Christmas Travels

Ho Ho Ho!  It’s New Year’s Eve, and I’m finally getting around to posting something.  We drove to Ohio last Wednesday, and just got back late the following Tuesday.  Jen’s sister and family also came into town, so it was a little crowded in their parents’ house, but we survived and had a great time.

Wednesday we sent the kids into daycare and spent the morning packing way too much stuff, as usual.  We planned to just pick them up on our way out of town, but ended up coming back to the house briefly because we forgot something, and Gia spilled milk all over herself and needed a change of clothes.  Someday I’ll learn the lesson to keep a set of clothes accessible…they’re always packed in the suitcase, which is buried under a ton of other crap in the back of the car.

The drive was mostly uneventful.  Gia didn’t nap, but was generally happy watching shows on the iPad.  Valentina slept pretty much the whole way.

Thursday was Christmas Eve, and we spent the day hanging out with family.  Gia refused to nap, which became a consistent theme of the week.  But she fell asleep in church that night, which was a minor miracle.  Both Jen and I insisted before we went in that it’s not something she would do.

Santa came that night and ate all the cookies and drank all the millk, and Clarence (our elf on the shelf) flew back with him to the north pole.  He brought Gia a Kindle Fire Kids Edition, and Valentina some new blankets.  They actually both got new blankets, and Gia loves her zebra blanket more than the tablet.  Go figure.

Christmas Day was a bit of a problem logistically, just trying to get both girls’ schedules aligned to where we could sit and open presents.  Two naps for Valentina makes things tough.  This was also a consistent theme of the week, only made more difficult when the Arizona crew showed up that evening with their wacky two-hours-behind timezone.  But everyone had a great time, and it was a good day.

The next day (Saturday) we had Christmas Round 2 with the AZ crew, and it was a chaos of Christmas spirit.  The kids were opening things as quickly as they could, and it quickly became hard to keep track of what was what.  Wrapping paper was everywhere!  After we got through the bulk of those presents we went over to Jen’s grandma’s house for the big family get-together with all of her aunts/uncles/cousins/etc.  We did a white elephant gift exchange, and I ended up with a Santa ornament and a women’s RFID-blocking wallet.  I guilted Jen into taking a ninja knife block.  I’m too lazy at the moment to go downstairs and take a picture, but here’s a link – http://www.prezzybox.com/ninja-knife-block.aspx

Sunday was busy with more of Jen’s family coming over to visit.  Everyone loved seeing all the kids running around.

Monday was the closest thing we had to a relaxing day.  No visitors, no new food to cook (plenty of leftovers), and nowhere to go.

Tuesday should have also been relaxing, but we ended up spending most of it getting our stuff together and packed in the car.  We gave away all the presents that we brought, but took home just as much in return.  We stayed all day, and left at the kids’ bedtime.  The plan worked, and they both slept the whole way home (almost).  Gia loved the drive out of town and was excited to point out every house with Christmas lights (“I found more lights!”), but fell asleep as soon as we hit the highway and there was nothing to see.  Valentina didn’t even make it that far.

Gia slept the whole way, but Valentina screamed the last 40 minutes.  It should’ve only been the last 30, but the fog that night was so thick I didn’t know where I was on the beltway and completely missed our exit.

Overall it was a good trip, but we’re all happy to be home and back on some semblance of a normal schedule.  Gia wouldn’t nap for us at all this week, but her first day back at daycare she slept for 2.5hr.