The Christmas Expedition

So the Christmas season has come and gone. We’re still in recovery mode! The pictures have finally made it to the computer and are ready to be put up on the blog!

We celebrated Christmas at home on December 19th. We were able to build graham crackers houses again this year. I love Amber’s “coffee house”. It’s a fun process seeing how many of the decorations make it to the houses instead of our tummies!

On Christmas Eve, we decided to just talk through the Christmas story with Ethan since we knew it would be read several time over the upcoming trip north. He seemed to know it cold! Here’s a video of him telling us about it. The battery died before we got to the end of the story, but I’m sure he could tell you the rest sometime if you’d like!

I told Ethan on Friday night that I didn’t want to get up before 6:30am. He said that he didn’t want to get up that early either! That was way too early. So, we were up at 6:41. We did our stockings first. Ethan found a note in the bottom of his that led him on a hunt for clues that led him to a Toy Story scooter! Next to it was a Cozy Coupe for Micah that he was very excited about!

On Sunday, we went to church and did a bit of packing. Amber was unfortunately left to handle most of it since I played trumpet in our three services that day, but she did a great job getting us ready. So around 7am we left Greenville. 13 hours later, we were in Baltimore. Honestly, that wasn’t a bad trip. We did finally buy a DVD player for the car, so the boys enjoyed watching some movies during the trip.

We arrived in Baltimore to spend the night and to slip in a quick visit with Ryan and Chris. Amber and I were both able to hold Leah. She’s now over 5 pounds and doing fairly well. She still has doctor visits all the time, but they seem pleased with her progress. It was great to visit with Ryan and Chris and see the baby. God has definitely worked a miracle.

Tuesday we continued on to Kris and Jeremy’s house in southern New Jersey. We arrived around lunchtime and spent the next few days with Amber’s family. The boys enjoyed decorating cookies together. I’m not sure how many stayed out of their mouths, though!

We celebrated Christmas (early) together and just enjoyed catching up and visiting.

We left New Jersey on Christmas Eve and went over to my Dad’s house. We enjoyed hanging out with my side of the family that evening and then waking up to celebrate Christmas all over again!

Here’s a picture of me doing my normal Christmas job! We did get a little smarter this year, though. For the presents we did at home in Greenville, we opened all of the boxes, extracted all of the parts, put in batteries where needed, returned them to their boxes, and then wrapped the presents. This way the toys were ready to play with Christmas morning. It was nice not having to carry a knife and screwdriver!

Verity received a tea set that the boys seemed to really enjoy. Here’s Micah pouring himself a cup. Ethan thought Buzz Lightyear might like a cup as well (kind of funny if you've seen the movie)!

On Sunday we were able to attend church with Rosemary and her boyfriend Steve (or Mr. Pron as the boys call him!) and then enjoy some lunch together. We shot back up to Dad’s for the rest of the day.

Monday we were off again. We met Chad and Kate Oberholtzer at a great McDonalds playground in Lancaster. It was a nice time of eating and sharing together. Chad and Kate have their first child due in March, so we’re excited to get to meet their baby soon! We left McDonalds and went off to spend the day at my grandparents. We arrived in Elizabethtown and enjoyed talking and eating (seems like a theme to me!) and playing with trains and pianos and all sorts of things. The kids got to visit with their Burnese Mountain Dog (an 80-pound monster that wouldn’t hurt a flea!) and their Welsh Corgi. I’m glad we were able to swing by and enjoy some time there.

Then it was off to Amber’s parents’ house in Gettysburg. We were able to relax there for a few days. Amber was excited that we were able to play a lot of board games. I was able to use a snowblower for the first time in my life. That was exciting! We even got enough snow to build a snowman. It was perfect! Wet enough to pack…dry enough to shake off your clothes.

We returned to my Dad’s to celebrate my grandpop’s 80th birthday and enjoy some football. There were a lot of great football games, including Penn State’s win over LSU…obviously a highlight of the day!

Then it was time to go back home. My Dad and I had loaded a trailer full of stuff heading back south with us. Unfortunately, the tarp I had purchased wasn’t exactly strong enough. So, it was shredding itself pretty badly. We pulled into a Lowes in Carlisle and purchased a stronger replacement. It was already late in the day, and our hotel was in southern Virginia. We ended up calling Amber’s folks and asking if we could crash their instead. It was nice to go back there, enjoy some pizza, and relax. The next day we were up early and out on our way. It took us 14 hours to make it back to Greenville. Here’s a picture of the van and trailer at another McDonalds stop…I think in Virginia somewhere.

So, overall it was a good trip. We were able to visit with many family members. We do thank God for providing so that we could make the trip. It was almost 1,700 miles. It’s good to be back home again, though. Now we can get some rest!