Christmas is coming! Or is, perhaps, here already.
Our Christmas this year is less of one big day and more of a gift giving, family-visiting fortnight. There's just so much love and generosity going around, Christmas is spilling over. It also has much to do with our lack of Santa-aged kids around. Without the "gotta wait til xmas" Santa build up, our family is free to express the season as we want.
Jeremy found a great deal, and bought himself his present from me early, and then, ta-da! I found a great deal and did the same. We had a wonderful Christmas-y weekend with my parents with cookies and cider, and skyping of relatives. :) So that part of Christmas has come an gone. (Don't worry everyone. There will be more skyping on Christmas)
Its been raining for three days, and is said it will continue until the end of the week, which is just so wintery and beautiful. Its not too cold and there's very little wind, so its actually a bit enjoyable, even if its wet. We had the most amazing afternoon yesterday, where the fog was so thick, and it was like 65 degrees, and raining hard enough that the gutter sounded like a waterfall. Jeremy and I felt just like we were in a rainforest. Really magical.
So even though we continue to prepare for the actual day, and all the people we will see and presents we will exchange, I'm very grateful for this Christmas feeling now. Not only does it just feel fabulous, it also takes the stress off everything having to be on that one day. We are even extending Christmas into New Year's by visiting our Colorado relatives. So here's to the holidays! May they not be too long, and certainly not too short, and mostly, may they just be wonderful.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Playing Catch up
Wow, it has been so LONG since I posted here. My last post was just a week before I found out I was pregnant, so I guess pregnant me wanted nothing to do with blogging.
But now I keep seeing things and wanting to share them, so I'm back online again!
Ever since Josh was born, all I want to do is share share share! But for today, I really want to talk about the new car we just got.
Joshua is about to outgrow his infant carseat, but is not yet heavy enough (or old enough) for a forward facing seat. Thus we move up to the larger sized car seat, but with it oriented in the most space-using way possible: rear-facing. Its not just turning the carseat around, but it also has to be tilted to be in a more 'lying down' position. Way way WAY to big for our car.
So we got a new one! This came up much sooner than we had expected, so we didn't have a down payment saved up at all (in fact, we had just spent our extra money on xmas gifts, knowing that I have a bonus coming) so we knew leasing was out. Besides, neither of us are good candidates for leasing. We ding cars, we drive them too far, and with a baby in tow, are likely to stain upholstery now too.
So we applied for a loan in a few places, and dear LORD! Would it kill car salesman to give a straight answer occasionally? It was like pulling teeth just trying to find out how much car we could afford and whether they could help us with that. Finally, we applied for a loan at carmax.com. Thirty minutes later we got a call from Jerry, who was able to tell us the loan terms offered (a range, since it depended on the car price and age) and, given our limits on what we could pay monthly, how much car we could afford. And then he told us a few that he had on the lot that we could test drive.
We drove some on Saturday, and liked them all, but they were just a bit steep. So we requested an older model Kia Sedona (yes, its a minivan) to be transfered from the next Carmax over in Ontario. The next day, we got to drive that one, and though it wasn't nearly as nice as the newer models, it was much more affordable for us. We were even able to afford the maximum extended warranty and GAP insurance (with 60K miles on it already, those HAD to be purchased for me to feel secure).
Jeremy and I were kind of sad to not get the purty new(er) cars, but we came up with a plan to save the money we aren't spending, because our car payment is low, and then take that money and upgrade in two years. We'll be more secure in our living situation (in Portland!) and in the meantime, we aren't gambling our future in the name of bling.
But now I keep seeing things and wanting to share them, so I'm back online again!
Ever since Josh was born, all I want to do is share share share! But for today, I really want to talk about the new car we just got.
Joshua is about to outgrow his infant carseat, but is not yet heavy enough (or old enough) for a forward facing seat. Thus we move up to the larger sized car seat, but with it oriented in the most space-using way possible: rear-facing. Its not just turning the carseat around, but it also has to be tilted to be in a more 'lying down' position. Way way WAY to big for our car.
So we got a new one! This came up much sooner than we had expected, so we didn't have a down payment saved up at all (in fact, we had just spent our extra money on xmas gifts, knowing that I have a bonus coming) so we knew leasing was out. Besides, neither of us are good candidates for leasing. We ding cars, we drive them too far, and with a baby in tow, are likely to stain upholstery now too.
So we applied for a loan in a few places, and dear LORD! Would it kill car salesman to give a straight answer occasionally? It was like pulling teeth just trying to find out how much car we could afford and whether they could help us with that. Finally, we applied for a loan at carmax.com. Thirty minutes later we got a call from Jerry, who was able to tell us the loan terms offered (a range, since it depended on the car price and age) and, given our limits on what we could pay monthly, how much car we could afford. And then he told us a few that he had on the lot that we could test drive.
We drove some on Saturday, and liked them all, but they were just a bit steep. So we requested an older model Kia Sedona (yes, its a minivan) to be transfered from the next Carmax over in Ontario. The next day, we got to drive that one, and though it wasn't nearly as nice as the newer models, it was much more affordable for us. We were even able to afford the maximum extended warranty and GAP insurance (with 60K miles on it already, those HAD to be purchased for me to feel secure).
Jeremy and I were kind of sad to not get the purty new(er) cars, but we came up with a plan to save the money we aren't spending, because our car payment is low, and then take that money and upgrade in two years. We'll be more secure in our living situation (in Portland!) and in the meantime, we aren't gambling our future in the name of bling.
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