Are we having fun yet?: Pagan Christmas

We woke up at Grandma's and first thing we did was jump in the spa. Yep. No worries about opening presents here. The present was already opened, just getting to Grandma's! My grandma and her husband were at morning Mass, so we stalled Christmas morning quite a bit. It didn't seem to bother W, E, and T one bit. They were very content playing in the spa with Grandpa and the fish, popping the bubble on Grandpa's shirt created from the jets and squirting water with the fish toys.

After the spa they were hungry for an awesome breakfast and we got down to business. For a few minutes. We got very distracted by the first gifts that we didn't get very much farther.

It's been fun being all together. I was a bit grumpy about driving down, but now we are very much excited to be all together. And I didn't realize that T and W are big enough to be excited to be with family, too.

On Sunday night I told them before going to bed that when they woke up that would be the day we drive to Grandma's. I think next time I had better get a timer that will go off when it's time to go. Here's what happened:

About midnight, after 4 long and restful hours of sleep, T woke up and was absolutely convinced it was the day to drive to Grandma's. He started wandering the halls and then finally found the suitcases. I heard him say "I need to move these suitcases!" I think he was ready to load the car. We finally convinced him to go back to sleep in our bed. So then, at 2 in the morning, W got out of bed, turned on her light, discovered T wasn't in his bed, and thought it was morning. She came into our room and found me and started doing her morning "buggy, buggy" mommy snuggle as if she was getting up for the day and it was time for me to get up. No. I don't think so. I told her to go back to bed. She promptly went back, probably because I was using my mommy grumpy voice about being woken up again by a child that should be sleeping through the night.

One of the reasons for such excitement is eating meal bars in the car for breakfast. After they polished those off, T made the comment that maybe, when we got to Grandma's, that Grandpa would share his meal bars.

We also had a blast driving down. The drive down we decided to do in two days. One of the places we stopped at was a very random, going out of business type mall. And lo and behold. There was a railroad club that had set up an awesome real life miniature train that had most of the charactors of Thomas on the train. Forget the tired Santa! We totally bypassed him and went to the trains. The guy even gave them a model train magazine! Score! Waaaayy better than a candy cane.

We stopped in another town the next day for lunch. There was an Asian BBQ sign out and lots of delicious smells coming from the cooker, so J stopped to order. And lo and behold! The owner was born in the same town as J! They had a blast talking to each other.

The park we stopped at was in the sun, with blue skies. We were in seventh heaven. And then! There was an engine and 3 cars parked on the tracks next to us. Fabulous! We had a great time looking at the train and standing in the sun.

After the park we had to go potty. Well, W had to go potty again. So we went into an old building. When we walked in, the lady was so happy to see small kids walk in. Apparently a lady born and raised in the town had knitted hats for kids to give out in town. She was 102 years old. We didn't meet her, but met the person running the info desk who offered them to our kids. We had a great time learning about the town. It ended up being a really fun stop.

We have some awesome one liners from Christmas. T was trying to get his truck out of the box and got a little excited and started running with them. J said " good thing you have some nice soft scissors to land on in case you fall"

This past month I was spelling out SANTA referring to a few things. J had a great time smiling every time I would spell it out, then say, Satan? Hmph. The N is in the wrong place but maybe it distracts us more than we would like to admit...

We spent the rest of the day, though, enjoying being with Grandma, Hoppy, Grandpa, Grandma Kim, Uncle Ryan, J, me, W, E, T and hammock. The sun was fabulous and so was the food!

just before I woke them up Christmas eve morning. This reminds me of them being inside of me. T taking up all the room and probably kicking and W scrunched over but not too bothered by him

On the Oregon/California border. Hello sun, bye bye fog

Not much snow on Shasta, the head of Sacramento River....

Christmas morning. We were trying to keep them busy until Grandma and Hoppy got back from mass. They were very, very happy. Grandpa said he's never spent Christmas morning in the spa first thing