Most wonderful time of the year …

This may sound silly to some people, but I have to post about it anyway: today is the anniversary of the day I stepped into this house for the first time, when it was for sale. I made an offer the next day, and the day after that, the offer was accepted – and thus, I was on my way to owning a home for the first time. I felt so blessed through the process of buying the home. That’s not to say it wasn’t stressful, but it would have been more so without the support of family, friends, my work, the people I had on my side like my realtor and mortgage lender guru, and most importantly: God. I had gone through an experience trying to buy a home just a couple of months prior to making the offer on this house, and as I wrote last October, that first experience was a miserable one.

I was fortunate in that the previous owners of this house took excellent care of it, to the point that I only had to do one small thing to it when I moved in, and that was to add one of those little wheel thingies to one of my closet doors upstairs so it would slide back and forth properly. It’s a small unit, so the previous owners made the most of it with the storage compartments they added in the pantry, the bathrooms, and the closet dividers they installed in the master bedroom closet, all of which made it a perfect place for me to put – as George Carlin would call it – my “stuff.”

Today my mother and I decorated the inside and outside of the house for Christmas. I think I have more Christmas decorations than regular decorations I was pleased to see that the neighbors to my immediate left and right decorated the outside of their homes as well with lights. They look really nice. I think at this point, our section of the development is the most decorated. I’m sure that will change the closer it gets to Christmas, but it felt good to get a jump start on getting the decorating done.

I will be hosting Christmas with the family this year, and I am really looking forward to it. Last Wednesday night I was standing in my little kitchen, looking at the dining room table, imagining everyone sitting around it eating, chatting, and laughing – and hoping like heck that I don’t burn anything

There’s something to be said for owning a home – it feels good and makes me feel proud to pull up in front of my house and know that what I’m looking at is mine, to know that anything new done to it, and the memories that are created in it – whether they be holiday memories or just everyday memories – are done/made by me, and my family and friends who come over. I know some people feel that a car is a testament to someone’s personality, but I’d like to think my house is a testament to mine.

If you were to ask how I was liking home ownership, I’d respond that I didn’t like it. I love it.