Merry Christmas To All

So much has happened in the past month. I am now waiting for the closing of the house which has been pushed back twice. Makes me a little nervous, but I'm trying not to think about it too much. The call I got from my brother-in-law turned out to be a good thing. The young couple that is going to buy the house are actually old friends of Papa's and I have known them for a while. They are excited to move in and start their remodeling plans to the kitchen. One thing that is cool about selling the house to someone that I know, is that I can actually ask to come visit the house and it not be too strange.

So for the past month I have been packing things up and getting things organized. We put up the Christmas tree and put out decorations to keep things somewhat normal, but all the pictures are down, the bulk of the kitchen stuff is packed away. So the house does look a bit empty. And with my attention to packing, selling & donating, the cleaning has suffered. But the kids just seem happy as can be regardless. I packed up so much stuff to donate it took up about 1/3 to 1/2 of the garage. I called Salvation Army and they came to pick it up one day and it's all gone now. I could have started my own thrift store!

I've sold off a bulk of my furniture including my table & chairs, my elliptical machine, a lg dresser, a computer deak & some various tools. It's kind of crazy how things sell on Criagslist. I listed a few items on a Wednesday night not really knowing what to expect and my phone and email was blowing up the next day. I was on a business trip to NYC and couldn't deal with the slew of people trying to contact me about the furniture. It was kind of craziness for a minute there.

So ready or not Christmas is here. It's Thursday and the past week I've been frantically printing pictures, wrapping presents, getting those last minute things like boxes and tape. Sister Sprout was easy to shop for this year, but Brother Sprout was hard. He doesn't need a lot of things and I don't want to create too much clutter or have things I won't really be able to bring to Honduras. He'll have fun playing with Sister Sprout's things too, which he always wants what his sister has anyway.

I'm excited to see how he does opening presents this year. Last year the poor boy had the stomach flu and was throwing up while Sister Sprout was trying to open presents. This year I know the two of them are going to be crazy egging each other on or wanting each other's gifts. It will be fun to watch.

I still have yet to receive this year's Christmas photocard that I ordered online. So, everyone may be getting New Year's cards I guess. Getting the photo done this year was a test of patience. I could never be one of those portrait photographers. I needed a long break after our little home photo session. My ears were probably beat red b/c my blood pressure sure felt high. It was difficult to get Brother Sprout to give us a good photo. But I think we got one that will do. Here it is:

And here are some photos of the fun we had getting to this photo. I had over 50 photos and really only 2 turned out.

Merry Christmas to all!