Mas Xmas Recap

On Christmas morning, Anna led Colin out of their bedroom to the pile of presents. Anna spied the Teddy Bear with a candy cane on his paw, sitting on top of her presents. Those were the humble things she'd asked for when she sat on Santa's lap. "Santa Claus remembered!" she shouted. "How did he know?!?" She picked up her new bear and hugged him. She was so amazed with everything Santa brought her, especially the Hi-Ho Cherry-O game she's wanted since she took it to someone else's birthday party. "This is the best Christmas, ever!" she proclaimed.

Colin enjoyed his gifts, too, but lost some steam on opening them about halfway through. Colin's favorite gift was the Hot Wheels track Santa brought him. Colin mostly got cars and balls, while Anna mostly got craft things. I know it sounds pretty gender biased, but that's really what they are each interested in right now.

After delicious Eggs Benedict for brunch, Anna marveled at how Santa knew what she wanted and managed to bring it. He's magic, we assured her, and she looked out the window and said very earnestly, "Thank you. Thank you for everything. Thank you for my Teddy Bear." It was so heart-felt.

For dinner we had delicious roasted leg of lamb, sweet potatoes, salad, and spinach souffle. Afterwards, Anna sat on Nana's lap, and Colin snuggled with Auntie Emily, as they stayed up and watched "The Polar Express." Anthony and I started packing up the car.

We got up early the next morning, said our good-byes, and were on the road by 6 am Mountain time. We had chewable dramamine, but Colin refused to take it. He was suddenly wise to the banana trick, too. On the outskirts of El Paso, I ended up pushing it into his wailing mouth and forcing him to swallow it. THAT was no fun. He still ended up a little queasy, crying and saying "I wan' go home..." a few hours later. We stopped at a barren rest stop in the desert and walked around the stark concrete picnic tables, getting red sand in our shoes. The terrain was as comforting as a stubbly unshaven cheek, but the fiercely blowing fresh air did us all good. A few more miles down the road, we saw the enormous wind generators outside of Ft. Stockton slowly tilting like underwater cartwheelers, making a Megawatt of electricity each.

The trip home took a little more time than the trip going, since we left a little later, and had less excitement about our destination. After the fourth movie, Anna actually said, "How about no more TV, Mommy?" We were about 1 hour from home, and I thought that sounded really good. Colin, however, kept making movie suggestions from his carseat. As we drove into Austin, Anna started crying. "I miss Nana and Grandad," she said through her tears. But when we walked through the door, she said, "It feels good to be home, doesn't it?"

Montana was such a trooper on our travels. She curls herself up in the backseat and hardly lifted her head on either long journey. She was good at my parents' house, too, except when she cleaned out their chihuahua Patchie's food bowl. Unfortunately, she had 3 large seizures on Christmas Day. They seem to come in clusters. It was hard for all of us to watch. Fortunately, no seizures on the way home or since.



I will post some pictures, in the meantime you can see some on Emily's blog.