The Busy-ness of Moving

Now with the December open house out of the way, we begin the messy work of packing our thousands of books. It is funny really. We each have a bags worth of clothes and then hundreds or thousands of books. Even the kiddos.

I will also pack up the good dishes and breakables.

Then there is the business of connecting and disconnecting utilities and whatnot. Working on those.

Plus grades had to be reported (for my job).

In the mess of all that there is Christmas. Yay!

When I finally got a moment to reflect on it, this is the first time we have moved where we did not just move in the day of the closing. It is strange to think that the house is ours, but we can't move in just yet. It's like being 40 weeks pregnant. Will you go to 43 weeks? Probably not, but its a messy uncomfortable time with a whole lot of to do's!

Moving our food stores will probably be the most complicated thing we do. We have two deeps freezes full of meet and veg. When you move a freezer you have to let it sit unplugged for 48 hours for the compressor to do something. The details of that elude me, but I do know that it is important. So it looks like we'll be getting a third freezer, a larger one. Then we'll move all the goods into that one.

Brrrrrr.

Last night was the coldest moon. It was stunning, bright, and bold against the icing snow.

Tonight the sky held low clouds, blazing pink overhead at dusk. Not a horizon sunset, but a canopy of candy. It was amazing.

As we approach the solstice, the nights get longer, but we hope for the turn towards Spring. We spent the afternoon looking at appliances and making holiday cards. I graded papers, tended the nursling Blueberry, watched movies with Lil'Bug, and listened to the twinkle box play carols. We will begin the move into the new house just after the holidays, just after the seasonal change is officially winter and we begin the push towards Spring. It is incredibly symbolic for us, as this is an enormous change in our lives and has revitalized hope within each of us in our home. Even our sickly bird stopped plucking her feathers and began a proper molt (after 7 years!).

Wow, this is really late coming out of the Draft box.

the rules: "Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Change all the answers so that they apply to you.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I have MAD wrapping skillz. I can get really crazy with the foof and glue gun too. I learned from a master chocolatier and those chocolate guys really know how to doll up a classy package. My MIL does bags though and sometimes we just use those.

2. Real tree or Artificial? We had a real tree once when I was a kid. I was very allergic. It may not have been the tree though, and my intention is to get a real tree from now on. In fact, I sold my big pretty fake tree last summer. Real trees are awesome.

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually, right after Thanksgiving. I LOVE decorating the tree. I love stringing lights. My fantastic tip: get icicle lights (if you string lights and don't have a pre-lit). It's easier to cover the tree, you only use 20 ft, and you can move the strands around to fill gaps. I've never had a tangle issue and I just dump them into a crate at the end of the year (no fancy wrapping and twisting).

4. When do you take the tree down? When the issue becomes one. Once it was in May. ;)

5. Do you like eggnog? Fresh from a local farm! I love eggnog lattes, ice cream, frozen yogurt, candy, bon bons, cake, soda, oh man I love eggnog.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My teddy bear. When I was two. It was a gift from a cousin and I doubt much thought went into it, but that bear got me through some hard times. Yes, I still have him.

My favourite gift as an adult? My camera. Oh man. It is still awesome.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Husband. He doesn't like spending money or surprises. He likes very specific things. This year I got him really warm socks to go winter hiking in. Two pairs. I gave them to him a couple days ago and he's worn nothing else on his feet since. Seriously, socks. Who knew?

8. Easiest person to buy for? My daughters.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No. But I am looking for one. We had one as a kid that I loved that was carved wood and had sticks and leaves glued to it. I used to want one of those white porcelain with gold paint sets, but I am over that. I would like to make one next year.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Hand deliver, handmade. We started making ours yesterday.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Not so much received, as didn't. One year my parents forgot to wrap my gift(s) and I got nothing. No one noticed (but me, obviously). I was old enough not to say anything or cause drama, but it really made me sad. Later that week I was looking for something and found the gift, a whole collection of Margurite Duras novels. The whole family was horrified about that happening, but then they thought it was funny. I'm not sure funny is how I would label that memory.

One year I was the only one in the family with a job, I was 19, so I gave my siblings money to buy presents with and took them to the mall. They bought presents for everyone but me. I didn't really expect them to, I guess, but no one in the family ever said thank you either.

Actually my husband thinks it is sad/funny that all my holiday memories end with a tragic/sad punchline. Like, I once starred in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, it was a blast, a worked really hard and got rave reviews from everyone......but I am not sure my family came to see it.

You get the idea. Still I love Christmas! I love giving gifts, making gifts, and watching others feel loved. Now that I have my own family, I feel loved as well. My husband always makes sure I do. I love that man!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Muppet Christmas Carol!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? All year round. This year, I'm not sure we've even started.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No. Never. It breaks my heart when people do this with the things I make them.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Pecan pie and cream cheese pecan pie (the kind where the layers switch places while it cooks). I once ate an entire pie one year while waiting for everyone to arrive for dinner. One of the guests caught me, left (I thought to snitch), but returned with two forks. Well, yes, I was eating it with my hands. How awful is that? Later someone was setting out the pies and the missing pie was finally noticed.

The following year, M. gave me two forks for Christmas. She is so funny!

16. Lights on the tree; colored or white? colored, lots. I love all the colors. In fact, when looking for colored lights to buy, I seek out the 5-7 color ones as opposed to the 4. It's just not the same with out purple!

17. Favorite Christmas song? Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Just to Grandma and Grandpa's across town.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Nope. But when I do, its usually recited with a Cajun accent.

20. Angel on the tree top of tree or a star? Star. I know the secret to getting it to fit. ;)

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Nutcracker, lots of toys and fun stuff., so its easy to throw everything on and claim the theme is Nutcracker.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham. I love pig meat.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? To see my girls smile on Christmas morning. Also, to start moving!

26. Who is most likely to respond to this? no idea. this is a long meme, so maybe no one.

Writer's Blogk. Geesh.

With all the exciting things going on, I sit here with idle fingers?

So, couple things. Hobbit (wonder pup) is finally doing better. Yay.

We packed our first boxes that go straight to the farm instead of storage! Woot.

No, I did not finish grading stuff early. I am still plugging away. Not much left though, enough to make me stressed.

My kitchen smells funny and I ate Chinese food at the mall (ie, nauseous......) so my kitchen will still smell funny tomorrow.

Open house went poorly. Gah. BUT I finally got the listing up on historicproperties.com! Crossing fingers that someone from, say, CA, will see it and be all, "What? A mansion like that for only 199,000$ Seriously? Bad neighborhood whatever. Ever driven through LA? Yo, sign me some mortgage papers, yo." and buy our house for Christmas. That's my Christmas wish.

Good news. Pressure test for farm propane GOOD! Except on the range and stove. Secretly I was hoping for that. I was dreading cooking on them. Perhaps it was my inner Yoda that was telling me that they were actually not working/dangerous...... NEW range and stove for Mama Podkayne. Glee! The Force is with me!

That's it for this week. We move soon. I must pack. I am missing park days something fierce and I am thinking about having a moving tea for my park day friends. Thoughts?