I didn’t know how to categorize this day. It could have been ‘The Travel Day’ or it could have been ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ or it could have been ‘Christmas Day.’ I do know that it was in fact all of the above.

Due to work schedules, we needed to travel back to Colorado on the 25th (which by the way, there are a surprising amount of travelers that use the 25th as an opportunity to go somewhere). The morning was a relaxed chance to spend a few more hours with my Grandparents. We left Jacksonville at noontime and headed down to Orlando via a jam packed interstate system. The airport was filled with people, and the plane was packed to the brim.

The flight was fairly uneventful, but what greeted us in Colorado was anything but. We left Florida in heavy rains and temperatures in the mid-70s. We arrived to Colorado in snow showers and temperatures in the mid-teens. Christmas morning was spent in shorts and a t-shirt, and Christmas night was a ‘White Christmas’ spent in every layer of clothing that we brought along. The car needed to be dug out of 8 inches of snow and the travel home was slow but fairly easy. It snowed for a good portion of the night and into the next morning.

The trip was short but jammed packed with family – and who could ask for more than that? The holiday was different this year for a variety of reasons, but the joy of spending time together was not any different than year’s past. And the topper was being able to spend Christmas night in our own bed, in our new house.

Dinner brought the family together. It’s our family tradition to do the big meal on the 24th, then to open presents afterwards. Family from a little farther south and family from a little farther north gathered at my grandparent’s house for a great meal of sharing, eating, and celebrating.

PS – Ezra did have on his ‘Christmas Finest’ attire earlier in the evening. But you know how the elder citizens of our world like it: hot, hot, hot. We stripped him down to some groovy threads and all quickly became jealous.

Don’t worry, your computer didn’t miss a ‘Day 2’ positing. No photos, no post. We just drove around and took care of last minute stuff anyway – you know, buying gifts and stuff.

A large part of Christmas Eve was spent probably like most of yours: in the kitchen. Ahna, Ezra, and I were able to break away for a trip to the Jacksonville Zoo. We had gone there the last time that we were in Florida (Ezra was 6 months old) and it was really neat to see how much he has grown by marking it against what he was able to do at the zoo. This time Ezra was able to do most of the walking on his own, he fed the giraffes, and touched a few sting rays. He also wandered around the Africa section and enjoyed hanging with the lions and elephants.

There are some really great photos in this batch (as most of the posts….). The big one below was taken from inside the main African enclosure looking back at Ezra, who was looking at the animals from the fence. Don’t ask how I got it, it’s a trade secret.

Why the rewind? No internet. My Grandparents don’t have a computer at their house, let alone internet service. Over the course of my four days in Florida, I was able to sneak out for a whopping 10 minutes of internet time at a local McDonalds in an attempt to stop the withdrawal seizures. Needless to say, that 10 minutes was broke down in the following ways: 5 minutes trying to connect, 4 minutes of downloading e-mail, 1 minute of catching up with the world’s news.

Ahna, Ezra, and my parents left two days before I did (I had to work) and were able to have Ezra spend a few more hours with family. They hung out for dinner in Daytona and spent some quality pre-craziness time with my Grandparents in Jacksonville.

Since I travelled separately, I had the wonderful opportunity to briefly visit the world’s busiest airport (everyone else took a direct flight to Orlando, then drove up to Jacksonville). Denver to Atlanta. Atlanta to Jacksonville. According to most statistics and studies, a lot of you aren’t as up to speed on geography as you should be…so a quick lesson. In between Denver and Atlanta, and Atlanta and Jacksonville is no state or city that starts or ends with New York. As a matter of fact, at any given time we are no closer than 1000+ miles. Yet the mass that is New York interfered with my trip to Florida and cut my time there by 1.5 hours. The pilot and co-pilot of my plane were late arriving into Atlanta because they were late leaving New York City. Argh.

Anyway, I finally got to my Grandparent’s house in Jacksonville sometime after 9pm and sometime after 14 hours of travel. While Ezra was already asleep, I was able to hang out for a little while and appreciate the city that was constructed in their living room – all out of Department 56 pieces that my Grandmother collected over many years. They love to put it up (as evidenced by my Grandfather’s first words about it after I arrived: “This might be the last year”) and we love to see it….especially Ezra. He loved chasing the train back and forth on the tracks and did especially well with the delicacy of the display.

The final night of Hanukkah was last night, so we couldn’t figure a better way to celebrate than to postpone it to this morning. We invited my parents over for breakfast and to light the final set of candles when Ezra was awake and attentive (sort of) instead of late in the evening. There is something quite magnificent about a fully lit menorah…

In year’s past a trip up to the mountains has been common enough that it was particularly blog-worthy. This year, however, between a growing kid and a new house, the trips to the mountains have been able to be marked by the fingers on one hand (and you don’t even have to use your thumb or middle finger). Ahna had worked an early day at the start of the school year and therefore had been able to exchange those hours for Friday off. Turns out that it worked out better than we could have planned a few months ago, with so much to do before heading out for Christmas. I took the morning and went up to Arapahoe Basin and made some turns for a few hours, including a few runs with some good friends that I ran into in the parking lot. Ahna took the afternoon to take care of a few things that were on her to-do list. Productivity meets necessity meets a day off.

Let the events begin.

Sunday brought along a nice interlude for Ezra: Olivia. Olivia is a daughter of a friend who came down and spent the mid-day hanging out and playing with Ezra. The two of them played in Ezra’s new playroom for the better part of 4 hours, with a lunch break sandwiched in there. While the two of them hung out, Ahna and I worked on the kitchen…and got it completely set and ready to go. It was a lot of fun to find new places for things and to set out the place with space as an actual option…not to cram as much stuff into a corner as possible.

After spending 24 hours in the new house, all of our dreams about what this place will bring to us have come to fruition (we will see how those fare over the course of time): Ezra is loving the new space. We are loving the new space. The opportunities to all be together have multiplied exponentially by having a more open floor plan. The kitchen is great. The garage and basement are great. The bedrooms are great, and the master bath is perfect. So far, so great.

The interfaithness of our house took center stage tonight as we hosted a candle lighting and music fest celebrating the third night of Hanukkah. After a quick bite to eat, the three of us headed out and got our first Christmas tree in the new place. We were able to set it up and decorate it with lights before calling it a day. PS – some trees don’t fit into the old school tree stands – even 6ft ones. And sometimes you are lucky with the local hardware store only has one tree stand left, and it happens to fit your new tree with the only-slightly oversized trunk.

I suppose that you figured out by now that they lack of posts in the past few days is directly proportional to the amount of time carrying boxes from one house to another. We moved! It’s about 98% done…just a few things to still pick up at the other house and a bit of cleaning to do before calling it all good. It’s a really nice thing that we have no time pressure to get that stuff done, so free time over the next week will be spent at the old place.

Quick digression to Friday night: the first night of Hanukkah. We spent the evening down at my parent’s house enjoying a meal of homemade latkes. We were joined by Bob and Leslie (neighbors of my parents) and enjoyed a lot of good conversion, excellent food, and gift giving. Bob and Leslie brought along a new menorah – a fire truck – and it was joined by two other family menorahs to create quite the light display. The new fire truck menorah is great….partially because it’s a fun part of a fun holiday, and mostly because it’s a ladder truck.

Ah, Saturday. The day of the big move. Let’s keep this simple: we have amazing friends that brought amazing amounts of energy. Troy, Joe, Jason, , Mike, Geoff, Justin, Jennifer, Tori, Tom, and Mom and Dad all worked their butts off to move us to the new place. We were expecting to be able to move just the big pieces in the few hours that we asked for. Instead, we were able to move almost everything. It was great. We spent the better part of the evening doing what people do when they arrive at a new place: unpack.

For the past couple of days we have been going in the house using the front door, then unlocking the garage door and raising it manually. When we left, we would pull the car out, close the garage door, lock it, then go through the house and out the front door. I am quite certain that you are familiar with the routine of life with a manual garage door opener.

Enter the electronic kind. It’s been a long time since we have not had an opener. It’s been an equally long time since I realized how much something as simple as a garage door opener makes you feel at home. Going in and out of the front door all of the time brings a sort of ‘visitor’ quality with it. Being able to pull into the driveway, hit a button, and park inside – it’s nothing short of special privilege that only the homeowner gets to enjoy. Smiles all around.

The move is going steadily. More trips to the house today, but they have been a little tempered since Ezra was part of the cycle back and forth. Things will heat up over the next two days, with the big move happening on Saturday.

Here’s a picture of Ezra hanging out in the new place…

Okay, it’s a little more than that.

I have to explain why there has been a relative lack of updates recently. Although there are several reasons for this, most of which we are choosing not to discuss on the blog (don’t worry, we are fine), a primary reason is that we have decided to move. We needed a complete change of scenery, a new vibe, a new lifestyle, and most importantly a larger house. So we are picking up our things and trucking a half mile down the road.

The reason that this has been a hinderance on the updates (other than the obvious need to pack, need to find financing, need to close, etc) is that this has all gone down in the last 4 weeks. From ‘oh, let’s look at that house’ to closing has taken a whopping 3.5 weeks – and that includes the Thanksgiving holiday.

We closed on the new house last Friday and are in the middle of two homes right now. We are slowly packing and getting small stuff moved over to the new space, and will have the help of friends this upcoming Saturday for the big items. This past week we painted the basement and added temporary paper blinds to the house so it’s move-in ready.

The house itself is a brand new place with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a great room, a bonus room, and a 3 car garage (Read: room to grow. Although there are only designs on that for now, nothing solid). We are really looking forward to the space that it will provide Ezra, as well as the ability for us to be able to do things like cook without having us on separate floors. We love the townhome and adore the space, but the layout (3 different floors) is really troublesome and difficult with a child.

So far Ezra loves the new place and is often seen running at full speed all over the place. The first signs of wonder surfaced last night when he went to his bookshelf in his current room – all of the books have been packed but the shelf remains – stared for a moment, turned, then asked “book?” It’ll only be for a couple of days…

We’ll update you as to the progress of the new place as we settle in. If you would like our new address, please send us an e-mail and we’ll get it right over.