THIS is our new home!

"THIS is our new home!" is what Clarissa said the other day as we unpacked our UAB (air freight....limited to 700 lbs, we had 681). She had asked when we were going to go home a number of times the past few weeks when we only had the items we had put in our luggage. The magic of being re-united with her beloved toys (and other household items) made the lightbulb come on that we are in our new home.

So what beloved items made the cut while we wait for our HHE (household effects....they come via boat)....which are set to arrive tomorrow (yes, our UAB and HHE both arrive on Tuesday....because UAB was smaller it cleared customs and was delivered. Our HHE is waiting till Friday because New Years Day was a holiday as is Georgian New Years Day (today) so the embassy was closed. (BTW....UAB should take 2-3 weeks.....ours took 4....it relaxed in Germany for 3 weeks while we pined for it, but I digress). So back to the topic....what beloved items made the UAB cut.....I will make a quick generalized list so in 2 years when I go to pack out for our next post I can remind myself what really made a difference and making our house into our home.

1 - More clothes.....after 4 weeks of wearing the same 7 outfits or so in different combinations we have a little more variety.....Clothes were a last minute we have more space I'm throwing more stuff in....so I also have a few more pairs of shoes....so the brown dress pants that were in my luggage that do not go well with black heels or tennis shoes can now be worn! The kids now have snow pants, boots, and toboggans for when it snowed our 4th day here....oh wait.....

2 - Bedding! Glorious bedding! The pillows that were in our welcome kit are equivalent to a double sized airplane pillow....so not very supportive or comfy....but better than nothing. So we have new pillows we got during the college dorm sales.....so nice! Also, the kids now have twin size beds (a first for both) so they both got a new set of sheets/comforter/mattress pads. Their bedrooms look much less institutional white now! I got a foam mattress topper, mattress pad and sheets for us.....its amazing how much better we all sleep now (and when our king size bed arrives....ahhh, it's going to be heaven).

3 - Computer and such. We have an iMac that we used our original shipping packaging that went in the air freight box....it survived just fine. We also packed our printer and data back up device (we had a small USB drive that had a data copy in our suitcases but this device does regular back up and multiplicity stuff in case a drive fails (what I caught before my eyes glazed over from Richard's computer lingo). We also have some basic office supplies....like staplers and tape for my craft loving but been on withdrawal children to go to town with.

4 - Kitchen supplies.....aaah, grown-up toys (at least for me).....so I tended to pack mostly plastic things since they are lighter weight and better for the kids to use in case they drop something...we would rather not break the welcome kit plates. So a handful of kids plates, cups, our britta pitcher, Mason's lunchbox (1st day of school next week!), some plastic leftover storage containers, then my favorite Pampered Chef cooking gadgets (mandoline, cheese grater, batter bowls, measure-all cup, mini muffin tin, scrapers, tongs, garlic press, whisk, etc), some food items (goldfish and cosmic brownies for the kids, Starbucks coffee for Richard), some spices/baking supplies (we had homemade buttermilk biscuits for breakfast today.....so good!), some oven mitts (I have burnt myself so many times over the years just using those little square hot pads), some dish towels, our cloth napkins, dish drying mat/rack, my favorite recipes cookbook....you get the idea....a little bit of everything that makes things so much nicer till my beloved Kitchenaid mixer gets here!

5 - Toys and other kid things.....the most important probably being the WiiU! (those santa gifts can now be played....like Sing Party....oh Santa why do you torture us so!), larger variety of movies (more kid movies), a princess storage box for said movies, a trunk of dress up clothes, a doll stroller (the most desired object when boxes arrived and it was in the 2nd box I opened....yeah, I'm that good!), play food....decorated wooden cupcakes for all, kiddie table and chairs, legos, books, a few more dolls and stuffed animals, a handful of board games.....

6 - Some toiletries and such....our consumables shipment/some new HHE things we picked up in DC are set to arrive mid/late January.....so some more toothpaste, body wash, deodorant, etc were tucked in there to keep us from being the stinky family until then. I did forget to put in some laundry detergent....I brought some in my suitcase but there was leaking issue.....so while the plastic bag contained the spill, we have run out....luckily our housekeeper was able to direct me towards a decent sensitive skin brand.....while I have had some issues, Clarissa (the other sensitive skin person) seems to be doing fine....they do sell some recognized brands here (Pantene, Johnson & Johnson) the brand name is in English, the other information is in Georgian.....I don't want to buy the dry hair shampoo....I would be slicker than a 50s heartthrob.....not good. Plus cost-wise it is a little more expensive. I had thrown in a package of pull-ups for Clarissa at night time.....with all the moving I hadn't been pushing big girl undies at night, but most nights she is dry (the first night she slept through 3 am while getting over jet-lag she wasn't).....so now that her waterproof mattress pad is here....big girl panty time....she's doing great....now, what to do with 1.5 packages of pull-ups.....run them down and return them to Target....oh wait.....

I think that is it.....we will be reunited with things we packed up in July in the morning.....then the work of getting all that put away......I think besides the bed, I'm most excited for our kitchen island. We've decided to put the transformer on the bottom portion, then when we need to use a non 220 appliance, we can just roll the island to an outlet, plug in the transformer and then we have a workspace on top of the island to use.....we shall see if that works out okay.

Odds and Ends...

• We are closing in on our fourth week here in Tbilisi. I'm slowly getting settled in at the job, and I think Deb and the kids are getting settled in at the house. I feel bad for them, I go somewhere each day, while they are stuck at home. Plus, up here in Z-town it is somewhat far away from anyplace. So to get to the store, we have to hitch a ride or take a cab (taking a cab isn't that expensive, it is like 5 Lari or so to get to the local Goodwill - a German supermarket) until our car gets here.
• Some of our neighbors let us borrow one of their cars this weekend while they are out of town. Deb went to Goodwill yesterday, and today all four of us went to Carrefour at the Tbilisi Mall. I drove, and we survived. Granted it isn't a far drive, but you do have to be aggressive and defensive at the same time while driving here.
• Carrefour was CRAZY today. We ran in to a few coworkers and the common consensus was it was the craziest people had ever seen. This week you have New Years, Georgian New Years and Georgian Christmas so I'm sure most of the crowds were there doing their last minute shopping. Mason got a little overwhelmed by the crowds (and lack of personal space). The big plus about shopping today was we got our Diplomatic ID's on Friday. By having those, we no longer have to pay VAT on purchases (which is something like 14%). It does save us some money and makes shopping a little cheaper.
• After our shopping, we walked around the Tbilisi mall and had lunch at a Burger King there. One thing Deb and I noticed about the mall was it seemed a lot of people smoked inside of it (in fact, Deb went to the restroom and two women were in there smoking. They quickly went in to stalls - I guess smoking was not permitted in the restroom - Deb said there were quite a few no smoking signs in there). I've found that smoking is a lot more prevalent here than in the US.
• Burger King wasn't bad, though I thought the burger was a bit dry. However it was nice to eat a piece of "America". And I was reminded that Europeans typically don't have ice in their drinks, but the soda was cold so it was fine.
• One thing that has been wearing on us is our UAB shipment. UAB is Unaccompanied Air Baggage. We were allotted about 700lbs of UAB, and we have items such as good pillows, good sheets, our iMac, Drobo etc. Well it has been sitting in Cologne Germany for close to 3 weeks now and no movement. Our UAB was suppose to have been here last Friday, then on Sunday then no one knew. I finally reached out to transportation in DC to find out what was going on, and quickly heard back. They were annoyed that the shipment hadn't arrived yet (they were told it was suppose to arrive on the 20th and had not been notified it had been delayed). The transportation company replied that due to heavy volumes it had been bumped was suppose to arrive yesterday, the 28th. 10 years working with a shipping line has had it's advantages, as I've found the shippers tracking website and have been monitoring the shipment. It is still showing in Cologne. I'm hoping that the site hasn't been updated and it has actually arrived in Tbilisi, but I think it hasn't. I'm going to have to send another email tomorrow inquiring on the status, and if it's not here yet I'm not sure what I'm going to do. We have ocean freight that has already arrived in country and I'm partially expecting it to be delivered here this week. That's pretty sad that ocean freight may beat air freight.

Santa Claus and Tovlis Papa

Merry Christmas!

Tovlis Papa (or თოვლის პაპა in Georgian) is Snow Grandfather, a Christian gift-bringing figure in the Caucascus area of Europe (well according to wikipedia.....) and you know who Santa and we are......

Christmas has come and gone in our household....but the country of Georgia celebrates the orthodox Christmas on Jan 7.....so it's the holiday season that doesn't end......well at least not until next year. It was quite surreal to run to the grocery store on Christmas day and everything was open and like any other day....

I will try and resist de-Christmasfying the house until at least the Georgian Christmas (that should allow some late straggling gifts that have been sent to arrive and be opened around the tree as well), but it will be tough given I've taken the tree down on the 25th before...lol. Now if only some our belongings (such as the UAB shipped 3 1/2 weeks ago....meant to take 2-3 weeks) will arrive and it will feel just like Christmas being reunited with our belongings.....the joys of this new adventure.