Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house,

everything was strewn about, even a mouse (toy),

the boxes were all organized (ish) and packed with care (sorta)

awaiting the movers that would soon be there.

And such was our life the week before Christmas. Instead of trimming a tree and hanging stockings by a fire, we had been in a scramble for the previous month organizing and fitting all of our worldly possessions into boxes. We had already told our respective employers that we were leaving to travel, giving them four and six weeks notice,  and received nothing but overwhelming support. Everyone, especially our coworkers, has been so incredibly kind and inquisitive about our upcoming adventure. It’s been a really great experience. I think I was expecting indifference, “Oh, you’re going on an extended trip? Okay, bye.” Instead we’ve gotten genuine enthusiasm and support from every direction and we couldn’t be more grateful.

We’re past the holiday season now and coming around the final turn before our trip. We managed to fit all of our things into a 17′ Uhaul and my truck, which we towed behind. We drove twenty two hours to get to my parents house in Florida with Camo the Cat in the cab with us. Surprisingly, she did really well on the drive down, no kitty Xanax required. We put the majority of our things into storage, squirreling away what we could into the barn and just managed to make everything fit. We were able to enjoy the holiday with family and good friends, and on the first of the year Nicholas flew back to Maryland to complete his final two weeks at work (hooray for one more paycheck!) I stayed behind in Florida to try to recover any remnants of my surfing skills, spend some time with my parents, and avoid winter.

Since we’ve moved out of our apartment, and Nick needed a place to stay those last two weeks up north, he played roomie with some of our fabulous friends while he wrapped up his time at work. HUGE thank you to Jenn, Gelo, Mike, and Maura for the free place to stay and good company.

Our respective last weeks in Maryland were for the books. We want to say thank you to everyone who made our departure significant. From lunches to ugly ornament parties, dinner with good friends, farewell drinks, and parting gifts our last week was  a wonderful way to say goodbye to the people we’ll miss most in Annapolis. Thank you for all the well wishes and love- it gives new meaning to the word bittersweet.

The Contenders for the Ugly Ornament Party at Kara’s work

The Maryland chapter of our life story has officially come to an end. I can see where it stops just at the bottom of the page now. After five and a half years combined of long distance and then both of us actually living there, it’s been quite the significant portion of our lives. Now its onward towards adventure and new beginnings. The horizon is looking brighter each day we get closer to our trip, and I know we have some pretty awesome people supporting us along the way.