Today is Christmas

It’s Christmas Day today. On January 9th. Because I can’t talk about old 2012 and new 2013 until we talk about the 2012 Christmas Road Trip. So we are rewinding back in order to catch up!

We drove to Utah again for Christmas this year! It was a great trip, the kids did awesome, and the driving was totally the same as always (long, tiring, and totally doable if you have magic powers (we do)). It took us 39 hours start-to-finish to make the drive, though. Which is our longest yet, because we made some lazy stops. Are we getting old??

After spending 2 nights driving, then 8 nights (and wildly fun days) at Grandma’s house, we packed ourselves into the van again for a 24-hour drive to Wisconsin to see my family! I came down with strep throat after arriving in WI and spent most of the  next 3-4 days feeling crappy. But we had a great time in Wisconsin with my family. On January 5th we got into the car again and drove through the night 18 hours home to Virginia. And then our faces fell off due to lack of sleep and overdosing of Diet Coke. My head still hurts.

You know what- I think this story is better told in pictures: See Below and then promptly follow me on Instagram.

1. I am so glad I made these stockings last year. It was so fun to open them back up this Christmas and fill them with undies and toothbrushes. Tutorial for how I made them is here. <– if you click that link you won’t find a tutorial. I never made a tutorial. I just wanted to pretend that I did. Thanks for being with me tonight.
2. Charlie and I in “Nowhere” at a gas station in the middle of the night. We went potty then promptly when back to sleep. And by “we” I mean “he”, since it was my turn to drive.
3. Part of our Christmas Tradition is re-enacting the Nativity. This is a lovely and often humorous tradition. Is it possible for something to be fun and sacred? A little bit of yes.
4. The boys on Christmas morning. Something happened after Mommy said, “Boys, go get dressed!” and it wasn’t the boys getting dressed.
5. Christmas Eve under Grandma’s tree. I realize that at this point we will probably not have Christmas at our house EVER, but that didn’t stop me from putting up a tree at our house too this year. (It’s still up– afterall, “Today is Christmas”.) It’s so nice that Grandma also has a lovely tree at her house under which we can stuff our presents and await Santa’s arrival.
6. Suddenly, with this pic, we are in WI! My brother Randall calls Sam “Samma-Lamma-Ding-Dong.” This is Samma-Lamma-Ding-Dong on Grandpa’s 4-wheeler in Wisconsin. She doesn’t mind the FRIGID tundra one bit if there are power sports involved. Mommy loves power tools. Sammy loves power sports. The end.
7. Holly turned 7 over Christmas Break! What did she want for her birthday? To get her ears pierced with her cousins/aunts/mom/sister/grandma there to “help.” If you ask her she’ll say it really hurt, because it did. But she looks beautiful!
8. The happy kids in the car. They are champion road-trippers. In fact, I’m planning to impart my road-tripping tips and tricks on you sometime before spring break so that you all can turn your little minions into super road-trippers too, k? And by “sometime before spring break” I probably mean “sometime next fall” because I’m that good at keeping a blog schedule.
9. I stayed up way past Santa on Christmas Eve adding cute tags and ribbons out of twine and fat fabric ribbon so that the gifts looked pretty all night long (while nobody was awake) and for the 20 minutes on Christmas morning before they were all torn open. Like whatever, I really like a well-presented present. I am inspired by Rebecca (who is not my Mother but who does share my mother’s name.) Check out her blog and tell her to move next door to me.
10. A road-trip sunrise. Middle America. When the sun comes up it is illegal to stop for gas or potty breaks because then the children wake up and the mayhem begins. Keep driving. Keep driving.
11. We bowled in Utah and we bowled in Wisconsin. We are serious bowlers. Seriously BAD bowlers. This is Logan and my brother Randall. His friends call him Randy. I call him funny. He can hold that “Excited” face for VERY long periods of time. I’m so proud.
12. This is not Randall. It’s Tom’s brother. He’s Charlie’s “favwit fwiend.” I shall not name him, because he is my in-law not my brother. I feel like I can tell you everything about Randall/Randy and his funny faces but nothing about The Manchild’s brother because it might break in-law rules. I am not sure. I’ll tell you that he’s single, super filthy rich, and rides his bike to the beach for lunch every day. And his car? Another blog post entirely. :-) Call or text him at 1-801-721-itsaV4. <– Inside joke. Carry on.
13. I’m moving out of my house and into this cabinet. Maybe. It is in Randy’s house and he said I can have it. Assuming his long-lost roommate doesn’t show up and realize that he left it there. Shhh… DON’T YOU LOVE IT??  Can somebody bring it to meeee???
14. At Culver’s, where I ate a salad and fried cheese curds. A salad for good health and fiber, and the cheese curds for WISCONSIN PRIDE!
15. An actual picture of my gas gauge when I gratefully rolled into a gas station somewhere in Wyoming. I had been driving along like a hyper little bird in the dead of night and forgot to fill-up as often as I should have. This is called the great “Winter Wyoming WhattheCrap Moment”. (A “Winter Wyoming WhattheCrap Moment” is when you realize that silly little Wyoming might not have ANY open gas stations for 456 miles straight and your minivan  is about to run out of gas. In order to survive the frigid temps through the night your family might have to strip down to their undies and huddle together under Winnie the Pooh blankies in the back seat of said minivan. Your children will be scarred for life from this undie-snuggling moment. Your husband will try to start a fire and kill stuff for food. This is the moment. This is it! And then… gas station. WhattheCrap Moment gone.
16. Christmas present from my parents to my husband. Honestly. We never need to buy another Halloween costume again!
17. Charlie in the snow. Charlie doesn’t like the snow. He says, “Dis snow is fweaking me out. Hold me.”
18. Samma-Lamma-Ding-Dong got a cake pop maker from her Momma-Lomma-Ding-Dang. Dang those things are yummy!

Thank you for spending this Christmas Day with me. Merry Belated Christmas!

By the way- Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve :-) See you then!

p.s. I just found my road trip report from last Christmas. It’s all very familiar. Like I just did the same exact thing.

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