I have the next week off school for reading week, I cannot wait to spend the week with my girls – Liv, Bri and I have lots planned!
He said
After a few weeks and multiple trips back & forth between London and Kitchener, it looks like Testza and the girls are completely back in London. Sure, there still is unpacking but the reality is everything that needs to be here, is here. And there’s no more need to go down to Kitchener. It is so great to gave them in London as we really felt the distance from them this last year. Things like Danielle taking Zoe to The Dollar Store in the middle of the week or Emelia getting to watch and more importantly spend time with her cousins have fallen back into our fold.
With this weekend being Thanksgiving and the hubbub of packing and moving out of the way, we offered to host Thanksgiving at our house for any of the Teeters that could make it. And sure enough, everyone to a person saw the same importance in being together as a family as we did. The added benefit was mixed in with the laughs and togetherness, there was also a pretty great feast too. Matthew & Shawn had a turkey so we offered to smoke it on the Traeger as well as everyone chipped in and brought food.
And even though I was working all weekend and there were other family commitments today, we made it work yesterday after I was done work. The beauty of the pellet grill aside from cooking & smoking meat into a state of utter deliciousness, is that it is also highly automated and easy to manage a cook. I ran home on my lunch at 11am yesterday so Danielle & I could get the turkey going and then watched it through the cooking stages at work on the accompanying Traeger app on my phone. By the time I got home the house was filling with Teeters and the meal was already almost done cooking.
That left Danielle & I (and everyone for that matter) more time to laugh and to squeeze everything we could out of this moment of togetherness as we unfortunately know all too well how fleeting life can be. And while it was unfortunate that my brother Matthew was fending off a pretty substantial migraine and couldn’t make it, everyone else that could, did. The turkey was a rousing success and so was the rest of the meal. A lot of our gathering over the last few years has been for all the reasons you don’t want to, so it was really nice to have this time be together and thankful for all the right things—most namely family and the identity you have because of it!
Lastly, Danielle & I made a trip today after my bike ride up to the trailer to do the very last things we needed to ensure the trailer was ready for the winter. We got so much done when we were up there last Sunday that there was very little to get done today. Danielle estimated that we’d need an hour tops and almost to the minute she was dead on. All that is left is the plumbing to be winterized which we pay someone to do and will be done in about a week or so. It’s always a little bittersweet when we close it down for the winter, but we’ll hope these next six months fly by and be unseasonably warm with little snow. And, we know the time away will make us appreciate how much we love that spot from spring to fall even more! See you next spring, Snob Hill!
She said
After weeks of exhastihng work to move Testza and the girls back to London they are back in the city and we could not be happier. Things are far from settled as we wait for one more container to arrive from storage the will move the big furniture into then house but they have enough there to function. The hope is by this time next week the last container will arrive and we can help them finally start making this house their home.
We have loved already having them back in the city. If the girls need us at all we are 10 minutes away and we are making all the right connections with them. I have always had a close relationship with all my nieces and love that two of the three are here to be part of our day to day lives.
Yesterday, we continued the feeling of family and being together. When we realized that Thanksgiving was the weekend after the big move John and I volunteered to host here. We (more John) did some reasearch on how we could cook the turkey on the smoker. Thankfully John was able to pop home on his lunch and we were able to get things moving so the turkey had lots of time to cook. It turned out amazing, even Emelia who is not a fan of most meat and usually doesn’t like turkey really loved it. So it was a win/win. The whole night our living room was filled with love and laughter. After all that this family has endured in the last 8 years we cherish each holiday with the family. The countdown is already on for the holidays. Emelia, Amy and Zoe are already plotting to have Amy stay down a bit longer around Christmas so the girls can do some shopping together and Emelia and Amy get go out to the bars together. I love even though there is a pretty big age gap with Emelia and Amy (7 years) they are so close and now both as adults they have transitioned into this incredible friendship.
Today John and I had one last fall task we had to square away and that was closing up the trailer for the season. Last Sunday we went up and did the lion share of the work so this time we had only an hours worth of work to button things up for the winter. The whole process now is so much easier now the we are stationary, we have had 3 seasons at our new site so the process of packing up is actually not bad at all. Last week the big reason we were up there for a few hours last week was due to the shed cover replacement, otherwise packing the trailer for the end of the season really is something John and I can wrap up in a few hours. The countdown is quite on for next year, because we have so many fun things to look forward to before then. We are moving into cheer comp season and seeing Emelia in her element always make the winter that much better.