Homeward bound. After
9 days in Pennsylvania with the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, we
are headed back to our nest. I love PA,
and Christmas, and being with family.
But I miss my pillow and my favorite water filter. I just miss home.
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| Early Christmas gift from Daddy -- a bulletin board and chalkboard wall. |
We’re on the least favorite part of the trip. This long stretch of highway made of cement,
which creates an annoying background noise when driving over 60 mph. There’s a river on one side, and the other
side of the road is dotted with Amish homesteads and “adult outlets.” I can’t stand it. And since we’ve driven this road many, many
times I’m more than happy to direct my attention to the computer screen. Away from the dead brown landscape, away from
my 2 year old soprano singing an unrecognizable song in my left ear, away from
the two boys who have each other in head locks on the back seat, and away from
the baby who I’m quite hopeful is going to use the entire trip to catch up on
lost sleep from this week. Let’s get
caught up on Christmas.
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| Another early gift, because the kids were driving both Jon and I crazy the other day and we just needed something to keep them occupied! |
We did our own family Christmas that afternoon. Actually, Jon and I went ahead and opened up
our gifts to each other the night before.
Because (as you may have noticed from previous years), my husband isn’t
known for his patience. Plus we just
wanted to enjoy a peaceful evening where we could focus on each other without
having to compete with four little ones.
And of course, there’s always those one or two random gifts that you
really shouldn’t open in front of the children … I digress.
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| Forget presents, this girl just wanted a nap! |
Our kids are not quite old enough to grasp the excitement of
Christmas (they actually all slept in on the real Christmas morning), but the
giddiness is certainly mounting. I tried
to take more videos this year, especially after watching (and laughing) over
some of my family’s old Christmas home videos.
I wanted to capture Lia’s smile in action, the way Jude couldn’t stop
kicking his feet the whole time, and Jack’s incredibly high-pitched voice
overflowing with gratitude for the “best Christmas ever!” Our little home was just bursting with
happiness that day.
We drove north the next morning, watching the amount of snow
alongside the road increase the “closer we got to the North Pole.” Nonnie and Poppie had several inches waiting
for our boys and their sleds, but unfortunately it started to rain when we were
about 20 minutes away. And it didn’t
stop the rest of the day. It didn’t
dampen the adults' spirits though, because that night was a kid-less
celebration of Jon’s birthday at one of our favorite Japanese restaurants! Jon hates being sung to at restaurants but
the night was redeemed by his enjoying copious amounts of sushi.
Christmas Sunday was extra-special because our little
sweetheart got dedicated. We’re just so
grateful that God blessed us with this beautiful soul. It’s been five months of pure bliss and I
know God has a mighty plan for her life over the next five decades.
Sunday evening was Uncle Micah’s annual Gingerbread House
Competition. We came with guns
a’blazin’. Okay, not really. We had our idea months ago, fully intending
to have it all planned and practiced ahead of time, but December always gets
away from us. That certainly doesn’t
take away from the fun though. And we
got to live our dream of owning a sailboat dubbed with the family nickname,
even for just a little while.
Competition was fierce this year. And keep in mind these are all made out of
graham crackers, and started and finished in a mere two hours time.
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| "Reeses" football stadium. |
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| A cell phone bomb. |
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| 3rd Place - Snowman Vacation Resort |
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| 1st Place - A German Cathedral |
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| A farm. |
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| 2nd Place - Charm City (Baltimore) Row House |
Monday night was bowling.
I’m just going to come out and say it: I’m a horrible bowler. I have strengths in other areas. Good thing we played two games, because I was
just starting to get the hang of the whole “knock down the pins thing” by the
second round. This was Jack and Jude’s
first time bowling. I think it would
have been just as much fun if all we did was watch them. I mean, I never saw a ball roll so slowly, or
stop rolling, and start coming back down the lane, until I watched Jude
bowl. He had no idea what was going on
so it didn’t make any difference in his merry meter.
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| Jack enjoying his Daddy's favorite childhood book. |
We celebrate with Jon’s family on Christmas Eve. We do it right – with a big dinner that
always includes shrimp cocktail, plum ketchup, and crème de menthe
parfaits. There’s also a scripture
reading, hymn singing, and candle lighting ceremony at night (in which I spend
more time holding/shushing/swaying my littles than actually participating). This
year Nonnie upped the ante with coordinated pajamas for her and the
grandgirls. And then there’s the
exchanging and opening of gifts. Which,
with 10 grandchildren, is as chaotic as Christmas gets.
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| This girl. And her runny nose, chapped cheeks, chocolate lips, and many accessories. |
It’s to be expected that our kids konk out on the drive to
Marmie and Poppa’s that night, and have to be carried to bed from the car –
Batman jammies and all. And also no
surprise that they have a hard time waking up on Christmas morning. This is also about the time where the annual
“Christmas cold” starts to set in. Noses
running, throats burning, heads aching – it doesn’t matter how much Vitamin C
and Echinacea we stock up on ahead of time, it’s no match for those
holiday-induced, out-of-state germs.
Surprisingly, Jude, the child that always gets sick first, is the
healthy one, despite sharing a bed and drinks with his brother. Joci also weathered it like a champ. I, on the other hand, spent most of Christmas
day with a hot beverage in my hand. And
sending loving glances at my baby girl who let me go to bed at 8:45 and sleep
straight through until 7:15. See? Absolute doll.
We did not toast to an expanding family this Christmas
Eve. It wasn’t necessary. Of course,
there’s Joci now. And Aunt Kylee is
officially part of the family. And this
year Miss Carrie joined in the festivities.
Christmas at my parents house has grown so much we may need to start
spreading it across two days. My great
aunt Jane still manages to knit a stocking to add to the mantle for each new
member.
Jon had to work after Christmas so he loaded up our “sleigh”
that night and headed back to Maryland – along with all our gifts and the kids’
snow gear. Naturally, we had a surprise
snow that evening. We woke up the next
day to a beautiful world of white. So we
improvised, yet again, with extra layers of pants, plastic bags and duct tape,
and a few pair of too-big gloves. A lot
of the snow had melted by the time they made it outside but they thoroughly
enjoyed a few runs down the hill in the backyard. And Jude finally got to build the snowman
he’s been talking about since before Thanksgiving.
We spent the rest of the week relaxing, nursing colds, and
catching up with old friends. Jon
returned Friday night and we were able to spend Saturday with his grandparents
who drove down from New York. This was
the first time we’d seen them since last Christmas, and the first time they’d
met baby Jocelyn. She settled right down
with Grammie and, in her usual style, made eyes and smiles at Grandpa like
she’d known him all her life.
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| The whole family! |
That fairly sums up Christmas vacation. We’ll leave out the parts about what got
broken at the grandparents’ houses, or the sleep-deprived meltdowns, the night
that I spent with Joci, while Poppa took care of Julia, and Marmie handled
Jude, and Jack slept through it all.
That’s not important. What’s
important is that we made merry memories.
We were happy when we arrived and we’re still smiling as we snake our way
south. Christmas delivered. Now we can go ahead and sleep through the new
year.
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