Christmas with the Family

After the hellacious moving experience that Lindsey described in our last blog post, we took a tour of Roanoke and Richmond, VA to visit our respective families. 

First stop:  Roanoke.  After enduring the thrilling (that’s sarcasm, by the way) drive down 66 and I-81 we made it to Roanoke around 3:00 AM on December 18^th.  Naturally the whole family was still up and about, ready to greet us as soon as we walked through the door.  Unlike we had initially planned, we didn’t go to sleep the moment we arrived, instead we decided to brave another hour or so of the early morning hours to recount the hectic week and moving day Lindsey and I had just conquered.  Eventually we made it to bed with the promise that we could sleep in until dinnertime the following day.

If you’ve never been to the Key household in Roanoke during the Christmas holidays then you’re missing out.  My mother, Nora, always goes all-out with the Christmas decorations and holiday cooking for the whole family.  I’m pretty sure that she still makes the same amount of food for the four of us (now five including Lindsey!) as she does with the whole extended family in town.  I’m still not sure whether or not the time with family seemed to fly by because I was having such a good time the whole week, or if it was just because I was on a perpetual sugar high from all the cookies, pies and assorted holiday treats!  I’m pretty sure it was a little bit of both.

It wouldn’t be a vacation at home with the family if Jordan (my younger brother for those who may not know) and I didn’t spend at least half of our time, and all of our evenings after 1 AM, playing video games or watching old movies.  True to form, I bought him a copy of the new Elder Scrolls Xbox game for Christmas, which I gave to him four days early, so we could spend some quality “bro-hours” down in the basement trying to save the world (again) from dragons, tyrants, warlords and other assorted mythical creatures.  Ah, Christmas.

To cap off the great week at home, we were able to spend the first few days in Roanoke enjoying the company of my longest-standing friend, Lianne, and her new husband Devin who just moved up to Roanoke from Florida/North Carolina.  Lianne and I have known each other since we were both in diapers and our mothers would walk us to each other’s houses down in West Palm Beach.  Now we’re both married, moving, and all grown up!  I’m sure our parents have exchanged more than a few “it seems like it was only yesterday…” moments in the past few months.

Needless to say the time with family was much needed and greatly appreciated.   Words could never express how much they all mean to me, or how much I’ll miss them while we’re over in Zurich, but just like the Christmas holidays, family will always be there, whether in person or over the phone, to share memories, laughter, tears, and special moments.  Some things never change…

Second Stop:  Richmond.  After leaving Roanoke early December 25^th, Lindsey and I made the trek to Richmond, VA to visit with her family before our eventual trip back up to DC for our flight. 

Over the course of several generations the Arpaia clan (Arpaia is Lindsey’s family name on her mother’s side) has managed to live and work all in the greater Richmond area.  This would include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, bothers and sisters all living in greater Richmond.  That being the case, every holiday is a large family gathering.  In fact, my experience has shown me that it doesn’t even take a holiday to bring their family together – big family meals and outings are just how they like it!

This past week while we were in Richmond, Lindsey’s family showed, yet again, their propensity for a good family gathering.  It is their tradition to host a meal for the extended family on Christmas Day, so it came as no surprise that there were plans already established for the night of our arrival.  We had an inkling that the family was planning something to celebrate our wedding the previous month, as well as our imminent departure to the land of chocolate and fine watches; but when we arrived at Lindsey’s Aunt Denise’s home for dinner we were greeted by a crowd of about 30 friends and family there to celebrate a belated wedding “reception” – cake and all.  What a surprise!  It was all very heartwarming that they had gone through the trouble to plan such a gathering, and what made it even more special was the fact that we were able to spend time with the whole family all at once.

After the reception Lindsey and I retired to April and James’ new apartment (Lindsey’s cousin and her new husband) to watch movies with the gaggle of cousins – ages 11 to 27.  As the night wound down there were some tearful goodbyes mixed in with plenty of well wishes as we departed back to Lindsey’s parent’s house. 

The remainder of the time in Richmond was spent seeing friends and preparing for our last days in the United States (at least for the time being!).  As with our time in Roanoke, there was never any shortage of good food and good cheer.  Lindsey and I left for Dulles International Airport before dawn on the 28^th knowing that the love and support of our families went with us on our journey overseas.

The Move!

I can sum up the move into one word. STRESSFUL! Justin had several weeks off work before the move and basically became subject to every request that I came up with. We had a to-do list three pages long and I'm pretty sure at one point we had a list of our different to-do lists. With me still working until the last minute I relied on Justin for many of our errands. Despite him working so hard and showing me how wonderful of a husband he is, the week before the move was still the most stressful week of my life. Monday, December 12th through the16th I frantically made preparations for my replacement at the school. I was doing lesson plans, making copies, completing forms, showing my replacement how to work various computer systems, packing up my classroom materials, going to meetings, submitting grades, saying goodbye to everyone, and of course teaching five courses. On top of all of that, I was still working my part-time position and taking care of a young lady with disabilities from 3pm to 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I would spend every minute of my free time at home cramming items into bags, cleaning, purging items we didn't need, running to Goodwill, cancelling bank accounts, trying to sell my car, changing my address, putting final touches on wedding packages, and maybe, if I got REALLY lucky, sleeping a wink. It was a mess. I honestly have no idea if there is any rhyme or reason to anything we packed. Literally, I think there is a box with tools, pillows, toilet paper, and a painting. If you know me at all, that is not how I like to do things. My "OCDness" was going a little haywire.

On Friday, December 16th, while I was at work, movers came to the apartment to pack up all of the things we wanted to pack up to ship to Zurich. The night before, I had run around with post-its labelling everything, "Yes" to take or "No" to not take. I quizzed Justin several times. Thank goodness he puts up with me. They were in and out pretty quick and the rest that remained we just had to take to storage. The word "just" really irritates me in that last sentence because we thought we would "just" take everything to storage, but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

We spent that evening and the next morning packing and picking up the U-haul. Now, let me preface this story with the fact that we had rented a 10 x 10 storage unit in Maryland and had already filled up half of it with Justin's things. So, this 20-foot U-haul was only for my things. Why do two adults under 30 and without children need so much stuff?!!?!?! I still haven't figured that one out. Anyways, Christian came over and helped us load up the truck on Saturday morning. We loaded it up and I finished cleaning the apartment so it was inspection ready. We dropped the apartment keys off with the landlord and said goodbye to Northern Virginia. I followed Justin to Maryland in my car so we could make it a one way trip. We arrived at the storage shed at approximately 6pm. The security gate to let us in the storage unit would close at 9pm and lock us in if we didn't finish by then. We didn't think that would be a problem…, but apparently 3 hours wasn't enough time to load everything into the unit. Want to know why? Because Justin "the Master of Packing" Key and I loaded the storage unit, unloaded the unit, reorganized, stacked, crammed, shoved, and filled our unit to maximum capacity. Literally, there was a point when Justin was looking at a wall of bins from floor to ceiling and he spotted a small spot in the far right top corner. He told me to hand him a box and he preceded to basketball-style shoot the box into the corner from at least 8 feet away. It stuck. Miracle. In the end, when we couldn't fit his old futon, we ended up therapeutically mutilating it into bits and scattering the pieces in the unit. The door barely shut.

Our time to be out had come and gone and we found ourselves there past 9pm. As time progressed, more and more lights in the storage building were turning off and Justin and I were working from one light bulb in the hallway. It was delightful. Somehow he and I managed to have fun with it all and make it a challenge to ourselves to get everything in there. When we were done, around 10:30, our unit was filled from front to back and top to bottom. It was impressive. We have decided we will be hiring movers to get everything out of there. There is no way we will be doing it ourselves.

Now, you might be asking yourselves, how did they get out of the gate? We were SOOOOO worried, but God was on our side and miraculously the gate opened when I pulled up to it. Justin, in the Uhaul, honked like crazy with excitement behind me and I returned an equally exciting honk from my car. What a relief!! By the time we returned the Uhaul that evening we parked it in the middle of the parking lot threw the keys through the lock return slot and sped off to Roanoke. That was a long week.

Wedding/Christmas Letter to Friends and Family

Dear friends and family,

As you may know, we have gone from dating, to engaged, to married in about a month and a half.  This has proved exciting for us and confusing for many others.  Although we could not be happier to announce our marriage to everyone, we know that many of our loved ones were unable to share and experience our special day. This package is a poor substitute to experiencing the ceremony itself, but hopefully this letter will capture our love and commitment in the same special way. 

Some of you are probably aware that we met in college.  Justin went to Hampden- Sydney College and Lindsey went to Longwood University down the road in the exciting Farmville, Virginia.  It is hard to say exactly what brought us together, but we are pretty sure we owe Vanilla Ice for setting us up.  How many people can say this?  A mutual friend introduced us shortly after they met at a particularly terrible Vanilla Ice concert.  Evidently the $1 ticket wasn't too much to pay to start the path to meeting your future spouse?  Neither of us were single at the time and only spent time with each other when Lindsey's sorority events brought Justin around. This was nearly 7 years ago and unbeknownst to us, the start of a new chapter in our lives.  

We both remember different moments throughout the early days of our friendship.  Justin's favorite memory is when he was hanging out in the chapter room of Lindsey's sorority.  He was talking to some of the sisters when he first laid eyes on this freckled, Irish maiden.  She ran into the room and playfully tackled a sorority sister.  As the two of them were wrestling, Lindsey had a small wardrobe malfunction, squealed, blushed, and ran out of the room in shame.  She didn’t return that evening.  Justin just shook his head and thought, "That was weird, but cute!" 

Lindsey's favorite memory was when she was having a formal sorority event and had brought her current boyfriend to the dance.  She knew then that they would be breaking up soon, but she hadn't decided her plan of action just yet.  She was embarrassed to find her boyfriend standing in the chapter room before our formal pictures asking people to help him with his tie.  Justin, looking sharp as always, walked over to him and tied a perfectly shaped Windsor knot with one try and in record time (there is photo evidence of this).  Lindsey knew then that he was something special.  She found out later that this Knight in Shining Armor was now single and she tucked this information in her pocket for a later date.

Eventually our paths crossed at the right moment and we have spent 6 wonderful years together.  The first several years of dating was spent in college and hanging out with Lindsey’s sorority and Justin’s rugby team.  Let’s just say, it was a good time.  When Justin received his job with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Northern Virginia our relationship was tested.  Somehow we pulled through and Lindsey found a teaching job in the same area a year later. Throughout our years of dating we have experienced many things as individuals and as a couple, but we have always been there for one another to share in the excitement, humor, and sadness.  We strongly believe our best quality as a couple is our ability to laugh and joke about anything and everything. There is no denying that we sometimes get carried away and lost in our own little world of sarcasm and witty banter, but this is why we are still wildly in love and the best of friends.

Let’s fast forward to the current year.  Justin had been planning an elaborate vacation to Europe over the New Year’s holidays as an exciting way for us to spend our annual vacation with one another, but little did Lindsey know that he was secretly planning to propose on New Year’s Eve!  However, God had other plans…

Two months ago, Justin pursued and received a very prestigious position with PwC’s growing Financial Services Consulting practice based in Zurich, Switzerland.  We were ecstatic when we heard the news of this new position and Justin accepted it with little to no hesitation.  Afterall, opportunities like this don’t come along often.  Starting in January, he will be a Senior Consultant in their Strategy, Operations and Business Technology group and will spend the next two to three years helping the firm grow their consulting relationships with large international banking institutions such as UBS and Credit Suisse. 

This obviously put a small kink in Justin’s proposal plans since the vacation to Europe was suddenly being replaced by a move to Europe! On one of the many nights that Justin was stuck on a plane flying back home from working with a client elsewhere in the country, Justin pondered how he would propose to Lindsey now that his vacation plans had to be cancelled.  He knew he couldn’t leave for Zurich without Lindsey, so he decided he didn’t want to wait a minute longer. 

Lindsey typically picks him up from the airport on Thursday nights, but instead he called her and said he was going to take a cab instead.  He had the cab swing by his home to grab the engagement ring that had been hiding in his safe for nearly six months.  He rushed to Lindsey’s apartment and found her cooking hotdogs, lounging about in a Duke Basketball T-shirt, and talking his ear off.  The nerves were setting in when he finally got down on one knee in the hallway of her apartment and proposed.  Lindsey of course cried, said yes, and fell to the floor to give him a bear hug. It is hard to remember a more surprising and exciting moment.

We talked for hours about all the options for marriage and moving.  We thought we had devised a plan that would give us the best of both worlds and decided to have two separate ceremonies.  The first would be an informal ceremony with the Justice of the Peace where we would invite immediate family and keep things light and simple.  The second would be exactly a year from that date where we would have a larger celebration to include our extended family and friends (i.e. everyone receiving this letter). 

Part one of the plan was completed on Thursday, November 10^th, 2011. We were married in Arlington, Virginia in front of a civil celebrant and our parents.  This intimate wedding ceremony was held in a run down, dank hallway of a lawyer’s office building, with poor lighting and no seating.  We thought it was perfect.  Sometimes situations like this in life allow one to focus more on what really matters; the love that we have for each other.  This ceremony, in all of its awkwardness, had a priceless sense of charm and we left there feeling overjoyed and complete.  This led us to our decision not have a second ceremony. We do wish that more had been able to share our special moment with us, but we hope that everyone understands and continues to support us and our lives together.

The next plan of action is to spend the Christmas holidays with family in Roanoke and Richmond, Virginia and then leave for Zurich, Switzerland before the New Year.  We hope to keep regular contact with everyone and have provided our contact information at the end of this letter.  Please know that we love you all and are thankful to have people in our lives who care for and love us the same way.  Let us know if you ever need a place to stay in Switzerland!

Love and happiness,

Justin and Lindsey

How to stay in touch:

Our Blog:

http://theswisskeys.blogspot.com/

Our Facebook Accounts:

https://www.facebook.com/justinkey

https://www.facebook.com/lindseykey

Our Email Addresses:

JustinDillonKey@gmail.com

LindseyNicoleKey@gmail.com

Our Skype User Names:

JustinDKey

LindseyNKey