Fire in the fireplace

We moved into this house in Dec of 2003.  Today we have the first fire in the fireplace.  There have been maybe three aborted attempts where the smoke got a little out of hand but I'm not counting those.  We could tell the fireplace, well, it's sort of a wood burning stove thing, has been used often by previous owners but getting it started ourselves was a problem for some reason.
It's major issue is apparently our basement location.  Cold air falls so it has farther to fall and more to displace for a two-story chimney.  I've been told we had to roll up a long 'wand' of newspaper and stick it up the chimney to get the air to 'draw' upwards.  Ummm, holding a burning stick in my hand with my arm up a dirty chimney just hasn't seemed real appealing.
My motivation today?
Well, Jared is cleaning out his office.  WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE!! and he wants me to sit here and shred paper.  My husband has like ten file boxes of old papers and taxes and forms and etc. and we have one of those shredders that says 'no more than 6 sheets' at a time on the side of it.  Yeah, I'm in the mood to burn something.
I rolled up this weeks adds in a long 'wand', lit the end on fire, stuck it up the chimney, relit it, relit it, relit it, relit it, relit it, got out matches because the lighter was getting hot, and lit it again and the smoke clearly began to flow away from me and up the chimney.  SUCCESS!!!  Then I lit a bigger stick and a bigger stick and got the log to start burning.  (I know, seems simple but I never had a fireplace before this one and I already mentioned how often we have used this one.)
Now we have a cheery tax scented blaze going.  Jared shows up with piles to feed the blaze and I keep an eye on the little people to make sure no one 'helps' throw things in, like unwanted siblings.