Christmas gift-giving within our family is minimal so our first tradition starts a couple of days before Thanksgiving, when all of our family members go out and buy $20 worth of $1 holiday or winter themed scratch-off lottery tickets. Our gift to ourselves is seeing surprised and then mostly smiling faces when we give them away to a clerk at the supermarket, a woman with a whining child, or whenever the mood strikes us. We usually have refill our pocket as the month progresses and itÂs amazing to see the power that a dollar can still have. On Christmas Eve, we usually have beef or cheese fondue or both and then attend a church service. Most years, DH was singing in the choir. Starting when our children were young, Santa never put presents under the tree. Instead, theyÂd open their Christmas stockings and in the bottom was a clue to find the first gift. TheyÂd bring it into the living room and open it. On the back was another clue to find the next gift. As they got older, the clues got harder, sometimes involving going outside. It slowed down the pace of Christmas morning and seemed to make them stop and appreciate the gifts they received, instead of having a frenzy of unwrapping. This tradition continued when grandchildren came along and what they all remember and talk about most was the scavenger hunts themselves instead of the gifts. I think thatÂs why we just do small or handmade gifts now. Another family tradition is NOT to cook a sit-down Christmas dinner. When I was growing up, my parents always had an extended Open House on Christmas Eve and added a few hot items to the buffet for Christmas Day. Most things were made ahead of time so it was always a relaxing day with people dropping in as their schedules permitted. Soon after we were married, DH and I began hosting a Christmas Day brunch from about 10 to 3 and a buffet of homemade soups, breads and cookies on Christmas evening. Chicken-rice-leek is the one that always has to be on the menu. Both DH and my parents are now deceased, as are all of our aunts and uncles except for the two we visited at Thanksgiving. Our children and GCs are scattered about the country so sometimes even when they were at home, weÂve done different things on Christmas, like serving Christmas dinner trays to hospital patients so more of the food service workers could spend Christmas with their families or shuttling truckers who had to spend the holiday at a truck drop to a Christmas dinner. Last year, we went to FL and spent the holiday at SD & SILÂs, cooking a Dickensonian goose on Christmas Eve and learning salsa dancing at their South American neighborÂs holiday celebration next door. This year, DD will be here for her last Christmas before reporting to the Army and her only requests were no gifts, saving a tree for her to decorate and chicken-rice-leek soup on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

If you do a lot of the landscape yourself, you can save lots. rototill that grass and kill the weeds first. (otherwise they just come back) I use a weed killer two weeks before ripping it out. now is the perfect time to plant grass. so either grab some sod or prepare the soil and do seed. To have someone come out and resod your front (is there irrigation already? I hope?) would be about 800-1000K, As for paint, you could keep the yellow stucco and just do the the shutters and white siding yourselves. Or, do the stucco white, black siding and maybe red shutters. Or blue siding and black shutters. lots of combos. Replace the posts w/solid wood columns. do a nice redwood, 4x4, sealed w/UV clear coat sealer. we did a xeriscape on our rental house. off to the right are rose bushes. they are Iceberg roses. all white, and flower all of the time. they are pretty hardy. do some black bark mulch as well. as for the succulents, most of them came from my yard or the neighbors yard. I just cut them and stick them in the ground. they are everywhere around SoCal,,,no need to spend money and buy them. just ask someone for a piece. heck, I'll give you tons if you come by and get them!

If you want low maintenance brick on your new home -- regardless of the supposed "style" -- use it. I'd highly recommend it. The only style that matters is the wendi00 style. Inside and/or out. Brick will cost you more now but will save you a lot of maintenance over the time so it is well worth the cost. I would, however, suggest you add a fascia board rather than let the ends of any rafters be exposed to weather. It will be a lot easier to replace fascia than to rip out a rafter or even a faux rafter.

The best advice I can offer is don't try to make your house something that it isn't. You'll spend a lot of money that you won't get back when you sell, and you'll end up with a house that has lost its identity. It may also become a misfit in its neighborhood. If you don't like your house and want a different one, it's much more effective and efficient to buy what you really want and move.