Christmas Review
This year we decided that rather than paying for 3 plane tickets (since Kayla is over 2) it would be significantly cheaper for us to drive to the east coast for the holiday's this year. As it turns out, it was significantly more expensive! But that's because while we were in Boston, we bought a mini-van! We had seriously talked about this option before, with baby #2 coming. This wasn't a need by any means. Both of our cars were running fine. But it would certainly be easier to travel in a mini-van. Easier for me to travel around town, but also easier when we take longer family trips. Since the price of plane tickets doesn't seem to be going down any time soon, and since both of our families live far away, we are anticipating some longer car rides. And we barely fit the 3 of us with our luggage... to add another kid and extra luggage (and everything that comes along with a baby!) would just be really cramped. We know a friend of my family who is an independent car dealer, and my parents have bought several cars from him. We contacted him and said we'd be in Boston over Christmas and if there were any good deals to be had we'd be interested in buying a mini-van. Well, 2 days later we bought our new Toyota Sienna (2006)! It was not the van we'd thought we'd be buying; it had no extra amenities, which we thought we'd be getting. But it was an incredible deal, one we couldn't pass up! God made that decision easy for us, and also provided a buyer for our Camry in MA- the first person who looked at it. And, I just LOVE having a mini-van.
Kayla did amazing in the car, on all of our drives. She enjoyed playing with toys, reading books, and opening new fun things (from the dollar store) every so often. The best dollar store purchase was these glow sticks - we laughed and had SO MUCH FUN with those for a very long time. I'll have to remember that for future night time car rides! We traveled out to MA in 2 days (about 7-8 hours each day), making a stop at my grandparents house for lunch on the 2nd day. They were long days, but when we got to MA we were able to totally relax.
The time went by very quickly in MA because we were busy. But we also got a lot of time away from Kayla and time to relax. We celebrated David's birthday and that was really special too.
This Christmas season Kayla really enjoyed things. She absolutely loved the lights and decorations. Every time we were in the car she would point out with delight every light, every blow-up, every Christmas tree in the window - everything! She learned a whole bunch of Christmas carols (Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, We Wish you a Merry Christmas, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, Jingle Bells, and bits and pieces of a few others). She was obsessed with stars (every star on top of every tree, every star in every decoration, every star everywhere, was the Star of Bethlehem). She loved seeing manger scenes with the star of Bethlehem, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, the Angel, Sheppard, and the "men" who bring gold, cents and myrrh!:)
We have not decided exactly how we want to handle Santa with her. One thing we do know is that we want to downplay his role significantly. There are things that are fun about the tradition, but we want Christmas to be about Jesus, and so we don't want to emphasize Santa by any means. We would always look at Santa at the mall; she liked to watch him and watch the kids and look at all the fun decorations. We did get a chance to sit in Santa's sleigh (at Meijer Gardens). She was really excited to see him, until it was our turn. Then she clung to David like her life depended on it! I ended up sitting in the sleigh too and she was quite shy but quite interested in him. We also decided that we would set out a plate of cookies and milk for him on Christmas Eve, and we added a few nuts for his reindeer. Well, she was hilarious with this. Each night when she goes to bed, David will brush her teeth and then before they go into her room she'll yell down, "night-night mama". Well, this night she brushed her teeth with my mom, and then yelled (totally unprompted), "night-night cookies, night-night nuts, night-night milk!" instead of to David and I! So funny! The next morning when I brought her downstairs she was so surprised that the cookies and nuts were gone (and was not happy that he'd left crumbs - she was hurt that he hadn't eaten every last morsel!). It was very precious.
We opened stockings and then went and ate breakfast. Then we opened our gifts from under the tree. It was just so fun watching her delight when she'd open things! It was a nice and relaxing day.
The following day we loaded up our new van with everything (and had so! much! room!) and headed to Delaware to visit with David's family. It was another 7-8 hour ride, which is long, but manageable. We were all pretty tired when we arrived. We stayed at grandma's house again this year, which was quite full. Although, usually another family of 8 or so comes and did not come this year, so it wasn't quite as packed as it has been in the past.
While in DE we were busy! There are so many people to see and this is really our one chance each year to see them. So we are always on the go, always in a new (non Kayla-proofed) house for each meal, always visiting people and catching up as much as possible. Even at grandma's house, which is pretty well baby proofed, we can't leave Kayla alone for a moment! There are still Christmas decorations and the tree and things she can get into and stairs to climb and bathrooms to lock herself in, etc. So David and I seemed to constantly be chasing after her, and it was exhausting! It took its toll on me, being pregnant. At home I'm able to sit and see most of where she is and what she's doing.... and if she chooses to go into the kitchen, I can listen and figure out what she's into, and if it's just her toys or if I need to get up and intervene. When I'm not at home, I don't want her to destroy anything or hurt herself, and feel like she needs to have an eye kept on her at all times. That's just exhausting. As she gets older it will probably be a little easier for us, but then of course there will be this baby #2, so we have several more years before it is really going to be easier! Oh well.
We enjoyed the traditional large family dinner at Grandma’s:
A large family dinner at Linda’s:
Time spent with Pop-pop and Lilly:
Time spent with Grandpa and Cathy:
Time spent at Aunt Henny’s:
And time spent with the Taylor's:
Overall we had a wonderful trip visiting all of our families. This east coast tour is a tradition that we will not always be able to do. At some point we'll want to be home with our kids and we won't always have as much vacation time to use over those holiday's. But it has been really fun the last 3 years we've done it and we hope we are able to continue it for years to come.