December 16

I think it's safe to say that we are officially Those People on our street.

We ordered a china cabinet a few weeks ago and were pleased to see that it was supposed to be delivered sometime between 9 and 5 today. I made sure that I was available and listening for a knock at the door except for the 10 minutes I took to get dressed and ready at 9:15. Because I'm just that kind of fortunate, the Wayfair people apparently showed up during that exact 10-minute period and left the two ginormous, 200-pound-plus boxes in the alcove of our entry way, tucked as cozily and you can tuck two enormous boxes between the light-up Mickey and Minnie and snowman. 

So that meant the five of us had to join forces to heave-ho said boxes up to the house (since there's a flight of stairs between the alcove and the front door). So after dinner tonight, that's what we did.

In case you didn't know, 200+ pound awkwardly-shaped boxes are kind of hard to carry up flights of stairs, so we must've been quite the sight (if anyone saw us -- it was dark before the process began). Eventually, we got them into the house, and the unpacking process that followed unleashed a maelstrom of styrofoam. The garbage truck comes tomorrow, so Adam and I sent the kiddos down to the street to deposit the sea of packing remnants in the trash can. When I went to check on them a few minutes later, they were standing directly under the street light, laughing and having a great time as they worked to cram as much into the can as they could. 

The whole scene made me laugh aloud. I didn't have the greatest day. Honestly, I haven't had the greatest month. But seeing them standing there collectively enjoying a completely ridiculous moment that will probably prompt some of our neighbors to think that we're weirdos made the harder moments feel less hard. It was an unexpected moment of joy for me. So for that, I'm thankful.