It’s like Christmas Eve

It’s the night before we leave; now only a handful of hours until we reverse out the driveway – after at least 2 years of planning, we’ll be on the road for 3 months!

The last few days have been a combination of anxiety and excitement. There’s just been so many little things to get done – obviously starting to get the packing underway and organised, but also getting the house ready for someone else coming and living in it for 3 months. But through all that, there’s definitely been the excitement and anticipation building.

Today became a day filled with time with friends. Completely unplanned, but so perfect. A close friend asked if a picnic lunch at the park would be helpful or unhelpful for our day. and after a bit of hesitation, we realised it would be perfect. We had most of the “logical” planning done – that is, we had most things laid out and ready to pack into suitcases, the roof pod, etc. So a lunch in Wahroonga Park in the beautiful autumn sun, where the kids played with their friends for a couple of hours, and we spent some great quality time chatting with a few friends, was absolutely perfect.

Late this afternoon and into the evening, the kids disappeared down the end of the road to a friends’ place – it’s something we feel so grateful for in our street, that the kids feel comfortable in each others’ house (and the parents embrace that too!). So as we dropped into a few of our neighbours to say goodbye, we ended up down at the end of the street to bring the kids back home… and that became another hour or two of wonderful chats with friends over a couple of drinks.

In between that, we did get pretty much everything packed and into the car. And just those few hours in the middle was all that was needed. So I’m feeling really thankful for a day with friends – I think it was just what we didn’t realise we needed on our last day in Sydney.

This evening, things are feeling really relaxed. The kids went to bed with Christmas-Eve-like excitement, but went to sleep pretty quickly; and now we’re just cleaning up the last few things with some music on, putting away a couple of things that are just better out of the way for the house-sitters, and lining up the last couple of things at the door to load into the car in the morning.

And then in 10 hours, the adventure begins… 🚙