Love thy neighbor

Since moving in, our neighbors on either side of us have been the definition of the types of neighbors you pray you get when you move into a new neighborhood.

For starters, they're normal. No crazy signs outside. No strange sounds or smells emitting from their homes. No singing, dancing or inflatable holiday decorations.

In addition to being normal, they're incredibly friendly and helpful. When we first bought the house, before we even moved in, we were there one weeknight pulling up staples from the carpeting and doing other work on the floors. And one of our new neighbors ran over in the rain to bring us a bottle of champagne along with two little paper cups (we had no dishes at the house yet) to welcome us to the 'hood.

Then, after we moved in, during some storms a few months ago that caused a lot of flooding in our area, another neighbor came by to check on us and set up a portable sump-pump and hose outside to keep standing water out of our backyard.

So, obviously, we totally hit the neighbor jackpot.

A week ago, to show a bit of our appreciation, we stopped by each neighbor's house to say hi and deliver some Christmas cookies on some cute little holiday dishes I found at Target. Then yesterday, one neighbor returned the dish, but topped with the most amazing chocolate-glazed marbled bunt cake ever. This was about an hour after Chris went outside to shovel the sidewalk, only to find one of the same neighbor's kids outside already doing it for us.

Dude. I can't even begin to describe the warm fuzzies I've got going on right now. I mean, the cake? It was seriously the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning. Holy cow.

When we were looking for a house, I had my heart set on another neighborhood — one that's less established, but will probably take off in the next 10 years. But Chris really liked this house and this neighborhood, and even though the commute's a little longer and the back of the house isn't level, I agreed, somewhat reluctantly.

Since then, in the old 'hood I wanted to live in, three people have been shot within a block of a house we came very close to buying.

Um, I think this is the part where I admit I was wrong and the husband was right. So, thank you, honey, for convincing me to buy this house and move to the land of champagne, cake and free snow removal.