All Settled...

I haven't written since we closed on the house. We've been real busy trying to settle in. There is so much to do, it's all a bit overwhelming. Our lovely garage is half full of stuff, we haven’t had the strength or time to organize and find places for. The move was pretty awful (as moving usually is). We wanted to hire movers, as we hope this will be the last move for a LONG time, but unfortunately we just couldn't justify it financially. So we paid a couple of Alex's friends to help us, and rented a Uhaul.

     Moving out to the country has been a great experience so far.  We made it a point to bake some muffins and cookies and go introduce ourselves to our neighbors. They are all very nice seeming people. They were friendly and thanked us. A couple of them joked, that they thought they should be the ones bringing us treats. One neighbor ( I forget most of their names! ), invited us in to her granddaughters birthday party. It was awkward, but nice nonetheless. Some person secretly dropped off a nice hubbard squash, which we cooked up for dinner one night. And Sharon (the one name I do remember) sent her husband over to check on us when the power went out.
     Within a couple weeks of us moving in we lost electricity, water (we have a pump), heat, and our woodstove wouldn't light. It was a cold, cold night. And we started to wonder if we'd made the wrong decision. Then within a few weeks of that, the group home for the disabled we both work at, started (& still is) having funding issues. Apparently the State of Maine is trying to switch to an online, automated billing system, and the accountants up there have messed it all up. Anyways, we waited weeks to receive enough money to do a payroll. Finally (knock on wood) we have received it, and should be paid tomorrow or Monday. The state continues to have real issues with their new system, and we will continue the battle to keep the facility funded and open. Anyways, all of these things have conspired to make for a very worrying move into our first home. But we are hopeful, that we are making good decisions. I told Alex that we are getting the hard times out of the way early.
     We hosted our very first Thanksgiving dinner! It was so much fun and so much work. I cooked my very first turkey, and it came out spectacularly, beautiful golden brown skin, and quite moist meat. I am very proud, especially since it was over 20lbs! I also made a delicious Boston Market style sweet potato casserole. Yum! I will definitely make that one again. We had 21 family members over, and used the opportunity to show guests all around the house, and it was made into a house-warming party as well. Got some very nice things. Including a couple of lovely lamps, gift certificates to HD, and of course, money. Yay! We managed to fit all 21 people into our dining room, by putting 3 tables together. I bought placemats, chargers, and napkins at the Christmas Tree Shop. We had a lovely fire going in our woodstove. I love the woodstove so much! Especially because it’s kind of fancy and has a glass front. Thanksgiving was a great success, with everyone having a good time, no arguing, and great conversation. A lot of people met our kitty cats for the first time, and they loved them as well. My little baby cousin tried to ride my 6lb cat, Schmooky, but thankfully thought better of it.
     With Christmas coming, we’ve decided we’re going to do a much smaller tree trimming party. Alex’s brother, sister, and brother-in-law will be coming over from England, and will, of course, be invited. We’re so excited to see them and show them the house. I’ll have to write another more detailed post with party plans. But I can tell you we’re planning on having a smaller Christmas tree in the dining room (in front of the picture window) and a larger tree in the living room/sunroom. We’ll have the dining room tree all decorated, and the other tree setup with just the lights hung. We also want to do a big Christmas fish & lobster chowder, we are in Maine after all. J

So, all in all living in the country is going great. I’m excited for spring though, and winter hasn’t but just begun. We'll see how driving in the snow and ice goes.