Our Crazy Christmas

Sorry I've been missing in action for the last week or two. Between jet lag and a ruptured disc in my back, I've been absent in more ways than one. The drugs are great, but leave me without much of a brain. Bob is concerned that his wife will soon be on her way to rehab. Move over Brittany!

We left Nashville on December 18th and flew to Salt Lake City where we spent a few days at Robyn and Joe's house. This picture shows little Parker with a few of his "favorites". He has become attached to his Elmo slippers, his Thomas the Train pj top, and his sippy cup. We just happened to catch a picture of him with all of them. Our few days in Salt Lake City went by way too fast. It was fun to see all the snow and experience that wonderful "White Christmas" feeling. It's been a long time since we've seen real snow. We don't get real snow here in Nashville. A weather reporter described the man made snow in the mountains like skiing on a snow cone. A few days in Salt Lake City, and we were in the air again bound for sunny San Diego for Christmas. We hated to leave our Salt Lake kids behind, but knew they had a great Christmas planned with Joe's family. They are blessed to have lots of family close by.

We arrived in San Diego to wonderful sunny weather. We took a drive up the 5 Freeway and took in the sights and sounds of the California we have missed so much. Yes...this is what Christmas is supposed to look like...

and sound like! Bob found K-earth 101 oldies on the FM dial. He was in heaven!

Now this is the crazy part. Do we actually miss this? It's crazy when you feel at home on a freeway that looks like this!

One of the highlights of our San Diego trip was taking the family to the Del Mar racetrack to see the lights. Yes it is California....and they do charge you to drive through with the other hundreds of people to see these lights, but it was fun. Little Blake gave us a scare when he grabbed the steaming hot chocolate out of his mom's hands and took a sip. He was so shocked by the experience that he actually threw up into a grocery bag we had in the car. He recovered faster than the rest of us did. Note to self...hot chocolate should not be so hot next time. We stuck the bag on top of the car and continued our slow drive to the beginning of the light show. When asked what we had on top of the car, Devon just told the guy it was some garbage. He took it off the top of the car and threw it away for us. I wonder what he would have thought if he had know what it actually was!

We had a very cooperative angel and two reluctant shepherds, but were able to catch this cute picture of them on Christmas Eve. They were so excited and cute to watch as they acted out the nativity story for us. Of course, the baby Jesus in the basket of straw was emptied a few times, but we all loved watching them.

Bob decided he wanted to be in charge of the food for our Christmas Eve dinner this year and cook his very first beef tenderloin. His good friend Gary gave him instructions on how to prepare the meat and cook it. Devon was a bit heartsick when he saw that part of the preparation included three kinds of mustard, but he even loved the result. Way to go Bob! We think you've just worked yourself into a new tradition!

Of course, after the traditional picture on the staircase before the kids were able to look at what Santa brought, we had our Christmas morning breakfast.

There's nothing like a warm December day at the beach! Isn't this how Christmas is supposed to feel? I think Michael would have liked to stay longer and bask in the warm California sun, but Christmas night found us back in the airport heading for Salt Lake.

The next night (Dec. 26) we opened gifts and celebrated with Robyn and Joe. Parker came down with the flu and wasn't feeling very well for our last leg of our trip, but he was still excited about everything that was going on around him.

We had dinner with Bob's family and were able to catch up on nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters. There's never enough time to do all we would like to do, but thanks to a devoted family, they always make time for us. Thank you for taking the time to get together with us.

We received news that my cousin Kathi passed away on December 23rd and were glad we were able to attend her funeral on the 27th of December. So young, so soon....she will be so missed!

Needless to say, this was a crazy Christmas! Six airplanes, packing, driving, shopping, wrapping, stressing, worrying, laughing, hugging, celebrating, cooking, cleaning, kisses, and lots of tears. Such joy in the happy moments and such sorrow in the sad. We saw it all this Christmas!