Monday, December 15, 2008

the Christmas trek

So we're gearing up for our usual drawn-out Christmas festivities. Drawn-out because we're heading up north (WAY up north) for Christmas which means we'll open most of our presents here, before we go. We don't drive an Expedition so we can't possibly fit all of the gifts in the car AND bring home other stuff. And we usually have another round of gifts to open when we get back (mailed to us while we were gone). dh always wants a live tree also so we'll have to do something about that as well.I guess it's our unofficial advent celebration. A little here, a little there, not really in a logical sequence. Makes it hard to have solid traditions. No, I take that back. The last 2 hours of the road trip nearly always consist of 2 tired and possibly whiny boys, one stressed-out dh with a 2-liter of Pepsi between his knees, sipping at it with 3 straws connected together, and me, doling out goldfish, switching out the DVDs, and dreaming of a visit from the plane-ticket fairy for the trip home. That's our tradition!

6 comments:

prism said...

But at least you get to see your family. We haven't been "home" to our families in 6 or more years.

:-)

Kristi said...

I have good memories of traveling to my grandma's house growing up. Although I do recall my Mom always telling me to take a nap so that when I woke up we would be almost there.

Good luck with your travels! I hope the weather is cooperative. When we travel I always try to bring a bag of tricks- usually library movies, dollar store goodies to help ease the boredom and distract from the bickering.

pianogal said...

I hear ya - we're headed to AZ for Christmas with Grandma/Grandpa with all our stuff. The plane ticket fairy didn't come to our house either. I'm sure you'll have fun - being with family at Christmas makes the drive worth it. Or comes close, anyway. :)

Lindsay said...

funny how Christmas can get so disjointed when you have family out of town.

It's even a little disjointed when you're in town! I think we're doing Christmas at Camilla's this year, which means taking all the gifts there, spending the night, getting up early to hit the Carrillo Christmas, coming back to do Butler Christmas and (hopefully) collapsing for a nap.

Kind of makes me miss the days where we all slept in the same room, got up at 7 and ventured out to see what booby trap Dad had set up the night before. :)

Chieko said...

Oh, it sounds horrible! I can only imagine the pain...but we are all so excited to see you guys up here (we are in WAY north!). With a lot of snow, "it begins to look a lot like Christmas" though. Does that count? I just picture your dh wanting to have a live tree and sipping a 2-liter pepsi with 3 straws...I wonder if he wishes he'd be driving a moving truck with a cup holder a size of 2-liter! (my dh told me the story)
Have a safe trip! Hope the road won't be so bad, and you'll all survive. We love ya!

Patty O. said...

I don't know how you do it. Bil and I have been discussing that we will start having to drive to Vegas to see family now that tickets are so expensive.... That is seriously my worst nightmare. I HATE driving long distances and adding kids to the mix just makes it exponentially worse.

I hope you have good weather and the trip is uneventful. Can't wait to see you.