Christmas Travels

We don't do Santa, but Henry was being extra sweet with Caroline before Christmas.  He helped her color and then said, "I like her scribble scrabble."  He didn't even get upset with her coloring on his drawings.  He also enjoyed helping her eat and drink.  He fed her an egg, Kix, and held her milk up to her mouth.  He told her that she was big and strong when she ate her food.

Drink your milk Car-wo-wine.

His days of being sweet with her may be coming to a close as she has become much more opinionated and vocal the past couple of weeks.  She regularly yells, "Go! Go! Move! Move!" and pushes her brothers around (literally).  She held us all hostage at a Chick-fil-a in town.  The boys wanted to try out the playground at the CFA further down the road.  The playground was quite tall and Caroline managed to make her way to the top.  I don't know if she got scared or what, but she sat up there for 45 minutes.  The boys (Josiah mainly) were desperately trying to get her down so they could eat.  I was desperately praying she would get down so I didn't have to climb up there.  Josiah finally dragged her down the slide after much screaming and wrestling from her.  We will not be frequenting that CFA for quite a while.

Henry got his first splinter.  He learned the hard lesson that if you rub your hands against an old wooden fence while you're walking, you get splinters.  They were so tiny I couldn't get them out, but we tried.

Look at that face.  These were tiny splinters.

Josiah's last craft before our travels was making a Mr. Peanut.  When Todd got home from work, he announced he made it all by himself.  Really son?  I slightly remember the sweat shop facilities I was under during the afternoon to cut and tape all the parts just so.  He did play with him for a lot of the afternoon, so that was a win.

We headed east 5 days before Christmas.  Todd and I discovered that when traveling with three small children, the driver's seat is now the most coveted position.  No more snoozing in the passenger's seat enjoying the view and the quiet from pre-kid life.  Now the passenger seat consists of answering 500 questions an hour, getting them snacks every 20 minutes, retrieving fallen toys, and trying to keep Caroline from dropping her blanket on the side next to the door where no one can reach it.  If Josiah spent more time in a car, I think he'd out weigh Henry.  He asked for food constantly.  This trip we made the wise decision to bring a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread.  Blueberries and grapes, too.

We stopped in Alabama for the night and Caroline kept our record going of injuries in a hotel room.  She learned how to climb out of her pack-n-play, climbed up on the bed, tried to dive on top of Josiah, over shot, went over the side of the bed, hit the nightstand table and fell to the floor.  All this in the dark as we had just turned out the light to settle in for the night.  She busted up her nose pretty bad.  We moved the pack-n-play to a different wall.

Her poor nose.  It's still red even now 3 weeks later.

The kids were super excited to see Nana & Grandad again.  They learned how to tell time while waiting for 10:00 a.m. to get to pick from Nana's treasure bag.  They helped Nana frost and sprinkle a cake that they had bought here in Texas just so they could bring it and make it with her.  Henry noticed that their Christmas tree didn't have a star on top, so he generously made them one.  Josiah picked his favorite Nutcracker from Nana's collection.  One night, instead of going to sleep, he returned to the living room with a picture he had drawn from memory of his nutcracker.  He did this at least twice.  His attention to detail was pretty amazing.

frosting the cake and licking their spatulas

Henry's colorful star.  That is not our Savior in the middle, but Henry.

Henry is one fun kid on Christmas morning.  He shows such appreciation.  The first gift he opened was a Thor electric toothbrush.  "Oh, it's what I always wanted!" as he jumps up and down excited.  Josiah got his favorite gift of "Redwood" (red helicopter from Planes Fire & Rescue that he's renamed).  Caroline loved her stroller.  She may play with dolls now that she has something in which to push them.

Chowing down on a gluten-free, dairy-free Christmas cookie at 5:30 a.m.  She was a happy camper.

When you get clothes for Christmas, you must try them on right away.

Christmas afternoon we drove up to Great Grandma's house and saw lots of aunts, uncles, and siblings.  It was so nice to see everyone again.  Grandma & Grandpa came up a couple days later and Josiah fell in love with their dog, Scooter.  The dog was incredibly docile with him, as Josiah kept petting him and loving on him for a long time.  Josiah talked a mile a minute about his love for Scooter.  He announced that he was going to go live with him (and my parents) and send us pictures of he and Scooter playing frisbee in the park.  He said he'd come back and live with us when he grew up.  When asked at what age "grown up" would be, he said 50.    Meanwhile, Henry was huddled up on my lap quite scared.  Caroline wasn't too sure.  She was curious, but I think more scared than curious.

Driving back to Hampton, Henry broke our hearts.  We heard him quietly crying in the back seat and when asked why he was sad, he said,  "I miss Aunt Cwaire and Great Grandma."  He cried this way for a good half hour.  It was so sad, but it's also good he had such a good visit with them.  We took them to a playground each day, but the day Aunt Claire came, both boys couldn't wait to show her everything.  He has a good aunt and a good Great Grandma.

We made sure we were back in Hampton by Sunday morning so Josiah could go see all his friends at Bethel.  He confidently said that everyone would be glad to see him again.  It was nice to see friends again.  Sometimes it seems like we haven't been gone long, and other times it does.
Some of those friends were very kind to open their house later in the week to host a mini-birthday party for Josiah.  He really wanted a party, but we don't know too many people in Texas yet, so we compromised by having a small party in Virginia.  The boys were very happy to play with friends again.  They have so many dress up clothes.  Henry put on a Woody outfit and another child may have dressed up as a princess, but we have no photographic evidence.

It was sad to leave family and friends again.  Josiah dramatically says, "Will we never see them again?" whenever we say goodbye.  There were tears shed.  It is good we have so many people to love and miss.

Heading back to Texas, we stopped in Alabama for the night.  Josiah kept our record going with hotel injuries this time.  He stood up in the bath tub, hitting his side on the faucet on the way up.  It didn't seem that bad when it happened, but it bruised up and looked like it hurt (as Josiah told me it did).  We were hoping to get a continental breakfast before heading out on the road again, but all three kids independently woke up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning.  Breakfast started at 7:00 a.m.  There was no way we were waiting that long for breakfast, so we hit the road and made it back home by 6:30 p.m.  I put the kids immediately in the bath tub after all the gross bathrooms we had entered on the road.  It was nice to sleep in our beds again.