New Year New Adventures

As tradition, we celebrated New Year's with a little celebration at home toasting our sparkling beverages in "fancy" glasses, wearing our hats, blowing our horns, and watching the fireworks shows from around the world.  We "ring in the New Year" at midnight Rio de Janeiro time (9:00 p.m. EST) before the boys pass out for the night.  No one stayed up until midnight this year although Mommy and Daddy and baby Grayson were up later that night.  I love our little family tradition and don't miss the big city celebrations at all.  I am pretty claustrophobic so the big crowds make me very anxious.  We look forward to lots of new adventures in 2017!

Happy New Year from the boys!

Grayson was our New Year's baby this year.  

Mommy got in on the fun too, but Mattox wasn't all smiles. 

Brody was the life of the party as usual.  I love his silly faces.  He doesn't usually even know he is being funny.  Haha! 

Mattox got happy playing with some streamers. 

Waiting for the fireworks to start in Copa Cabana.  I bought our hats and blowers in a little $5 set that included these little poppers.  It was hilariously labeled as TNT which was a joke.  A very minuscule amount of confetti popped out.  Ha! 

Toasting our sparkling beverages.  Daddy never participates and just takes our pictures. 

Here's to a fantastic 2017!

And the boys also toasted one another. 

Our new adventures will start in....Savannah, Georgia!  Yep, we have some pretty big news to share.  We will soon call Georgia home.  We recently went down to explore and find a new home.  Eddie received his initial job offer from the U.S. Department of Defense in early December.  He gave his current employer the opportunity to match his offer so he could stay here and continue his wonderful work educating and promoting the forest industry in our state, but they just couldn't match the federal government's salary, health insurance, and retirement benefits.  He has been very disappointed in how little his efforts have been appreciated by his employer as he has saved them over $60,000 and brought them thousands of dollars in grant money which they had never received before for their programs.  He put on the most successful teachers education academies ever while saving them thousands of dollars by doing almost all of the work by himself.  He taught more new teachers about the benefits of sustainable forestry than had ever been reached before by the association.  He has applied for many positions with the federal government in the past but never got interviews because they always hire someone they "know."  This opportunity is with the Marine Corps managing a large tract of land they use as a bomb range on the east coast of Georgia south of Savannah.  He is very excited about the opportunity for his career and our family.  The Savannah area is just so beautiful with beautiful old Live Oak trees draped in Spanish moss everywhere.  

We found a beautiful new home in a beautiful neighborhood with lots of amenities in the smaller town of Richmond Hill.  It is a perfect southern home complete with a moss draped Live Oak tree in the front yard.  The school that the boys will attend is also one of the best in the whole area. 

Here's to lots of new adventures (and packing) in the coming year!