Christmas Trip

We ended up travelling this Christmas for the 1st time in 5 years. It isn't the easiest with 5 of us and having to deal with all the presents and cold weather clothes, but we were really looking forward to a fun trip to Buffalo, NYC and Baltimore.

We left for Buffalo on Wednesday, December 22nd and spent a night in Columbus, OH to break up our trip. Kaitlyn and Lauren were great in the car, while Alexa was okay since she does love to talk all the time and got a little bored and sick of the car. I did have several issues since Alexa wouldn't go to sleep in the hotel, so she kept Kaitlyn and Lauren up. They all ended up switching beds several times and finally went to sleep around 9:30pm. The girls did love seeing the ice on the side of the road and the 1st snow. After a while they did get used to seeing it and didn't realize that there was more on the ground the farther north we went.

We got to Kate and Ryan's house on Thursday afternoon, and the girls were so excited. My parents came over with boots for K & L, so Bill immediately took the 3 of them outside to play in the snow. K & L loved it, while Alexa got too cold so came inside pretty quickly, but not before making several snow angels. That night we had a great dinner out with most of my family. Alexa was so friendly that the owner even carried her over to the blind singer to be serenaded to while we all cheered her on.

Friday we ended up going sledding, and the girls all had a great time. Chestnut Ridge is where I grew up sledding, and it was great with lots of powder and not much ice. Lauren did not want to leave, so she kept going and going. I was a little worried about Kaitlyn since she is always worried about everything, but she had a great time as well. At the bottom of the hill after Alexa's 1st time down, she said "that was so much fun!" They all had a great time sledding and were getting really excited for Santa to come that night, so that might have contributed to them being miserable in church. We ended up getting there right before it started, so no seats, which might have also made our experience worse. Luckily, we had a great time at my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Danny's house for the Griffin family party. They all loved playing with all the cousins, especially Kaitlyn with Maggie and Lauren with Maddie. They also loved opening a gift that night from a cousin. I really thought they would have trouble going to sleep that night, but I guess they were worn out from the long day.

Christmas morning was lots of fun. Kate, Alicia and Jon were all excited to see the girls in the morning, but were quite surprised that they waited at the top of the stairs for Bill to get the camcorder ready. This may be the last year that happens! Kaitlyn was so excited to get a DS, an MP3 player and lots of great books. Lauren was happy with her DS as well. Alexa got lots of wooden food for her kitchen. There were lots of other presents as well, but Santa must have known that we had to get it all back to Atlanta in our car, so most were all small things. At 9:30am we went over to Mark and Jennifer's house for breakfast and more presents. The girls got games and puzzles that they loved. Alexa wasn't as interested in opening the presents as she was with playing with Luke and Aidan's toys. For me, it was just wonderful spending Christmas with my family again. After that we just went back to Kate's to play with their new toys and relax. Lauren wanted to go sledding again, so it was just her and me having a great time with just a few people out enjoying the beautiful weather. Once again it was hard to pull her away from the hill, but it was getting a little cold and she was tired from walking up the hill all the time. We then had a wonderful dinner at Kate's with my parents, Michelle, Alicia, Jon, Ryan's parents and 2 of his relatives.

Sunday, Lauren and I had breakfast with my Aunt Barbara and cousin Tim, which was so nice to spend some more time with them. That afternoon was the annual Wallace Bowling Day, so my cousin, Cathryn, came to babysit the girls and her sister, Maggie, came to play as well. We had a great time seeing a lot of the Wallaces again, while the girls loved having Maggie and Cathryn play with them.

Monday was the Griffin Cousins' Bowling Day, so the girls enjoyed bowling, or at least for a little while. We ended up playing with Luke afterwards and checking up on Aidan. The girls really love playing with their cousins and wish they could see them all the time.

Tuesday, we wanted to enjoy our last day in the snow, so we went sledding with Carreen, Bobby, Julia, Griffin and Hayden. It was really cold that day and the hill was very icy, so not as much fun as the other 2 days, but the kids would go inside for a few minutes to get warm and then go back out. Lauren probably would have been done earlier, but she kept following Griffin outside to go down a few more times. Alexa's 1st time down the hill was much different than her 1st time the other day in that she had snow all over her face and said "that wasn't very much fun!" We ended up staying 2 hours and then had a late lunch with the Nunns, and the kids all enjoyed playing with each other, which is always nice. That night we had 1 last dinner with Michelle, Kate, Alicia and Jon at Michelle's house. The girls had lots of fun, especially playing around with Jon.

Wednesday we were supposed to drive to NYC to see Tad, Charlotte and Henry, but a blizzard derailed our trip. The girls were so excited to see their cousins, and Kaitlyn was looking forward to seeing some things she had learned about at school, but we will have to try to get up there another time. Instead we drove to Baltimore to spend some more time with my parents. The girls love their house and immediately went down to the basement to start playing with all the toys.

Thursday we went to Port Discovery, which is Baltimore's wonderful children's museum. The girls had a great time and really didn't want to leave. We did finally drag them outside to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant right next door. It is such a small world that we were the 3rd table seated and right next to us is a guy I went to high school with and his family. So it was fun catching up with him.

Friday was a quiet day with us just hanging around the house and then just Lauren, Alexa and I going out to look at the horses and play at the playground. Kaitlyn was happy to watch one of her favorite movies, Sea Biscuit. The fun began at 9:30pm with Alexa getting sick and again at 10:30pm.

Saturday we drove home and made great time. I just wanted to get home after being away from home for so long and in case someone else got sick. Lauren did get sick while I was driving over the bridge from DC to Virginia, but Lauren and I gave Bill fair warning to get a plastic bag. We think Lauren's was different from Alexa's in that it was mostly mucus and the water that she had been drinking for her dry cough. Luckily, no one else has gotten whatever Alexa had, especially on our ride home. We did have a good drive, probably since the girls watched movies most of the way.

So we are all happy to be home, but we really did have a wonderful trip, although we missed seeing Tad, Charlotte and Henry. We really appreciate Kate and Ryan and my parents for hosting all of us during our respective stays.