"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