Christmas Vacation Part 1

As usual, we have a truckload of pictures we'd like to share from our Christmas vacation so I'll break it up into more than one post. We'll cover the first week for now.


The day before we left for NM was a fun day for all of us. I left work before lunch (yay!) so I could watch Cameron's class perform their Christmas play. I think what happened was that a group of reality TV producing penguins invaded Santa's place and insisted they would take over for the elves and reindeer. They quickly learned the work was a lot harder than they expected so they gave the jobs back and Santa and everyone lived happily ever after. Cameron was a penguin and had a few speaking parts. He wowed and dazzled the audience with his stunning performance!



Here's my little penguin buddy. Cute costumes, huh?

After the show we went back to his classroom for a Christmas party. NOT a "holiday" party because that's stupid. That was it for school so we brought Cam home and we both started our Christmas vacations a little early.





Here are our decorations for the year. With only ONE dumb plug on the entire front side of the house, I had to get creative with the cords so we weren't able to put up too many lights. I also gave up on putting lights on the house mostly because of the ridiculously steep pitch of the roof. Regardless, the lights you see here probably outnumber the rest of our entire neighborhood combined. That's too bad. By the way, remind me not to bother with the tree next year. I was hating myself when I was trying to get those darn lights unwrapped from all the branches - and we were in the middle of the cold spell so the temperature was, like, 20 below or something. Felt like it anyway.


Dana said we were leaving the house at 4 am on Saturday to get started on our trip to NM. I laughed because that's pretty cute. But I wasn't laughing when I backed the Expedition out of the driveway at 4:01 am with my eyes out of focus and a serious case of bedhead (not really but that's how we all felt). She's a drill sergeant, that Dana. So then we drove and drove and drove and all the while we were packed in like sardines. Have you ever tried to pack for 5 for 2 weeks with Christmas gifts and still allow enough room for the kids not to be touching each other? Not easy. Finally, 14-1/2 hours later we arrived in Amarillo where we spent the night with Dana's aunt Pat. (Thanks!) Dana's cousins came over while we were there too so we had a great time visiting with everyone. Then the next day we got in the Expedition and drove again. (You'll start seeing a recurring theme here.) After a quick 5 hour jaunt we arrived at Inlow. Shoot, we were just getting the car warmed up at that point.


As usual, we had a great time visiting with everyone while we were there. I'm always amazed at how well all the kids really do get along when we're all together. They pick up right where they left off like they saw each other just a day earlier.

It snowed a couple of days before Christmas so the kids had to break out the sleds. This is Kevin collapsing from exhaustion after pulling the sled about 20 feet up the hill. Poor kid has acclimated to the Alabama elevation and can't breathe in the mountains anymore.

Cameron and Jeremy riding double.

I love this shot of Cameron!

Cade still didn't want anything to do with the sled. Maybe I can get him on one next year.

If you ever want to go 4-wheeling with Ron, my advice to you is this: Don't. Dana and I followed him in the Suburban (with chains) and Ronney in the Tacoma (with chains) in our Expedition (w/o chains) just to see where they were headed. About the time we were ready to turn around, Ron tells us if I can make it up the first hill it will be easy from there. Dana says, "Let's try it." So we tried and we chugged and churned our way right up. Cool! We continued on back down the other side and across this meadow and then we got to another hill. It's longer and steeper and narrower and we didn't make it. The rear end stepped out right next to a tree and we were done. They came back around and pulled us back on track but the damage was done. My ego deflated, we backed down and headed back to the house with our tail between our legs. Not really, it was fun and more importantly nothing was damaged.

And then it was Christmas!!!

As the presents kept piling up (and I mean PILING up), the kids had carefully placed them all around the tree and behind the tree. I don't think they thought about someone having to get them. Look closely and you'll see Kevin back there trying to get those in the back corner.

Santa gave Kevin the Halo 3 ODST game he's been wanting.

He also got a robe in hopes that he'll quit dragging his comforter around with him when he gets up in the mornings.

Cameron got a camera from Santa Claus. He loves taking pictures and making videos of himself goofing off and of his action figures.

Cameron's robe. Same comment about Kevin applies here.

Cade got a Leapster game from Santa. He loves it so far.

And another robe.

No idea what Ryan is doing here but he sure did like his footie PJs.

I told you there were a lot of presents.

Tyler, Galena and Papa.

Unfortunately, we never did take a family photo. But we do appreciate everyone taking the time and making the trip to Inlow to see us (and Ron & Sandy for having us).

A couple more pictures of Cade before I call it good.

We're cleaning up all the magnets Cade stuck on the refrigerator. Funny how he was able to reach high enough to put them there but had to climb on me to get them down.

What's a trip to Inlow w/o playing in the gym. The pictures of Cameron and Kevin were too blurry so here's a decent one of Cade near the top of the climbing wall.

Anticipation, excitement, a little of everything as he awaits the "go" to start opening those presents.