We had always planned to stay in Wisconsin for Christmas. Garrett had the week off, and we were just going to relax and hang out. However, after the Thanksgiving break I started thinking that maybe we should plan to go somewhere.... my kids got pretty bored pretty fast and they only had 2 days off for Thanksgiving. I knew I wouldn't survive 2 weeks of them being home, stuck in the house. We thought about driving down to TN to see Garrett's parents, but we just couldn't decide what to do. Technically, it was a "Siebach" year for Christmas, although we have literally never abided by that schedule (we have almost always been a short drive to Garrett's family's house, so we usually just go there). I hate to travel during the holiays... I don't like flying in general anymore, but the thought of flying during the holidays just made me sick. However.... my sister Emma kept telling me we should come down to Houston, since my parents were there for a few months, and my sister Molly lives there too. I told her that it was way too expensive to fly during the holidays, not to mention the hassle. To prove it, I looked up some flights, totally expecting to tell her that they were $500 and out of the question. But, they weren't. They were $140, round trip (out of Chicago, blech, but still). I knew right away that it was too good to pass up. For the first time in 8 years, we would be spending Christmas with my family!
Flying down there was pretty much as much of a hassle as I expected, though. The security line was going extremely slowly; we were probably in the line for almost an hour. People all around us were missing flights. But of course, the TSA doesn't really care about anything so it didn't matter to them. Eventually, the security line split into 4 separate lines, and you waited to go up to the security guard at the desk who would check your ID and ticket. Well, when we finally got near the front of our security line, our security guard just got up and walked away. After 10 minutes, no one had come back and our line was just stagnant, but meanwhile the other 3 lines around us were moving forward. No one was even looking at our line or noticing that our guy had left. It was so annoying! Finally I convinced the guy in front of us to just go to another line's security guard when he was free, so he totally just ran up there when another person got through (the guy who was next in that line wasn't happy, but they had noticed our guy was gone for a long time so I didn't really care). When I got to the front of the line, I called out to the security guard of the other line and said that our guy had been gone for 10 minutes. He looked around stupidly, then got up and shuffled away as if he was looking around for him (now the line beside us was REALLY unhappy, but hey someone had to do something!!). Finally he came back with another security guard. This is why I hate flying. Ugh. And then, when we got to the gate, we got our seat assignments and NONE of us were sitting together, despite the fact that I had chosen our seats when I booked the tickets. So that was another minor fiasco, but eventually they got our seats for us and, what do you know, they put us in the front row of the cabin (the seats that are normally extra $$), and we were all together. So that worked out. The flight went smoothly, we landed in Houston about 30 minutes early actually, but then we waited for 35 minutes for our luggage to come down the conveyer belt so...
Isn't my sister's house so cute?
Emma has been learning to write calligraphy and I tried my hand at it. It's a lot harder than it looks! But it was fun.
We decorated gingerbread houses:
And waited 90 minutes in line for the second best BBQ in America. It was good! And waiting in lines isn't bad when you're hanging out with people you love, and it's 80 degrees out!
My parents bought a house about 3 miles away from Emma's house, and they plan to live there for 3-4 months each winter. Molly and her husband also live there year round so that it doesn't sit empty. There's a shortcut path (literally over a river and through some woods!) that is only about a mile, so we did that with the kids several time. We went "caroling" to grandma's house one morning.
Christmas Eve:
Olivia and grandpa:
New pj's
Waiting to come downstairs on Christmas morning:
Santa brought the girls each an American Girl doll. They were SO excited! I guess he figured that since they live only a few miles from the American Girl factory, it would be a good gift this year. I am excited too because now it will be easy to buy them presents for the next couple of years... they just want outfits and accessories for their dolls! ;) I remember getting my American Girl doll (Felicity) when I was little, and it is one of my favorite memories. The girls each got the doll that looks like them - blonde and blue eyes. Abbie's doll's hair is long, Olivia's is should length, and Ellie's doll has "light blonde" hair, so thankfully it's easy to tell them apart still.
Dance party in the living room:
The kids loved the strobe light, too:
Donuts for breakfast. See JB holding up a dollar bill? We told the kids that whoever slept in the longest each morning would get a dollar. It worked like a charm... they started sleeping in until around 8 or so once we implemented that.
I didn't take a ton of pictures, but we mostly just hung out. The kids played on the trampoline a lot, and basically just ran around the house and outside. We took them to a movie one morning (Charlie Brown Christmas movie), played at playgrounds, watched movies, worked on projects. I sang in sacrament meeting with my mom and sisters for their Christmas program ("In the Bleak Midwinter"). Garrett went with John to some house projects. We walked back and forth from my mom's house a bunch of times.
We had SUCH a great time in Texas for Christmas, and I'm so happy we decided to do it despite my reservations and anxieties about flying during the holiday season. I was really worried that Chicago would get snowed in, or that someone would get sick for our travels, or that a flight would be majorly delayed... but none of that happened and we made some wonderful memories.
Garrett left the day after Christmas, he was on call the next week and had to get back. The girls and I stayed until Wednesday, and flew into Madison where Garrett had left me my van the night before since he couldn't pick us up. We had a 5:30 a.m. flight (!), which meant we had to leave Emma's house at 3 a.m.... not ideal but it actually wasn't too bad. Huge thanks to Molly and Mom for driving us to the airport! But hey, no traffic.
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