Not only is there no snow, it’s beautifully sunny today.  Dane has been waiting all morning to go explore the new village, find his new school and see if the move was ‘worth it’.  I’m not sure he understands that even if it’s not ‘worth it’, we are here to stay.

Our first experience with new-village life was an awesome one. Longtime readers know we love our fireworks on New Years Eve!  This year we didn’t have very many.  We physically finished our move on New Years Eve day, and handed over the keys to the old house at 4:00 pm.  With such a big move, we had little money left for the fun stuff.  I did have enough to buy plenty of sparklers, poppers & spinning blooms.  The kids had a fantastic time lightening those off & squealing with joy, and a healthy dose of fear. Then the clock struck twelve.

And our town lit up.  I’m guessing if you were looking east from the US, you would have seen our town.  Every house is exaggerating, but not by  much.  Almost every house set off battery, after battery, after battery of loud, bright, sparkling fireworks.  Even the big boys (hubby Dave & our friend Emmett) whooped it up in total glee & joyful abandonment.  We were soon joined up several sets of new neighbors, all with champagne bottles in hand, and stood outside loudly shouting New Years greetings and drinking in celebration.  Sigh.  I’m not a champagne drinker, but I happily joined in with all our new friends.  Two days later and I still have a bit of a champagne headache.  Thank goodness New Years Eve is only once a year.