Lighting installation

Once we got all of our lights, it took another 2 weeks before they were installed.  First week of February - the electrician had a newborn son (dragon child!) so he took a week off understandably.  The second week of February we were down in the San Diego and Orange County area.  So finally, our schedules synced for the third week.

These lights took a really long time to install!  I felt badly for the electrician because he had to put on each individual bauble and crystal.  (Took him 3 solid days to put it all together.)  But here's the end result!

Family room

Bubble chandelier

Dining and living rooms

Aftermath of empty boxes

You know how nicer hotels like Marriot or Westin do not give you free wi-fi like the more affordable hotels like Days Inn or Travelodge?  It's the same with lighting!  The more affordable lights supply light bulbs whereas the pricier ones do not.  And the pricier ones don't include spare parts either.  The bubbles chandelier arrived with a cracked "bubble" and the living room flushmount arrived with 2 defective crystals.  I'm not waiting 3 more months for the replacements.  More likely than not, no one will notice the missing parts.  :p

Lighting: finally!

By the end of January, we finally got all of our lighting.  Yes, some of the lights really did take 3 months to get in.  (The lighting industry is ridiculous!)

Also, got our exterior locks re-keyed.  Our original key was something that could be easily picked by an amateur (i.e., my DH) with a set of lock picks.  So we asked the locksmith to create something a little more "fancy" to make it harder to pick.  [Our little girl was totally enamored with him.  She wanted to watch him work and would giggle to get his attention - such a flirt!]

Staycation ends

From the duration of my in-laws visit, DH and I were effectively on vacation.  We did very little if at all regarding the house.  My mother-in-law did a lot of cooking since my father-in-law is on a low sodium diet.  Grandparents would take our baby out to the park so that DH and I could have some down time sans kid.

It was so nice to be lazy.  :)

Christmas dinner was a bit hectic since it was a) the first time we were hosting a real dinner and b) the first time we were hosting Christmas dinner.  We had my family over as well.  Kind of cramped around our little dining table but it all worked out.  Got to use our wedding china - which has never been used until now.  Bought placemats and a tablecloth for the occasion.  Baby got a new play kitchen from my in-laws so she was super excited about that.  After dinner, she wanted to cook for both grandmas.  Then she had a lot of fun with the box the play kitchen came in.  :p