Dh and I have lived in our current house for our entire marriage, 17 years. Truthfully, it was being built when we got married, so we lived in an apt for 2 months, then my parents for a month then it was ready. We live on the outskirts of a waterfront tourist town. We were supposed to be here for 3 years. Dh was in the Navy and this was not supposed to be our forever home as we anticipated being transferred by the Navy. However, dh realized the Navy was not meant to be his career as he didn't want to constantly move once we had kids. We wanted to live close to one of our families, but unfortunately, they live on opposite coasts. He is from the San Francisco Bay Area, and I am from the Wash DC area. Since it was the height of the tech boom at the time dh was getting out of the Navy, and we simply could not afford a home in the Silicon Valley, he got a job here, which fortunately is only 25 minutes from my parents. And here we've stayed. It is NOT my dream home. I don't even really like it. It was small when we moved in, and even smaller after having four kids! We looked around at moving to a different home, but absolutely love our neighbors and our community so finding a home that fit our needs was very difficult. We live in a high COL so home prices made it hard to find something that fit our desires while still being affordable. 10 years ago, we added on and while the space has helped, it hasn't changed the fact that our floorplan isn't desirable to us. We live in a waterfront community with very strict building codes, so we worked within that and have maxed out what we can do w/o completely gutting the house and starting over. With four kids in private school and one off to college in four years, I've pretty much resigned myself that we won't be moving anytime soon, nor can we really afford at this point to do any major changes that would help. I am constantly looking at houses for sale in the area, but the only affordable ones are in tract home subdivisions and that's not type of community we desire. So we make do with what we have. And it's not that my house is bad, but it's not set up well for entertaining, something I'd love to do more often, we had to give up our fabulous screened porch when we added on and cannot add another due to space constraints. I miss that terribly. On the bright side, we have wonderful neighbors, live in a waterfront neighborhood so the kids can fish, swim, kayak, ride their bikes freely (community is a peninsula w/no through traffic), etc. My dream is to move into the historic district in our tourist town where we can walk and bike everywhere. We live 5 miles from there now, but not on bike-friendly roads (though dh is an avid biker and rides them, no way my kids can). There are some really fabulous Arts & Crafts cottages, as well as many other architecturally interesting homes that date back to the 1700s. My hope is to move into one of them some day and have that be our forever home, with a second home in another climate. I wish I could love this home and think of it as my forever home, but it is not ideal for aging. We have three floors, with bedrooms all on the third floor as the garage/rec room are "under" the main living level. My parents still live in the house I grew up - they are going on 50 years there. They will stay until it's too much for them as it's perfect for aging, a rancher. All that said, as much as I want to move, the idea of moving is dreadful to me, which is probably one of the reasons I haven't really pushed for it. The thought of trying to keep my home in "show" condition with four kids, a huge dog that sheds, well, not fun. So perhaps a small part of me continues to find something undesirable about any of the houses I'm always looking at. I figure if I'm going to go through the hassle, the house has to be pretty close to what I want! Love all the interesting stories!

The holidays are a little bit of a sad time for me. I love decorating the house, listening to the same old carols over and over again, buying gifts that I think people will want. Then it all is a little disappointing since my DH isn;t interested in the decorations, doesn't like the carols and doesn't want me to spend much money on things he can pick out for himself. In addition, my DIL is Jewish and although they come for Christmas Eve and we all spend Christmas Day with some cousins, it isn't "their holiday". My son has adopted her faith and that hurts me more than anything else. I'm pretty much alone as far as being the only Christian in my family even though DH has started going to church with me. Now that we have a grandson, I would so love to share all the traditions with him that we did with our son but I can't. When he came over today, he noticed that I had changed the wreath on the front door from the fall one to the Christmas one. He said, "What did you do, Nana? It's so pretty." (he's only 29 months but very aware of things like that) I told him I took down the fall things and am putting up the winter things. I have started decorating inside but haven't put up the tree. Not quite sure how I will approach that subject. This will be the first year that I know he will ask alot of questions. Last year he wanted to touch the ornaments and would look at the lights but that was about all. I gues all in all, I end up feeling a little disappointed as each year I hope it will be better. I truly am grateful for all that I have and I don't have a real reason to feel neglected. Trailrunner - I hope you get back with us. Will post pictures when done decorating.

"What's not to like?". Lots. I hate them. Perhaps I haven't seen the "warm white", but I hate the white that I have seen that has a blue tint (same as some headlights!!!), I don't like the brightness, and I don't like the neon-y look. Hey - lights on trees/bushes are supposed to mimic glistening branches. IMO, They're not supposed to look high-tech (and also IMO, they're not supposed to be strung in rings around a tree, either, as some people seem to do; they should be placed as dew would glisten!). They're meant to be moisture/snow/whatever glistening in the moonlight. To me, those LED lights just don't cut it.

My experience is that transitioning from winter inside to spring outside is a big deal for most plants. You've been given good advice here. It can take a while to get them to adjust to May sun if they've been inside all winter. It isn't a matter of the air temp, it's the brightness and UV rays. I put my trees out in full sun starting in early March, when the sun was warm enough to get my makeshift greenhouse into the 70's or better. I noticed some minor sun damage on a few leaves on my lemon tree but other than that they have adjusted well and can tolerate full sun now. A couple of years ago that same lemon had significant sun damage because I didn't use a greenhouse, therefore didn't put it out until early to mid May by which time the sun was too powerful for it to handle.