Christmas Eve

My wife & I hosted my family's Christmas Eve get together this year.  We had 16 people coming so we had to get creative with seating for the main meal.  My Aunt & Uncle let us borrow their backup dining room table so we put the leaves in ours and butted to the tables together to make an oober table.  The table stretched into the living room.  We put a long table in the hallway for the chafing dishes and buffet service.  It worked out really well.

I'm really pleased with the way the house handled the crowd.  The open floor plan really made a difference.  We do not have a morning room and I do not regret that decision.  We have the 'normal' island which is different than the boomerang island some of you have. At one point everyone was gathered in the kitchen and it fit everyone just fine.  The family room was perfect for gift giving / unwrapping and that included the giant 8-ft tree (we have 9-ft ceilings).  We put the tree on the kitchen side of the family room next to the breakfast bar.  We had planned on putting the appetizers on the breakfast bar, but the gifts sprawled out pretty far and made the breakfast bar less accessible.  My wife called an audible and relocated the bulk of the apps to the family room coffee table.  This also freed up space in the kitchen as she helped prepare dinner.

The whole event was a great success and I'm proud of our house.  Maybe that sounds weird but I'm glad we did it.

Hardwood / Carpet Trim

I called Advanced Flooring to get a quote on a custom runner for the main hallway.  When I was on the phone asking about it, our rep from AF (not Ryan) asked how things were or if there were any issues.  I had noticed the carpet at the bottom of the stairs was already beginning to fray a little bit, a few strands of thread were starting to pop up.  Not a big deal but he asked.  I also noticed a patch of the carpet coming off, probably not enough glue.  He wanted to send someone out to take care of it.  I asked how they would take care of the fraying so it doesn't happen down the road.

After some discussion it was decided they would put a piece of trim, similar to the footer piece along the rest of the wall.  The guy came and trimmed off the frayed carpet.  He then cut a piece of trim and installed it.  I think it looks better.  What do you guys think?