DredBen was offered an opportunity to spend 2 months working near Halifax, Nova Scotia. In December and January. And we were crazy enough to accept.
I know that we will look back on this and love the memories. But memories can be exhausting to make. The prep work had us pretty worn out before we even left our house – finding a place big enough for 7 people that was available for 2 months on short notice (we found 1 option, about a week before we had to leave) and figuring out how to pack 2 months of stuff into our cars (particularly difficult when that 2 months includes Christmas and a birthday).
Then a 1000 mile, 19 hour road trip split over 2 days. We spent the night in Freeport, ME in a hotel, which DredBen says is sacrilegious, since he only camps in Freeport – I said tough. 
On the second day, I got the job of keeping 4 girls packed like sardines in the van happy for an hour while we waited at the border for DredBen’s work visa. Then the big push to Fall River, a little town north of Halifax.
The house we are renting is huge (about twice as big as ours) and gorgeous. We are all enjoying the space to spread out, and I am glad the house is rather sparsely furnished – less for me to worry about the girls breaking. It was a busy weekend unpacking and settling in – discovering several things that we needed to get to make the space work for us. Particularly in the kitchen, where it was obvious pretty quickly that the owner is not a baker, and we have lots of Christmas baking to do.
Today was pretty stressful as we struggled with suspended bank transfers, wire transfers, and check deposits to make sure our rent check was good – I now know a lot more about what sort of money transfers are possible, and which are not (hint – if you’re willing to pay a fee, they’re much more willing to give you your money). It’s a good thing we haven’t started our building project yet, because we won’t be seeing any of our “housing allowance” for about 2 weeks.
Then off for a Christmas tree – a small one, much to Lizzy’s dismay. But I couldn’t bring decorations for a big one, and I certainly couldn’t justify buying that many. So our Charlie Brown tree will work just fine – and the ornaments we put on it are Charlotte-proof (meaning they are plastic and cheap). 
On Christmas Eve, we will add the new ornaments Grandma Naomi and Grandpa Gerry gave the girls at Thanksgiving – the only Christmas decorations that were included in our packing.
Right now I’m so tired, but I think I’m finally done with the stressful stuff. I think tomorrow will be the first day in quite a while that I can just relax and BE with my kids – not planning, packing, driving, or unpacking. I think tomorrow I start enjoying our adventure.
Here are some pictures of our trip so far:
Doesn’t look any colder than NH so far. And the tree is great. The girls all look excited and happy. And what a gorgeous house!