Christmas Vacation 2009
This year for Christmas we did another tour of the East Coast! We flew into Boston on December 20th, with only minor delays in our flights. That is actually amazing considering the amount of snow both GR and Boston got the day before and the day after! We were lucky to be able to get in at all! The day after we got in it snowed so hard that we weren't able to even go to church because the roads were so bad! So we enjoyed the day inside relaxing and chatting. The next several days David and I did quite a bit of shopping (due to new luggage restrictions we did a lot of online shopping delivered directly to MA, but also needed to pick up several things from the malls). We left Kayla at home and really enjoyed having some time to just be together. That is actually one of the highlights of this vacation for me; I was able to spend quite a bit of time with it just being David and I. We get quality time with each other at home (especially after Kayla goes to sleep)... but to be able to DO things (like shop) without having to entertaing a child or worrying about when she'll need to eat or making sure to come home before she needs her nap, etc, was truly amazing and refreshing.
We also caught up with our good friends Katie and Pat for dinner one night at the Cheesecake Factory. The night was rather interesting. The traffic was SO bad getting into the mall area that it took them over 3 hours to get there, when it should have taken about 30 minutes (David and I did some shopping at the mall before we were meeting, so we didn't hit that terrible traffic)! David and I ended up getting an appetizer and drinks at the bar while we waited for them. It actually worked out really nice! It was like we went out on a date ourselves... and then after a few hours we went out with our friends! We met up with them again later in the trip for lunch too! We also met with our friends, Matt and Christen, at Starbucks. Our time in MA only overlapped for 3 days (David's birthday, Christmas Eve and Day) so it only allowed us to catch up for a short period of time, but it was so nice to see them. It had been like 3 years since we had seen them last! We treasure both of those friendships and were so glad to reconnect with them all.
For David's birthday, as previously posted, we went to the Celtics game! That was a lot of fun! Part of the story that I didn't share was that my mom was babysitting for us while the 3 of us were at the game, and she had woken up that morning quite sick. We tried to look for someone to come over and help out, and I offered to stay, but when nothing worked out she said she was up to the task. Poor mom was real, real sick though. Kayla enjoyed some of the freedom of being more or less on her own (since my mom was laying down on the couch). Before we left we completely rearranged the living room so it was more baby-proof and so my mom could see Kayla at all times while laying on the couch. Now, my mom likes to clean up toys while Kayla takes a nap... so the house is usually ship-shape! But we knew that it would be covered in toys when we came back, since she wasn't feeling well. What we did not expect was Kayla to have gotten into the storage bin where my parents store receipts in addition to the Tupperware drawer (which we had expected)! In hindsight, we are totally bummed we didn't take a picture of the chaos when we got back! Kayla looked like she was having an absolute BLAST! There were receipts and Tupperware ALL over the living room.... words cannot express.... it was hilarious! I wish I could have seen her expression when she realized Grandma was too sick to stop her from throwing receipts all over the living room.... she clearly had a good evening! And thanks mom for being a trooper! We had a really good time at the game!
Christmas Eve was low key... we relaxed the day away and went to the evening church service. The service was really nice. Kayla loved the singing and looking at the Christmas decorations. She wasn't so keen on sitting still during the sermon. Luckily it was a kid-friendly service (since there was no child care). She wore the CUTEST dress (thank you Mom Taylor!). Someone even commented that she was so cute that she looked like a doll!
Christmas morning we had yummy pecan rolls (yes, Kayla's minus the pecans) and breakfast strata and enjoyed opening presents together! We had a nice Christmas dinner, although at this point my dad was also getting sick, so it was really just David, Kayla and me eating it! David also made a snowman, which Kayla loved to look at and always wanted to touch (until she got close to it, then she didn't want to touch it at all!).
The morning after Christmas we drove to DE. We decided to leave around 10am, so we could get a few hours in before Kayla took a nap and hoped she would sleep for several hours. We turned her to a forward facing car seat for this trip too! The normal 6 hour trip (assuming no traffic and only stopping for gas) took us a little under 8 hours... so we were very happy with that. We stopped multiple times to stretch and let Kayla run around (including at a McD's play area). She did really well in the car, although only took a 45 min nap! :( She entertained herself pretty well and was really good for the majority of the trip, with only minor bouts of screaming.
We stayed at Grandma's house, along with the Taylor women and Uncle Jimmy's family (so there were 15 of us total staying there!). As always, things were busy there. But it is always so fun to have so much family together.
Saturday was the day Grandma did her big dinner... there were 32 of us for that (4 being little ones). This is the 2nd year where all 15 of David's cousins have been there for this (amazing everyone was able to come!) plus spouses, significant others, etc. We joked that this number is only going to grow, as more cousins get married and as more children come along! But it is really fun.
There are 3 babies that were born within 5 weeks of each other (Kayla being the youngest) and it's fun to watch them interact. They played pretty well together, as well as you can expect for that age! Kayla and Ava gave hugs and kisses to each other, that was adorable! Noah was hugging Kayla, which seemed sweet until he took a nice big bite on her cheek! She was so very upset about it, I felt bad for her. I figure it's only a matter of time before she does that to some other child. She often tries to bite David or I (or another authority figure) if she's frustrated.... I have yet to see her try to bite another child, hopefully that doesn't happen, but we'll see.
We made trips to see (great) Aunt Hennie (and Marlene and Denny came also!), (great) Aunts Ruth and Marie at the restaurant, and Grandpa and Cathy. Kayla did really well with all of the transitions and different environments. It is a lot of work trying to watch an active and curious child in a house that is full of breakable items right at her eye level. But she listened better than I expected and we only had 1 minor accident (there were drinks on a table runner at Grandpa and Cathy's house and she reached for it, sending red wine onto the carpet... oops. Thank goodness for Scotch Guard!).
Overall Kayla did really well. She's usually really friendly and willing to go to anyone... however with the large amounts of people, many whom she didn't know, she was more selective in who she would let hold her. It is interesting to me that she recognized David's siblings and immediately felt comfortable with them, but not with cousins and such. You can tell she remembers them from their last trip out here at Thanksgiving (and possibly from trips before). She continued to sleep really well while we were gone, going down easily and taking great naps. She woke up earlier than normal (especially when we were in the same room as her in DE... she woke up and was pointing at us saying,"mama?" "dada?").... but thankfully it wasn't David and I who were getting up with her in the mornings (thank you mom's for letting us get more rest!).
She developed a nervous habit on this trip as well.... twirling her hair! This is a habit that I do when I'm either stressed or when I'm thinking hard about something (David says I do it a lot when I read!). It's something I do totally subconscienciously, although sometimes I am aware that I'm doing it (but it doesn't stop me from twirling!). Well, this must be genetic! She started to do it a little while we were in MA. She did it almost the entire car ride to DE, and continued doing it for the majority of the time in DE. She slowed down when we went back to MA, and has slowed down even more now that we are back home. But I'd never seen her to it before this trip so it's funny that she picked this up during a time of "stress" (being in a new environment with new people and new toys and new routines). I'll be interested to see if she keeps this habit up!
On New Year's Eve we drove back to MA, again an 8 hour ride. Kayla did pretty well on this trip as well.... only a few times where she was screaming. We brought in the New Year very low key (we were exhausted from the drive) and just enjoyed some time in the hot tub and eating some yummy appetizers. We spent the next 2 days doing a little shopping and some returns and laundry and packing and resting.
We had such a wonderful trip and really were able to relax and enjoy ourselves. Despite some minor chaos, we each found lots of time to relax and enjoy ourselves. We love our families dearly and it was special to be able to spend time with them both this holiday season.