Room Rearrange 2017

I've written a few "Room Rearrange" blog posts over the years. The front bedroom (the red one in the lower right corner in the picture above) has been through the most changes. It was the nursery when we moved in over 20 years ago (The Noah Nursery). In 2011, we let Landon move in (New, U of U). It was his room for several years, until he left on his mission in February of 2015. We did a HUGE room re-arrange then. Callahan moved into Landon's old room, the two little boys, who had been sharing the back upstairs bedroom moved downstairs (to the room Callahan and Keaton had been sharing) and Keaton moved up to their old bedroom (Callahan and Keaton getting their own rooms for the first time). 

But two years has sped by, and Landon is coming home from Mexico. What to do? Where would we put him? Downstairs, there was an extra bedroom. Unfinished when we originally built, it had been a storage room. When we completed the basement, the extra bedroom was my scrapbook room, the "Lego" room, an office for Gray ... but it had evolved into "Middle Earth" ... a dumping spot for everything and anything. But now it was time for it to be a bedroom.

I'll admit, the thought of clearing everything out was daunting! I knew it would take me a while, so I started a few months before Landon's return date. The picture below shows some of the situation ...

The top picture is the room in question ... and that is after I'd cleared out a bunch of stuff. The bottom picture is the family room ping pong table, covered and surrounded with said stuff. Many trips to donate to DI. Postings on the neighborhood site for anyone who wanted to pick up some of our discards. 

We ended up stealing the headboard and switching desks (and the chairs that went with them) from the front bedroom into Keaton's back bedroom. I found a new headboard for the upstairs room on KSL classifieds, and it came with a bed frame which came in handy as we bought a new twin bed for the basement. I picked up a new comforter, and gave it to Keaton, moving his old one into Callahan's new room. I grabbed a new comforter set for Landon's room (as the one there was several years old). Then we moved all of Callahan's stuff downstairs, leaving the upstairs bedroom, Landon's bedroom, ready and waiting.

Cleaning out the basement room , attempting to find spots to save the things I wanted to hang onto (I'm not ready to give up all my scrapbook stuff yet) caused me to clean out the food storage room, space in the shed outside, the game closet, the storage closet ... even upstairs, I made changes, re-arranges, to the two closets (coat closet and den closet). One thing just lead to another, but finally ...

DONE.

whew ...

Happy New Year 2017

Becoming a Blackham ... New Year's Day has become completely connected to the idea of Pammy's pastry wreath. It's a tradition going back 27 years! This flaky creation is a TON of work, but oh so yummy. At times, Maga has mentioned that maybe, just maybe, this will be the last year. They are just so time and labor intensive.

This year ... Uncle Clay made sure the tradition would continue!

Clayton is known for his homemade donuts, so I guess it shouldn't be such a stretch that he'd accept such an undertaking. I think he'd done a trial run earlier in the year, and they turned out perfectly to welcome in 2017.

Grayson is more than happy to keep up HIS tradition of eating said pastry wreath!  Callahan had to work (as always) and missed out on the gathering ... but I made sure I cut off a big piece and took it home to him. He said it was heaven.  So Maga could have had the year off (other than some overseeing) but I guess she couldn't quite give it up, and made some for her work ...

Lucky co-workers!

Now earlier, on New Year's Eve, we had our usual Grandparents and Games night (our own little tradition going on several years now). We had a late start this year, as Grayson had snagged great seats to the Jazz game downtown. He, the two little boys, and a friend of Colton (as Keaton nor Cal really wanted to go, friends win out over family for them ... but for Colton, a friend was better than a brother anyway! Game started at 6:00, so they were home by about 9:00.

Second row seats!

... and the Jazz won too!

As mentioned ... Callahan and Keaton were off with friends, but the two little boys, my folks and Gray and I played some Speed Rummikub (several games ... because Grandma said we couldn't quit until she won a game, and that took a while). Then a few rounds of Scattergories and then it was time for the countdown.

We played a couple games of Progressive Rummy after midnight, but called it quits before finishing (as the game, with seven hands can take a while) ... we'll  have to get together again and play more. Colton and Cooper didn't seem to have any trouble staying awake this year (they both fell asleep last year. Cooper woke up for the photo but Colton was out cold!)  Way past bedtime for Gray and I though!