Busy Few Weeks

We found out yesterday that we can start moving in as early as Friday (maybe Thursday evening). I haven't had much of a chance to pack (there's lots going on, not including moving), but I started packing up the kitchen this afternoon. My house was a pretty big disaster even before I began, so I feel very unsettled right now. I'm pretty stressed. I'm ready to get the packing and moving finished so that I can attempt to move on with life (which will be different in many ways). It's very difficult to pack with the two little ones, so I'm moving slowly. It will be nice after tomorrow because Robert will be off from Thursday (the 17^th) through January 1^st. My hope is to get everything moved and unpacked that we will need to live by the 23^rd (that's when we start our family Christmas'). Everything else we will worry about that next week.

I have such mixed feelings about Christmas this year. In some ways I'm excited because we're having our whole family here, and the kids are very excited about it. But, obviously, it's going to be a very tough Christmas because it's going to be hard not having Joey here to celebrate it with us. I just think about all the Christmas mornings that we woke up at 5 a.m. just waiting patiently for my parents to get up. We would walk downstairs to check out what we could, then run back up so that we didn't get in trouble :). We would laugh and talk until my it was light so that we could wake up my parents. We did everything together, and we both LOVED Christmas. My parents made it so special for us. I just pray that I can put that much into making it special for my kids so that they have those same memories. This Christmas is just not going to be the same though. I hope that next year the joy that I normally feel about Christmas can return.

Well, Robert and I are off to look at what the new house is looking like after a day of volunteers working on it. Thanks for just allowing me to "talk" through all of my crazy thoughts and emotions. I'm not sure how I feel most of the time from day to day. I feel so scattered.