Looking back at Christmas & forward to a new year

I've been hibernating for the last couple of days and it's been great. The weather has been cold (relatively speaking) and dreary so Addie and I have stayed in, caught up and are cleaning out.

It's hard to believe that Christmas was over three weeks ago. A few days before the big day we headed back home to spend some time with our families. Addie did very well on the drive up - I was really proud of her. Instead of doing our usual overnight drive we got up eaaarly and drove during the day.

Breakfast on the road

 

Catching some zzzzs

Waking up...

STRETCH...!

We're STILL in the car?

Back to sleep!

I was able to post from Missouri where we spent some time with Sabian's family. We visited Sabian's grandma, met some new family members, took care of some last minute shopping and waited for the snow!

  
We did get that white Christmas but the snow did not keep us from getting to Illinois safely Christmas Eve night. We woke up Christmas morning at my mom's, packed the car full with gifts and food, squeezed the three of us and my mom into the car and made our way to join everyone at my sister's.

 

  

More food, more presents and SNOW (did I mention that already?!). We had a really nice, relaxing day. Addie was not as much in to opening presents as I thought she would be. More so, she was interested in what everyone else, namely, people her size, were getting. I think there was so much activity and there were cousins in both families to play with so she was distracted from the actual present opening. Once she had the chance, she enjoyed all of her gifts, especially her baby from her Mimi.

There was one huge surprise waiting for me on Christmas day, something I never saw coming.

BUT...it deserves a post all its own, so you'll have to wait for that one.

A couple of days after Christmas Sabian made the trek back to Illinois on his own. Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law, Addie and I stayed behind to hang out for a little while longer, enjoying some more time with family and friends. It's always hard when Sabian isn't with us but it is always good to have more time at home.

We never see everyone we want to and never get to do all we want to but I have determined that I'd have to stay at least a month for that to happen. We really enjoyed our visit although I have to say, one great thing about living in Florida is NOT having to wrangle my child into a puffy winter coat every time we go out and then squeeze her into her car seat wearing said coat.

I was a little anxious about the flights home. There is no direct flight from St. Louis to any of the airports near here, but we did have the advantage this time around of flying into the new PCB airport, which is closer than any other airport we've used before. In the back of my mind I knew there was no reason for me to worry but I was anticipating every move I would have to make and how I was going to make it with Addie in tow. The last time I flew with her she was less than a year old and in some ways a little easier to manage. But, her being older now also had its advantages.

She was great. We flew first to Houston and then to PCB after a two hour layover. Our layover gave us enough time to eat lunch, change diapers, meet some new friends and run around the airport, burning up some energy. On both flights we had at least one extra seat next to us, allowing Addie to have her own space and also on both flights were a lot of kids, so if Addie felt like she had something to tell the whole plane, it really wasn't a big deal since there was someone else trying to do the same thing.

Par for the course, Addie fell asleep just as we were landing our second flight. She missed seeing Sabian as we found him at the baggage claim waiting for us but she soon woke up and was very happy to see who held her when she opened her eyes.

Our car seat suffered a casualty (losing an arm rest) during the ever-so-gentle handling throughout the trip but we did receive all of our baggage and the broken arm rest was soon forgotten as I opened the trunk to the car and found another surprise - an iPod Touch! This was just one of a few surprises Sabian had waiting for me, including some of my favorite candy, a clean house and some other treats.

My first couple of days back were super relaxing. I felt no push to get unpacked and thanks to my mom, my laundry was done. Sabian had also put away our Christmas gifts and other miscellaneous items we'd sent him back with the week earlier. What wasn't put away was at least in the right room or near where he thought it would go but wasn't sure. Did I mention it was a good thing we didn't plan on making the trip back with Sabian? With all of our stuff the car was packed - too full for Addie and I to fit!

The trip back to Wewa is always bittersweet, but I am thankful for a wonderful Christmas with our families, visits with friends and a safe trip back to the panhandle. Now, on to 2011!