Winter Recess

It's been a good long while since my last post. The run up to the end of the year got pretty crazy. Kelly and I celebrated Christmas in Anchorage a week before the real thing. We spent Christmas, New Years, and the first week of January back on the East Coast. It was a marathon trip, but we caught up on the sorely needed family and friend time.

Kelly's mom's coolest decoration.

I've never felt so popular as this trip home. I guess it's true that absence makes the heart grow founder. Everyone wanted to hang out (I suspect with Kelly, but I'll take what I can get). Operating from a base at my sister's house we made almost daily trips to see family and friends. Our visits took us to 8 different states (if you count layovers in Chicago, Illinois and buying beer in Maryland). We caught up with mentors, former coworkers and friends we haven't seen since our wedding - a lifetime ago in May, 2011.

My sister got a sweet Flyers hat for Christmas

 There's nothing quite like Christmas at home. Although there was no snow, and certainly no mountains, it was great to be Levittown. When we got back up to Anchorage, we quickly caught up on the snow we've missed. Stay tuned for an update on our snowy winter.

...And What are you Supposed to Be?

It was a very nerdy Halloween

 Our first Halloween in Anchorage was one for the record books. Living in Narberth we never had many trick-or-treaters. Something about living on a poorly lit, dead end street made parents hesitant to come by. Not so in Anchorage. We had nearly 50 kids, which, when you consider it was dark at about 6pm and snowing, was a pretty good turnout. It was tough to tell what most of the kids were supposed to be - everyone was bundled up against the cold.  Even still, it was fun to answer the door in costume. Some of the kids got it, almost all of the parents did.

Maybe a muppet combo next year?

Moving Day

Moving is never easy, especially when you are headed to the Great White North. Almost three weeks before our move date, Kelly and I shipped nearly all of our worldly possessions. We slept on an air mattress, ate off of paper plates and drank out of solo cups. It felt a lot like college - my back was a constant reminder it wasn't. Air mattresses just aren't that comfortable.

After pushing through some home renovations, it was finally time to pack our bags. The night before we left, during a flurry of cleaning and packing I noticed that the brand new carpet in our living room seemed to be wet near one of the radiators. To my great dismay, the radiator was leaking! After heading to the basement to shut off the water to the radiator I noticed what looked like a leak underneath the oil burner. When it rains it pours...which oddly enough was the source of one leak. Fortunately the water under the oil burner was run off from the torrential rain pouring down the chimney.

New Carpet

Water leaking from the Oil Burner

One problem solved. It took a plumber coming out the morning we left to fix the radiator. It was odd trying to arrange for the plumber from O'hare International Airport.

Last minute home issues aside, Kelly and I woke up at 2am the day of our flight. Her parents drove us to the airport so that would could make our 6:05am flight. We got to the airport before anything opened. We had to wait until 4am for the ticketing agents to start their shift so we could check our bags. With some careful packing we had 3 bags each within a pound of the 50lb max.

2 flights and 11hrs later, we landed in Anchorage, AK, our new home.