After the move (delayed by a broken computer!)

There have been a few tears in the week since our move. I gathered our Christmas decorations from my parents house on the 23rd. Upon opening the back of the van I discovered that the ornament box had shifted as it fell out of the car. Ornaments all over the road. A friend walked out and said "... and that's the straw". Yes, the tears came then. After our tree fell over two years ago and we lost many special ornaments, I'm thinking that we will stick with plastic ones from now on. Walking down into our basement to see boxes stacked three high covering half of the rec room. That was not so much tears as full on moaning, groaning, and whining. From me.

But while there have been a few tears of sadness and exhaustion, mostly the tears have been good ones. Tears of thankfulness and gratitude. Tears when a woman, someone I only met months ago, offered to wrap our Christmas gifts - 2 days before Christmas! As if she didn't have enough to do, she knew that I was probably overwhelmed and took time out of this busy season to help me. Tears when a friend brought enough dinner to feed us for days. In the midst of pizza, take-out, and more pizza for many days in a row, we had a delicious homemade meal to include dessert and champagne. There were tears when neighbors brought cookies and cupcakes to welcome us into our house. This was something that I was love doing for people when they move in. It makes it feel like a true "welcome" to the neighborhood. Then our neighborhood had a "Light up OT" where people lined their drives and home fronts with luminaries. The weather outside wasn't optimal, but some still showed up and it was beautiful. When I posted to the neighborhood google group that we were looking to borrow a dolly to move out of the apartment I had at least 7 replies with offers of a dolly and countless people offered 

to help us move.

Some of the best tears have been tears of relief to be in our house. It has felt like "home" even before we moved in. Granted, I loved so many things about our farmette and the house itself, but it didn't feel like this for a long time. This house is cozy and comfortable. Everyone seems to feel their place in it. The house and the neighborhood feel like home. Those are the good tears. Merry Christmas!