First Christmas/New Years in Florida in a New House

In November, the contract closed on the house one day before Thanksgiving. Initially I thought we should wait until Nutcracker and Christmas were over before we started the arduous task of moving in (which was only twenty minutes from the rental house). 

In the meanwhile, we visited the house almost daily to paint and clean it ceiling to floor, and to install new blinds. Every trip we made, we loaded up the vehicles, little by little, and brought boxes of our things over to the house.

Before we knew it, we changed our mind and wanted to spend Christmas there. The most official items to drive over would be the beds because once they were at the new house, there was no sleeping in the rental again. 

A week before Christmas, we were officially moved in. YAY!

Even my oldest came to help paint, and of course Dodger joined us. 

Therefore, the Friday after Nutcracker, and one week before Christmas, we rented a U-Haul and brought all of the beds and furniture over to the house. But before this day, the kids decorated for Christmas; therefore, before we even had the furniture in the house, they set up the tree and stockings. 

The CRAZY time before moving in...

And so we spent our first Christmas in Florida...at my brother's, in Nokomis. LOL. But the week before everyone came up to our new house to celebrate Sophia's 18th birthday. 

But New Year's Eve we went to bed early, and woke up at midnight to the lovely sound of firearms. (It happened in California, too. Doesn't matter if guns are restricted or not. People love to shoot at midnight.)

P.S. I am late posting this, but I am doing it now before I post my one-year in Florida post, which is coming up in a few weeks! We have been so busy-busy-busy. Every Saturday it's something else, and we still are not done. Therefore, I really have no pictures to show of our first couple of months in the new house. Technically, we are not even moved out of the rental. 

I'll be back in a few weeks. 

To be continued...