Life is a Vacation

I am not very interested in vacations.  I never was.  I hate the stress of planning and packing.

Somehow, with God's grace, we have packed and unpacked enough for 10 vacations, we saw so many friends and family, AND we made it to our new home 1000 miles away.  

All in all, it really wasn't so bad. 

 Thanksgiving weekend was spent with the Stouffer side....

 bonding with family,

 enjoying the Philadelphia parade,

 cozying up with cousins,

 and getting all the snuggles in we could.

 Oh, and we ate.  This isn't just a holiday thing with Nana- she always feeds us well!

We even got to sneak down to see the Bloxom side too.

We never share holidays due to the distance between them, but this year was special.

 Our last few days in Baltimore were spent saying goodbye to friends,

 eating local foods,

 and cleaning out the house.

 Did I mention eating our favorite, local foods?
What? We had to keep the house clean and show-able!

packing, packing, packing.....

 and spending time in our bare house.

I don't know how I forgot to document the drive from Maryland to Mississippi, but it was surprisingly easy.  We both drove a van, I had the kids, Troy had the cats, and we busted it out with only 2-3 stops during the day long drives.  We broke up the trip by staying 2 nights with our friends in South Carolina.  I would have added on another 10 hours to stay with them again!  It made our trip so much more enjoyable.

 Once we got into our new home, we set up house right away.

 The dining room/school room.

 The eat in kitchen with screened in porch.

 Living room.

 George and Virginia's room.

 Livia and Maggie's room.

 Master bedroom.

 Holy moley- we finally have closet space!!!!

 The kids even have a playroom!

 And kitchen.

Christmas was our first Christmas waking up in our own home. 

It was a little bittersweet not being surrounded by family that day, but it was also calm and lovely.  Our kids got to stay in pajamas, play with their gifts, and we started some new traditions while keeping some of our old ones.

Now that we have unpacked, and even put all the holiday stuff away, we are enjoying the rest of this vacation.  School is back in full force, and afternoons are free for whatever activities we want (mostly enjoying the yard and toys that where packed away from showing the house months before we left).  I think we will finally start venturing out to visit more libraries and parks, and have some play dates (one is set up for Friday!).  We are slowly meeting new friends as we visit churches, but we don't have the packed schedule of responsibilities one does when they are established in a community.  I'm taking this time as a respite and will enjoy a lovely cup of coffee on my back deck, watching deer run through the yard.  

God is more generous than I could have ever imagined.  Life is Good!