Curtain Call on Massachusetts

Way back in November...

we celebrated Thanksgiving!

And Brian played football in ten degree weather...

Bing seriously believes that he can fit on our queen sized bed with 6'3" Brian and 5'10" me. So, we sugar-coat his dismissal.

Christmas lists this year. Johnny is somewhat obsessed with tracing his hands and when I asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said, "Treats." Works for me, and Santa too. 

Galina's list was remarkably similar to last year: Cat, Movie (Epic), Glowpet, Real-Life Cat. Just in case we didn't understand that she was NOT going to be happy with a stuffed cat again. 

Waiting for Daddy to come home one day. Love them.

Christmas peppermint toe-nails! Galina and Johnny both have feet like Brian. Wide. And, since they are still so little, fat. I love their little fat feet. I may be somewhat obsessed with them. 

Mad, mad, mad, madam Mim!

I sold 'Snowman Kits' this year on the base. I've always wanted to have one of these myself, but to put together just one was so expensive. It made more sense to make a lot of them and since we were in New England, with snow, I decided to share the fun. Real top hats, perfect wood carrot noses, real corn cob pipes (thanks for the cobs Mom and Dad) and a striped fleece scarf with fringe. The eyes, mouth and buttons were black rocks. It all came together perfectly. Love it! Too bad we never got to use ours in Massachusetts...

BUT we did get to go sledding, a lot, just before we left. 

See that hill down there? It's pretty steep and it dumps right into the road. Yeah, we were doing great just sledding to the top of it and the kids were heavy enough that their sleds naturally stopped before they went over, until they switched sleds. The circle that Galina is carrying + Johnny = my toddler in the middle of the street. THANK GOODNESS there were 1) no cars and 2) that he didn't flip out and roll off or go face first into the asphalt. He came out smiling and laughing and we went ahead and called it a day. 

Our ward in Massachusetts, the Billerica ward, had an amazing Christmas party. It was Polar Express themed and they had a black electrical tape train track laid through all of the halls. Each child, all of which were wearing jammies, had a ticket that showed all of their different stops (the different rooms) and they were in different orders so that everyone was going to different places. There was a sugar cookie stop, a craft stop, a game room, a visit with Santa, and a story room where they read The Polar Express and gave the kids bells. It all ended in the gym where we sang and had hot chocolate. It was pretty awesome. The kiddos loved it. 

That was our last weekend in Massachusetts. We picked Dad up at the airport on Saturday, on Friday our trailer had been delivered. The Christmas party was that night. It had snowed on Thursday and snowed again on Saturday night. We packed Saturday afternoon before the Christmas party (with the help of 4 guys from the ward), and we cleaned Sunday because Church was cancelled due to the snow storm. We cleaned all day Monday and on Tuesday, after having the carpets cleaned and some more cleaning (I promise I keep my house clean, but move out cleaning just brings on a whole different level of cleaning), the kids and I flew to NC - thanks to Gaga and Papa for buying us tickets. We flew out just in time because it snowed again Tuesday night and Dad and Brian (+ Bing and George) drove out Wednesday morning leaving behind about a foot of snow. Our move out inspection went perfectly. I couldn't have asked for a better DIY move. Dad was the best. He didn't make me throw away anything :) although I did finally let go of a few things that he and Brian were more than happy to take to the thrift store for me. We used every single centimeter of space in our 27 foot trailer and ended up moving 12,500 something pounds of household goods. Dad and Brian drove down in two days and the Saturday before Christmas all of the men in the family, including Dave Anderson but minus Brian (he and I were both throwing up like crazy because of food poisoning), helped to unload our stuff. It all got packed into the Blue Creek house and we've been there since then.

Johnny playing with my phone during the pack-out.

The night before the kids and I flew out we drove into Boston and got Dad some authentic New England clam chowdah. It was late, everything was closing, Brian didn't follow the GPS so we missed seeing the light show at Faneuil Hall, but then he slipped on the ice busted his bottom so I wasn't so mad, but we didn't get home until almost after 10 p.m. and Dad didn't get to see the minute man trail at all. It would've been so beautiful with all of the snow. He didn't complain but my heart aches that we didn't get to show him around.

Johnny enjoyed my favorite travel food. I typically CRAVE peanut m&ms when I fly, but this time my friend, Amber Edwards, had made us these ham and cheese stuffed sandwiches and some oatmeal-toffee cookies. I was 200% happy with those. 

The first leg of our flight. 

It was only two hours but it took almost all of it for me to get Johnny to nap. He slept the last 45 minutes. Which was good because as soon as we got off of the plane we had to BOOK IT to our next flight which was all the way across the Charlotte airport and there was no shuttle. I only had one suitcase, but both kids had little backpacks, plus my small backpack/purse and three gigantic bed pillows...not to mention our snow jackets. I ended up with Johnny on my shoulders, two pillows under my arms, pulling a suitcase and running with Galina running beside me, like a trooper, with her pillow. It was not an easy run. 

When we finally made it to our gate (with literally one minute to spare before they started boarding us) this is what Johnny did. I wish I could've sprawled out across the floor, but at least one of us got to act the way we truly felt. 

They both perked back up when I produced ring-pops :)

Just a few more shots of sledding - we really did love our time in Massachusetts. We miss all of the natural beauty and the wonderful seasons. We miss the people we met and the friends we made. We miss a lot of things. We will not miss only seeing Brian for about an hour a day, maybe one weekend a month, and doing everything by ourselves (I know that sounds funny since it was me and both kids but...). We're looking forward to some family time, both with Brian and with Granny and Pop and all of the aunts, uncles and cousins. Truth be told, we're already enjoying it...but I'm not ready to post about it all yet. For now, until next time Massachusetts! Thanks for the good times!