Sad to say, your husband's company sounds like the type of employer that chews through employee's marriages... I could be wrong, but some companies have a culture that values home and family, and others don't. Do you know how/where you husband's company is on this scale? Because it will have a big, big impact on your life. Sorry, but I have to agree with Fairegold and Sue about "tagging along" on this trip if it violates the rules (written or unwritten) of the company culture.

Talley: What about the music stand? I know you're just dying to fall over that cheesey metal music stand (in the middle of the night) that's issued to each lucky band student! Actually, the flute is so beautiful. It's really a treat to listen to them practice. My oldest daughter played it for several years, and now my second daughter will begin this summer. My kitchen stackers look like a skyscraper, but I have to say that when it was time to find my Girl Scout cookie money return envelopes, I located them in each girl's stacker (I have four Girl Scouts). What a relief. One more fundraiser that I didn' screw up or turn the money in beyond the deadline. I found a great way to do a family calendar. Actually, my friend Kathy showed me this: use a dry erase board for weekly activities. So I found a nicely framed monthly dry erase calendar at Bed Bath and Beyond ($20 less $5 coupon, so it was $15) that has five weeks. So rather than Monday being a square, it's five squares (all down the calendar). Everyone who can read knows what's happening the whole week, and I have something that communicates what's going instead of my personal monthly calendar. The bottom row (that is the fifth week) is where we put important things for next week so we have a reminder the entire week what's coming up. Talley, this sort of thing would be great for your family b/c each of you could still have a square for each day, plus you could have a "Looking Ahead" row at the bottom. I plan to use my new P-Touch to make labels for the bottom row to help everyone remember to put in future events. This system has been an answered prayer for me. This calendar was one new thing that actually worked!

Just pushing it off the top of the page.

I'm so glad you posted photos. You home is beautiful, may you have many, many years of happiness there. ....and on a practical note..may your Houston home sell quickly, and your settlement be a breeze. The snow in the photos surprised me since I didn't realize it snowed in SC, but then I looked again and noticed that it looks like a wet snow, the kind that doesn't last long. But how nice to have snow on Christmas. Even here in the colder clime of the north (Philadelphia area) we don't have snow on Christmas all that often.