First Aurora Borealis sighting

We found an awesome home to rent.  We were fortunate because the family who lived here prior to us had to move away abruptly (military family being relocated) and moved out of the house on Christmas almost two weeks ago.  The landlords were thinking they would have a difficult time finding renters for their house in the middle of winter.  But we came along, needing a place to move into without delay, and they having a house needing to be occupied as soon as possible.  Everything definitely worked out for the best.

We were able to 'move' into the house yesterday.  I say 'move' because the shipping container with all of our belongings hasn't arrived yet.  But we have our sleeping pads and sleeping bags and all the essentials we brought up with us in our truck.  We snuggled in to spend our first night on the living room floor of our new place, in our new town, in our new state.  Well I woke up around 4AM feeling hungry so I got up to sneak around the kitchen.  I grabbed something to nibble then walked over to the sliding glass doors and I see it: a green glowing ribbon in the night sky.  I immediately gasp and drop down to sit on my knees.  I've always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis but had no idea what it would look like; I had heard it appears much more vibrant in photos than in real life so I had no idea what I'd be looking for.  Well, early this morning, we had a solar storm strong enough to produce that bright green ribbon, making sure I had no reason to doubt what I was seeing.

After watching it a few seconds, I woke Mat up and we both sat up against the sliding glass door looking up at this amazing new thing we've always wanted to witness.  I would later come to realize that a bright green ribbon that far up from the horizon is fairly rare, most typical auroras sit lower on the northern horizon and are blocked by the massive mountains behind our house.  It was an amazing and most memorable first night in our new home.

First (very blurry) photo of Aurora Borealis