To spice up our move to Wisconsin, we're having furnace issues. As in not working at the moment.

We had a dude in to inspect and clean it last night and something went wonky because we woke up to a freezing house at 5 a.m. We got someone else back in by 6:30 a.m. and DH got a fire going in the fireplace but nobody can quite figure out what's wrong with the furnace.

The unit is covered by a home warranty with the house but it's -3 here at the moment.

And to add insult to injury, the safety glass door on the fireplace shattered this morning--we closed it because two toddlers + fire = huge mommy fear of DANGER.

The kids and I are in front of the tv watching A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Video - two cats having a conversation: [link]

And sometimes people don't suck: [link]

Thanks Toddson. The cloud effect is just the bounce of the Xmas lights on the wall.

I forgot to say YAAAY about Jilli. That's the best news.

That's a gorgeous tree, Sue. I haven't decided whether I'm going to bother or not this year.

add my voice to the chorus of YAYs for Jilli.

Now, I know that *that* isn't normal, but now that I live with The Boy, I'm freezing all the time. I'm sure I need time to adjust, but before I beg him to turn up the thermostat, I don't know what's a reasonable daytime and sleeping temperature. He's been keeping it at 65 or so during the day, and 60 or 62 at night.

Our house is always FREEZING. I finally conceded the temp issue to DH, since I can put on clothes to get warm, but he can't take things off to get cool. I keep a down throw in the living room and am under that and in a fleece sweatshirt in the evening, and I sleep with a hat on. Seriously. Otherwise I get a headache from the cold.

The tree is the only part of Xmas I like, so it's the only thing I do.

As to ornaments, we had a lot of family ornaments, including some beautiful blown glass ones from France via my grandfather, but most of them have been broken over the years, in a house of four kids a dog and a cats. But I was never given any personal ones. About half the ones on my tree are vintage ones from thrift shops and jumble sales and the other half are newer ones that I've usually bought at after Xmas sales. I have to say that a lot of the ones that I bought at thrift stores are ones that reminded me on ornaments that hang on our family tree. We had some groovy ones that were bought in the 1960's that have almost all gone now, and I keep an eye out for them ebay. I found them once, but they were going for an insane price.

Oh, and I meant to say to Steph that the best way to battle cold feet is a good pair of slippers with a pretty solid sole. This comes from years of experience living over an unheated basement.

Scrappy, DH sleeps with a hat. He calls it his Sleepin' Hat. You lose a lot of heat through the head. He would highly approve of your choice.