from the Atlanta airport

The past two weeks have flown by in a blaze of holiday magic.  Two weeks ago, I packed up my bedroom in Queens.  Another person will stay in my room while I am gone.  I left the furniture, but cleared out the closet and drawers for her.  I laughed at myself when I thought that I could put all of my clothes in laundry bags and keep them in my car while I am gone.  I underestimated the amount of clothes and shoes I have and overestimated the size of my car.  Fortunately, there is a large storage space above my closet.  Like, really large.  In New York City.  I love Queens.

So here's everything that didn't stay in my apartment, including:  stuff for Botswana, stuff for the following two weeks of winter in New York and stuff that wouldn't fit in the storage space.

And here it is in my tiny car.  Yeah, because all my other clothes would have fit in here, too.  It is kinda like that time that my brother and I were going to move two blocks away and I thought we could do it using this car, Pete's Honda Fit and no U-Haul.  Thanks for talking us down Dad.

Since Pete had to work on Christmas, we did our Belin Family Christmas on December 27.  So, instead of a traditional December 25th celebration, Janet and I had a quick road trip to Toronto via Niagara Falls.

And then spent the rest of the time with my family and tons of food!

So, here is the final stack of luggage, which was officially ready to go as of 4:30pm yesterday afternoon.

And this morning, I was off to the airport after a lovely breakfast with Pete at the Roots Cafe in Brooklyn.  They had good coffee and delicious breakfast wraps.  But what made it perfect was the artwork.  My dear friend Courtney loves sloths and has just returned from a trip to Costa Rica, since which she has been posting daily sloth videos.  And I'm the luckiest friend in the world because she actually bought a plane ticket to visit me in Botswana _two_months_ before I had my ticket.  So these pictures are for her and I knew the trip was off to a great start.  

Boarding in for Johannesburg in 20 minutes!