Departure date!

We bought airline tickets for the kids and I this morning!

Whoo hoo!

We still don't have a date for the movers...we're still waiting on a key piece of paperwork that hasn't come through yet. Don't get me started.

We decided that we have had far too much of this separation nonsense and the kids and I could not spend Christmas without Steven so, we are flying out on Tuesday, December 20th. That gives me several days to wrap up what I need to here and then we will be together for the holiday.

Yay!

We went to the mall for Icee's & a Christmas tree picture. Santa was on the other side of this tree

 but the kids opted not to sit on the big man's lap this year.

The mover's won't be here until the first of January, which means that I will have to fly back to make sure everything is packed, that the car is taken care of and that the cleaning is done, but we've decided that it's a small price to pay to keep us together for the holiday. Christmas in Germany. Heck, I'm willing to do a lot for that, especially if the other members of my family are there with me.

We said goodbye to our favorite librarians at the Cary Library. We think these guys are awesome. Jack is on the left and Rita is on the right. 

This is Erin. We love our library...and our librarians. These guys have become our friends and we will miss them...but we'll keep in touch with them. :)

Ah...the laundromat. Oh, sorry...the Glam-o-rama. Um...NOT. We've been to the Fluff & Fold twice now. Thank goodness our neighbor let us do some laundry at her house...but I didn't want to wash heavy blankets in her machine, so this is where we wound up. 

The kids were thrilled...can you tell? I did buy them Frosty's before we went...Maya got really cold after eating hers,

and then she got a really wicked case of the hiccups. At least our two hours at the laundromat weren't boring.

The kids have helped me a lot and we've gotten a bunch of stuff done. The attic is now organized! This is a huge accomplishment. We need to sweep it out, but other than that, it's done. I will be honest with you...if the movers come and we are overweight once everything is packed, I am going to cry. I will sit down and I will sob. I just don't know what else I can get rid of.

After about seven trips to the thrift store and all of the things we either sold or got rid of on Craigslist, this is what we were left with. There are 13 trash bags here, although it's hard to tell just how many of them there actually are. There's a bunch of stuff here that you can't actually see, but trust me, it's a lot.

It's patching, painting and cleaning for us now until we leave. Our flight is a late one and we'll be flying overnight. I have a lot of tricks in my bag...such as a new movie, two new games and a word search puzzle book. The kids have their iPods, ds's and books to read. We'll be good. We're also flying into London for a several hour layover. We may just have to eat breakfast in the Heathrow airport. We get into Frankfurt at about 1:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday, December 22.

Christmas together in Germany!