Christmas Craziness

This year we decided to travel up to visit my parents for the Christmas holiday. They all have come down to see us multiple times since Lincoln was born so we felt like we kind of owed them. But that's a 5 1/2 hour car trip on a good day, so needless to say I was dreading it with a 2 year old and a 5 1/2 month old who generally hates the car. Hates the car? I thought babies were supposed to love the car?! Yeah, no. Not Lincoln. But, all in all the travel went pretty well. We managed to only stop twice on the way up, largely due to the portable DVD player we got to entertain Pippa. And entertained she was! And Lincoln was easily entertained in between naps if I would pop back there for a while. I felt like a little monkey going back and forth between the front seat and the back seat scrunched between the two car seats. I had an emotional moment at one point when I let Lincoln chew on one of my fingers and realize he'd cut a tooth and a second was on the way! I swear I checked the day before! I felt silly for getting choked up, but he's just growing so fast. I wasn't expecting teeth yet. The way home was shaping up to be even better. We made it half way until making a stop and it looked like we had the rest of the trip in the bag until we hit some construction traffic at the same time Lincoln had a major poop blow out in his car seat. Nice.

Since we were able to spend a few days there we had time to catch up with a bunch of good peeps that we don't get to see nearly enough. Dinner with Maggie and Jeremy was a blast. And the fact that it started with a delicious dragon fruit martini had nothing to do with it! Then, on Christmas Eve, a bunch of the cousins got together. I was really excited to have the opportunity to catch up with a bunch of people I don't see nearly enough of. I even tried not to talk about the kids all night....but they kept asking. Ok, stop twisting my arm. I'll tell you another cute thing Pippa did the other day. (Wink)

Christmas morning was fun for everyone. We instituted one of my family's traditions where the kids wake up to their stocking, full of presents, at the end of their bed. Or, in Pippa's case, at the end of the pack n play. We eagerly went in to get her up and found her amongst tissue paper and stickers in her 'special bed'. The day was starting out right. Then we all get dressed in our Christmas finest and headed over to my parents' house for present opening and brunch. By the end of the day we were all very full and the house was littered with wrapping paper and toys. Sure signs of a good holiday! We even managed to snap a family photo or two. And it was especially nice to be able to include my brotha-from-anotha-motha, Evan, this year too.



The following weekend we got together with Sto's side of the family at home. This is when the true Christmas morning chaos happens. They came over with piles of gifts. Pippa had so many to open, she actually started to get bored! (I'm sure that will never happen again!) It was like a wrapping paper bomb went off in our living room. But, true to form, my mother in-law had every scrapped picked up, every box broken down, and every bow collected to use again next year.  We seemed to get a lot of electronic toys this year, something I'm not a huge fan of as you know. But I'll put them in a closet and I'm sure I will be thankful for them sometime in the future. Like the next long car ride!