Moving to Belgium

big day!

Brussels here we come! I am so happy to be leaving...because it means I can stop getting ready to leave! All the craziness of Christmas shopping, packing,organizing and goodbye-ing is behind me! Relief! Ed Bedner and Jake are driving us to the airport at 10:30am. I actually spend several hours stuffing last minute items into tiny spaces that open up mysteriously overnight at the edges of your suitcases; what started out as one suitcase per person has now turned into a chaotic jumble of a bathing suit top inside a running shoe wrapped in yet another persons jeans...you get the idea! I told the gang that when we arrive everything can go in huge master bedroom and I will unpack it all and make piles for distribution.

God was so good to us this morning; the weather is clear and perfect, the ride to the airport is traffic free, we wait only 3 minutes for a curbside check in person, and get Jackie, a really nice friendly lady. She checks all 10 bags WITHOUT weighing them, or charging us for the extra 5! And she was able to issue us boarding passes, which doesn't always happen with an international flight, so we don't have to wait online inside at the counter. I even convinced her to get in a photo! Jer gives her a great tip! Security has the long roped corridor set up, but NO ONE is in it. We even have a moment where we wonder if it is closed, but up we zigzag walk. We go right through an NO ONE is at the bag/people scanner either. Perfect for molly who gets very flustered by the whole remove your shoes, get everything up on the belt routine when folks are huffing and glaring behind you. So with our 5 carry on bags, our 5 backpacks,all our electronic devices,belts,shoes and contents of pockets we pass through the body scanner. Only one pop on a suitcase, Danny's pencil case for school, which I shoved in a carry-on, had a pair of scissors in it. So it got pulled, but the guy even gave them back to us after examining them. So no problem. Then we went on to the World Club, which can sometimes be very hectic, and it to was very sparsely populated and relaxed. The kids all got soup,snacks,coffees and sodas to enjoy in huh one cool window seats that look down into the main corridor of the airport and you can with call the common folk passing by! AWESOME!

We were able to relax there for about 45 minutes because everything else had gone so smoothly. So thank you GOD!

Our flight to Atlanta was up and down no problem, and due to a full flight, were able to gate check our carry-ons for free! Yippee! We checked out Hartsfield's world club and then got on our Brussels flight. We had good seats; Jer and Charlotte, Me and Molly, and Danny in front of me. His seat mate was a slim young man who was friendly but not chatty, the perfect guy to share a seat with on a long flight with. We were a bit late pushing back as we loaded extra fuel and landing sequences due to snowstorms across the Netherlands, the pilot told us we may have to land somewhere else....but in our great and continued good fortune, we were able to land in Brussels on time(8:25am Brussels time) and without incident! Amsterdam, where we usually fly through, was snowed in and delayed. Bingo! Customs-"bonjour and on your way,enjoy your stay, aurevoiur" , rental car-about 15 minutes, but a large enough trunk for most of our luggage and Molly. Cab for Danny, Charlotte and I to the house, ready and waiting, key to the house, right where Steve said he'd hide it, alarm code correct and deactivated, and We're In! 

We are excited to see if the kids like the house, and they do! We let Danny pick his room first, and he doesn't choose the loft room bed as we imagined, but the one with the full size bed....perhaps due to the fact that he is growing a half an inch per night?! Charlotte has a large room with a view of the garden and Molly's room is at the front, smaller and cozy. Every room has it's own sink, so we will all have the cleanest teeth imaginable. No halitosis here! We literally pile right back in the car and set the navi for IKEA--meatballs here we come! Ahhhh, fabulous coffee, predictably good and familiar food and a nice large table by the window to watch the snow fly, just what we needed. I've got my list and we eventually tackle the store. Most everyone is off here between Christmas and the New Year, and this is apparently a big time for home projects unless you can afford to go to San Moritz, so the place is quite crowded. No matter, we power through, with the girls staggering along zombie-like after being up all night. But we are mean parents, and we will make everyone stay awake til at least 7pm so they can start adjusting to the new time zone. After check out( yes they do have those euro yogurt cones here too!) we realize that in order to get the largest box in the car(kitchen table and four chairs) we need to put the back seat down. Charlotte,Danny and I crouch down on the edge of the folded back seat with our necks bent for the ride home- not ideal, but we got our load home! Unpack IKEA and then head to the food store-thinking of how nice it was in Holland when Jerry's coworker Machiel met us at the Pijnacker house with two starter bags of groceries. We hit Aldi and Carrefour and load up on milk,bread,beer,pindas,cereal,cookies and cheese! Because half the country is Dutch and half French, the products all have two languages on them, none English, but I recognize a lot of Dutch and we happily get some of our old favourite things.last stop, Mediamarkt, for a coffee maker! You know what? Let's get two! One Senseo, which is my fav. from Pijnacker, and one regular coffee pot. Now I can relax!

Home and unload the groceries and then figure out where pj's are,hook up the computer to the TV(The Muppet Movie!), heat soup in the micro( can't get stove to work) and relax. We make it to about 8pm before we all crash into our beds. So that's our travel and arrival day--We're Here!!