn’t found anything else like them. But I think we are on the verge of giving up and going chair shopping again.
DOWN: The dryer went out yesterday. I always hate to tell my hubby things like that. He undid everything he could and vacuumed out all the excess lint, the first step in seeing what might be wrong (not an easy feat in the cramped quarters behind the dryer). Everything else is working, it’s just not heating. Called someone and they’ll be out Thursday. I’m hoping it won’t take a long time for a part to be ordered. Thankfully I had finished the laundry except the not-quite dry towels in the dryer and the bath mats in the washer, and it air-dried enough to finish the towels and then get the bath mats dry enough to hang from pants hangers or drape over things to dry out for the morning.
UP: Jeremy comes home tonight!
I was thinking, in light of our anniversary yesterday, how much of the above is the stuff of life, the stuff of marriage — the fun times, celebrations, expressions of love on the same day as disappointments and appliance breakdowns. I am thankful for the one who shares these ups and downs with me.
Stray Thoughts 
Where did you get the best salad you’ve ever eaten? A chain restaurant? (IOW, where I could order one around here?) 🙂
Congratulations on your anniversary!
BTW, my son is attending your old church on Wednesday nights with a girl he’s dating. He likes it!
No, it’s a local place, not a chain. Sorry! 🙂
I’m glad he likes the church!
It is wonderful how you ended with thankfulness for who you share life with, isn’t it so true? God blessed us both with a husband that makes life more bearable with the downs, and more joyful with the ups…!
Well I do think the ups way out weigh the downs in this. I also would like to know about the salad. I love salad. One of my favorite things to eat 🙂 Glad your anniversary was good. Chairs and dryers…pffft…they will happen and like you say it’s best to have someone to share ups and downs with…Family and friends are what it’s all about 🙂
I hear you. I’ve had the same thought myself… Even in the hard times, there’s no one else I’d rather “do life with” than my husband.
I always am inspired by your attitude toward the challenges in life.
Sorry about the chair episode. I know how frustrating that can be…
Christmas time and life goes on as if it were any other day … you’ve just reminded me that my bed sheets are in the drier!
Whew! It is almost bedtime! I am so glad you wrote about your drier. I would have hated to find half dried sheets when I was ready for sleep!
Amoeba is wondering, if you need chairs for Christmas, if there is a short term furniture rental place nearby.
I think there are furniture rental places nearby, but it’s not essential. We mostly gather in the family room. The living room isn’t even really a full-fledged living room — kind of more like a little sitting room. Our plan was to have no media in there and just have it as a place if people wanted to talk or read or something away from the activity in the family room. We have a loveseat in there but hope to get a couple of chairs to make it a little more usable. Wouldn’t been a good thought, though, if we needed that space. Thanks!
It looks like there are more ups than downs so that’s a good thing. I hope the dryer is fixed for you. And I hope it didn’t cost an arm and a leg!
This DOES sound sO much like the stuff of life. Life is full of so MUCH stuff! My Mathew works in furniture sales and believe me, these mishaps are as frustrating for the sales people as they are for the purchasers! I’m sorry it’s taking so long… hopefully once you DO get them they will be EXACTLY what you want!