Baby, It's Cold Outside...

I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! This year my dad and I celebrated here in town with a wonderful meal (Dad claims our turkey was the best he's ever made, it was pretty delicious) topped off with an apple pie.

We started a pot of turkey soup with some of the leftovers (you can see it simmering in the crock pot behind my beautiful pie). I loved the opportunity to use my kitchen and my "fancy" dishes.

I have a list of projects that I plan to get done this weekend. Dad and I got the Christmas tree set up last night, I'll post pics once it's decorated and the other decorations are out. I'm excited to show off my ideas! Meanwhile, I broke down and bought something new for the house...

My new electric fireplace.

If you follow my facebook page you probably saw me asking a couple weeks back for advice on whether an electric fireplace is worth the money. My living room is the largest room in my house and I typically have a hard time heating it. This fireplace can supposedly help heat a 400 sq. foot room, or you can turn the heat off and just enjoy the flames. Lowe's had it on sale so I broke down and bought it today. So far I'm really enjoying it. It does seem to heat the space some. Plus now that it's dark out I can enjoy the flames! This particular model also came with a storage cabinet in the mantel.

No pictures today, but I also bought the pendant lights for the kitchen bar area (see more about this project).

Last thought: Did you know that you can recycle your old Christmas lights at Lowe's? They have a bin by returns and customer service that you can just toss those old strings that don't work in. I thought I read that they would give you a $4 off new LED Christmas lights if you recycle old ones, but the store employee didn't offer me any coupons today when I took mine in. Still, it's a better option than throwing them away.

Has anyone else started on their Christmas cards?