Christmas Redux

We had a lovely Christmas this year. Jim's family traditionally has a Christmas Eve celebration, rather than Christmas day, so it works out well for splitting Weezie time between the two sets of grandparents for the holidays.

I brought Weez over in her pretty black velvet dress, white stockings, and patent leather Mary Janes so we could snap a few pictures in front of the tree. She looked just like a little doll! After pics, we changed her into her Christmas long-johns so the fun could begin! She seemed to have a great time. As typical with most children her age, she loved all the paper and ribbons most. She did seem to really like some of her new toys, though. I think her favorite is an Elmo boombox. She pushes the buttons to play songs, and she'll sway and flap her arms like she's dancing. How freaking cute is that?! When I helped her open it, I found myself saying, "Look Weezie! It's Elmo and Dorothy, and Mr. Noodle!". Wow, how my life has changed!

We went over to my parents' home for the traditional Vietnamese Christmas meal of lasagna and garlic bread ;-) It was really nice spending time with my family, and Weez had a blast being the center of attention. She is quite the ham-bone. She definitely gets that from Jim!

All in all, Weezie's first Christmas was wonderful, and I was reminded how blessed I am with my dear friends and family.

Coming up for air....

The movers are coming tomorrow, and we're nowhere near finished packing.

I've resorted to giving stuff away. I dropped off ten garbage bags of clothes at the local charity thrift store and freecycled 20 pairs of shoes, a phone charger, 3 lb hand weights, 4 1-gallon bags of travel toiletries, a broom vac, and, this was a hard one to give a up, my cherished Duran Duran poster. Sniff...

Oh, did I say this house was for sale?

I'm taking a little mini-break from packing (in other words, I'm procrastinating). We put our house on the market in October...basically for shits & grins. If we happened to sell it, then great... if not, we're in no hurry to move. Our realtor told us that if it didn't sell by November, it wouldn't sell until Spring because Winter is a dead time. We were just about to take it off the market when a buyer came in one weekend and submitted a contract the next day.

Oh shit.

That pretty much summarizes my reaction. I have mixed emotions about the move (note the reference to just myself. Jim is ecstatic - think Scrooge McDuck swimming in his money vault). While I'm glad we sold the house, I already had visions in my head about Weez's first Christmas and first birthday here. I love this place, and it would have been nice for Weez to have memories of growing up here. Oh, well, I guess as long as we're together as a family it doesn't really matter where we live.

I'm now in the process of trying to figure out how to cram 3000sq. ft worth of belongings into 1400sq.ft. We plan to build another home on a lot we own in the same neighborhood, but in the interim we're moving to an apartment. In the past two weeks, I've had to find movers, storage, a place to live, and a new home for Mr. Biggs. Needless to say, everyone's getting gift cards this Christmas.

Once we're finished with the move, I'll be a little more excited about planning the next house. Right now I'm teetering on the brink trying to keep it together...