It’s been awhile since I felt like blogging. When I last checked in we had just experienced the loss of our 15 year old cat Boots. We managed to get through the holidays but his absence was keenly felt. He was such a part of our daily routine Ken and I both found ourselves throughout the day thinking we needed to feed him. We also had moments of apparition were we could have sworn we saw him out the corner of our eyes! We had a nice Christmas despite missing our fur baby! I got cookbooks from some of my favorite cooking shows! I love watching Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street on Sundays. https://www.177milkstreet.com/ I also love watching Cooks Country which features chefs from America’s Test Kitchen. https://www.americastestkitchen.com/ I got their cookbook as well! So far I’ve made one recipe from Cook’s Country – 40 garlic glove pork roast. It was divine! After Christmas, we spend New Year’s weekend in the Georgia Blue Ridge mountains in the town of Elijay. This has become somewhat of an annual tradition for us. The peace and tranquility can’t be beat and it’s only an 90 minute drive from Atlanta. Here is the cabin we stayed in. https://www.vrbo.com/2770206?noDates=true&unitId=3342128 It was definitely a nice place and we’d stay there again. After my Mother in-law returned home post-holiday, Ken and I realized it was the first time since we purchased this house in March of 2014 that it was just the two of us. It was a strange feeling. Perhaps the biggest development that’s taken place over the past several months is our decision not to move to Puerto Vallarta. OMG! I know! The decision was difficult, but we opted to sell our current Atlanta home in the Spring with the aim of identifying a lot in the Savannah/Tybee Island Georgia area and building a home there. This plan meets with the approval of my Mother in-law Mildred! So I guess I’m going to have to rename my blog since we won’t be ex-pats! As fate would have it, my Brother just closed on a second home in Dublin Georgia which is about 2 hours away from Atlanta, and 1 and a half hours away from Savannah. We plan to rent from him while we make plans to build. The nice thing about this arrangement is that my Brother had no immediate plans to do anything with the home, Ken works from home, and Dublin is 40 minutes away from Macon, GA where my employer (Geico) is. So going to the office won’t be as arduous as it is now with Macon being an hour and a half drive from Atlanta. The new construction contemporary house across the street from us is a comp and just sold for $920,000 ($30K below asking) after listing right around the beginning of November with about 90 days on the market so we’re optimistic that listing in April with a good list price will give us a relatively quick sale. We’ve also identified a primier realtor that specializes in our neighborhood https://chrissiekallio.atlantafinehomes.com/eng We’re not looking forward to the prospect of moving after being in one place for so long, but we’re excited about embarking on the next chapter of our lives. To that end, I also listed my Balimore, Maryland rental property https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1361-Sherwood-Ave-Baltimore-MD-21239/36618540_zpid/?view=public and within days of listing had 3 good offers so hopefully that chapter is closing soon as well. I missed sharing with you all and promise to try to check in regularly with the details of the upcoming changes! Happy 2023!