Christmas has come to an early end in our house this year. As most of you now know, Steve and I are leaving for Australia on January 21st and have pretty much sold everything we own. We have kept our very special and sentimental things and those things are being sent to Nova Scotia on Wednesday (the 3rd). Since that of course includes, all of my treasured Christmas decorations, Steve and I took everything down yesterday and packed it to be shipped. It's very bare in here! It's good that we've had the Christmas stuff up or it would have been quite depressing living in such an empty, bare apartment for so long! Anyway, it was a little sad to pack up my Christmas ornaments, knowing I won't see them again for years, but once I got over that, I started to just get really excited. I packed some of my summer clothes as a trial run, to see just what I can and can't take. Steve and I will each have 2 suitcases of stuff when we leave...that's it!!! I was actually pretty impressed with myself. I have a lot packed already and still have lots of room! Luckily girls' summer clothes are usually quite tiny;) So, as I look around the apartment today, I get very excited about our move and all the adventures ahead. I think of selling all our stuff, as a very exciting fresh start...a great way to de-clutter and buy new stuff that you really like! Plus it's a great reason to HAVE to shop in Brisbane! :)
Jesse has been getting used to his travel crate. He now goes in there when we are out and he always gets fed in there. See that bucket? That's the water bucket that he's been getting used to drinking out of. When he flies, it will be frozen so that he has water for the whole flight and doesn't drink it all at once. It's been pretty easy getting Jesse comfortable with his new crate. It really helped that he was kennel trained as a puppy and has always used a kennel as his safe place. As you can see, the crate is HUGE!! Jes and I can both hang out in there pretty comfortably. The reason we had to get the bigger crate is because apparently Jesse is a long dog and his nose and bum touched the front and back of the smaller size one. The pet relocator was worried that they might not accept him in that size in Honolulu. Obviously, we don't want that, soooo, the bigger size it is. But, MAN, that baby is going to be expensive to ship!!! We're still waiting for our estimate from the pet relocator. Not going to be a cheap thing BUT as we all know, Jesse is worth it!! I just hope that he does okay away from us. He heads to the kennel in Montreal on January 20th and if all goes well, he'll hopefully fly out of Montreal on April 4th. He'll spend a night in a kennel in Vancouver, owned by our pet relocator's colleague, to help break up his flight. From Vancouver he'll fly to Hawaii (his crate will be sealed and he won't be able to get out once he leaves Canada) and then off to Sydney. There he'll spend 30 days in government quarantine and then we'll pick him up and take him to Brisbane. We're hoping to rent a car and drive there. Jes has visited the kennel to get used to it and is actually spending the weekend there again next weekend, to help make his final visit a little easier. I'm sure he'll be fine. I just hope that Steve and I are busy, so that the time goes by fast for us! 
