Christmas round 3

We had our third round of Christmas over New Year's weekend. Since it is only a Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon affair and a long drive we decided to visit a friend who lives about the half way mark. We were going to leave Friday afternoon but the weather was looking yucky so we left early. We had gotten most of our stuff ready Thursday night so we could leave on a moments notice if needed. We enjoyed our time, ate dinner, visited, the kids ran around and then we played some Wii which was a first for Brian and I. Saturday morning we headed out for Brian's dad's. We got there around lunch time and once everyone else was there we had sloppy joes and a bunch of other goodies. The kids played a little, Matthew found comfort in reading his Tag books while the older kids were off doing their own thing. I think it was hard for him being one of two boys and not having much in common with our nephew. He handled it okay and tended to stick by the adults but he enjoyed having the attention too. After the kids opened gifts we had a light dinner and eventually headed to the hotel. The kids got to bed late but it didn't last long. I finally fell asleep around 11:30 and Emily woke up around 11:45. Brian got her calmed down but she was up again at midnight and things went downhill from there. She would fall asleep for a few minutes at a time and would wake up just as I was starting to doze. I noticed she felt warm so took her temp around 3:00 and gave her some Tylenol. During this time I also had to move Matthew 3 times because he was all over the place in his bed. He wasn't sleeping well either. I finally told Brian around 3:30 to go lay with Matthew (or somewhere else) so one of us had some sleep to drive us home. Sometime after 6:00 Emily fell asleep for a longer period of time and I was finally able to sleep too but from then to 7:30 I was up at least 3 times. We decided it would be best to head home. I told Brian he and Matthew could go to church and I'd stay with Emily but at that point the longer we stayed, the harder it would be for him to stay awake to drive. So he took Matthew to his dad's house to pick up some of our stuff and say goodbye.

This trip had 3 things that didn't quite go our way. Upon leaving we discovered our car doesn't heat up while idling and blows cold air if stopped long enough. The hotel didn't have our reservation but thankfully they did have a room for us. Emily having a fever and me getting very little sleep 2 nights in a row was not fun but we survived.

We are both so glad to have left on Friday. I think the kids actually had more fun than they did the rest of the weekend because they had room to run and got more attention. The drive Saturday (which is the most boring of the entire trip) seemed so much better because it was a lot less time in the car. We definitely hope it works out to make that stop in the future!