On the road!

What a week it has been!

Jesse and I wrapped up and packed up as much of our work life as possible; packed and cleaned and organized and prepped at home; wrapped Christmas presents; saw the boys finish up at their respective schools; and cared for a million little jobs on the "can't wait until we get back in May" hit list. (Well, maybe some of them could have waited; for me, they involved a handful of therapeutic activities like painting my knife block late on Monday night.) There were signs of our typical life too....we enjoyed eleven around our dinner table on Tuesday night, Josiah had a friend over for one last play date, I helped in Josiah's kindergarten class on the usual morning, there were dishes and laundry and all the rest...

And then Friday. Friday! We've been anticipating Friday for so many weeks that it's surreal to realize it's now catalogued in the history column.

Everything kicked into overdrive for the morning. With a dozen or so people staying at our house for a few weeks (due to arrive the day after we left), all the linens were laundered, the bathrooms cleaned, and everything left ship-shape. Josiah went to school one last time. And we packed (and packed, and packed, and packed) the Prius to the gills.*

And at 2 p.m...we were off. We all were in such a whirlwind of motion that we never even really did a final look around from room to room or so much as wave goodbye to the house as we pulled away.

Updates on the journey to come!

Friday, 21 December 2012, 2:02 p.m.: Pulling out of our neighborhood!

* We've mostly just brought the clothes we'll need, work materials, and Christmas gifts. The condo we're moving into is basically furnished with an equipped kitchen, and we're looking forward to a minimalist lifestyle.  A few more bizarre items have been given passage too, though, including a kitchen scale, Jesse's big office telephone, calligraphy nibs, an unseemly quantity of good English tea, materials to file our 2012 taxes come April, and a large plush stingray. It is possible we need lessons in prioritization. :)