Today I packed. I figured this trip to Florida would be “easy” because everything’s already down there, but it’s getting more complicated all the time.

We purchased ourselves a 26″ TV for our bedroom and our plan is to take it back and forth since we need one both in Michigan and in Florida. The box is huge.

I’m taking along two small Christmas trees and the boxes are enormous!

What’s Christmas without candles and some ornaments that have become a tradition for us, a table decoration that we use every year, and … well, you get the idea. I think I’ve prioritized the stuff that we’re taking. If there’s a problem fitting everything in, I’ll just have to leave some stuff behind.

Yesterday John took on an unscheduled huge job. We have a row of poplar trees on our east lot line that John has planned to chop down this winter or spring. Since they’re about 50-75 feet tall, it would be a challenge with his limited equipment. So when a tree crew came by yesterday and offered to top them (take about the top half off) for a reasonable price, he jumped at it. The problem was that the crew took them down, but the clean up was left to John. We had no idea that it would be such a monsterous job. Our neighbor’s yard was also littered. So John’s been working to clean it up. I was out there for a while today too working. But he’s using a chainsaw and chopping everything into modest sized pieces so there’s not much I can do. There’s no way he’ll ever get it cleaned up before we leave Thursday. He got a burn permit from the township but green wood is slow to burn and sure does produce a smokey fire.

I guess, if we had to delay our departure a day or two it would be ok. There’s really no rush. We could leave as late as Saturday which would get us there Monday so we’d still be able to be ready for Christmas down there.

We’ll see….