Unpacking, sort of

Life is happening fast at the moment. I have not been keeping up with my blog journal. I am lost in the moment and want to write about today and am still trying to catch up on my chronological journaling from when the hard drive crashed in December. So, the blog entries will be jumping from present to past and in between. Hopefully you can follow along my scrambled path.

Chronologically I left off at the end of our move into the new house. I want to say disparaging and four letter remarks about the Denver moving company and warn everyone in Denver to avoid the unmentioned moving company, but for now I resist sinking to that level. Seriously if you are moving in Denver just contact me and I will tell you which company not to use.

On a more pleasant note, Christmas came just days after the move. We basically put unpacking on hold. We found boxes of Christmas decorations and placed the decorations amongst the moving boxes and randomly placed furniture. I am usually the biggest tradition monster at Christmas. This year we didn’t follow any of the “rules”. We didn’t even set up a Christmas tree. We had a miniature metal tree and set it on the coffee table. It had little votive candles and Colin hung some decorations he made at school. We had a crazy mix match set of plates and foods and tablecloths. I started to fret that we needed a tree and blah blah blah, but the boys were thrilled with the make shift holiday set-up. They couldn’t have cared less about the finer details. We decided this Christmas was the most relaxing ever!

We baked, did holiday activities and even attended a Christmas potluck dinner with all of our new neighbors on 22 December. We brought two apple pies to the party. At the outset making pies seemed like a quick, easy endeavor. Then the search began for pie plates, vegetable peeler, sharp knife and a rolling pin. We eventually found pie plates and the peeler, but had to substitute a wine bottle for the rolling pin. Two pies became an all day event. Christmas Eve Day I had the ham all glazed and ready to put in the oven. My roasting pan was too big as well as all my cookie sheets. I never thought to make sure the pans would fit in the oven! I threw the ham back in the fridge and raced to Queenstown. Luckily, I found a restaurant supply store with cookie sheets and roasting pans. Each day seems to be filled with unexpected situations. Friends and family keep asking what I’m up to everyday. I have no great answer. I guess I fill my days at the moment buying new roasting pans or trying to find a rolling pin or towels for a shower. I don’t remember any previous move being this disorganized, but maybe my memory is just blurry.

Also, I am completely distracted from the move. The weather is beautiful and we live in the country again. I usually wake before any of the boys and head out to explore. I am feeling a bit possessed actually. Even when I am tired and want to sleep later, I wake up and have to head out to explore before anyone awakes. Each day I choose in a new direction. Sometimes Liam likes to join me and sometimes Doug and Colin too. Colin usually waits to join us until we tell him about a good find like a waterfall or dead, decaying sheep. A baby alpaca was born several days before Christmas. We peek on him and his mom every day. He’s the tiny white guy in the slideshow. How can we worry about unpacking with springtime wildflowers and baby alpacas and Christmas?