SUDDENLY SOUTHERN
27 DECEMBER 2004
Merry Christmas, everyone!
An update on how things are going here in North By God Carolina this Christmas. =)
Regarding the drive down here: First of all, we were BLESSED with good weather. I shudder to think what things would have been like if we'd been making the move just a few days later than we did. I didn't have any trouble driving the Suburban while pulling that 16 ft trailer ( swing wide! ), but it would have been a different story in a snowstorm! John drove the 26 ft rented truck and that went smoothly, too. We spent two nights in hotels (dogs included), and got to Greenville about 4 pm on Saturday after leaving Glencoe about 1:30 on Thursday. I mentioned out loud to the kids that it would have taken us at least 5 days to make the drive instead of 3 if we had hit bad weather. Max said, Mom, you would have been crazy by the time we got here. Hmmm.
I was happy to see friends and a couple of John's co-workers here to help unload when we arrived! A lot can happen in a short time with several men unloading things. It wasn't long before the apartment was chaos. But the beds were all set up and we were reasonably comfortable by bedtime. Since then, I've cleared the living room of boxes at least three times, and somehow, it keeps filling up again. We've rented two storage units for extra stuff, and even as I type there is another pile of things ready to go into storage. I expect to make several trips to the storage units to retrieve things it turns out I can't live without, after all. =)
Sunday night we had two inches of snow, and Monday the wind chill was about 4 degrees. (We DID leave Mn, didn't we??) Naturally, everything closed down for the day. By Tuesday afternoon it was 50 degrees again, and the locals were very relieved!
We had a nice Christmas, all things considered. On Christmas Eve, we attended the ONLY Lutheran church in the entire county. John and Max stopped by there during the afternoon to see what time services were, and the first people they talked to were from New Ulm, MN! Go figure, huh? It turns out there was only ONE service, and it's a very VERY small church with almost no kids. After the service we stayed for a Christmas Cookie Fellowship and talked to a few people from the Midwest , and several older church members. Becky Stine (that's S-T-I-N-E), member since 1952, gave us a complete church history, including how far the platform used to come out from the wall back when the fellowship hall was where they held services and before they got those beautiful 100 yr old pews from a church in Maine that was closing (and which they have since passed along to a new church somewhere on the Outer Banks). Even the pastor described the church as anemic' and while it would be rewarding to help rebuild a nice Lutheran church and it WAS nice to recognize the hymnals, it probably isn't going to fit our needs. We really need a church with young people and youth activities and lots of energy. It's a great place for the kids to meet new friends and stay involved with a good group. So- the search begins! We're going to try a couple of non-denominational churches, maybe a couple of Presbyterian (I think there are TWO), and if those don't work out, then we move to: Baptist- the VASTLY predominant faith here. There are several charismatic and evangelical churches, too- so we have many options! (Put the snakes away.)
After church, we came back home and Katie suggested we open the gifts from the Griffiths family since, if we'd still been back in MN, that's what we'd be doing on Christmas Eve. We did that, enjoyed them all immensely!! We called there, but we'd already missed Paul and his family. (We're still working on this time zone thing!) Speaker phone is a great thing with 6 people who all have something to say!
Christmas morning we opened our family gifts, had a nice breakfast, and then headed to the Mercer's, who are new friends here in the area. Tony is a tobacco and butterbean farmer, and I met him YEARS ago in the Parents chatroom. His family has adopted we poor relocated (and clueless) Yankees. They made us feel VERY welcome and part of the family on Christmas Day, and we'll be forever grateful for their kindness. His kids had gotten a trampoline for Christmas, and it was a little strange to see the kids spend all afternoon OUTDOORS on Christmas Day, bouncing! Ham, black-eyed peas, butterbeans, sweet potatoes, biscuits, salads and about 27 desserts! I brought escalloped corn (apparently a NORTHERN dish, since nobody had heard of such a thing as baking corn, and I even remembered not to call it hotdish), and wine. It was a feast!
Tony's parents live right across the road (the farm has been in the family for 5 generations), and his mother, Ruth, took me over to give me a complete tour of her home. She has about EIGHT TREES of various sizes decorated, and assures me this is only about HALF of her usual decorating efforts! They were in The Keys until a week or so before Christmas, and are heading back again right after January 1, so she didn't have time to do it up right this year! Whew!! It was fun to get all the history of the house, including past hurricane damage and additions and so on. Her kitchen still boasts the ORIGINAL front door from the house 5 generations ago, and one of the small rooms is still all original wood (lots of paint) and has the original nails above the door where the old shotgun used to hang. SO COOL! (And may I just add- people sure used to be a lot shorter.)
Later that day there was a fire going in the fire pit on the deck, and then fireworks (the way cool kind that are legal in South Carolina !). New traditions for us MN people!
We were happy to have such a fun day on Christmas earlier that morning there had been a few tears shed as the reality of this move hit pretty hard for a couple of us. It isn't that we're sad to be here with John (I should make a point to keep reminding him of that!), but it was hard to feel so far away from friends and family that day. Even though we don't necessarily even see all of you on Christmas Day, the distance between us all was extra real for us.
The day after Christmas, we got 4 inches of snow here in Greenville , and 6-8 inches just a few miles west of us. So, we've been sledding already this year!! =) We went out near the home of another friend who has an overpass nearby with a decent hill. This overpass sledding isn't unheard of, but here- it's ALL there is! There were a few odd things about people sledding here: First of all, it was still raining/sleeting/snowing like crazy. Now, even MN people don't go out in THAT stuff. We are sane enough to wait until your face isn't being pelted raw by sleet before we go out to play. Not here. It might melt too fast! Secondly, there are the sleds themselves. Apparently, you wouldn't dream of hanging onto a regular type of sled when it only snows once in a blue moon. Instead, you use what is in the barn. The hood of a car, for instance. Or, a wheelbarrow with no wheels on it. Or, just yank down a road sign if you have nothing better handy.
Seriously, I had to warn the kids to slide down AFTER the lunatics with the chunks of metal for sleds- can you imagine if those would crash into you at the bottom of the hill?? You'd lose your head, kid!!
On the drive back to town, we saw an unbelievable number of cars in the ditch. Seriously, it was just really slush on the highway, even if it was kinda deep. Although, when all you have for plows are road graders, it does take a while to clear it away. The scary part was- most of those vehicles in the ditch were those little pretend SUVs, and inside them were blonde women on cell phones. I kid you not. And- no comment.
So today it's thawing again, naturally- and, of course, things are closed, naturally. 65 by New Year's Day, and this morning the news mentioned the S word for next week. S here meaning- seventies! =) Have I mentioned that the pool here is open year around??? The property manager reminds me it is NOT heated, though. Although we have a few Canadian tenants who don't mind, and will be out there swimming in January. Uhmmm, has she met my kids????
Today the kids and I will finish emptying John's old apartment (mostly the freezer) and clean it up a little, and THEN we'll be all nice and settled into one location. Next week, on Monday or Tuesday, we'll go register the kids for school, and hopefully they can start with all the other kids on Wednesday. It will be VERY good to have a new focus and something to do that doesn't involve boxes.
We hope you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas! One of these days I will locate the Christmas cards and I DO plan to send them out- possibly more of a Happy New Year theme, though- hehehe
Missing you all,
Kim
