Sold!

All the paperwork is completed, the inspection has been done, and the house is now officially off the market! Our realtor is putting the sold sign up sometime this afternoon or tomorrow! Yay!!!

The contract is signed!

We've moved into the "option pending" portion of the sale of the house!! An inspector will come out on Sunday, and then we'll be able to move forward with even more confidence. Our closing date has been set for Jan 23, 2009. Hurray!

A Christmas Miracle!!

Well, maybe it doesn't quite stack up there with the birth of Jesus, but I'll take it anyway......We have an offer on our house!!!! The first (and only) people who looked at it last week gave us an offer this morning! We're now in the haggling stage, but hopefully we'll get something worked out soon, with a closing date of late January. Can you believe this happened so fast???

Christmas!!

We kicked off the Christmas season last week by checking out a Santa's Wonderland. Even though Santa wasn't there (who knew he only showed up after school lets out??), the kids still had a great time watching the model trains and playing in the fake snow.

She knows French????

So this afternoon, Claire was playing with her blocks with the tv on in the background. It was on a kids' show about 2 animated pigs who travel the globe in search of adventure, or something along those lines. I've never really paid attention to the show, and neither has Claire, or so I thought. On this particular episode, the pigs were in Paris. One of them said to the other "We have to find the Chateau de Fromage!" Without missing a beat, and while still building her tower, Claire replied with "cheese!" Huh???

Looks like Aunt Jamey's French lessons might be paying off!

Mommy and Daddy's Adventures in Wine Country--yes, yes, a little late

(I wrote this post the week after we got back, but never had time to download pictures. It was fun to re-live the weekend again, though!)

Jason and I had a fantastic time on our little trip out to Napa in October. Katie's wedding was perfect. The weather was perfect, the flowers were perfect, the food was perfect. The country club where the wedding was held is absolutely amazing. (To give you an idea of the posh-ness, Arnold Schwarzenneggar was enjoying a drink in the bar one wall over from where we were eating, and Oprah recently rented the entire complex for a weekend retreat.) It's set on lots of land just tucked away in the mountains and forest surrounding Napa. The ceremony took place on a little cliff overlooking rolling green hills and beautiful trees, then we had cocktails on the lawn, then moved inside to a gorgeously decorated dining room where we ate and drank in high style. Katie and Jav had such a great time, and I am honored to have been included in their day.

Since the wedding festivities were over Friday night, Jason and I had all day Saturday to ourselves. We went to some of our favorite wineries, as well as tried out a few we had always wanted to get to. We were even able to meet up with the newlyweds and enjoy a few glasses a wine with them. To finish the weekend, we had a great dinner at the Culinary Institute of America. Part of their school is a restaurant where the students get to work the kitchen and perfect their skills. We had read mixed reviews of it, but figured we'd give it a try, and I'm so glad we did. We had all sorts of amazing food that I know I'd never choose to eat on my own.

After our dinner, we changed clothes and headed in to Sacramento to catch our midnight flight back home. Luckily, we got an upgrade, so we were actually able to sleep a bit on the way in.

Claire also had a great weekend. Honey and H did a great job keeping her busy and entertained with all sorts of new toys. Claire was very, very sad to see them go, and kept running to the door after they left calling for Honey ("Ho-eeeee").

You can check out the pictures from the weekend here.

Some October Pictures

Here's a quick recap of Claire's October. She and Daddy had a fun time at Donuts for Dads at school, and we also spent a weekend out at the ranch.

What's your sign?

Well, it's official. Our house is for sale. We signed the paperwork with the realtor, and he just finished putting the sign in the yard. Our house has never looked so clean! (or empty...)