Christmas Send Off

Gifts have been delivered, families have been visited, meals have been shared and Christmas decorations have made their way back to storage... Christmas 2011 is over!

We are very fortunate to have this time with all of our family before we officially move to the West Coast. Even though we explained Mitchell's new job, recounted the last 6 weeks and shared our moving plans at least 20 times to all the different relatives, we felt showered with love and well wishes.

Here's what we've been up to:
Dec 22 - drive to Longview and have Christmas with the Martins (Santa brought a tent!)

Dec 23 - drive to Grand Prairie and enjoy Christmas with Mitchell's dad's side of the family plus the Cadmus', our additional family from the Grand Gathering at Disney World in September
Dec 24 - Christmas with the Olivers, Mitchell's mom's side of the family and then drive back to Houston
Dec 25 - Christmas with the Schoelmans and Bensons combined! First thing in the morning, we went and served Christmas lunch to a men's shelter in downtown Houston called Star of Hope.

Even though the plans seem busy and overwhelming we are thankful for our loved ones and all the encouragement they sent our way. Mitchell and I are both so very blessed to have awesome families and to truly enjoy our in-laws. Neither of us can say one bad thing about the families we married into. So if you are one of those family members, thank you for your unending support and love! We know we will miss y'all greatly as we head off to California but we are only a phone call, text message, email, blog update, FaceTime, Twitter post or Facebook status update away! ;)

Merry Christmas from theM. Martins!

Recap in 100 words or less

Here's what has happened in the last 2ish months

We bought our new mode of transportation...

We took 3 days and drove the CR-V from Houston to Sacramento stopping at the Grand Canyon on the way. We both caught a stomach bug on the road and spent several hours vomiting every 20-30 minutes.

We found a house with two orange trees in our yard with edible oranges!

Mitchell came home for Thanksgiving and Chrissy spent a weekend in Sac.

Our apartment is packed on the 27^th, loaded on the 28^th and we leave on December 29^th!

The Adventure Begins...

Mitchell and I are moving to Sacramento, California!

We are both proud Texans (Mitchell more so than me) and love our state and our life in this state but as our friends and family can attest to, we love an adventure. We have always longed for an adventure in another part of the world. We have both always said we'd move in a heartbeat if the right opportunity came up. Well, it finally came up and it was a lot harder to make the decision to go. We both loved our jobs in Houston, we go to a great church, we have awesome friends that we have fun with and our families are close. We just got married and so far married life in Texas has been great so why move?

We almost didn't go. We almost said no but I remember thinking, "This is what I've wanted for so long now! Get out of Houston and experience something else! If we pass up this opportunity, how can I ever claim that again?". We both knew we needed to go. We needed each other to say, "Yes, let's do it!". We needed to feel like the Lord was guiding us in that direction. All of that was affirmed and we accepted the position in California. Mitchell starts his new job on November 7th while I stay in Houston and finish the semester at school. After Christmas, we will both be 100% in Sacramento. :)

Right now, we are still looking for a place to live and some of Mitchell's future coworkers have graciously allowed him to live with them for a few weeks while he looks for a place for us. We are currently planning the move up there like how to get the cars up there, how much to move now and how much to leave for the movers after Christmas, who to hire for our mover, etc. We will be driving my car, the CR-V up there next weekend loaded down with what Mitchell needs until Christmas and then I'll fly back home. Without him. :( But only for a few weeks!

That's the story and that's where we're at! This blog is our way to keep in touch with people while we are out there. We will miss everyone so very much and even though the reality of that hasn't sunk in yet, I know it will be tough when we pull out of Houston for the last time as residents. We are excited about the prospect of visitors so if you want to come, come on! Check on us every once in awhile and if we slack on posting, get on us! Thank you everyone for all your support and prayers. They mean the world to us!