Moving & Christmas

Where to begin? We moved, we flooded the house, the workers broke a pipe, we went to Florida, the workers also went on vacation--for 4 weeks, we're back in NC, Austin went to New Orleans, and we finally got internet.

OK, so the longer version, with pictures:

The annual Scandinavian Christmas Fair, which is always the first Saturday in December. This year Ainsleigh was more interested in dancing by herself than around the tree.

Rippy and Farmor danced around the tree:
In mid-December we moved for the second time in 2009. Five months between moves is not nearly long enough. Then again, we were so ready to get out of our tiny apartment and the new place is a significant upgrade even from our old house, so we were pretty excited. But for some reason I thought it was a good idea to move, literally, the morning after my hellacious semester ended with my dissertation proposal defense. Not the best idea I've ever had; not the best packing I've ever done. Fortunately we had lots of help loading and unloading the truck. Ripken, helping to pack up the medicine that he shouldn't be allowed to touch:

Within days of moving in, we had some major plumbing issues. The first time I gave the kids a bath and ran the washing machine, the toilet on the first floor overflowed, flooded the hall, and leaked through the ceiling into the finished basement. It was a huge mess, and we had no idea why it had happened. The next day when I got home one of the workers (we are finished the fourth floor into a guest bedroom suite/playroom/office) said "I need to show you something." That's never good news. So I went up to the top floor and there was water everywhere. "Just a little" he said, but yeah right. So that, predictably, leaked through some areas of the ceilings. Two days of water damage in a row! Then a few days later while Austin was showering I heard the same toilet beginning to overflow. This year my parents and brother Tim came to visit and see the new place and the kids for the week leading up to Christmas. Of course, the first morning they were here with just a few toilet flushes the toilet overflowed. Finally Austin called a plumber, and we discovered the outflow from the house to the street is on an incline, obviously a significant problem. So the entire length of the pipe was packed with sewage and no water could get through, so every time we ran any water it couldn't clear the line and therefore came back into the house at the first fixture, which was the toilet that kept overflowing. After two days of plumbing work, a scratched up toilet, propositions of breaking pipes when the plumber couldn't find the access point, and having all 7 of us sleep at Kay and Reed's house, they cleared the line. Let's not talk about that anymore and instead move on to happier topics.

While my family was here, we went to the science museum, a Tar Heel basketball game, the boys went to a Hurricanes hockey game, and everyone except me went to the service at Duke Chapel on Christmas Eve. Most of the good pics are on Tim's camera (hint, hint) but here are some from the festivities.Christmas Eve day we opened presents with my family, since Tim was flying out Christmas morning for Colorado.Rippy is very excited about cars right now.Later on Christmas Eve day, making rice pudding with Farfar.Christmas morning at our house:Everyone got blankets, because our new house is a bit chilly!A few last pics with Uncle Tim before he headed to the airport:Then we went to Farmor & Farfar's house for Christmas with them and Uncle Garth, who got Ainsleigh her "most favoritest" present--a parasol that she calls her sun umbrella. It has gone on several walks with us already. Stay tuned for pics from Florida and the new house!