Merry Christmas 2009!

There's no place like (a new) home for the holidays. . .

Well, it looks like our seemingly-endless move might actually be coming to an end. We spent several happy months staying at my parent's condo in Marco Island, Florida, but it was time for us to relocate. Staying there gave us a smooth transition to Florida, allowing me to stay home with the kids and for us to take our time finding a rental in commuting distance to both our new jobs. After our recent real estate fiasco, we easily decided on a rental over buying anything right away. It took a few trips up to Bradenton for us to find something we both agreed on (foreshadowing of how fun it will be when we start looking to buy!), and finally settled on a townhouse in a small, cute gated community with a pool and playground. We're near great shopping (quite a change from my time in NC), lots of golf courses (maybe I'll learn someday), and conservation land (there are alligators in the pond on our street).

From Townhouse

The move has been quite an ordeal. We had movers bring all our belongings down to FL back in September, but its been sitting in storage since then. Matt's dad came down for a weekend and helped out with all the major lifting at the start of December. But, it's taken 2 more weeks, and 2 more trips back and forth to Marco and storage to get all our stuff up here to Bradenton. If you add 2 kids into the mix and use your imagination, you'll get an idea of how fun our December has been. I think we have everything just about put away and organized for now, but the crowded garage tells us our next home will need to be bigger with more storage space.

From Townhouse

From Last days at Marco

Through all the confusion and madness, the girls have done really well. Brooke seems to be keeping track of her 'new home' (the one with the toys) and her 'old home' (the one near the water) and is very excited about Santa coming and starting school again in January. Luci is giggling and talking more than ever. She is very happy and sweet, but quite a 'mama's girl' which makes my arms tired sometimes, particularly when I'm trying to unpack. We're all looking forward to Christmas this week. Grandma and Grandpa Palmtag are coming, and, of course, so is Santa! Brooke is quite enthralled with Santa this year and loves watching the Christmas specials and playing with our nativity sets. We went to meet Santa this year and Brooke did great! I wish I had a picture to share, but wasn't up for dishing out $20 for a 5x7 and the photographer caught me with my camera out. Instead, I had to settle for a shot of Brooke dropping off her letter in the mailbox at Macy's (adding to the Make-a-Wish donations).

From Last days at Marco

Quiet Thanksgiving

Our actual Thanksgiving holiday was pretty quiet this year. We celebrated as a family by going on a long walk in the morning to enjoy the 80 degree weather. Ah! Our first Florida Thanksgiving. Of course, the Packers were on that afternoon and their win definitely kept the mood high that day. We put our own spin on Thanksgiving dinner since Matt is allergic to turkey (Yes, yes, we know it's a strange allergy. There are many more for those who haven't heard about it yet.). Becky cooked up a range of holiday fixings - the creamy potatoes, sweet potato casserole, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, sausage & apple stuffing, and Matt cooked a beautiful standing rib roast. There was also a small turkey breast for the leftovers. We love leftovers.

Matt had the week off from work, so we had a lot of family time. We went to the botanical gardens one day (see pics below). Over the weekend, we drove up to Bradenton to sign the lease on our new place and get another peek inside. We'll be moving in the 1st weekend in December (just a few days from now) and we're wrapped up with that again. We look forward to this being the last move for a while, and fortunately, we're nearing the end of a very stressful year.