Catch up on the year past—the Christmas Trip, part 4

 

This was truly a vacation, did I mention that?  Julia and Neil took over feeding, entertaining, and doing laundry for the kids, well, mostly Julia, but Neil was great too.  I don’t know if I have ever been so relaxed in the past sixteen years. Maybe when I was in San Diego but never before with me and the kids in the same city.

The next day Caroline was itching for me to take her to John’s Pass to find the perfect souvenir to take home, so she and I went out for what I thought would be an hour or so.  It turned out to be a great day for us, but much longer out than I ever expected. 

First, we had to take some fab pictures before we even left.

Then we found ourselves at the mall to buy her a very needed iPod case.

Then we found ourselves taking what was probably the long way around to John’s Pass.

Then getting stopped by the draw bridge.  We don’t get that much in Glen.

Then we found John’s Pass so packed with tourists that we couldn’t find a place to park so we drove around a long time.  Finally, we decided to park at a restaurant and go eat lunch which took forever because even though we were the only customers at 3:00 in the afternoon, they moved like molasses in every aspect of ordering, cooking, and bringing food. 

I know the boys had their own outing at this time, too, with Gary and Julia.  They hit Sports Authority and a Steak n Shake, but left because they were having such slow service, too.  I think they ended up at the Village Inn, also known as the source of Neil’s delicious pies.

Finally, we found a spot to park and filled our meter one hour’s worth.  In that time, we looked at t-shirts, sweatshirts and shoes, we watched the pirate ship docking, we took some pictures, we talked to a parrot, we looked at seashells for sale, we bought a personalized Caroline dolphin bracelet, and finally found what we were looking for, the perfect sweatshirt…followed by ice cream.

Then we went stopped by the beach since we didn’t want to miss a day.  No swimming but lots of frolicking. 

 

      

And then back to the Feldman-Gill resort to regroup.  This night might have been when we grilled out steaks or it could have been our Chinese take out feast.  Either way, every meal was memorable.  Wish I had a picture of us all at the table. 

Catch up on the year past, continued—the Christmas trip, Part 3

 

We got great rest that night.  Gary and I settled into the Tiki Hut, and ahh, that was perfect for quiet  relaxation.  We all headed to the beach the next morning and that was how we spent Christmas Day.  Beautiful and so fun.  We had a hamburger/hot dog cook out that night and it fooled me into thinking it was summer again.  I absolutely loved it. 

   

Some of us enjoyed being at the beach a little more than others.  Later we headed back to the house and enjoyed the pool.

Next day, repeat.  At least those of us that loved being at the beach.

 

 

The water was not that warm and this day was really windy and it got cloudy, but it didn't deter the surfer dude. 

Next day, repeat, except that was actually the day we abandoned our kids for, the story goes, twenty four hours, so Gary and I had a day partially on the beach and night on the town on our own. 

 

And night on the town means we went out to eat and were home by 7:30 pm.   We beat the rest of them home that went to Bubba Gump’s for supper. 

Every single morning Neil and Jack went biking.  Here we catch a glimpse of Speed Racer.  He may or may not have on seat padding here.  He didn't start out with it, but by the final days, he was wearing.

 

 

Here everyone’s doing what they enjoy…

Caroline and her iPod

    

Sam and his donuts and Gary and his rest

Grant was doing the same, in fact, that’s what he did most of the time, hold down the leather couch, but we didn’t think to take a picture of that. 

Catch up on the year past, continued—the Christmas Trip, Part 2

So we got a not-so-early start on Monday, but tried to make good time driving south.  We were two to three hours in when we found ourselves sitting dead still right after the Metropolis exit.  People were driving in reverse up on the shoulder to get back to the exit.  And not just cars, but semis were doing this.  I was about to freak as one of my greatest fears is travelling backwards on the interstate.  I hate seeing people do it and I myself have never done it, but 100% confident it would lead to my instant death so no, Gary, do not attempt to do this backing up business.  Amongst hundreds of vehicles.  Let’s be patient and I know at some point this day, or the next, we will get across the Ohio River.  Besides at this point, three days delayed, what’s your rush?

Finally, traffic did get going and we managed to cross at Paducah and all was good.  We stopped somewhere in Kentucky for lunch and did you all take advantage of the $2 subs at Subway in December?  ‘Cause we did.  More than once on this trip.  Mmm, the slimy cold cut combo and meatball sandwiches.  The boys often order the meatball marinara, so they didn’t mind at all sticking to the $2 menu.  Not often you can feed a family fast food for less than $20 so of course we didn’t let that pass us by.

We headed on down the road, doing fine.  The day was beautiful really and  the drive through the mountains in Tennessee was enjoyable.   There were so many waterfalls right along the Interstate that were just beautiful.   We had some fun confusing the kids with “We’re in Tennessee, hey, we’re in Georgia, hey, we’re in Tennessee, hey, we’re in Georgia!” like you do heading around Lookout Mountain/Chattanooga.  And let’s not kid, a rest stop has nothing to do with resting:

We stopped somewhere in Georgia south of Atlanta for the night.  I unfortunately led us pretty far off the beaten path for a  “Southern Food” restaurant recommended by my smartphone,  but yeah, not so smart since the dang phone forgot to indicate the place was apparently closed on Mondays.  So back through on the wind-y dark road to finally arrive at a Chick-Fil-A that to all of us seemed like the best meal we’d ever et.   How’s that for southern?  And then I lucked us into a sweet Ramada Limited hotel with two adjoining rooms that was clean as a whistle and so comfortable.  They asked if we had a Triple A discount as most places ask and I said “no, but we have State Farm,” being kinda funny I thought.  Did you even know there is such a thing as a State Farm discount??!!  The gal said “Ok, I can give that to you.”  I am not 100% certain it really even exists but we got these rooms for a steal so, okay!  Then I threw in that also “we have a Boeing membership” but that didn’t do jack. 

We slept fine and had a pretty large breakfast free there at the hotel, so we were ready for Day 2 on the road.  Except I went to check us out at the front desk while Gary and the kids were bringing the van around, so as I was walking around the exterior of the building counterclockwise to find them, they were driving counterclockwise to find me.  That would’ve been a funny scene, had it been in a movie.  What I did learn from this as I got a mini-lecture once we found each other, is that next time, I should walk clockwise and we will find each other much more quickly.

So yeah, back on the road.  Throughout the trip, Gary and I would take turns driving for about three hours each and then there would inevitably be a bathroom, food, and/or gasoline need.  Jack brought his driving permit (one of the forgotten things we went back for), but the traffic headed south to Florida moves at quite a clip for an limited-experience driver so he didn’t drive then.  I gotta say, the kids were really good travelling.  We had a few instances of having to shut down Caroline, but other than that, they did well.  So much easier to take your family along when they are well past the toddler stage.  Plus, they all packed for themselves and we took minimal snacks and no toys or anything, so this was the easiest family trip for me ever.  Hallelujah.

Caroline put her new iPod to work right away on the trip, so I found an abundance of pictures from a younger point of view that I can include, like these simple palm trees.  Look at that blue Florida sky!

Amongst all those interesting and educational Florida billboards, we spotted one that advertised CiCi’s Pizza’s $5 buffet.  I knew Ross liked the one in St Louis and we decided a pizza buffet would be perfect for everyone getting something they like.  Plus the big boys could eat big and get their money’s worth.  Only glitch was that the smartphones, both Gary’s and mine this time, had the location at the back of a “mall” and once we found the “mall,” we saw there was no CiCi’s pizza there.  A little detective work and we finally found our place.  It was an interesting lunch.  We saw a pirate, or at least a guy with a eye patch missing half a leg in Florida so it must be, and a guy with one of the most memorable mullet/hair nests you can imagine.  Good times.  I had some Big Mac pizza and that was a first.  And yeah, probably a last.  Grant decided to close the intake at 8 pieces of pizza, a bowl of pasta, ?? breadsticks, brownies, and dessert pizza.   I am pretty certain they lost money on him. 

We drove on and realized how spotty good radio can be across all these miles.  I happened to have a total of three cd’s in the van (Chilis’ By the Way and Stadium Arcadium - only the Jupiter disc, and No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom) and was kicking myself for not loading up the 6 disc changer.  I found a Black Keys cd loose in the glove compartment and once I wiped off all the gel?/gummy substance off of it, it played well enough to give us about three new songs to add to our rotation.  One of these days I’ll reread this and bet I’ll be astounded that our music choices were limited to 3 1/3 cds and radio.  I think I am already astounded.  Multiple i-instruments (Pods, Phone) in our hands, but no auxiliary jack to play them through, so yeah, room for improvement there, outdated minivan.

We got to Julia and Neil’s finally that evening.  I had forgotten how long it takes to cross Georgia and get down through Florida, but as soon as I saw their beautiful yard and home and them!, it was already worth the drive. 

 

Julia had a delicious lasagna meal waiting for us. 

And Neil always seems to have good desserts.  All we had to do was eat and figure out who claimed what bed.  Now we’re on vacation!

Catch up on the year past, continued—the Christmas Trip, Part 1

I know it’s probably a bit broken-recordish to bring up yet again, but we had had such a rough year with the stress of selling the farm and buying the new place and moving, and Gary’s too-demanding job that we gave some quick thought to the idea of going on a family trip at Christmas.  Our last vacation was a shorty to Arizona in Spring 2012 so it felt like we should.  We were overdue.  I even considered for the first time ever, letting the kids miss a day of school so we could leave as soon as possible.  But Gary couldn't take off work that Friday anyway, so we would leave on Saturday morning. 

Except Jack had been really sick all week and putting him in the van for a two day drive didn’t seem too smart, so I took him to the doctor Friday afternoon to see what was up.  The doctor tested him for pertussis  (yep, whooping cough has been pretty prevalent here among the teenagers even though vaccinated), but the test results wouldn’t be back until the next week, likely after Christmas Day.  But she prescribed an antibiotic to treat him as though he had pertussis and she knew we were wanting to travel.  She thought after 24 hours on the medicine it would be ok for us to leave, but if he did test positive, we would get a call and the health department would be tracking us down and we would all have to be treated, away from home or not.  So do we go, knowing that one or more could get sick on the way? 

But the other thing was Gary worked crazy hard all that week and had an exceptionally crazy stressful Friday, so once he was off work, the idea of hopping into the van at 5 the next morning did not feel like the right thing to do.  Plus, because of his schedule, the van had not even been looked at to ensure safe tires, fluids all good, etc and that made me more than a little nervous.  So, we would wait until Sunday morning to leave.  That matched better with his credo “Do not leave on a vacation in under twenty-four hours of leaving work.”  He has learned that the hard way, like when we hurriedly left for Michigan and managed to bug bomb poison the family pet in the process (RIP BlueBlue), and the time we were set on the idea of leaving for Tennessee in a rush and we happened to flood the Walton house which was to be sold with a closing date of less than a week.  After a couple of those kinds of experiences, you hopefully learn something:  Don’t rush it.

So, yes then, we will take our time getting ourselves out and then we planned to leave Sunday morning bright and early.  Except Saturday morning Gary woke up sick and I mean sick.  He-couldn’t-get-out-of-bed sick, flu with aches and shivers and a cough that was unreal, so he was beyond miserable.

Then I was miserable.  I so much wanted a vacation, a get-away, and this was how it was going.  I knew we would have to cancel the whole thing altogether.  Sad sad sad.

Sunday he was still in bed but by evening said he felt a little more human.  You know the part in Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd says to Mary, the girl he likes but is so not in her league, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?  Yeah!!”

That was me.  

I packed my suitcase.  The kids had been packed and bags sitting in the hallway since Friday.  All we had to do was look over the van, leave provisions for the cat and dog, get Gary upright, and load up.  Totally do-able. 

Except Grant had had his braces adjusted a few days before and had a wire out of place that was hurting/driving him crazy.  I debated.  Could we just get to St Pete and find an orthodontist there to fix it?  Or do I do the right thing and delay our trip even longer until I can get him into the office and get it fixed?  I swear, Mom-guilt always makes you do the right thing. 

Luckily Dr. B could see him right away when I called Monday morning so we took that appointment and got the braces taken care of.  We thought we would leave directly after that since we had our stuff loaded and all six of us in the van, but then we remembered like ten things we forgot.  So we stopped back by the house to get those things and then we were on the road, believe it or not.  

Catch up on the year past, continued—the Christmas Season

Once it was Christmas Day, everything was good, but, ah, I gotta say, it was rough getting to it. 

A bunch of big stuff was coming down in December, mostly related to Gary’s job so honestly, it was hard to get in the festive spirit, to feel it was ok to buy gifts, to make any plans.  But we did try to get into it, taking little steps like going to the kids’ Christmas concerts and getting a tree put up. 

Don’t even ask about the outside lights. 

(…as she tells you all about it… in detail)

It’s actually a kinda sad memory really, but I do kinda wish I had taken a picture because by this time I know I could laugh at it. 

So, imagine Gary on the roof after work, bless his heart, with about 15 minutes of daylight left.  Trying to steady a cold metal ladder on the sloping surface of round landscaping rock, he starts stringing lights from one end of the roof, makes it to front door, and we work together trying to string along the big arch window but decide that’s just gonna be too hard to get that high so we just let them dangle in a sad, reverse sagging arch, and it’s become too dark and too slick for him to navigate the roof any more this night so the next string of big old-fashioned colored bulbs (meaning: very noticeable) are left coiled just lying there on the roof. And the four different strings of mesh lights Diane wrapped the huge front bush with decide to work about ten minutes and then mysteriously never work again.  And as our luck would have it, the weather turned icy and cold the next morning and we never got out to tend to the lights again until they came down on New Year’s Day.  So yeah, lights on just one end of the house, drooping across the front door and that’s it except for non-working lights covering the bush and the wadded up lights, unlit but very visible on the roof for at least two weeks.  Somehow it seemed worse than leaving Christmas lights on your house until May.  We had the lonely one-end-of-the-roof ones on for maybe half an hour that first night and then quickly turned them off once we realized they were so embarrassing.  I’m not exaggerating any of this.  Very pitiful representation by the new family on the block surrounded by the other neighbors that obviously take their decorations more seriously and have very nice light displays.  Hey, next year we’ll get it together! Just watch.

But the kids’ concerts were great and they looked Christmas perfect.

 

   

Jack had his high school concert with multiple bands and choirs and a huge orchestra, but no pictures because: resistance to camera along with a mom that was just too tired out to push it.  And we didn’t even take Sam to his scout Christmas program because:  slacker parents just wanted to have a night at home for once.

So, anywho, our tree turned out really beautiful, but geez, it was a roller coaster ride that night getting it. 

You know how you look forward to something but then when you are actually starting it, it doesn’t feel that great after all? 

Getting into the roller coaster cart and starting the ride, at where else? the bottom—it was a cold day, already dark, and of the whole entire family, only Caroline showed interest in picking a tree out

Will this get fun soon? still sitting at the bottom—went to closest available which was pre-cuts at Home Depot and looked through all they had and we came up with nothing even worth considering, and did I mention, it’s cold and dark and no one much wants to be there

Notching up the track finally—went to next available which was Lowe’s and they had more to choose from

Loosing ground on the incline and starting to head backwards—but the price of a tree the size we wanted was $100

Holding in one spot—Gary thought the one we found and loved most was actually a lesser price even though it was big and I said “what if it’s not?!” and he said “just get it”

Me holding my breath—wheeled it up to cashier (so big we couldn’t easily carry it)

Reaching the top and feeling good—cashier scanned it and said “that will be $18.95”   Diane said  “What the??!!  Yaaaaay!”  It was a beautiful 10 foot Douglas fir.  For under $20.  And the others just like it were $100??!!  Does not make sense, but yay!  [Reader’s suspicion is probably already cued, however, mine was not at all.]

Still at the high point of the ride—throwing perfect giant tree into the back of our pick up truck because: easy! we have a pick up truck!

Still feeling good sitting at the peak, enjoying the entire view around us—all four kids home, getting it inside the house goes fine, located the stand right visible there in the garage and grabbed it likety-split which is amazing considering WE RECENTLY MOVED, and just feeling it is the perfect tree and was a bargain tree and how is that??!  We are just fortunate people, apparently, getting a break finally

Headed down hill, slowly at first—having a little trouble getting it to fit in the one and only metal tree stand of our marriage that we’ve had since 1996

Continuing to let gravity have its way—Gary gets a little hacksaw blade out and begins to shave away at the trunk

Plummeting while gaining speed—cuss words possibly uttered as shaving it down is not helping it fit into the stand AT ALL

Dead free fall—attempt to put tree into stand again and again and its taking me and two boys to physically hold up this massive tree as Gary hammers the spikes back in place on the stand bottom for the second time and the tree sits momentarily to trick us and then we are yelling “timber!” and having to catch it, except not the timber part because that might imply there was humor and laughter at this point

Hitting the Earth and knowing ‘so this is what the end looks like’—we repeat the above and again the damn thing falls over, and it’s declared:  no way no how this tree is working out.  Turns out its trunk is the the most off-center thing possibly ever created in nature, kinda makes sense now--$18.95

Slight rise—Diane suggests going back into town and buying a new, bigger, heftier stand and Gary realizes that’s what’s gonna have to happen, so he concedes

Headed definitely upward again toward the sky—make the short jaunt to Lowe’s again and find the ‘up to 10 foot tall’ tree stand and it’s just $20 which was a pleasant surprise considering I had not priced tree stands in like 18 years and was thinking more in the ball park of $50.  Hey, plastics from China!  Sometimes you rock.

We-can-do-it-attitude returns, climbing that seemingly insurmountable hill—back home within fifteen minutes and realizing it would have taken us that long just to drive down Goshen Rd from our old house, loving our new place’s conveniences even more and feeling thankful and very hopeful

At the top top top--lifting the tree once again and YESSS it fits into the new stand and the boys are helpful in getting the tree oriented to straight(er) and tightening up the metal thingies to hold it firmly in its new stand

JERK!  JOLT!  taken by total surprise, a sudden crashing fall—the whole blasted thing falls over when not held by a human

Fall is brief, back to we-can-do-this!—Gary the idea man figures he can attach the new stand to a big piece of plywood and that will give it a stable base

Hanging at neutral—Gary brings in a sheet of plywood from the garage

Return to downward fall—no way this plastic wonder of China will be easily attached to a piece of plywood and besides, a piece of plywood?  Yuck for Christmas decor, for sure 

And upward momentum picks us back up— we just tie the tree trunk with a piece of green cord to the wood stairway railing behind it and it stands.  Kinda.  But slides.  We lift it one more time to put a rubber mat below the tree stand, and yay!    Finally!   What a ride.

Ta-daaaa:

It took a couple more days to actually get all the ornaments on and lights wrapped around it, but it was worth it and ended up looking like this /\.  You know I love real trees!

But, it never drank a bit of water;  probably because of the craziness of the night we got it, I forgot to fill the stand with water until closer to the next morning.  It was nothing but painfully brittle razor needles by the time we took it outta here after New Years’.  I was wearing gloves to get the ornaments and lights off of it.  But, despite the tree stand/falling tree nightmare/razor needles,  I will say it was so worth it.  It looked good! And smelled great!  The two most important factors.

We want Christmas to be memorable, right?

Kids in 15 years:  “Remember our first Christmas in Equestrian and we had that huge tree and it kept falling over and mom and dad were losing it?” haha