Holidays are a slight bit different here...

We've been so busy with Fall, the holiday season has completely snuck up on me. I haven't even bought one Christmas present, which for me, is totally out of character. Since this is one of many firsts for me, it only follows that the holidays would just be...different.
With Halloween rapidly approaching, I find myself quite stunned to realize that my kids will actually get to wear their costumes WITHOUT coats! What?!?
While this is exciting news to any kid who's spent the majority of their young life dressing in their favorite costume only to be bundled up and covered over to go anywhere, it's weird! I'm glad, but it's weird!
 When I think about Halloween, I think about Thanksgiving, which makes me think about Christmas...my brain just jumped holidays faster than the seasonal section at Kroger! So, I was looking at my favorite site for holiday cards (I know, I'm a photo-card geek) I was putting together a little "inspiration board" for our first Florida Christmas. This is funny. People put flamingos in Santa hats on their lawns ya'll. Funny.

So, in the spirit of good fun and trying to go with it, this is what my board looked like:
Our First Florida Christmas!

My Designs board by Amber. See more Minted.com

I'm looking forward to this week, because of all the mommy-tax candy I'm going to eat and because it will actually hit 65 degrees! That's the coldest it's been the entire time! I'm so giddy, I might bust out my Snuggie!

Geeeesh, has it been that long?

Well, I am tryin' my darndest to do my thang style-wise and if it's not one thing it's another...a girl's got some balls to juggle, ya know!
So, in my attempt to balance, I am back. We are back. We never actually left.

We've been right here. Plugging away at having a life :)
The BIG news tonight is that we are RE-signing here for another 3 months! This will bring us all the way to the end of January/early February. I'm excited to have a familiar home for another few months! This has been a great starting point for our adventure. It's like training wheels. We have family and a few friends so the transition blow has been softened, though not absent.
The homesick blows have hit hard in the last week for me (Amber). You don't realize how important time/experience/history is with people. I am getting more used to feeling like a stranger and the odd woman out. It's not pleasant, but it's just where we are right now. I'm getting over my stage fright of bothering people and just jumping right in where I can. The social waters are chilly and unfamiliar, but I'm learning to swim all over again.
Home has been a very current theme for us lately. Here's a few of our car ride faves as of late:

Well, that's all for now. Talk soon? We really miss you.