Aftermath....

Well the big move is FINALLY over....Annie and I hauled the last of our junk out of the duplex on Saturday, cleaned the place up, left the keys on the counter and are gone for good. Its such a relief knowing that we have nothing still over there that we need to pick up and that the only mess we still need to deal with is figuring out just where we want everything to be in the new house. Of course the final load (pictures, pictures and more pictures) are still in my car...I didn't have the energy Saturday to do any more unloading. Those will start coming out of the car tonight as I am essentially at a point where I can hang pictures on the wall.

Unpacking is progressing pretty well...we've had our storage cupboards for the kitchen assembled and mine is already full (having my "food storage" crammed onto two shelves at the duplex I couldn't always see if I'd already purchased something. I have a lot of duplicate items and I have enough sugar free pudding mix to last me for at least a year)! I'll be getting another one in a week or so, along with another tall bookshelf for the dvds in the living room (it turns out I own a lot more movies than I thought!) My bedroom has the major elements all in place....the bed, dresser, bookshelves and my desk are where I want them. My closet is full of my hanging clothes and the bookshelves are packed with books, but I still need to unpack the boxes filled with my desk items (which I am certain includes my cell phone charger....luckily Annie and I have the same phone and I've been using her charger).

The basement is full of boxes, but they are nicely stacked so we aren't in a huge hurry to sort them at the moment. Since I am off of school this week I will be unpacking a few more boxes every evening and hope to be fairly close to done by New Years...that way I can hopefully relax this weekend and maybe even get a few crafts done (I have to admit I didn't get a lot of relaxing in over the Christmas holiday though I was a complete lazy bum for Sunday...by then I needed it!) The next few weekends after that will be organizing my boxes downstairs and setting up the craft area so I can get to work....ideas have been firing off in my brain all weekend about cute Christmas ornaments to sell on Etsy next year and it never hurts to get a jump start on it. I still haven't found the photographs that I was going to work up into cards but if I don't find them in the few boxes I have left upstairs I will just have them printed up again....luckily I took the cardstock to work and its sitting safely in my office, waiting to be assembled.

Christmas was fun...I got to Jase's Wednesday afternoon and made cookies and fudge (surprisingly the time flew by making them) and we watched a few episodes of Smallville on the big screen. Jase had made some tortellini soup (yum!) for dinner and then one of his friends came over....we watched a Twilight Zone episode of a wino who wishes for the ability to give people the things they really wanted and he ends up becoming Santa Claus...then it was off for bed.

Christmas morning dawned lovely and gray, with Jase making german pancakes for breakfast. We opened presents and I was thrilled with the things Yancy and Leah got for me....I had a sweet set of magnets featuring cats taken from various masterpieces (I'd seen that collection before and loved them but had never gotten around to purchasing them), I also got a box set I wanted...the "Firefly" series (I watched a favorite episode on the big screen at Jason's and I can't wait to watch more at his place!) I also had a book on the life of Joseph Smith that I'd heard of but never really looked at. I sat down with it, thinking I would just peep through it while the turkey was cooking and before I had to start on the potatoes....I became so engrossed that an hour passed by before I was able to pry myself away and get back to making Christmas dinner! Its a fascinating book and I am really enjoying it (its called "Rough Stone Rolling" by Richard Lyman Bushman if anyone else is interested).

Dinner was at 5 and Jase had several friends over and it was a very nice party. There was plenty of food between what I had made and what everyone brought, we laughed and talked and Jase had Christmas music playing in the background. The tree was lit and everything was warm and cosy and it was (to me at least)the perfect way to end such a wonderful day. The snow started falling softly not too long before everyone left and it made for a beautiful (if a little slick) drive home.

I was home by 10:30 and while I had fun at Jason's it was wonderful to be able to come home to my own bed in my still box-filled room. Nothing quite beats falling asleep with little Samson snuggled up next to me, purring happily in my ear.