Busy month!

Wow, I cannot believe Christmas is over. I feel like I've been going non-stop all month.

We planned on going to Mom's the Thursday before Christmas, leave there Saturday morning and head straight to Monte's parents, and then head home Christmas Eve. Christmas Day would be spent at home, and then we'd celebrate with Dad, Bec, and Ken on Wednesday.

Due to the insane amount of traveling, and the lack of space in our vehicle for us, our suitcases, and gifts, we decided to rent a minivan for the week. We loved it! We had a 2008 Chrysler Town and Country - very basic model, but the space! We've decided to change our standards for when we're in the market for a minivan - leather seats and a moonroof just aren't that important, but captain's seats, remote mirrors, and an extended base are.

We actually left for Mom's Wednesday night, so as to maximize driving time without screaming children. They did sleep for about half the trip (not as long as hoped for), but arrived at Mom's completely wired and ready to run around. Crazy! Thursday, we headed out shopping for a booster seat (of all the things we forgot!), and picked up some other grocery items, like Uncle Woody's Caramel Corn! That evening, we headed to Clinton, Iowa, for the Symphony of Lights, a light display at Eagle Point Park. It was really neat, and Isaac and Audrey really loved it! We drove through it a second time just for them, and we adults enjoyed it again, too! We were horrible parents, though, because we took the kids out of their car seats so they could see better. Friday, we opened gifts, which was lots of fun! Phil received Blokus (Tetris in a board game), and proceeded to tromp us all at it - I think he liked it :) We decided to leave Friday night to beat the traffic and drive while the kids slept again. That would also give us a night at home and leave us refreshed before heading to Pigeon. So glad we did!

Saturday, we drove to Monte's parents. Traffic was busy, and it took us an hour longer than usual, so that wasn't much fun. The kids did not sleep much of the time, either. And of course, upon arrival, they just wanted to play with Tori and Christian, who were over at Grandma's. While they did that, Monte and I ran into town to pick up some gifts for Isaac, since Monte's mom hadn't been able to find what she'd wanted for him. We were thankful to get some time away by ourselves, although it made for another late night. Sunday was church (am I ever going to be at my church for Christmas?), and then we opened gifts that afternoon. That went OK - Christian got sick, Audrey and Isaac were exhausted, and Meghann and I had given Tori and Christian the exact same gifts (gift cards and money), so we felt pretty bad for the kids. We were told that's all they wanted, but it's still disappointing to see the crest-fallen faces of kids hoping for a gift to play with. Monday was eat-until-your-pants-pop-open day, plus sitting around playing cards. That's the best part about going over there - Meghann and John love to play cards, too, so I get my fix in. As we were preparing to leave, though, we couldn't find Monte's wallet - we spent two hours searching the suitcases, coats and pants pockets, the van, the gift bags, the bedrooms, and every conceivable place it may have been. We finally decided to just leave, and see if it turned up somewhere (the stores we'd been at were closed by this time, so we couldn't check there). The good news is that the kids were able to play and burn off energy in this time, so they slept the entire way home. We finally arrived home at 12:30 Christmas morning.

That's when the fun began. We had purchased a skee-ball table for Isaac for Christmas. Since there's no possible way to hide an assembled one of those in our basement, we had to wait until that night to put it together. I have never seen so many pieces in my life. The instructions were great, and it was fairly easy to assemble, but it took a long time. A looooong time. We finished it at 4:20 and then crashed. Christmas morning started way too early after that, even though the kids didn't get up until close to 9. Then we had to shower and eat breakfast, so we didn't even start opening gifts until almost 11, by which time Audrey was ready for another nap. But she did great overall. Everyone loved all of their gifts (especially my Xyron 900), Monte's iPod, Isaac's skee-ball table, and Audrey's rocking butterfly. We had a lot of fun relaxing that afternoon, and enjoying our new toys.

To be continued . . .