Merry Everything!

No matter what you celebrate - Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Festivus - we wish you happiness and peace and a wonderful 2010!

Ya know - we really had a great year. The boys are at an age where they are just so much fun. I've posted before about what good sports they were all year while we worked on house stuff - real troopers! We did try to make sure to balance the work with lots of fun. I think if you asked the boys about the year their highlight would be their first "real" vacation - we took them to Mexico in February and I don't think anyone could have loved it more. From the moment we left for the airport until we arrived back home they were nothing but perfect and so, so happy!!

That trip was sandwiched between a bunch of large and small house projects aimed at getting our house on Iowa Ave. ready to sell. We put it on the market in May and within 2 weeks it was sold - we were incredibly fortunate to have good traffic through it and were able to sell it to someone who fell in love with it as soon as she walked in the door (just like we did a little over 10 years ago). The only problem was... we had nowhere to move to and no options either. So began our search for a new house. We saw house after house after house and they were either too far away from our ideal area or too big or too small or not in a good school district or just not quite right in some way or another. We did try to put in offers on a couple of houses only to find out they were already sold. I gotta tell ya - our experience definitely did not reflect the housing market problems others are seeing in our area & around the country.

In the end we decided (after much deliberation) to design a house and build on a nice lot in a lovely neighborhood with a great new park less than a block away. Luck would have it that our realtors work with a great custom builder so the pieces fell into place for us. Making this decision was great but it didn't really help with the fact that we still had nowhere to live. So, we moved into an apartment from July to October while the house was being built. As much as I complained about the e-partment (as Eli called it), it worked out just fine as a short term solution. It had a great pool that we swam the heck out of. We had the boys out there almost every.single.day this summer and they loved it! They went from being slightly scared of the water and having to be held while "swimming" to Henry knowing how to swim all on his own and Eli being completely comfortable paddling around with his water wings. However once the pool closed after Labor Day, everyone really started getting tired of the e-partment. But, it was all worth it.

The house building process for us was so many different things - fun, exciting, stressful, scary, boring (if you ask the boys) - but in the end it was a great experience and we feel so lucky to have this wonderful new house that was built with such care. We loved our builder (Jason of Bald Eagle Builders) and our site supervisor (the awesome Josh) and all of the people who were in and out of our house doing their part. We absolutely love our new home!!

The boys are funny because they are constantly saying stuff like "this is the first time we've done xxx in our new house" and it's not exciting stuff like Santa coming or anything. It's like "this is the first time I've watched you brush you teeth while you are in your pajamas in our new house, mommy." I think they are really enjoying living here. They love their rooms (pirates for Eli and sports for Henry) and their clubhouse (a closet between their rooms w/ a secret door so they can "sneak" in) and just being able to run around and play and yell again. We have been meeting the neighbors and it turns out that there are quite a few new families so I think it's going to be so fun for them to have kids around to play with.

It really feels like this is going to be a wonderful neighborhood for them to grow up in and for Troy and I to make lots of new friends as well. We've been welcomed with cookies and plants and invitations to parties and "Bunco." Everyone is so friendly and attentive to one another. In Minnesota it can be tough to meet people in the winter so it's not ideal to move at the end of October but for us that hasn't so much mattered - we really have had a wonderful experience. However, we are looking forward to next spring and summer when everyone (including us) comes out of hibernation and spends time outside again.

2009 brought a lot of changes for our family but we wouldn't want it any other way. We're happy and healthy. We have good jobs and great families. Fun times were had with old friends and new. It was a good year!

Happy Holiday. We wish you & yours all the best in 2010!

Love, The Schallys