What happens when it is really cold.....

At -10 degrees, boiling water does amazing things.......

IT. IS. FINALLY. IN.

I never thought that this day would arrive.....it has been a long, winding, treacherous, expletive filled past few weeks, but FINALLY our new wood burning fireplace insert is, well, inserted!!! There is a lengthy story from how we got from picture 1 to picture to picture 10, most of which I will omit, as it is stress inducing just to think about. I will say, however, that the person(s) who designed and constructed our fireplace, flue, and chimney must have been smoking some really GOOD STUFF!! In all, our whole flue/chimney system contained two 90 degree angles, a foot long horizontal ledge (where almost 50 years of chimney ash have been collecting and cutting off any hope of ventilation), and two 45 degree angles that were set at a 90 degree angle to one another. Oh, and there was a 1/4 inch sheet of metal in the chimney box that they had to cut through as well. Sheesh!!! To put the new liner down our chimney should have taken an hour; in all, I think at least 6 hours was spent getting this inserted down our crazy cosmic chimney. The actual installation of the insert itself and all the connections that had to be made was extremely quick. The only thing that is left to do is for them to come back in a couple of days and cut out three vents on the main level in the floor to allow for the warm air to circulate to the living room, family room and kitchen. Our goal is to not really turn on the gas heat anywhere except the bedrooms at nighttime!!! Take that NYSEG!! We had our inaugural fire last night and boy does that insert produce heat quickly!! The entire basement was quite warm, something that the gas heat really has trouble doing, since there is only baseboard heat on the outer wall of that room. Now that we have reliable heat in the basement once again (something that has been lacking all fall/winter) I foresee us spending most of our time down there watching tv, eating at the bar, doing crafts, reading, and general goofing off!!

The fireplace as it looked before the transformation. Ugly andirons, ugly mesh doors, ugly, ugly, ugly, although in its day, we had many good fires from this fireplace.

The inside of the old fireplace - ICK!!

All the old hardware has been taken away, now it just looks dirty and lonely :(

Close up of loneliness....

The wall in the furnace room that had to be cut open by the mason. He had to rebuild and reconstruct part of the flue/chimney to alleviate the numerous angle turns.

Now the wall has been broken into - the mason sees we have **BIG** problems!!

This shows the totally horizontal (flat for you non-math people) portion of the old flue and chimney. There was an indescribable amount of soot and ash buildup there; it had totally cut off any ventilation. Hmmmm, no wonder the smoke kept pouring into the basement this fall everytime we built a fire. Who makes a flat part like this that is totally uncleanable and unseeable?????

This is looking straight up the chimney. Little did we know in those dark recesses were two more heinous angles to be conquered.

After hours and hours of pacing and praying, our new insert is connected, inserted, and ready for action. WHEW!!!!

Dave - very happy to be building his first fire!!

Look at those flames - aren't they GORGEOUS????

Molly and I are reading her book group books, very happily by the fire :)

Snowy hike!!

A couple days after Christmas, we took a hike up Round Top. We had gotten about 3 inches of snow, enough for some sledding and good hiking. Adults, kids and dog had a great time. Granddad opted out, as he didn't have proper attire.

Going up the old road to Round Top.

Molly coming down from the very top
Potter almost ready to run into Dave
Sheer look of joy on Caleb's face!

All the kids together. Shortly after this was taken, they all decided to put their faces down in the snow to make a face print. Brilliant!!

The view from Round Top.
Caleb coming down the other side of Round Top. I did this run first and it was so fun!!!
Molly and Dave
All the kids and Dave in the parking lot of Round Top. They close the park in the winter, so you can't drive up. It is a pretty steep and treacherous road; if you slid, you'd end up in someone's backyard a good 200 feet down.

Christmas break!

This Christmas break and holiday were an amazing time!!! We had lots of houseguests - Granddad and Mac arrived on Wednesday; Kate and Rob arrived late late on Thursday night (which technically was Friday morning) and the crazy started!! We had a last day of shopping, Christmas Eve service at church, Christmas morning with sticky buns (maybe the best I have ever made), an enormous and delicious Christmas dinner of standing rib roast, and then a couple of days of just hanging out, playing with all of our new toys, books, and gizmos. Yay!! Kate and Rob stayed an extra day because of a huge winter storm, so it was win-win-win. Granddad hung around a couple days after that and we all felt extremely relaxed!

Kate is on her 54th Fancy Nancy book with Mac, Caleb and Molly. She is a saint!

Kate and Rob - words cannot describe how much I love these guys!!!
Our Christmas tree is all its glory, the night before the paper massacre started
Christmas morning - Santa brought Molly a Barbie suitcase for all her Barbie dolls, clothes and accessories. Notice Mac just trying to stay out of the way!!

Potter with one of his new Star Wars lego sets....he promptly spent 2 hours putting all his legos together that afternoon

Kate getting a dirty sneaker, I mean a new ipod touch :)
Dave and the kids open up a new tunnel for the electric train. Now we can take down our makeshift cardboard one!!
Kate and Rob just couldn't make it through the day without a nap.....lightweights!
Our dinner feast!!

Molly's birthday party

(Don't mind that this post is about 3 weeks past the actual event it is describing.....)

Molly wanted a beach theme for her birthday party this year. It was really her second choice as she wanted to go and play miniature golf outside. Ummm, we live in NY and that isn't an option in December, so we instead convinced her that this was a better idea. Lots of her Monkey friends from preschool came, a couple friends from her kindergarten, and another friend she's known since she was little. Everyone wore a swimsuit, we cranked up the heat, and the kids had leis and beach balls to bounce around while also playing with the electric train and other goodies. Cake and presents topped off a really fun afternoon for Molly, my now 6 year old!!

Beach table all set, really hard to find those little drink umbrellas when it isn't summertime!

Molly with her swimsuit, lei, and hula skirt. The skirt lasted about 10 minutes.....
The beach cake, complete with water, sand, a fire pit, beach umbrella and lots of sea life!
Molly at the table, ready to dig into the cake
Opening some presents. Little did I know this was the start of the Barbie bonanza.......