Christmas

Christmas was great this year. We spent from last Tuesday through Sunday with family. It was a really nice holiday –we got to see all our family members, and I even got to see my best friend from high school while visiting my family. It was great catching up with her, and felt like no time had passed at all. I guess when you go through puberty and the drama of high school with someone, you are bonded for life. Even though Christmas was great, it was also pretty emotional for me. I was trying to just capture as many pictures and save as many memories as possible. We told some family that didn’t know we were moving yet the news and some more friends. My grandma’s reaction was pretty funny –she could not figure out for the life of her, WHY anyone would WANT to move to another country, even temporarily. She even said to me –well, I guess if you have to go, there is nothing you can do about it. She just didn’t understand. But the hardest part for me was leaving Maggie, my 12 year old Scottish Terrier, with my mom and dad. We are trying to transition her over to their house, so we are leaving her there for a week, then back here for a week, etc. This will hopefully be easier on her in the long run, but I think it may be harder on me. I thought that it would be easier to know that she would only be gone for a week the first time, but all I could think about yesterday when we left my parents house, was that she won’t understand why we were not bringing her with us. Selfishly I want her with us, but I realize that she is too old for the flight and the quarantine. And for those of you thinking –she is getting this upset about a dog? Maggie came to me when I was first living away from my family, she was company for me through some very rough times in my life, I often tell my husband I think he married me because he fell in love with her (he watched her when I had to travel for work before we started dating) and she is very protective of the girls. There will never be another one like her. Every time Bean got upset we were leaving her yesterday or Gerbie asked where she was last night, I tried not to cry. Don’t get me wrong, I know she is in great hands –my mom even said she would hold her up to the Skype camera for us, but unfortunately, that will only help us, not Maggie –as she is getting to be very deaf, and probably can’t see the screen either. (I did mention she was 12 after all). The girls will love seeing her though. Now, if I can just control these tears that fill up my eyes every time I mention her name. And I told my husband last night as we were finally relaxing after all the activities, and the kids were finally asleep –I get Maggie back on Saturday, and then he leaves on Sunday for three weeks. I am sure I will feel better after we are all together in England, this transition part is over, and we are on to our adventure. We were even discussing on the way to my parents house on Saturday what countries we wanted to visit while we were living there, I am so excited for that! But in the meantime, I need to get off the computer and run to Sam’s club to buy some more Kleenex now!