Yep, we're still here (but not for long!)

Earlier this evening, my dear husband pointed out that I had not posted anything since December 10.  I can't even remember December 10, but I think we still owned a house in Austin at that point, and now we don't.  The rest is pretty much a fog.  

Right now we're in Minnesota, freezing but happily surrounded by family and food and the comforts of home.  Oh, and lots of snow.  A little over a foot of snow today, with more to come. 

We enjoyed Christmas Eve with the whole family -- Sarah, Mike, and Elsa were in from San Francisco, so we had all 4 grandkids in the house and lots of laughter.  Since then, we've been eating up leftovers and trying to get all the last errands run and last details checked off the (many) lists we've written this month.  Right now we're 5 days from departure.  Technically, we don't have luggage yet, but everything else seems to be on track. ;-) 

We even had time for an extra special treat -- one of our Christmas gifts from my parents was a night away in the city for our 6th anniversary, this past Sunday.  After spending the afternoon at the Mall of America (a trip to the aquarium and John's first roller coaster) with the grandparents and cousins,  Tommy and I went into downtown Minneapolis for dinner and to stay at the Nicollet Island Inn, a beautiful hotel on a tiny island in the Mississipi River.  Bliss.  Thanks, Mom and Larry!  

We arrived here on December 23, after spending a long warm weekend at my dad's family's gathering place -- my grandparents' house in Melbourne, Florida.  We squeezed all kinds of Coleman traditions into 5 short, sunny days, and it was so much fun to see John and his cousin Owen playing together.  

But before that, we left Austin.  The town that I didn't think I would ever live in, but then I did, and even so it didn't really feel like home until one day I looked up and realized that I actually like it there.  

We had a very, very busy last week or so.   The sea shipment left on Dec. 9th.  The Halls came over for pizza and packing on the 10th, for which we are extremely grateful.  That weekend, Tommy's family traveled up to help us move everything into storage, with help from dear friends who sacrificed their Saturday morning to help.  (Thanks, dear friends!)  We were blessed by a lovely going away party on Sunday night.  And then things went into overdrive.

John's last day of school was filled with tears from his teachers.  We couldn't have been given better ladies to teach him this year, and we miss them already.  We did lots more moving.  We saw lots of doctors for lots of shots.  We wondered how people ever moved without Craigslist.  We sold the Altima.  We packed or pitched the last of our belongings, and then found ourselves sitting on the floor of our empty dining room at 3 am on the 17th, drinking Champagne out of styrofoam cups and toasting the happy memories of the last 5 years on Everest Lane.  

Later that morning, we said goodbye to our first house.  The closing went so smoothly that we kept waiting for a phone call saying we had missed something, but by that afternoon we were headed to Houston.  We enjoyed dinner with Tommy's family and then went out to my dad's so that we could get ready to leave for Florida in the morning.

In some ways, our gradual departure has helped -- first we left Austin, then Texas, then the warmth of the South, and in just a few more days, we'll leave Minnesota -- and America.  Crazy! I am still in just a bit of denial, and more than a bit overwhelmed by all the details we still need to resolve.  But we are excited, and we are confident, and most of all we are thankful for everyone's help and love and support and prayers.  Thank you all.  

I'll post again between now and Monday morning, when we'll leave ridiculously early for our flight to Shanghai.  In the meantime, we send everyone our love and hope that you all have a fabulous New Year's Eve!