This year it was Christmas in Florida. This was our first drive all the way to Sarasota, and it really wasn't bad at all. The DVD player was a huge help in overcoming the afternoon restless period, even if the video selection left something to be desired for the adult ears.
Anywho, we arrived early on the 22nd, which allowed us a few days to finish up our preparations and celebrate a bit. I took a nap shortly after we arrived and awoke - 4 hours after we arrived - to find my son in the pool. He wastes no time, and cares not that it was only 70-something degrees out, a whole 30 degrees colder than when we went swimming last. We hit up a psychedelic light display at a local church, did some wrapping, some grocery shopping. On Christmas Eve we celebrated Great Grandma's (Debbie's Mom) birthday in the afternoon before heading off to church in the early evening.**
Afterward we read the Christmas story from the bible, donned our Christmas jammies, listened to "The Night Before Christmas" as read by Gammi and Papa (thanks to recordable storybooks!) and tucked the boy into bed. We also explained to Sam what was going to happen in the morning: Santa will leave your stocking by the bed, we'll open it on Mommy's bed and get some presents, then head out to the Christmas tree to open even more more presents!" He looked at me and said, "Seriously?!" So cute!
I made Cheese Soup, a tradition in my family, and then we got to work assembling. We were done in 30 minutes. I have faith that our Christmas Eve assembly will not be that quick again for another 15 years.
After experiencing Sam's first night terror around 1am, I was worried that our morning would be ruined. But it was quite the opposite. He was stoked about every single item he pulled out of his stocking, alternating between wanting to play with everything and wanted to see what else was in there. And yes, he started on the candy before 8am.
When we headed out to the living room he started playing with his new basketball hoop right away! Then we all - Grammy, Papa, Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Becky, almost-Uncle Benton and Sam - sat down for what turned out to be almost 3 hours of gift opening! There were many great gifts exchanged, including a new iPad for Mommy! Once again, Sam did not finish with his packages in the morning, there's just too much to play with! And at the end we pulled out the new trampoline from Gammi and Papa and the boy jumped so much he was out of breath!
The days that followed were relaxing and lovely. Sam had an endless supply of playmates, Chris and I got to go out on a date, Chris got to go golfing, we visited Great Grandma again, we hit up a great park, etc. Sam consumed more candy than he should have in 6 weeks. We actually ended up staying a day longer than planned!
We brought home way more than we took there, but my engineer husband got it all in while still being about to see out of part of the back window! We made great time on the way back and arrived to a very cold house (we didn't need heat when we left 10 days earlier) at 4:30 am. All 3 of us climbed into the big bed, with space heater right next to us, and slept until 7:30! With that three hour nap in a real bed, the adults felt the best we ever have after an all-night drive.
We used our last few days of vacation to work on organizing Sam's new bounty - easier said than done - and beginning to plan out what baby preparations need to be made. Chris is back to work today, but it feel strangely ok to be getting back into a normal routine. It really was a wonderful Christmas!
**I cannot wait for the year we get to worship at our own church on Christmas Eve. I miss the service structure, the liturgy, and the wonderful music. I love that we budget for a full ensemble - brass and all - to celebrate both Christ's birth and resurrection! Most of all, I miss the opportunity to sing "Joy to the World" the way it was written, without being re-mixed with something trying to sound like pop music. Blah."
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