2018 :: week 53

December 23

Classic Christmas Sunday family photo. We had a quiet morning before church. The service was great, with beautiful music and narration. At the end of the program Tony spoke for a few minutes and gave one of his best talks as bishop. That evening we went to a potluck Christmas party hosted by a family in our ward.

December 24

We had a nice Christmas Eve. Anthony was off work and we were both able to run some errands as well as get relevant household chores done during the morning. In the early evening we gathered at my parents' house with the Wilsons to share Christmas Eve rituals. We had delicious soups, performed the nativity and let each kid open one present. On the way home we drove by some light displays and then set out cookies and carrots for Santa. Anthony and I wrapped gifts and got in bed the earliest we ever have on the night before Christmas.

December 25

Elliott has been an EARLY riser this past month, and he is mischievous, so we knew we would have to get up early. We told the older kids that they couldn't come down before 7am, thinking there was almost no way Elliott would make it that late. He did! It pained me to wake him up, but the older kids were very excited and had clearly been patiently waiting for awhile. We had a great Christmas Day! The kids were excited about their gifts, and had been quite thoughtful of others as they picked out gifts earlier in the month, so we had a fun time taking turns and seeing what everyone received.

December 26

Will and Lauren each received a few LEGO sets and spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday putting them together. They have gotten so good they rarely ask for help, usually just to help find a specific piece or to unhook to pieces that have gotten stuck together. This was a day of clean-up and errands. I had a doctor's check-up in the morning, then we packed and got ready for our road trip to San Antonio.

December 27

My due date is March 1st, and our kids have 10 days off of school March 8th-18th for Spring Break just a few days later. We will not be going anywhere for Spring Break. When I realized this I started to feel stir-crazy and wanted to plan a road trip to somewhere warm. The stars aligned when we realized that TJ gets a day of paid vacation for his birthday, giving him a five day weekend December 28-January 1. As I researched and consulted with friends, San Antonio came up as a nice option. We left Thursday morning and drove the 800 miles in just over 12 hours. Not bad for a family of 5 with a pregnant mom and slightly stir-crazy kids. The kids were excited to add two new states to their list of states visited.

December 28

Unfortunately, the weekend that we were able to come to San Antonio was also the coldest weekend of the winter (so far). We decided to go to the beach on the warmest day we were there, which was Friday. It was 60 degrees and windy, so not ideal beach conditions, but much nicer than we were used to in Kansas. The kids played in the sand and splashed in the waves for a bit, but no one went deeper than their knees (Elliott did fall and get his body wet, but the water was barely ankle deep). The boys ran up and down the sand dunes and Elliott got out his Paw Patrol pups and pretended he was in Adventure Bay. Anthony helped the kids build a sand castle. We didn't stay as long as we had planned, but we had a fun time being out in the sunshine. After we got back to our hotel we took brief naps, then swam in the hotel pool for a few hours. Not quite as exciting as the beach, but much less windy.

December 29

Saturday morning we visited the Alamo. I had really looked forward to taking the kids here, but I think the gloomy weather (it was only about 40 degrees and cloudy) and subpar sleep affected morale. It was exceptionally crowded, even for a holiday weekend, because the Alamo Bowl was the night before. We saw so much Iowa State paraphernalia, if I hadn't known I was in Texas you could have convinced me I was in Iowa. The kids loved the movie and artifacts in the museum. We started listening to a "Living History Encampment," that started out quite interestingly about the medical knowledge that was around in the early 19th century, but had to leave quickly when the docent went into graphic detail about tooth extractions. One of our children has a dentist appointment to get a cavity filled in the coming days, and was becoming extremely horrified. Suffice it to say, I'm grateful to live in a time when dental care involves less gore. Also, this was Anthony's birthday. He is a good man to humor me and take our family on a roadtrip instead of stay home and watch football all day and eat game food.