Christmas Vacation: Departure & St. Pete

Two days after the kids got out of school for Christmas break, we left to go to the Southeast to see family.  We were really excited but also a little nervous about taking such a big trip.  Planning, preparing, and packing were stressful, especially when compounded with the busy-ness and traditions of the month of December.  But when the time came, we were ready to go and things went quite smoothly.

The morning we left, we took time for a quick sibling gift exchange.  In the past, the kids have given a small (Dollar-store-type) gift to each sibling but this year we decided each person would give just one gift to one sibling but be able to give something a bit nicer.  The kids drew names in order to keep the chosen sibling's identity a secret, so naturally nobody knew who anyone was giving to until about 30 seconds after the drawing.

A BIG box of Crayons from Jack.

A "Most Dangerous Animals" book from Luke.

Mechanical pencils and some homemade keychains from Eliza.

A Nerf gun from Cat.

We hired my college-age cousin to come to the airport with us, then drive our van back to our house.  It worked out perfectly!  We did run out of time to give the kids some early Christmas presents from us - books and candy for the trip - so they opened those on the drive to the airport.  And we arrived at the more-empty-than-I-was-expecting airport with plenty of time to eat our bagged lunches before it was time to board.  The kids were great travelers, carrying their own backpacks and helping with the luggage when necessary, pottying when we told them to, and spending most of the time in the air happily watching in-flight movies.







You can't tell in the picture, but this is one of the enormous Christmas trees
that greeted us in the Orlando airport.


We were all pretty excited to be off the plane...




The next day we took a quick trip to St. Petersburg to see some of my extended family.  We couldn't get over the warm, sunny weather and loved seeing the Christmas lights on the palm trees.  It was really fun to see my aunt and uncle, as well as my cousin and her daughter.  We had lunch together and just talked and talked, catching up and getting reacquainted.  Cat and her great-uncle bonded over guitar, Eliza and her second-cousin bonded over ukulele, my aunt and I talked family history, and Jack and Ben even had a chance to toss a football around outside in the sun.

We laughed when Jack was trying to figure out how to adjust
his seat in the rental car on the way to St. Pete, and it kind of attacked him.






By the time we were leaving my aunt's house we would be running into rush hour traffic on the way back to Orlando so we took the scenic route and crossed what my engineer-husband refers to as a "cool bridge," the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  Then we pulled over and took some pictures of Salt Water (the Tampa Bay, not the ocean) before continuing on to my favorite grocery store for some supplies and dinner.  (Chicken salad sub for me, please!  Next time, not so many onions though.)

Ben and Santa have something in common!



Can you tell that I'd just fallen and bumped my head
pretty hard right before Ben took this picture?









And, since that wasn't enough for our first day of vacation in Florida, we decided to go to Disney Springs and check out the scene there for a little while before finally heading back to our hotel.  It was a very full, very fun day!

We started asking Luke trivia questions to keep him from disturbing
the other people waiting in line to go on the boat ride across the lake.  My favorite responses:
Me: What's your last name?
Luke: Skywalker.
Me: How many wise men visited Baby Jesus?
Luke: 26 (pause) 3



Sing Around the Tree

During the kids' last day of school before Christmas break they had the annual Sing Around the Tree event AND pajama day.  Each grade learns a Christmas song and they take turns singing for everyone.  Jack's grade learned "Santa Bring Me a Dinosaur" and Eliza's grade learned "Feliz Navidad"  (not to be confused with "Police Mommy-Da").  Cat was already finished with school by this time so she was excited to be able to come and see her former teachers.

Since we arrived early, Cat took advantage of the time to catch up
with her favorite teacher from last year.

This three-headed Santa is ready for the show to start. 


Found Jack!





It was a little harder to spot Eliza:







(I didn't make a video of Eliza's grade singing because
it was nearly impossible to see Eliza from where I was.)


More Christmas Celebrationing

Some more pictures of the festivities we squeezed in during that crazy week before we left for our Christmas trip:

Reading Christmas stories with the kids by the fireplace is one of my favorite
traditions.  We just started it a couple of years ago and I love it.  This year I was
only able to read one story before rushing off to choir, but Suz took my place when I left.


I love this cute preschool gift Luke made at school.
It lives by my bed.

Note to self: whenever you explain to a child that the
ornament they are holding is one that's very special to you,
go ahead and remove it from their hand.  Immediately.

We made ornaments and other trinkets using pipe cleaners and plastic beads.
This is another activity we started shortly before I left for choir and I was surpsied
to find out the next day that Eliza enjoyed this so much that she used up
all of the beads making stuff.

I was so, so, so thankful for a little choir break on Saturday morning
so I could just relax with the family.  We watched Elf, ate chocolate
chip cookies, made hot honey-lemon-water for my throat, and took
pictures with BB-8.


Bethlehem dinner the Monday before Christmas -

followed by reading/singing/acting out the Christmas story.

The kids just grabbed whatever they wanted out of the scripture dress-up
box, which includes things that are more Book of Mormon-ish, and things
that are more Bible-ish.  I think Joseph's headdress is the best.

Luke: Look!  It's a nut-soldier!

The night before we left on our trip, I took the kids to see this cool light
display about 15 minutes from our house.  We sat in the car and watched
the show and listened to the designated radio station for about 20 minutes
before heading back to Orem to get Cat to YW.  The next day, our travel
adventure began!