Christmas Memories

I remember when I was a kid I would prepare diligently for Christmas. I suppose that should have been indicative of how I am as an adult.... I would take the big Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog and pour over the toy section for days marking the five things I wanted the most. I think I figured five was a reasonable number given things being out of stock and all that. Did you know that you can still get a Sears Wish Book in the mail? I had no idea until I started writing this blog. I just assumed it went the way of everything else - online. See the link above to order yours!

Always in the top five were a couple of large Lego sets. I was a Lego fiend. I distinctly remember circling the big castle. I dreamed of opening it on Christmas day and taking my time to build the castle and then play with it. Back in the day the little Lego menu were like gold. Very hard to come by and rarely in the smaller sets. I believe the castle came with 8 figures and a horse too! Alas, Santa never brought the castle but I built cities with the Lego I had, I had police cars, ambulance, and even a garbage truck with a pick up schedule. Yes, I was so organized (or I suppose you could call me anal) that my Lego trash truck had a schedule.

This Christmas it was my extreme pleasure to buy Sienna and Grace their first Lego sets. This is the set I bought each of the girls. We didn't have pink bricks in my day. My only regret is that this was all we could afford and the biggest killer of all is that I will not be there to see the look on their faces when they open them.

Dishwashers....

As most of you know we are 99% done with the kitchen. I thought I would share some thoughts regarding all the research I've done for our dishwasher purchase. I had certain criteria, some just my fetishes, some very logical criteria and some selfish. My criteria is listed below. Some interesting things to note. There are rebates for almost every appliance right now. Check google and your local power and electric company's website, make sure you get your rebate money! One of the things that make dishwashers really quiet now is the lack of a built in little garbage disposal. Most have this basket you have to clean out every couple weeks depending on if or how much you rinse your plates.
My criteria:

• Quiet - ultra quiet
• wine glass holders in top shelf
• adjustable top shelf to accommodate large platters in bottom drawer
• heating element (more on that later)
• delay start
• no stupid little drawer for silver ware (see picture)

Heating element, why was that a criteria? Well, some dishwashers, like the Bosch do not come with a heating element inside anymore. This saves energy. It makes the Bosch the most energy efficient dishwasher out there, but do you really want wet dishes? I like my dishes nice and warm and DRY when I pull them out of the dishwasher. Quiet? Why did I want a quiet one, well we run our dishwasher at around 2 am usually and I don't want to hear it spraying and clunking away in the kitchen. So delay start and quiet go hand in hand. Our new Kenmore Elite is so quiet it's a little hard to tell it's on.

Adjustable top shelf. Some of these are cheap and just scream, "I'm going to break soon!" so try it out over and over again. I think it's a great feature as Dena and I entertain frequently and use large platters to serve food. It would be nice not to have the middle swinging spray arm hit all the plates and pots on the lower level. Bad for the arm and bad for the dishes.

Silverware - there is nothing I hate more than having to work hard to put dishes and silverware in the dishwasher. Isn't a dishwasher supposed to save time? This new feature of having a silverware drawer is the stupidest thing I ever saw. It takes too much time. Who has time to place every single knife and fork in its own little slot. Just throw them all in a basket and be done with it. For those of you that say they don't get clean, well, if you don't wipe the peanut butter off the knife and leave it sit for 4 days then no, it probably won't get clean.

Other things we learned - positioning and understanding of your controls. Dishwashers nowadays in order to qualify for energy star compliance have certain features that you must turn on when you wash. We have to push the Hot Dry button to get it. Where are your controls? Are they on the front? Do you want to see that or do you want them hidden in the door? We have this turbo wash thing in the back. If you put dirty pots in there like a roast pan, you can pick the turbo wash cycle and they'll blast the pan. Pretty cool.

So, do your homework and you'll be happy. We consulted consumer reports and all sorts of online reviews before our purchase. The nice lady at Sears was extremely helpful and we learned a ton.

Kitchen Remodel - End of Week 9

I know you were all expecting some exciting pictures today....but alas, the kitchen is covered in tarp, paper and the new stove and hood is all covered over by a "bridge" that they made out of wood for installing the new hood. I can tell you that it looks fantastic though.

Sears repair is here today to fix the new fridge. Yes, it was installed improperly. Now he's blaming my contractor for not clearing the water line for the ice maker and that the filter is clogged. Filters are not covered - $ 50 down the drain, literally. The freezer has frozen condensation in it because the door doesn't seal properly on the left side and they neglected to drop the feet down, so every time I pull open the french doors the fridge slides out 12". Nothing irritates me more than incompetence.

They are finishing the grout, moving in the washer/dryer, finishing the plumbing, installing the under cabinet water filter, and the list goes on. I have high hopes that I'll be making dinner Friday on our new stove, washing dishes in our new dishwasher and drinking a bottle of wine chilled in our new wine cooler. Hope springs eternal....