Holiday Travels

We're back home after a long weekend in IL visiting my family. We left Friday afternoon and raced to Columbus, OH where we spent some time with our good friends, Carrie and Josh. For the past 3 years, we have enjoyed the lights, sounds and smells of "Dickens of a Christmas" in Roanoke; but since we were unable to participate in this year's local activities, we opted for the "Wildlights" of the Columbus Zoo. Josh and Carrie joined us....it was a lot of fun. The entire zoo was decorated and lights hung from what seemed to be EVERY tree. Carrie and I tried Wassail for the first time. It was delicious. I'll have to look for a recipe.

We finally made it to my parents house on Saturday. Papa and Grandma were so excited to see Josiah...it took them no time at all to swipe him from our arms. :-) After we unloaded the car, Mom and I went straight to work on making cookies and the family favorite--date nut bread.

We did our usual thing on Sunday---napping and watching TV. Additionally, Josiah played with Aunt Leslie's dog, Moby; Randy helped Dad clean out the car (Dad said that he's never had to use so many rags to clean the inside of a car out before); and Mom and I continued our baking marathon. If I eat one more cookie, I swear that I'll turn into one.

Monday was also a pretty slow day, just hanging around the house---Josiah took a 3 hour nap, which is a very rare occurrence. I got to read from my recent library selection, "PS I Love You" (I really wanted to read the book before seeing the movie) AND take a nap, both of which are rarities for me. Then we got ready for Christmas Eve church service. We all clean up so nicely. :-) Church service was nice, at least what I got to see of it. It was a packed house and Josiah wanted nothing to do with sitting still. So Randy and I spent all but 5 minutes of the service in one of the back study rooms so that Josiah could expend some energy and talk as loudly as he wished. Then we drove over to Pastor's house to enjoy their Annual "inbetween church services" soup dinner. Everything was going as well it could (Josiah wanted nothing to do with the soup and only wanted crackers off of Aunt Kara's plate) when Josiah decided to help himself to a glass of RED punch. But before I could stop him, RED punch drenched his sweater and pants as well as the beige carpet and a decorative Christmas pillow. I was SO embarrassed. Randy and I have managed to keep him from destroying anything belonging to someone else (it's okay if it happens at our house)....but that all ended on Christmas Eve. Needless to say, after I helped to blot up the punch from both the carpet and the pillow, we headed straight out the door (I didn't even get to finish my soup I was so upset). Now, in hindsight, I may have reacted a little irrationally (my parents definitely agree), but I think Josiah should have known NOT to pick up the glass of punch (as many times as we say "no"). I am in constant battle with myself for trying to figure out what he's supposed to know vs. what he is still learning. Unfortunately, there is no defined line.

After going to bed early, I felt much better on Christmas morning. We sat down at 8:30 to begin the process of opening gifts. Our family has a tradition of going around in a circle and opening one gift at a time so that we can see what was given to each person. Josiah was so overwhelmed that we pretty much lost his attention after he opened a tractor. :-) A lot of wonderful gifts were given and received. A few of my favorite gifts I received this year were a pair of Dansko clogs (I've heard from a number of nurses how wonderful they are in supporting their backs--and since that's a problem area for me during pregnancy, I asked for a pair), a couple of maternity tops, gift cards (I don't plan on using them until after we move and can see what we'll need then), new tires for the car, and lastly, my gift from Randy. He used my New Year's Resolutions to construct a gift for me. I received a digital photo storage album, a beginners crochet kit and some yarn, Women's study bible and case, a couple of heavy-duty storage bins, and a book of Sudoku puzzles (beginners level, too).

We left for VA shortly after Josiah helped Papa drive the tractor and we enjoyed Christmas lunch: ham, hashbrown casserole, green bean casserole, corn, cranberry salad, lime pineapple jello, lemon blueberry trifle, and pumpkin pie. Yum! We spent Christmas night in Shelbyville, KY where our good friends, Sara and Chris, were visiting his parents. They have a little guy, Grant, who is only 7 weeks older than Josiah. He and Josiah have so much fun playing together....and teaching the other something new....it's histerical! We took our time getting back to VA since it's a 11 hour trip. We stopped outside of Lexington, KY at a playgroud so that Josiah (and Mommy) could stretch legs. We had so much fun helping Josiah climb and slide. We pulled into our driveway around 9PM (we left Shelbyville at 11AM and it only should have taken 6 hours--driving straight through). We all were excited to finally be out of the car.




(Josiah and Dad had on matching red and black flannel shirts)

Josiah had so much fun on the slide that I had to share......

Now I can't wait to really get started on my New Year's Resolutions, especially with the help of Randy's gifts. I told Randy this morning to "watch out" because I'm super eager to begin the organization and consolidation process. :-) I'll let you know how it goes.