Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.



Over the Christmas holiday Dave's mom let us know she had a secret. You can imagine our surprise as Dave's parents had already snuck in a major life change with the bathroom remodeling project none of us were told about. But that's beside the point. The very important news was that she had put her name in to receive tickets to the Swearing In Ceremony of our 2009 President Elect, Barack Obama. She then added that she had WON the tickets and would then give them to us as we both had been making plans to go with or without tickets. You can imagine our excitement as we had done everything possible to get these tickets she was handed.

Once we stopped jumping up and down we knew we had to get to work. After losing our hostel reservations we began frantically looking for a place to stay and transportation into DC because we didn't want to drive into the city on the actual day of the celebration. Success is ours!

We now have reservations at a superb hotel, also known as the Best Western, in Richmond, Virginia and round trip bus tickets to the Greyhound Station into the city. Now all we have left is to figure out how we're actually going to get the physical tickets as Dave's mom will not receive them until January 16th. Whew! What a crazy few days this has been.

Now we're off to Clayton, NY to say goodbye to 2008 and I look forward to truly celebrating the excitement a new year can bring. I hope all of you find your own blessings and adventures in 2009 and I wish you only the best as you all say your own goodbyes to one heck of a year.
Emily

Round Two Begins:

We have received all of the boxes that we shipped to Cape Vincent and now have the extremely fun task of unpacking all the boxes and trying to decide what we want to take and what will stay here or make it's way to Salvation Army. I feel like I have done this once already. Oh right, I did. Last week.

Getting the van ready for the move was surprisingly easy even though we had so much to do for it. Somehow we got it all done in two days with time to spare. It has been inspected, has a new set of tires, Geico has been called and Dave made a "fairly" uneventful trip to the DMV. I may or may not have told him that it opened at 7:30am when it fact it did not open until 9am (that's not entirely my fault though...I blame the Jefferson County website). All in all the van has now been proved road worthy!

We have tried to make some time for fun including our twice annual trip to AMF Bowling Center. As always Dave, his brother Bob and Dave Bonney kept the game interesting. It's always fun to watch them compete with each other. I ended up beating all of my previous high scores with a whopping 120! We played five games and by the time we were done my neck and thumb were throbbing and I was heaving the ball down the lane Granny style but it was worth it.

Last night we spent some quality time at "The Big Pink" also known as Aubrey's Bar where I made some very bad decisions and paid for them all day today. Patty, Bob's girlfriend, introduced both myself and the bartender to Tic-Tac shots and that's when the night got fuzzy. We look forward to spending more quality time with them in St. Augustine, Florida in the middle of January. I look forward to spending time in Florida period.

Tomorrow finds us in Watertown running errands for the trip and heading over to Erin (Dave's older sister) and James's house on the river in Clayton to celebrate New Year's. It's going to be a quiet celebration but one we are sure to enjoy.

Have a safe end to 2008 and a here's hoping for a 2009 that exceeds all expectations!
Emily

We have arrived safely and without incident to Cape Vincent, New York!

My parents were generous enough to drive us to Syracuse, New York on Friday to meet up with Dave's parents. Dave's older brother Bob and girlfriend, Patty ended up beating us there as their flights from Florida were actually on time. We enjoyed getting to know Patty a little better on the drive to Cape Vincent and a traditional stop at The Grist Mill. She was very excited to see the snow and after an hour of stuffing ourselves it really started to come down. We worried about being snowed in but then realized Mr. Edsall is quite the professional at driving in extremely bad weather.

Dave's oldest sister, Lee, had already arrived from sunny San Diego last week (that's in California where the sun shines during winter) and was more than happy to greet us over the top of her computer. She's quite the workhorse, that one.

It's beautiful here as always. The wood stove is inviting and we have taken every opportunity to sit around chatting and snacking in between meals, admiring the Christmas tree and opening bottle after bottle of delicious red wine.

We saw our first and last ship of the season today on an extremely warm walk towards the Tibbets Point Light House. I expected mounds of snow, a very low wind chill and ice as far as the eye can see. However, this has not been the case...yet. Instead, we are enjoying the oddly warm weather with an afternoon and hopefully an evening walk "downtown" a little later.

This afternoon we celebrated Christmas again with the growing Edsall clan at Camp David. We have leisurely opened our presents stopping for much needed breathers and stories. What a wonderful Christmas this has been! But wait, the end is not in sight. Tomorrow will see the arrival of the oldest Edsall brother, Jim, and his beautiful family. He will bring with him his wife, Becky and their three adorable children Nate, Abby and the newest addition Andy. We are so excited to meet him for the first time!

We have just finished a huge feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, biscuits, corn, peas, broccoli and cheese with gravy slathered over it all. I really do need that walk!

As always I wish you well and hope you have all survived another Christmas.
With love,
Emily

"You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you."
-Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth


We are officially homeless and our first stop is Rochester, New York. After a few grueling weeks we have finally made it home for the holidays. We have said goodbye to old friends and new. We have had one amazing "End of an Era" party and we have left the city we have called home since September 2006. It's bittersweet but we know we will see each and everyone of you again...someday.

Moving, as always, was an event. We found it funny that we moved in to Brooklyn in the rain and moved out during the first blizzard of the season. We didn't ever want to U-haul again after our first experience (broken mirror, spilling change all over the pavement and Johnny the mover, etc.) but alas we found ourselves reserving another one last Saturday to ship the rest of our things. 26 boxes later, we are officially no longer residents of New York City.

We spent Monday night in the train station, as we had nowhere to sit in the apartment and nowhere else to go. We decided that we might as well get a head start and get there bright and early. I will never again spend four hours in Penn Station during the wee hours of the morning. From the symphony musak including cymbals to the homeless men and women wandering around the terminal screaming and showering in the bathrooms, it was almost too much to take. Somehow we made it through the night in one piece and made it on the train with over 100 pounds worth of luggage all by ourselves.

We arrived in Rochester, New York on Tuesday, December 23rd almost three hours late. The train was delayed, delayed and delayed again. The weather was bad, the train was slow and there was a plow stuck on the tracks. Welcome to winter traveling in western New York! Thank goodness I slept through most of it. I don't know how I ever lived without earplugs in my life. They will definitely come to great use over the course of these next few weeks.

We will thankfully be stationary for a few days until we make our way to Cape Vincent on December 26th to celebrate Christmas with Dave's family. But for now I hear my mom in the kitchen tell Dave to "keep stirring" and the smell of fresh peanut brittle is too much of a temptation.

Happy holidays to you and yours. I hope you all feel the warmth and continued blessings of the season.
All my love.
Emily