First Snow and more

We had our first dusting of snow last week and temperatures have been freezing since then.  The boys enjoyed checking it out (Rhett for only a few minutes and Benjamin a bit longer).

 

 

Benjamin was quick to jump on the chance for some snow play.  Although not quite enough for a snowman, there was plenty of snow to work with for a good snow angel.

Our hot chocolate consumption has been on the rise.  And this evening we put our living room fireplace to work for the first time.  (Does anyone know how to get the most heat out of a fireplace?  Ours isn't warming the room like we'd hoped.)

 Finally, we'd like to point out the difference between the fireplace Benjamin is posing in front of and the one below.  The picture really doesn't do justice to the ugliness that was here when we moved in.  I seriously could not stand being in this room because the color scheme was so terrible.  Teal painted bricks, faux marble-painted mantle and hearth, "celery ice" walls (we know because we found the paint can in the garage), and some sort of royal green colored carpet.  Blech.  As we contemplated taking pictures of our Christmas decorations in this room, it became quickly clear that action needed to be taken.

 You can sort of see the results in the previous picture.  While we have a much classier vision of our fireplace for the future, for now we settled with painting over the ugly paint on the bricks and making them the color bricks should be.  The mantle and hearth took some trial and error, but we now have a stone gray for the hearth and some sort of wood color for the mantle.  And the walls are trusty beige.  The difference is huge and I actually like being in the room now.  Someday we'll add lights and furniture.