Happy New Year!!!

Hello everyone,

I am writing to you from 30,000 feet up in the sky, over the Tasman Sea, on our way to Christchurch, NZ. I am so excited! If I could only pick one place in the world that I want to see, it would be New Zealand. And if I had to pick a place, sight unseen, to move to, it would be New Zealand. And here I go! This feels like a dream come true and I’m not even there yet.

This entry isn't going to contain pictures because I am being charged by the minute to post this blog and the pictures seem to take forever to download. Pictures to come, I promise.

So while I’m just sitting here with Mark and the kids in the 3 seats on the other side of the aisle from me, I thought I’d catch you up on a few things that I’ve been wanting to write about. So sit back with another cuppa tea and have a read.

One thing I wanted to write about in some more detail was our house. Another is the birds and their noises. And then there are a few funny little things I don’t want to forget that I know I will before long.

So let’s start with the funny little things. The first is that Mark locked us out of the house within minutes of our arrival. Fortunately for us, Mark has a background of delinquency that occasionally pays off when there is a real need to break into a home. We got back in and promptly buried a key in the front garden. The way their door locks work—shut the door and it’s locked—it is bound to happen again soon.

We woke up on our first morning in our new home and walked out the front door to find 2 spider webs, each the size of a small wall hanging, draped between the bushes on either side of the sidewalk coming off the front porch. Mark almost walked through one of them. Planted smack dab in the middle of each were these big spiders--hearty, fat spiders, not the sinewy kind, the beefy kind. I blew on one and it moved. It was creepy and fascinating at the same time. Jordan declared one of them our new pet. Though it abandons its web during the day for errand-running, I assume, the spider always returns to its web in the evening when we check on it. When you see a web like that, you don’t mess with it. You just never know where the weaver of that web may be lurking. This spider doesn’t yet have a name but I’ll be very interested to see if it is still there in 18 days when we return.

Driving is a bizarre experience. Because I tried, but failed, to imagine what it would be like before we got here, I know I won’t be able to accurately describe to you what it is like—you really just have to try it. It’s like an amusement park ride without someone monitoring it to make sure it is safe. I have driven everyday, sometimes alone, sometimes with my whole family in the car, sometimes with a map, sometimes by memory. On most outings I’ve gotten lost at least once. (It doesn’t help that there isn’t a straight road in all of Newcastle and most roads don’t go through.) I haven’t hit anyone yet but I imagine I’m about to when I see someone coming at me on the right side of the road as I sometimes forget that I’m on the left now. I have turned on the windshield wipers countless times as their turn signals are on the right side of the steering wheel, not the left. Mark laughs at me every time I do that. Still. I was aghast one day when I was walking up to our car in the parking lot and saw a very young child in the driver’s seat of another car. Until I realized that he was just in the passenger seat. But I’m getting the hang of it. Sometimes I make a turn so smoothly and confidently that I feel like I’m in the driving-on-the-left-side-of-the-road zone. But then moments later, I look out the window and up to my right for the rear view mirror, which is now on my left, and I remember that the moments when everything clicks are still just random luck. The funniest feeling was when I woke up this morning to go for a run and I got in the car and thought, “Jesus, they are STILL doing this driving on the left side of the road thing? Aren’t we over this yet?”

Another silly little thing that Mark wanted to make sure I wrote down was about him killing the power to the entire house the other night. Several times. He was working hard with the electricity issue—converting and adapting and setting up a “charging station” for our various and sundry electrical appliances. And then everything went black. Luckily, the fuse box is placed in such an obvious place on the front porch that we’ve all hit our heads on it at least once so far, that we knew where to go to flip the switch and turn it back on again. And then he blew it several more times before he got it all figured out. That is not the first nor will it be the last time I felt like a member of the Griswald family. But now we have our computers, our external hard drives and our charging station all set up for the year. As long as it doesn’t burn the house down while we’re gone.

One morning this week, as I was pulling out of the driveway, I noticed a woman and her little dog sitting on the curb by the driveway. I asked if everything was okay and she told me that her dog seems to have hurt her leg. I asked if she’d like a ride home so the dog wouldn’t have to walk and she accepted. She lived about 2 minutes up the road. Later that afternoon, we came home to a card on the front porch. She had written me a thank you note for driving her home, let me know that her dog was okay, just had a bite (probably from one of our pet monster spiders) and she left her phone number in case I needed anything.

I was touched, of course, by her gratitude for such a little thing but more profound to me was the fact that she lived a pace of life that allowed her to handwrite a thank you note and deliver it by the house. If I were in her shoes in my life in Lakewood, a dog with a bitten paw would have put such a wrench in my daily plans that I would have been playing catch up the rest of my day just from that unexpected turn of events. There’s no way I’d have been able to find the time to write a note and deliver it back by someone’s house. I really notice a different pace here. And a different value system. There’s an innocence here—which I’ve heard people say about Australia but had no expectation that it would be this palpable. You can see it in the unassuming clothing, the lack of cell-phone usage while driving or out in public at all, and the graciousness. You can see it in the little town centers—there are no chain stores and most of the stores seem utilitarian in purpose rather than for luxury or even convenience. In one town center you might see a dry cleaner, restaurant, bike store, hardware store, carpet store and newsagent. The whole city seems to be middle class with a few pockets of upper class but regardless, all the houses are relatively small. There are very few SUVs or even mini-vans. It is just so, I don’t know, easy? America seems so over-the-top to me. There’s never an end to what we can buy to adorn our homes, our bodies, our streets. But here, the focus seems to be more on enjoying the people and the environment. And I have one word about all that: Ahhh. I am looking forward to getting to know the people to see if my first impression is accurate. I’ll let you know.

There are other inhabitants of this new land that intrigue me just as much as the people because of the racket they make. I’ve found the bugs’ and birds’ noises to be, at times, deafening. And I’m perpetually frustrated by the fact that I can’t see any of them. I can hear them but I have no idea where they are or what they look like. There’s the bird that sounds like the noise you get when you blow up a meteor on that archaic video game, Asteroids. There’s the bird that sounds like a lion-taming whip being cracked, I swear. There’s the bird that sounds like a combination of chalk screeching on the chalkboard and a soft bell. And then there are the insects. Their electric buzzing feels imminent, like they are about to fly right into my ears. Just hearing them makes me feel like I should duck and run for cover from, THE BUGS. But they don’t attack. They don’t even show themselves. I will feel a deep sense of accomplishment the day I spot any of the owners of these noises. I did see one little bird this morning, though I know it doesn’t make any of those noises. It was precious--the size of a tiny sparrow, all brown except for the bright red cap on its head and matching beak. Adorable and regal at the same time.

Our house. We live in a wonderful little place. It is surrounded on the outside by lush, tropical feeling vegetation. Seems like they didn’t move much out of the way when they slid these homes in between the bushes and trees. The house is long, going back from the front door like a row house. The kids sleep in the first two bedrooms on the left, Gabe’s just big enough for his queen bed, wardrobe (most of these homes don’t have closets) and a dresser and Jordan’s just big enough for a twin bed and desk. Prue decorated Jordan’s room before she knew anything about her because that room is typically Prue’s office and she knew that we’d want to turn it into a bedroom during our stay. We walked into this adorable little girl’s room covered in butterflies. Spot on, she was.

To the right is a formal living room/dining room. Prue clearly didn’t decorate that room with young children in mind so we have set up our computers on the dining room table and have put yellow police tape around the rest of the room, protecting the white couches and glass sculptures.

If you keep walking toward the back of the house, you will hit the bathroom on the left past the kids’ rooms. The bathrooms in Australia tend to be split in two with the toilet and a sink separate from the shower, bathtub and other sinks. The toilets all have 2 buttons on them, one for half flush and one for full flush. It is a water-saving technique and I’ll let you figure out what gets semi-flushed and what gets the full treatment. Prue did a remodel and addition on her house in the recent past and it seems that the bathroom got a facelift and upgrade. The bathtub has Jacuzzi jets which we are all happy about though the kids are the only ones to try them out so far. Sigh.

Oh, I forgot to say that before you walk into the bathroom, there is a closet on the left hiding the washer/dryer. The washer takes about an hour or more to run and the dryer will go on and on forever and “doesn’t like to be left alone,” according to Prue so we only run it when we’re home. Many people still hang their clothes on the line outside which we will probably do as well oftentimes.

Continuing on, on the left past the bathroom is our bedroom. Nothing special there except that because it is part of the addition, it has a closet. That’s a bonus.

Right outside our bedroom is the family room which is the last room at the back of the house so if you make a u-turn at the family room and stay in the left lane there, you will come to the kitchen which runs long and thin between the family room and formal living room. It seems to have been upgraded as well with new appliances, a gas stove which I like and, though it isn’t big, she has fit every kitchen tool a cook of my caliber could want. I am very impressed with how she’s stocked and organized her drawers and cabinets. Her fridge, on the other hand, could use a cleaning out. The Australians seem to like their sauces (think “barbie”) and she’s got some that scare me. Of course, she is probably saying the same thing about some of the items she’ll find in our fridge and pantry.

The back deck of the house is a wonderful place to spend time though meditation or quiet reflection is out of the question, what with wild rumpus out there. Prue said there are possums living in the trees in the backyard and that she sees them from time to time. Yeah.

Okay, so I had to shut the computer down for landing and we landed. Happy New Year! We made it through customs and were being driven in a van to our hotel in downtown Christchurch when the clock struck twelve. At least the clocks here. Where you are, it is only December 31^st at 4:00am. I think that’s right. Anyway, I can tell you that 2008 looks fabulous so far and you should definitely plan to show up for it. In case you were debating.

We trucked our poor exhausted children through the center of Cathedral Square with suitcases and backpacks because the roads were all blocked off and our van couldn’t get us to the door of our hotel. As soon as we got upstairs to our very spacious room, the kids fell into bed and are sound asleep. We are here, we are tired and we are happy. We’ll talk to you more another day.

Love, Nancy

We made it!

Greetings from Down Under! Yes, it is summer here and yes, this is a crowded beach in Newcastle as everyone is on holiday here. I think it is comparable to Summit County during the week between Christmas and New Years.

So to sum it all up, things are going beautifully. We are truly blessed not only to have this experience but to have it go so smoothly almost every step of the way. I am amazed, really.

Let's see...one bummer that I do have to mention is that while we do have wireless internet, it is very slow compared to what we're used to. It took me about 5 minutes to download the one picture here and frankly, I'm not sure I'm going to be willing to sit for 5 min. per picture unless I have something I can be doing while they are downloading. So if the blog is a bit shy of graphics, you'll know why. On the other hand, it will give me a chance to do the dishes, something I might not otherwise get around to as often as I should.

Okay, so grab a cup of tea and get comfortable. We had a lovely time in LA, as I said. Then we got on a huge plane headed for Sydney at 11:30pm on Tuesday night. It was a 14 hour flight. Mark slept in fits and starts. I slept for about 5-6 hours off and on, once I figured out a way to lie down, cradling Jordan on top of me. Gabe slept for 4 hours waking up at 3:30 and staying up the rest of the time. Jordan slept for about 12 of the 14 hours. While those of us who were awake were awake, we watched free movies that we could order individually and Gabe played a video checkers game. It was pretty sweet, considering the circumstances. We arrived safely and on time in Sydney, made our way through customs and met Prue right away.

A word about Prue: for those of you who will have a chance to meet her, you will be in for a treat. She's wonderful. We haven't gotten to meet her son and probably won't, sadly. She is so friendly and so excited to be coming and a bit nervous as well. With all the hospitality she and her friends have already shown us in the 36 hours we've been here, I am so hoping you all will welcome her with open arms whether you are in Colorado or outside. Feel free to call her at our phone # as we'll teach her how to check messages. I really think you'll like her.

Anyway, back to the story. We found our new car easily and Prue drove it home for us. Fortunately, the car was exactly where it was promised and it runs just fine. Unfortunately, because of the Sydney holiday traffic, what is typically a 2 hour drive home was a 4 hour drive in the heat in an old car that didn't like the A/C on in stop-and-go traffic.

We got to our new house on Thursday afternoon and it is adorable. It is small but it is really clean, well-cared for, well-decorated and has an upgraded kitchen and bathroom. She had put a lot of thought and time into turning her office into Jordan's bedroom, complete with butterflies on the bedspread. (And Andrew, if you aren't nice, I am going tell you all about Mark's "patterns" as soon as I'm done with the details of the house, so be patient.)

Everything is so lush here--semi-tropical they call it. I would love to describe it to you but describing scenery is not really my thing. I'll try to find time to download more pictures. Suffice it to say that everything is dripping with green and there are bright flowers poking out everywhere. The most tropical aspects, however, are the animal noises. They are clearly lurking all around us though we haven't seen any of them yet. The cries we hear sound like the animals are hurt, in need of help, lonely and angry. It is a little disturbing to hear so much emotion coming from the trees and who knows where else. Tonight when we were driving home from the "barbie", we saw a swarm of birds that had a sort of bat feel to them though they were too big to be bats. There were hundreds of them flying in the same direction coming from the same source. It looked like there was a bubble machine somewhere shooting out birds. Very strange. And we have no one to ask about stuff like this yet. I'll let you know what I learn as we go.

Anyway, back to the house. Once Prue let us in and showed us a few things, she left us alone to get settled. This is when I freaked out. I started realizing that not only we were very far from home and would remain far from home for a whole year, but that I didn't even know where I was. I didn't know how to drive and I wouldn't know where to go even if I did. I simply didn't know where in the world I was. I mean, in my world, Australia is a land as foreign as Mars. And there's no way I'd ever end up on Mars, and if I did, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. This is how I felt. When we drove by the Sydney Opera House on our way home from the airport, I thought, "Oh my g-d, I'm in Sydney, Australia." Now, for those of you who have traveled extensively, you might not remember the first time you saw a foreign landmark as famous to you as the White House or Mt. Rushmore. But seeing that grand structure in real life simply didn't make sense to me. Traveling this far shook my foundation in a way that I've not experienced before.

It didn't help that as I was looking around the house, I began to realize that Prue didn't put any of her stuff in storage. She'd left every closet, every shelf, almost every nook and cranny filled with all her stuff. You might remember us talking in November about shipping boxes of our stuff out and you might also remember seeing pictures of Gabe's room filled with all our stuff so she'd have the house to herself. So not only did I feel unsettled but I was afraid that this house would keep me from ever finding a way to feel settled. Luckily, Mark kept his wits about him and assured me "she'll be 'right." But the best I could do that night was go to bed.

The kids, in the mean time, were happy as can be, as they are whenever we land in a new hotel room. They explored like cats, checking out all the nooks and crannies, finding lots of objects that could be transformed into new toys, regardless of their intended use. They fell fast asleep as they were exhausted by about 7pm.

We woke up this morning and with my new perspective combined with the very large and very cool spiders who'd woven webs in the front yard to rival Charlotte's, we were off to a good start.

Driving: I tried it today. Mark says he's gearing up to try it tomorrow. Let's just say I now have a greater understanding of the fact that it is extraordinarily hard for human beings to adopt new perspectives on old ideas. It is amazing how hard it is to wrap my head around the fact that it is okay to turn left without having to look right to see if there are cars coming. They just won't be. And I'm finding it very challenging to park a car from this bizarre vantage point as I have no idea where the left side of my car ends. I'm pretty sure before it is all over, I will take off the side panel of a parked car on the left side of the road. But it is fun, driving this way. It keeps my adrenaline up and I like that.

We took the kids to the beach today. The sun was hot. The beach was crowded. The water was fun. It was good. I'm looking forward to finding another beach or to going back to that one during off-season. The drive home along the ocean was spectacular. It was all you'd expect out of Australian beaches. Vast ocean with a seam of white breaking waves along the edge; white sand, broken up by rock outcroppings here and there; rock walls coming up out of the sand several hundred feet and topped with green trees like thick hair; people everywhere all looking genuinely happy and alive. It's really good. I am glad we get to experience this for a whole year.

After the beach, we found our way to a grocery store. The weirdest thing is that it is inside what feels like a mall. You walk into this big building that doesn't look like a grocery store except there is a sign for the grocery store outside the building. We actually walked around the parking lot for a while (looking like idiot tourists, I'm sure) wondering how you get to the grocery store. We finally ventured into the building and it felt like walking into Villa Italia or some really old and run down mall. There was a butcher, a deli and a bakery and then at the end of the long hall was the grocery store. We bought some basics though nothing looked familiar except maybe the apples. Even the lettuce was weird--the roots are included with all the heads of red and green leaf lettuce.

After the grocery store, we came home to ready ourselves for the barbie. That was at another beach and we got to meet a few of Mark's future colleagues. Everyone was superbly friendly and chatty. I love hearing their accents and comparing our two different cultures. Gabe was feeling pretty punky tonight so we left after a few hours and both kids fell asleep in the car at 8:00, which is unheard of at home. For whatever reason, they are the ones who are really struggling with the time change as Mark and I seem to be on track.

Which brings us to right now. And if you've stayed with me through this whole post, you now deserve to go do something else. If you still have a little time or can find some time later, I'd love to hear from you. I wish you were all here!
Love, Nancy

Merry Christmas!

Christmas greetings to you from Los Angeles! We hear there is over a foot of snow where we just left with more coming. Phew, we got out of Denver just in the nick of time. Can't imagine what might have happened had we decided to go out a day later because of Jordan's sickness. Luckily, changing flights would have cost us $1000 so we decided not to but had it been cheap and easy, we might have made the mistake of the year.

It is NOT snowing in LA. It was 70 degrees today in Manhattan Beach and we had a great day.
I got to run along the beach which was fabulous and the kids got to swim in the hotel pool. Then we all went to the beach and spent most of the day there. I think the water temperature was 55 degrees but apparently when you are 5 and 7, that doesn't matter.

I had forgotten how weird Christmas in southern California is--shorts and t-shirts in December is just odd. And I'd forgotten what southern California looks like and what its people look like. The whole place is odd. Lots of plastic surgery and small dogs, many wearing sweaters. The multi-million dollar beach cottages and monolithic homes are so close to the bike/running path that I felt like I was intruding on their intimate family Christmases as I ran by.

While we were on the beach, I was talking to this dad who was playing catch with his son and Gabe. He asked me where I was from and while I said Denver, it didn't feel completely accurate at the moment. After I explained to him where we're going I told him that the truth was, I feel a bit homeless right now. I wonder when things will stop feeling surreal and start feeling real. Probably not for a while. But at the same time, this is all real, as Jordan discovered yesterday--we were all lying together in the hotel room bed and she said, "For a second, I felt like we were at home." I suppose we bring a bit of home with us wherever we go.

Right now we are the epitome of middle/upper-class homelessness: We are hanging out in the hotel lobby, our 8 suitcases are under lock and key in the hotel's storage room, the kids are watching a DVD (don't tell FRWS), Mark is reading and I am on the computer. I just got off my cell phone with my family who are all together celebrating Christmas. And we wait. We have 6 more hours until our flight leaves. When we are ready, the hotel shuttle will take us and our 8 suitcases to the airport where we will do some more waiting.

I'll let you know how many meltdowns we endure between now and when these tired kids finally fall asleep. You could maybe start a pool and see if you can make some money off our situation.

In the mean time, we are wishing you and your families a wonderful end of your Christmases and a relaxing holiday week.
Love, Nancy

Heading out

Good-bye Everyone!

All four of our healthy selves are on our way! We'll be in touch,
Love, Nancy, Mark, Gabe, Jordan

Jordan's on the mend

Well, either your thoughts, Tamiflu, Elderberry, Zinc, Umcka (?), and/or endless sleeping did the trick. Jordan came back to life this evening and seems to be getting better by the minute. Thank goodness, God, angels, luck, timing, meds, prayers, whatever it was.

Here's what it was like for her before:

























And here she is after:







And while I'm at it, here is what it looks like when you put almost everything you own in one room. You should try it!

The Flu

Jordan has come down with the flu. We took her to the pediatrician to day and got her diagnosed as I've never seen her this sick before in her life. She's taking medication (anti-viral) and the rest of us are taking the same medication preventatively with hopes that we will all be fine to start this adventure in less than 48 hours. I've never asked this before because I'm not sure I completely believe in it but I know others swear by it: if you might put a good thought out there for Jordan to feel better quickly and for Gabe, Mark and I to stay healthy, I'd greatly appreciate it. And I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out.

Back to packing,
Love, Nancy

Finishing Up

Dearest Friends and Family,

Seven days left. Things around here are just bizarre. I cleaned out our junk drawer. Who does that?

We have boxes everywhere--big boxes, little boxes, filled boxes, empty boxes, boxes to ship, to pack, to store, to donate, to unpack, to hide, to wrap, to mail. Boxes are my life.

I keep saying good-bye to people but I'm not crying. I'm a crier when it comes to good-byes but I'm not sad this week. That's bizarre. I'm so excited to leave and I keep picturing reuniting with everyone when we come home and I'm excited about that too. I do, however, have this strong feeling of wanting to push pause on all your lives so I don't miss anything. One friend of mine just brought home her new baby and I won't get to see her baby and her love for her baby grow. Another friend of mine is about to quit a job that I've been waiting for her to quit for a long time and I won't get to be here as she figures out what to do next. Another friend of mine is getting married a week after I leave town and I won't get to celebrate that with her. Another friend of mine who is out-of-state is going to have a baby a month or so after I leave and I won't get to talk with her on the phone to hear all about it. And then there are all the other things that will happen that we don't even know about yet and I'll miss being here for all of that too. Why can't we have it all??? My mother told me once that we can have anything we want we just can't have everything we want and I guess this is an example of that.

Anyway, Jordan is doing much better. Thank you all for your thoughts about her--they were very helpful and reassuring. The other day I asked her to go get her shoes. She said, "Okay, Mama," and started to walk away. Then she turned around, came back to me and said, "Did you hear how I just said that? I said 'Okay Mama' instead of 'Nooooo, I don't waaaaaannnnnaaaaaa'." My heart bulged when she said that. I squatted down next to her and said how exciting that was and asked how that felt for her and she said "good!" with a big smile and I asked if that was easy or hard and she said "easy!" with the same big smile. I was thrilled--not just because she didn't whine but because she noticed that she didn't whine and that it felt good to her not to whine. We've had a much easier go of it since that day though there have still been some setbacks. If she was functioning at about 30%-40% a week ago, she's up to 70% or 80% now. Phew, we're out of that dark place, for now.

Speaking of Jordan, here she is at the Butterfly Pavilion with her Grandparents. She's in heaven with butterflies landing on her nearly hatched from their cocoons.

For those of you who have asked how the kids are doing as we get closer to leaving, I took a survey this morning at breakfast. They both raised their hands for excited, scared and sad and kept their hands down for angry, confused and 'I don't care'. Neither had any feelings to add. Seems right to me!

My parents and brother were here for a week and I thought that if we got all our stuff done by the time they got here, we could just relax and enjoy our time with them. We did get everything done that we planned to get done before they arrived. But I forgot to account for everything that I didn't plan to get done that still needed to get done so we didn't have a very relaxing time. It was a very busy time and it was great to be together and more than anything, we are grateful for their help with things and their company while we got the things done. My car is all set to leave sitting for a year, my and my children's teeth are clean enough to last a year (I wish I could say the same for Mark--though his teeth issues aren't due to a lack of cleanliness but about their lack of staying power), our wills are in their final draft form and waiting to be signed, our tax info is off to the accountant, most of my office furniture has been sold, etc...

So this week is about finishing up. Finishing up with my clients, Mark is finishing up with his students and co-workers, we're finishing up packing, storing, shipping, we're finishing up with all our friends for the last time, and the kids are finishing up school.

Oh, and we think we found the car we are going to buy to drive while we're there. It is a car that another exchange family from Canada used in Australiathis past year and they are selling it before they come back home. The bad news is that it is old and the good news is that it is cheap. We're hoping that we are buying a worthwhile car, sight unseen. We're trusting that this exchange person has enough sympathy for people on exchange that he wouldn't sell us a useless car. He says it is in great condition and that he's fixed all that needs to be fixed. Here's a picture of its outsides. We'll let you know when we get there about its insides.

I think that is it for now...have a wonderful week before Christmas everyone!

Love, Nancy


P.S. These pictures were taken by my mother, the photographer--I'm taking advantage of the fact that she was visiting and we got some great pictures out of the deal as Mark and I will be the photographers from here on out and there are no guarantees with us that you'll even see pictures much less good ones.

Merry Christmas

Good morning and Merry Christmas! I am pleased to announce that Santa Claus did indeed accommodate us this year as he showed up sometime in the middle of the night on December 7th so that we could wake up to bulging stockings and presents under the tree (that we quick got and ornamented on December 6th!) This was a whirlwind of a Christmas for me and though I thought it was working out well for the kids, Jordan's recent behavior makes me wonder if it may have been a bit too whirlwindy for her. (More about Jordan in a minute)

We weren't rushed in our energy but we did go from a normal wintry day on Wednesday to a full-blown Christmasy house on Thursday including the arrival of my parents and brother, to a Christmas Eve celebration on Friday to a full-blown Christmas morning on Saturday. It was lovely, actually, though I'm not sure I'm communicating that well right now! We had fun picking out our tree together on Thursday and then reminiscing over the ornaments as we hung them--every year the ornaments get clustered a little higher up from the bottom of the tree than the year before. On Friday, we enjoyed the Advent Garden which is a celebration of winter at the kids' school. It is a beautiful way to start Christmas eve we discovered. Then we came home to eat our traditional homemade pizza dinner for Christmas Eve, complete with lighting the menorah as it is also Hannukah this week! We hung stockings, wrote notes for Santa to accompany the cookies and carrots and then kids went to bed.

Christmas morning was as magical as always with the excitement level through the roof. Santa really came, he really wrote notes back and he really brought presents and put them under the tree. "I knew it!" Gabe and Jordan announced several times that morning. After we opened presents, we had a great big dinner and had a very relaxing day. Mark asked me several times if I wanted to get up and do this or talk about that or make a plan for this and I kept saying, "Tomorrow. Today is my day to just hang out with my family and not do anything about Australia." It was lovely. I think Mark read more than half of his new book in one day.

Then Sunday we were back at it. Christmas was over and Australia was back in the forefront. We cleaned out another closet and some other nooks and crannies where we apparently stash things and then forget they exist.

And today is the 2-week until we leave mark and it is beginning to freak me out. I can't decide from one minute to the next whether this is feeling more real or more surreal. We got our visas in the mail on Friday, phew. We have our international drivers licenses. We have passports and airline tickets and travel vouchers for New Zealand. All seems to be falling into place very nicely. Now it's all the little stuff. Should we leave out our vitamin-B complex and kids ibuprofen or bring them with us or store them? Is there a right answer to this question? The nice towels for Prue and Kynan are getting washed and we won't use them anymore before we leave--we'll be using the old crappy ones that can just be thrown in a box after our last shower.

And then there's Jordan. She's been struggling for about 2 or 3 days now. You can tell she's struggling by her whining, screaming, arguing and biting of her mother. I'm not completely sure why she is having a hard time but we all suspect it may be a combination of the lack of normalcy in the last few days, the excitment, and the impending move. So we are struggling with her and wishing we could know for sure what is bothering her. Mark and I are a bit concerned that this move is not her idea of a good time. She is so connected to a few of her friends at school and so comfortable in her classroom with her teacher and her peers that moving her out of that can't make much sense to her deep down. She's shown us nothing but excitment when we talk about Australia and she mentions it spontaneously all the time. But we all know that sometimes we feign excitment when our insides are doing flip-flops or we are both excited and nervous at the same time. So we're intending to get to the bottom of this with her to help her figure out what is going on and to find a way to reassure her that we will take very good care of her no matter what that means. It's hard to see my daughter try to repel the two people who are the most dedicated to helping her through this. Why does being human have to be so hard sometimes??? I'll keep you posted on what happens for her.

Happy Hannukah and Merry Christmas to everyone! Please write and tell us about you!
Love, Nancy

less than 3 weeks left

Hello everyone,
Just a quick note before I go get kids ready for school. We are leaving in three weeks from yesterday. We spent this past weekend putting most everything that we'll store into boxes and then stacking them in Gabe's room. There are boxes covering most of his floor stacked 2 and 3 high. We removed his bottom bunk bed and hauled it downstairs into what we've always known as the playroom. He's sleeping on the top bunk now and when I check on him at night, he looks a bit displaced sleeping high above the boxes like a monkey sleeping in the tops of a rainforest tree.

My parents and brother are coming to spend a week with us this Thursday. We'll be celebrating Christmas on Saturday (that is, as long as Santa got our letter and is willing to come early--Jordan says that he will even though we haven't heard back from him. She says we really didn't have to write the letter because he just knows. I suppose the letter was just a formality.) Yesterday Jordan got so excited that Christmas is just a few days away. She said, with a big excited smile, "It feels like Christmas is the end of my life!" As though all she's done so far in her life was the build-up to this Saturday and after that there will be...nothing. I so relate to feeling that way about things. Like this trip to Australia, for example. Though knowing that there will be life after Australia has been important for me to remember so that the leaving part isn't quite so hard. For Jordan, there is no hard part about Christmas, of course, so she can see this as the grand finale of it all and not think about what may or may not be after it passes.

I have been having a wonderful time with all my friends. Someone said to me the other day that this experience of getting ready to go away for a year must bring a great deal of value to what we have in our lives right now. She's right. I've spent much more time with my friends in the last few months than I typically do, especially this time of year (pathetically ironic) because I don't prioritize things that I take for granted. Right now, I'm not only not taking people in my life for granted, I'm paying extra attention to my friendships and it's fabulous! I highly recommend that everyone put people first and the to-do list second. Try a whole month of putting your relationships with the important people in your life ahead of everything else (excpet taking care of yourself, though they are often one and the same.) I hope I can remember to do this when we get home in a year.

Time to go get our day started. Have a good week and I'd love to hear how y'all are doing too!
Love, Nancy